Terasa Cooley came to UT Austin from the small town of Alvin, Texas, about halfway between Houston and Galveston, where she was raised in a home that was both politically and religiously progressive. She arrived at college and deepened her involvement on both fronts, becoming an active member, and then leader, of the University Young Democrats, and later joining a nearby congregation of Unitarian Universalists. After UT, she worked briefly in party politics, including for then-state Senator, now U.S. Congressman Lloyd Doggett, then went off to Harvard Divinity School to get ordained as a Unitarian minister. She’s served as a minister ever since, these days mostly moving from place to place as an interim minister for congregations that need repair and healing after some kind of difficulty or scandal.
On Jim Hightower, Ann Richards, and the transition in Texas politics:
What Jim Hightower and Ann Richards were able to capitalize on was a populist message. Hightower was super engaging with people, and he put together an unusual coalition of farm workers and agricultural guys and consumer unions. It was a really great lesson in coalition building. He also was just a popular speaker and funny and engaging. Ann [Richards], who was State Treasurer at the time, was very much the same way. She had that sense of humor. She had that ability to really engage with people on a personal level. I think that’s what helped get them into office even though both of them were more progressive than the median voter.
Hightower saw the brewing revolution in Texas politics, that the Democratic Party was in trouble, and he kept sounding the alarm. People wouldn’t pay attention. He was always very intuitive about politics. He saw the increasing conservatism, and he could feel how much more vulnerable he was in his own office. But because he had been re-elected so many times, people didn’t really think he was in danger until he lost in 1990 to Rick Perry, who had switched from being a Democrat just the year before.
On growing up Unitarian:
My parents discovered the Unitarian church when they were living in Chicago, before they moved to Texas. We were active in the church in Houston, and that really saved me because it meant that I had a progressive group of people who I could connect with. In Texas the first question is always: what church do you go to? So to be able to have an identity that made sense to me—I’m sure that catapulted me into what I’ve been doing for the last 35 years.
On going from politics to religion:
A big part of what I did, during and right after college, was work to get Democrats elected, and that’s what drove me out of politics. I was tired of helping to get people elected just for the sake of getting them elected. I felt like they sort of lost sight of a lot of the issues that were important. It was when I started to get really disenchanted with politics that I started going back to church. I decided almost completely on a whim that the ministry sounded good. For a little while after college I did database management for campaigns, and I was good at it. That was when I learned a really essential lesson of life, which is just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean you like to do it or should do it.
On the split between theists and humanists in the Unitarian Universalist Church:
I’m a theist, which has sometimes put me at odds with many of the congregations that I’ve served. They’re very humanistic, and a lot of them are what we call “comeouters.” They came out of more conservative Christian churches that they really disliked or felt abused by, and they’re still reacting to what they grew up with. I didn’t have that growing up. I had a very positive relationship to church and faith. I’ve always gravitated toward religious exploration.