Restorative Justice For Clergy Misconduct Victims - An Open Letter To UUA Trustees
Thorsday January 18, 2007
Dear UUA Trustees,
I notice that “Restorative Justice” is one of the items on the agenda of the January 2007 UUA Board of Trustees meetings. I have been seeking some genuine restorative justice for myself and other victims of abusive clergy misconduct by UU ministers for some time now but to no avail whatsoever. The UUA, its Ministerial Fellowship Committee, and more recently its department Congregational Services, have consistently and quite obstinately refused to provide the slightest restorative justice in response to my serious grievances that arise out of deeply insulting, defamatory, and verbally and psychologically abusive attacks on me by UU ministers. I might add that the two UU ministers whose unbecoming conduct I have complained about have subjected other people to deeply insulting and/or defamatory attacks. The responses of the UUA's Ministerial Fellowship Committee and department Congregational Services to my serious grievances about unbecoming conduct by intolerant and abusive UU clergy have not only been clearly negligent, they have effectively condoned, and thus have been complicit in, the verbally and psychologically abusive clergy misconduct that I have brought to their attention. In fact one of the reasons that I have never received any “restorative justice” from the UUA is because the UUA has quite consciencelessly refused to even acknowledge that I have suffered from any injustice.
Anyone who bothers to responsibly investigate my grievances against Rev. Ray Drennan, formerly of the Unitarian Church of Montreal, can readily see that I was subjected to demeaning and abusive insulting and defamatory attacks on my monotheistic religious beliefs and practices by an intolerant atheist “Humanist” UU minister. If you are not already familiar with my case Rev. Ray Drennan mocked and ridiculed my religious beliefs by labeling them as “silliness and fantasy”, contemptuously dismissed the profound revelatory religious experience that I was trying to explain to him as “your psychotic experience”, and falsely and maliciously labeled an inter-religious celebration of Creation that I had successfully organized as “your cult.” For more details I suggest running appropriate Google searches. According to the Executive of the UUA's Ministerial Fellowship Committee, under the directorship of Rev. Diane Miller, this obvious and egregious example of an atheist “Humanist” UU minister's anti-religious intolerance and bigotry “seemed to us to be within the appropriate guidelines of ministerial leadership.” To date the UUA, and its obviously negligent and effectively complicit Ministerial Fellowship Committee, have never backed away from this obviously untenable position and have refused to reopen and re-examine my clergy misconduct complaint against Rev. Ray Drennan.
More recently I discovered that “Christian” UU minister Rev. Victoria Weinstein had attacked me on her pseudonymous Peacebang blog. In light of her continued offensive and remarkably hypocritical attacks on other people, and even other religious groups, on her Peacebang blog; attacks that the vast majority of people of intelligence and conscience would consider to be most unbecoming of a minister, I decided to file an unbecoming conduct complaint against Rev. Weinstein in order to to determine if there has been any improvement in the UUA's handling of clergy misconduct complaints. The email exchanges between me and the director of Congregational Services Rev. Dr. Tracey Robinson-Harris, and the new Executive Secretary of the Ministerial Fellowship Committee Rev. Beth Miller will show that the UUA is still responding to complaints about unbecoming conduct by its ministers in a manner that is not only quite negligent but which effectively condones their unbecoming conduct. I have posted these recent email exchanges to The Emerson Avenger blog so that UUs, and indeed non-UUs. . . can make up their own minds about how the UUA responds to verbally and psychologically abusive unbecoming conduct by UU ministers. I am very confident that most non-UUs will agree that the UUA's response is both negligent, and effectively complicit in, unbecoming conduct by UU clergy.
You may read the email exchanges on these threads and I would urge you to do so -
http://emersonavenger.blogspot.com/2007/01/how-rev-dr-tracey-robinson-harris.html
http://emersonavenger.blogspot.com/2007/01/rev-beth-miller-executive-secretary-of.html
You may also wish to read this thread which represents public response to those email exchanges -
http://emersonavenger.blogspot.com/2007/01/example-of-moral-support-for-emerson.html
The fact of the matter is that The Emerson Avenger blog probably would not even exist if the UUA and its Ministerial Fellowship Committee had responded in a responsible manner to my initial complaints against Rev. Ray Drennan, or had conceded to my subsequent demands that my original complaint be re-opened and re-examined in 2002. The Emerson Avenger blog exists precisely because U*Us have consistently, and quite obstinately, refused to provide anything even remotely resembling genuine justice, equity, and compassion in response to my legitimate and quite serious grievances arising from intolerant and abusive clergy misconduct by UU clergy. The two UU ministers who I filed clergy misconduct complaints against are clearly guilty of conduct unbecoming a minister not only in terms of how they have behaved towards me, but in well documented intolerant and abusive or insulting and defamatory attacks on other people or groups.
I recently invited UUA President William G. Sinkford to start practicing what he preaches by engaging in what he and other UUs call “waging peace” with me, and other victims of clergy misconduct of various kinds, by waging some genuine restorative justice for all victims of all forms of clergy misconduct by UU ministers, not just clergy sexual misconduct.
http://emersonavenger.blogspot.com/2007/01/emerson-avenger-aka-robin-edgar-invites.html
To date I have not received so much as an acknowledgement of receipt of that R.S.V. P. invitation in spite of follow-up requests for a formal response from President Sinkford. President Sinkford has so far been completely silent and apparently very passive in response to my invitation to begin “waging peace” by waging some genuine restorative justice, equity and compassion in human relations with me and other victims of U*U injustices and abuses. It would thus appear that President Bill Sinkford is most regrettably quite intent on declining my invitation to begin waging peace. If I do not receive a positive response to that R.S.V.P. invitation by the end of next week at the very latest I will consider my invitation to begin waging peace with me to have been formally declined by President Sinkford.
That R.S.V.P. invitation is open to all other UUs so I am now inviting UUA Trustees to begin waging peace by taking responsible and effective steps to ensure that some genuine restorative justice is finally provided for me and other victims of UU clergy misconduct, to say nothing of victims of various other internal injustices and abuses. I believe that I have already made my own personal expectations quite clear in previous communications with the UUA so I will not repeat them in detail here. I call upon all UUA Trustees to live up to both the letter and the spirit of President Bill Sinkford's Holiday Message about restoring hope and waging peace by doing the right thing and doing everything in their power to provide genuine restorative justice to me and all other victims of diverse injustices and abuses that have been initially perpetrated by U*U clergy, but have subsequently been aggravated, escalated, and perpetuated by the negligence and institutional stonewalling and denial of the UUA and MFC etc. that condones, and thus is effectively complicit in, unbecoming and abusive clergy misconduct of all kinds.
Sincerely,
Robin Edgar
Dear UUA Trustees,
I notice that “Restorative Justice” is one of the items on the agenda of the January 2007 UUA Board of Trustees meetings. I have been seeking some genuine restorative justice for myself and other victims of abusive clergy misconduct by UU ministers for some time now but to no avail whatsoever. The UUA, its Ministerial Fellowship Committee, and more recently its department Congregational Services, have consistently and quite obstinately refused to provide the slightest restorative justice in response to my serious grievances that arise out of deeply insulting, defamatory, and verbally and psychologically abusive attacks on me by UU ministers. I might add that the two UU ministers whose unbecoming conduct I have complained about have subjected other people to deeply insulting and/or defamatory attacks. The responses of the UUA's Ministerial Fellowship Committee and department Congregational Services to my serious grievances about unbecoming conduct by intolerant and abusive UU clergy have not only been clearly negligent, they have effectively condoned, and thus have been complicit in, the verbally and psychologically abusive clergy misconduct that I have brought to their attention. In fact one of the reasons that I have never received any “restorative justice” from the UUA is because the UUA has quite consciencelessly refused to even acknowledge that I have suffered from any injustice.
Anyone who bothers to responsibly investigate my grievances against Rev. Ray Drennan, formerly of the Unitarian Church of Montreal, can readily see that I was subjected to demeaning and abusive insulting and defamatory attacks on my monotheistic religious beliefs and practices by an intolerant atheist “Humanist” UU minister. If you are not already familiar with my case Rev. Ray Drennan mocked and ridiculed my religious beliefs by labeling them as “silliness and fantasy”, contemptuously dismissed the profound revelatory religious experience that I was trying to explain to him as “your psychotic experience”, and falsely and maliciously labeled an inter-religious celebration of Creation that I had successfully organized as “your cult.” For more details I suggest running appropriate Google searches. According to the Executive of the UUA's Ministerial Fellowship Committee, under the directorship of Rev. Diane Miller, this obvious and egregious example of an atheist “Humanist” UU minister's anti-religious intolerance and bigotry “seemed to us to be within the appropriate guidelines of ministerial leadership.” To date the UUA, and its obviously negligent and effectively complicit Ministerial Fellowship Committee, have never backed away from this obviously untenable position and have refused to reopen and re-examine my clergy misconduct complaint against Rev. Ray Drennan.
More recently I discovered that “Christian” UU minister Rev. Victoria Weinstein had attacked me on her pseudonymous Peacebang blog. In light of her continued offensive and remarkably hypocritical attacks on other people, and even other religious groups, on her Peacebang blog; attacks that the vast majority of people of intelligence and conscience would consider to be most unbecoming of a minister, I decided to file an unbecoming conduct complaint against Rev. Weinstein in order to to determine if there has been any improvement in the UUA's handling of clergy misconduct complaints. The email exchanges between me and the director of Congregational Services Rev. Dr. Tracey Robinson-Harris, and the new Executive Secretary of the Ministerial Fellowship Committee Rev. Beth Miller will show that the UUA is still responding to complaints about unbecoming conduct by its ministers in a manner that is not only quite negligent but which effectively condones their unbecoming conduct. I have posted these recent email exchanges to The Emerson Avenger blog so that UUs, and indeed non-UUs. . . can make up their own minds about how the UUA responds to verbally and psychologically abusive unbecoming conduct by UU ministers. I am very confident that most non-UUs will agree that the UUA's response is both negligent, and effectively complicit in, unbecoming conduct by UU clergy.
You may read the email exchanges on these threads and I would urge you to do so -
http://emersonavenger.blogspot.com/2007/01/how-rev-dr-tracey-robinson-harris.html
http://emersonavenger.blogspot.com/2007/01/rev-beth-miller-executive-secretary-of.html
You may also wish to read this thread which represents public response to those email exchanges -
http://emersonavenger.blogspot.com/2007/01/example-of-moral-support-for-emerson.html
The fact of the matter is that The Emerson Avenger blog probably would not even exist if the UUA and its Ministerial Fellowship Committee had responded in a responsible manner to my initial complaints against Rev. Ray Drennan, or had conceded to my subsequent demands that my original complaint be re-opened and re-examined in 2002. The Emerson Avenger blog exists precisely because U*Us have consistently, and quite obstinately, refused to provide anything even remotely resembling genuine justice, equity, and compassion in response to my legitimate and quite serious grievances arising from intolerant and abusive clergy misconduct by UU clergy. The two UU ministers who I filed clergy misconduct complaints against are clearly guilty of conduct unbecoming a minister not only in terms of how they have behaved towards me, but in well documented intolerant and abusive or insulting and defamatory attacks on other people or groups.
I recently invited UUA President William G. Sinkford to start practicing what he preaches by engaging in what he and other UUs call “waging peace” with me, and other victims of clergy misconduct of various kinds, by waging some genuine restorative justice for all victims of all forms of clergy misconduct by UU ministers, not just clergy sexual misconduct.
http://emersonavenger.blogspot.com/2007/01/emerson-avenger-aka-robin-edgar-invites.html
To date I have not received so much as an acknowledgement of receipt of that R.S.V. P. invitation in spite of follow-up requests for a formal response from President Sinkford. President Sinkford has so far been completely silent and apparently very passive in response to my invitation to begin “waging peace” by waging some genuine restorative justice, equity and compassion in human relations with me and other victims of U*U injustices and abuses. It would thus appear that President Bill Sinkford is most regrettably quite intent on declining my invitation to begin waging peace. If I do not receive a positive response to that R.S.V.P. invitation by the end of next week at the very latest I will consider my invitation to begin waging peace with me to have been formally declined by President Sinkford.
That R.S.V.P. invitation is open to all other UUs so I am now inviting UUA Trustees to begin waging peace by taking responsible and effective steps to ensure that some genuine restorative justice is finally provided for me and other victims of UU clergy misconduct, to say nothing of victims of various other internal injustices and abuses. I believe that I have already made my own personal expectations quite clear in previous communications with the UUA so I will not repeat them in detail here. I call upon all UUA Trustees to live up to both the letter and the spirit of President Bill Sinkford's Holiday Message about restoring hope and waging peace by doing the right thing and doing everything in their power to provide genuine restorative justice to me and all other victims of diverse injustices and abuses that have been initially perpetrated by U*U clergy, but have subsequently been aggravated, escalated, and perpetuated by the negligence and institutional stonewalling and denial of the UUA and MFC etc. that condones, and thus is effectively complicit in, unbecoming and abusive clergy misconduct of all kinds.
Sincerely,
Robin Edgar
Comments
CC