As the result of a controversy regarding the UUA's hiring practices and charges of institutional racism,[4] Morales resigned as president in 2017, three months before the end of the term.
It was also in college, when learning about "evolution and cultural anthropology and comparative religion," that he ceased to belief in his childhood faith, and left his Lutheran denomination.
No longer in danger from the draft, he returned to the United States when he was 26 and entered a program in American Studies at the University of Kansas.
Faced with daunting medical bills, Morales accepted a job in 1977 working for the California Department of Social Services in Sacramento where his second child, a daughter, was born.
Active in liberal evangelism while still in seminary, under his leadership the Jefferson Unitarian Church grew rapidly.
In 2008, in an address to his congregation, he announced his candidacy for the presidency of the Unitarian Universalist Association on a platform of inclusion and growth.
[16][17] Morales sought to position the UUA as a convener for multifaith collaboration, most notably with the United Church of Christ, the Union for Reform Judaism, and the NAACP.
[18] Morales was unrelenting in his efforts to increase Unitarian Universalist presence and involvement on issues such as marriage equality, racial justice, immigration, and climate change.
[4] Charges spread on social media that the leaders had chosen a white man over a qualified woman of color.