Don't you just love Letters to the Editor?
Last week I noticed that an ad for the Unitarian Church of Montreal in the McGill Tribune weekly newspaper was, just by "coincidence". . . placed on a page that was directly opposite to an article about how on-campus "proselytizing" by a McGill Christian "club" was raising the ire of some McGill University students and the Students Society of McGill University.
The irony was delicious. This irony, and the quite evident (to me at least) hypocrisy of the highly misleading, and in parts outright false, advertising of the Unitarian Church of Montreal prompted me to write a letter to the editors of The McGill Tribune weekly student newspaper which reaches thousands of McGill University students, professors and other faculty and staff, as well as some significant non-McGill readership such as myself for instance. . .
Here is what was actually published in this week's The McGill Tribune.
I find it most fitting that it was published on All Saints Day. . .
Unitarian Church ad misleading
It's most ironic that Robert Church's "Faith-based recruiting on campus?" (25.10.2005), about CRU "proselytizing" raising the ire of students and the SSMU, was counter-pointed by the Unitarian Church of Montreal's ad on the opposite page that is evidently intended to "recruit" (i.e. proseltyze) McGill students to the Unitarian Church.
Much Unitarian advertising is highly misleading, if not outright false. McGill students should note that even the word "truth" is enclosed in euphemistic quotation marks in the misleading ad itself.
The Unitarian Church is certainly "dogged" by misleading and evidently false claims, and by my ongoing public protest against Unitarian injustices, abuses and hypocrisy. Just Google "Robin Edgar" and "Unitarian Church of Montreal" to see how Unitarians wilfully flaunt and flagrantly violate their own claimed principles and ideals, including their now evidently fraudulent claim to be "opposed to censorship, by church, state, or any other institution."
As a defender of freedom of expression I have no objection to the McGill Tribune running advertising from the Unitarian Church of Montreal. However, I suggest that any future ads from the Unitarian Church of Montreal should run under the disclaimer caveat emptor.
Robin Edgar
Excommunicated Unitarian
Here is where the irony gets even better. . .
This new issue of the McGill Tribune runs another ad from the Unitarian Church of Montreal "Unwelcoming Congregation." It says -
Do you feel that you don't belong to a community?
Try ours. You'll be welcomed.
The Unitarian community is one where your own personal values and experiences are honoured; a place where you will be encouraged to participate in the issues of the day, not simply sit back and agree.
Gee. . . Coulda fooled me. . .
Caveat emptor indeed. . .
The irony was delicious. This irony, and the quite evident (to me at least) hypocrisy of the highly misleading, and in parts outright false, advertising of the Unitarian Church of Montreal prompted me to write a letter to the editors of The McGill Tribune weekly student newspaper which reaches thousands of McGill University students, professors and other faculty and staff, as well as some significant non-McGill readership such as myself for instance. . .
Here is what was actually published in this week's The McGill Tribune.
I find it most fitting that it was published on All Saints Day. . .
Unitarian Church ad misleading
It's most ironic that Robert Church's "Faith-based recruiting on campus?" (25.10.2005), about CRU "proselytizing" raising the ire of students and the SSMU, was counter-pointed by the Unitarian Church of Montreal's ad on the opposite page that is evidently intended to "recruit" (i.e. proseltyze) McGill students to the Unitarian Church.
Much Unitarian advertising is highly misleading, if not outright false. McGill students should note that even the word "truth" is enclosed in euphemistic quotation marks in the misleading ad itself.
The Unitarian Church is certainly "dogged" by misleading and evidently false claims, and by my ongoing public protest against Unitarian injustices, abuses and hypocrisy. Just Google "Robin Edgar" and "Unitarian Church of Montreal" to see how Unitarians wilfully flaunt and flagrantly violate their own claimed principles and ideals, including their now evidently fraudulent claim to be "opposed to censorship, by church, state, or any other institution."
As a defender of freedom of expression I have no objection to the McGill Tribune running advertising from the Unitarian Church of Montreal. However, I suggest that any future ads from the Unitarian Church of Montreal should run under the disclaimer caveat emptor.
Robin Edgar
Excommunicated Unitarian
Here is where the irony gets even better. . .
This new issue of the McGill Tribune runs another ad from the Unitarian Church of Montreal "Unwelcoming Congregation." It says -
Do you feel that you don't belong to a community?
Try ours. You'll be welcomed.
The Unitarian community is one where your own personal values and experiences are honoured; a place where you will be encouraged to participate in the issues of the day, not simply sit back and agree.
Gee. . . Coulda fooled me. . .
Caveat emptor indeed. . .
Comments
I'm looking forward to talking with you on this blog. I was a lurker on Bnet for a while.
Were you a UU before your revelation?
The McGill Tribune is a very free Montreal university student newspaper in virtually every sense of the word "free". Last week's issue of The McGill Tribune published a half-page article on page 2. about how some McGill University students, and the Students' Society of McGill University (SSMU), were ired" by on-campus proselytizing and recruiting by CRU a student Christian "club".
Most ironically The McGill Tribune copy editors had seen fit to place a quarter page advertisement from the Unitarian Church of Montreal on page 3. . . directly opposite this article that criticized on-campus proselytizing and recruitment by Christians. The advertisement from the Unitarian Church of Montreal was very misleading, at least in terms of my own bitter personal experience with the Unitarian Church of Montreal and its now "retired" fundamentalist atheist minister Rev. Ray Drennan. I thus wrote a letter to the editor about the delicious irony of the placement of the Unitarian Church of Montreals' recruiting advertisement directly opposite the aforementioned article, and then went on to warn McGill University students about just how misleasding the ad was.
Thankfully the editors of The McGill Tribune, which is actually published by the Students' Society of McGill University, had the moral and editorial integrity to publish my letter to the editor that exposed the highly misleading and even outright false advertising of the Unitarian Church of Montreal in this week's issue of the McGill Tribune.
Bravo McGill Tribune!
I wonder how long it will take for Beliefnet's UU section "host" aka "moderator" aka "censor" to "memory hole" it?
The Unitarian Church of Montreal certainly attempts to proselytize as this recent letter to the editor clearly shows -
Unitarian Church ad misleading
It's most ironic that Robert Church's "Faith-based recruiting on campus?" (25.10.2005), about CRU "proselytizing" raising the ire of students and the SSMU, was counter-pointed by the Unitarian Church of Montreal's ad on the opposite page that is evidently intended to "recruit" (i.e. proseltyze) McGill students to the Unitarian Church.
Much Unitarian advertising is highly misleading, if not outright false. McGill students should note that even the word "truth" is enclosed in euphemistic quotation marks in the misleading ad itself.
The Unitarian Church is certainly "dogged" by misleading and evidently false claims, and by my ongoing public protest against Unitarian injustices, abuses and hypocrisy. Just Google "Robin Edgar" and "Unitarian Church of Montreal" to see how Unitarians wilfully flaunt and flagrantly violate their own claimed principles and ideals, including their now evidently fraudulent claim to be "opposed to censorship, by church, state, or any other institution."
As a defender of freedom of expression I have no objection to the McGill Tribune running advertising from the Unitarian Church of Montreal. However, I suggest that any future ads from the Unitarian Church of Montreal should run under the disclaimer caveat emptor.
Robin Edgar
Excommunicated Unitarian