Breaking News. . . A DIM Thinking U*U Complains To Dee Miller About The Emerson Avenger's Use Of The Term DIM Thinking

OK In brief - Earlier tonight I received an email from Dee Miller, the anti clergy sexual abuse crusader who coined the the term DIM Thinking. It was just a brief note stating that she held copyright in the term DIM thinking and asking me too credit her and provide a link to her web site when I made use of it.

Here is my response to Dee Miller's email -

Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2006 21:51:19 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Robin Edgar"
Subject: Re: DIM thinking
To: xxxxxxdee@cox.net

Hi Dee,

Thank you for contacting me about my use of your DIM Thinking acronym.

I have given you credit for it as this Google search should demonstrate -

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Robin+Edgar%22+%22Dee+Miller%22+DIM+Thinking&hl=en&lr=&rls=GGLR,GGLR:2006-03,GGLR:en&filter=0

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&rls=GGLR,GGLR:2006-03,GGLR:en&q=%22Robin%20Edgar%22%20%22Dee%20Miller%22%20DIM%20Thinking&sa=N&tab=wg

In that I use it quite frequently, and I believe quite appropriately. . . giving credit to you every single time that I make use of it would be a real chore. Imagine if copyright holders of various other short acronyms, to say nothing of brand names etc. required you to give full credit every time you use their acronyms or phrases. It just is not practical.

I will add your website to those posts that I have made where it is possible to do so. I usually link to the appropriate page in any case which provides adequate credit I would hope.

I have actually considered contacting you in the past because Unitarian Universalists have accused me of misusing your DIM Thinking acronym because the case of abusive clergy misconduct that I am dealing with does not involve sexual misconduct. From my perspective the dynamic of DIM Thinking Denial, Ignorance and Minimization has a much broader application than just those cases of clergy misconduct that involve sexual misconduct and expect you will agree with me on that. I would ask that you read some of the posts that I have made in which I describe the obvious Denial, remarkably obstinate willful Ignorance and clear Minimization of Unitarian Universalists in their response to my grievances arising from the anti-religious intolerance and bigotry of a fundamentalist atheist "Humanist" U*U Minister who macked and ridiculed my monotheistic religious beliefs and labeled a revelatory religious experience that I was trying to explain to him as "your psychotic experience". He also maliciously labeled an interreligious celebration of Creation that I had successfully organized as "your cult". Classic witch hunt tactics don't you think?

I would appreciate it if you would grant me general permission to use your DIM Thinking acronym where appropriate. I would also appreciate it if you would review my use of it and write a note acknowleding that I am using it appropriately and that Unitarian Universalists are in fact behaving in a way that can appropriately be described as DIM Thinking in their ongoing Denial, Ignorance and Minimization of not only my legitimate grievances but their obvious complicity and collusion in Rev. Ray Drennan's anti-religious intolerance and bigotry.

Best Regards,

Robin Edgar


Dee Miller's prompt response to my email was to write back to me saying -

Thanks. That's fine -- I didn't find it on the page I was sent to, by someone who was upset by your use of it.


So, as I had suspected might be the case. . . "someone" had sent Dee Miller an email complaining about my use of her term DIM Thinking. No doubt they hoped that Dee Miller would demand that I stop using her term which describes an insidious synthesis of Denial, Ignorance and Minimization that is effectively a form of complicity and collusion in abusive clergy misconduct, sexual or otherwise. . . Indeed, as I pointed out the term DIM Thinking has a much broader application than just clergy sexual misconduct. So it looks like that "someone", to say nothing of a fair number of other DIM Thinking U*Us. . . is going to be rather disappointed to learn that Dee Miller has no problem whatsoever with me using her acronym DIM Thinking to describe the deep Denial (including "institutional denial", "community denial", and other forms of denial) of U*Us, the obstinate willful Ignorance of U*Us, and U*U Minimization of not only my original serious grievances arising from Rev. Ray Drennan's demeaning and abusive clergy misconduct but also the subsequent complicity and collusion of U*Us in this matter.

See - http://www.takecourage.org

http://www.takecourage.org/disorder.htm

http://www.advocateweb.org/hope/howlittle.asp

http://www.advocateweb.org/HOPE/spiritualhealing.asp

Comments

Anonymous said…
Is it possible that a sexual abose victim might find your comparison of someone insulting you to someone raping them offensive?

I'm sure have Ray Drennan call you names felt bad, but the truth is he didn't rape you.
Robin Edgar said…
Well thanks for providing that classic example of the Denial, Ignorance and Minimization (or should I say Maximization?) of DIM Thinking in this most appropriate thread Anonymous DIM Thinker.

:Is it possible that a sexual abose victim might find your comparison of someone insulting you to someone raping them offensive?

I suppose that this would be possible if I had actually done so, but as far as I can see. . . I did not actually compare someone insulting me to someone committing rape. Still even if I had done so the comparison would not be entirely out of line. The term "rape" is often used to describe other forms of assault including verbal assaults.

:I'm sure have Ray Drennan call you names felt bad, but the truth is he didn't rape you.

No Rev. Ray Drennan did not "rape" me in the sense of a physical sexual assault however this dictionary.com definition for "rape" should make it clear that I could justifiably use the word "rape" to describe Rev. Drennan's demeaning verbally and psychologically abusive assault on me. . .

4. an act of plunder, violent seizure, or abuse; despoliation; violation: the rape of the countryside.

To the best of my knowledge I have never used the word "rape" to describe Rev. Ray Drennan's verbally and psychologically abusive behaviour towards me but I could in fact justifiably say that, in the sense of the definition of "rape" provided above, Rev. Ray Drennan "raped" Creation Day in that his abusive false and malicious labeling of Creation Day as a "cult" despoiled and violated Creation Day. Likewise Rev. Ray Drennan "raped" my revelatory religious experience in that his contemptuous abusive, hostile, and malicious labeling of my revelatory religious experience as "your psychotic experience" and my monotheistic religious beliefs that were informed by that mystical experience as nothing but "silliness and fantasy" despoiled and violated my revelatory religious experience and my deepest religious beliefs.

Having said all that, the fact of the matter is that it should now be abundantly clear to U*Us that Dee Miller has no objections to my quite appropriate use of her term DIM Thinking to describe the Denial, Ignorance, and Minimization that Unitarian Universalists have been clearly and unequivocally engaging in throughout this conflict that arises out of non-sexual abusive clergy misconduct.

Anonymous DIM Thinker does not seem to recognize that the term DIM Thinking applies to the behaviour of those many U*Us who in various ways Deny, Ignore and Minimize not only Rev. Ray Drennan's figurative "rape" of Creation Day and my religious beliefs but also various other U*U injustices, abuses and hypocrisy that I have exposed and denounced ove the years, including of course the many previous incidents of U*U DIM Thinking that only serve to escalate and aggravate the initial U*U injustices and abuses that I complained about over a decade ago in late 1995 and early 1996. . .

T term DIM Thinking applies to the negligent, complicit and indeed collusive manner that the Board and congregation of the Unitarian Church of Montreal responded to my legitimate grievances, it applies to the negligent, complicit, and collusive manner that former UUA President Rev. John Buehrens and the UUA's Ministerial Fellowship Committee responded to my serious grievances arising from Rev. Ray Drennan's demeaning and abusive attack on Creation Day and my monotheistic religious beliefs. The term DIM Thinking applies rather too well to how many individual U*Us have responded to my serious grievances when I have brought them to their attention in letters of grievance, public protest, or internet posting and blogging etc. If U*Us want this conflict to end they are going to have to drastically reduce the deep Denial, obstinate willful Ignorance, and ongoing Minimization of their DIM Thinking response to my totally legitimate and very serious grievances arising from multiple U*U injustices and abuses.