U*U Churches and UUA Institutional Interventions - Or Lack Thereof. . .
Here is the commentary (with additonal embedded links and correction of spelling errors and typos etc.) that I submitted to in response to U*U blogger BiddiesInMyBrain's post about Churches and Intitutional Interventions in which she criticizes the Roman Catholic Church's response to clergy sexual misconduct while remaining blissfully ignorant of, or in complete denial of. . . the failure of U*U Churches and the UUA to responsibly address and adequately redress clergy sexual misconduct committed by U*U ministers.
So far Laura has not seen fit to publish my comment.
Well you know what they say Laura. . .
If you are not part of the solution, you are part-of-the-problem.
Hopefully Laura will come around to being part of the solution sooner rather than later.
:I am not normally inclined to go about admonishing other demoninations and faith groups about their dirty laundry, but this could use a good old-fashioned intervention. And soon.
Well there is a fair bit of U*U dirty laundry that could use a good old-fashioned intervention. And soon. Including clergy sexual misconduct committed by U*U ministers.
:The Roman Catholic Church institutionally still just doesn't get it...
The same may be said about the Unitarian Universalist "church" and uugrrl is saying it -
http://uutruth.blogspot.com/2007/06/how-can-you-help.html
:As you know, the RCC is paying more than $660 million to more than 500 individuals in the Diocese of Los Angeles who state they were sexually abused as children by clergy.
Which shows that they are finally addressing the problem of clergy sexual misconduct and providing very significant financial compensation to victims of Catholic priests. How much compensation has the UUA ever paid out to the victims of U*U ministers who committed clergy sexual misconduct?
:And somehow, that is just the tip of the iceberg... this is going on all over the country, and the detritus of dozens of years of clergy abuse can be measure in broken lives.
Indeed it can be measured in damaged lives within the so-called U*U World as well. . .
:That these abused folks have had to fight this battle against the recalcitrant and much more resourceful RCC is enraging enough stuff. But it doesn't stop there.
What about the abused folks (not necessarily sexually abused folks) who have had to fight battles against the obstinately recalcitrant and much more resourceful UUA and individual U*U churches?
:Bishop Mahoney apologized, not to those who were hurt by the abuse, but to those who were offended; - as though it were a tea-time breach of protocol. HELLO? They're not offended. They're HURT! They're SCARRED FOR LIFE by the experience.
As are victims of the clergy misconduct of U*U ministers. . .
:As a young survivor of rape (I was ten years old) I *know* all too painfully many of the psychological, social, and physical problems that can be caused by such an action. I shudder at what must have happened to some of these youngsters who endured repeated rapes and abuse.
I am sorry to hear that but similar things have happened within the U*U religious community. I was appalled when a particularly obnoxious U*U minister stridently criticized Roman Catholics over comparatively minor sexual abuse (alleged homosexual fondling) at a time when one of her own parishioners had just been convicted of forcibly raping a neighbour's daughter and a "female family member" both of whom were not much older than ten at the time the rapes took place. This U*U minister called upon her parishioners to pray for the rapist but there is no evidence that she made a similar call to pray for his victims. . .
:To call these actions something to be "offended" by is an insult to me and every other rape victim in the world and makes it patently clear that the Vatican is completely out of touch.
How do you feel about UUA Executive Vice-President Kathleen (Kay) Montgomery asserting that she does not feel any "guilt" about U*U clergy sexual misconduct in the UUA's official apology to victims of clergy misconduct? How do you feel about the fact that Kathleen Montgomery's "pledge" that the UUA's failure to responsibly redress clergy sexual misconduct "will be remedied" has been neglected, if not outright broken, and that the UUA continues to fail to "bend toward justice"?
http://www25.uua.org/cde/csm/apology.html
Institutionally, the 46-year-old UUA still has some growing up to do before it becomes a responsible adult. I think that the UUA, and plenty of individual U*U churches that have failed to responsibly address clergy misconduct of various kinds, have made a total mockery of the Seven Principles of U*Uism and could use some lessons in lovingkindness, to say nothing of basic moral and ethical integrity, themselves.
So far Laura has not seen fit to publish my comment.
Well you know what they say Laura. . .
If you are not part of the solution, you are part-of-the-problem.
Hopefully Laura will come around to being part of the solution sooner rather than later.
:I am not normally inclined to go about admonishing other demoninations and faith groups about their dirty laundry, but this could use a good old-fashioned intervention. And soon.
Well there is a fair bit of U*U dirty laundry that could use a good old-fashioned intervention. And soon. Including clergy sexual misconduct committed by U*U ministers.
:The Roman Catholic Church institutionally still just doesn't get it...
The same may be said about the Unitarian Universalist "church" and uugrrl is saying it -
http://uutruth.blogspot.com/2007/06/how-can-you-help.html
:As you know, the RCC is paying more than $660 million to more than 500 individuals in the Diocese of Los Angeles who state they were sexually abused as children by clergy.
Which shows that they are finally addressing the problem of clergy sexual misconduct and providing very significant financial compensation to victims of Catholic priests. How much compensation has the UUA ever paid out to the victims of U*U ministers who committed clergy sexual misconduct?
:And somehow, that is just the tip of the iceberg... this is going on all over the country, and the detritus of dozens of years of clergy abuse can be measure in broken lives.
Indeed it can be measured in damaged lives within the so-called U*U World as well. . .
:That these abused folks have had to fight this battle against the recalcitrant and much more resourceful RCC is enraging enough stuff. But it doesn't stop there.
What about the abused folks (not necessarily sexually abused folks) who have had to fight battles against the obstinately recalcitrant and much more resourceful UUA and individual U*U churches?
:Bishop Mahoney apologized, not to those who were hurt by the abuse, but to those who were offended; - as though it were a tea-time breach of protocol. HELLO? They're not offended. They're HURT! They're SCARRED FOR LIFE by the experience.
As are victims of the clergy misconduct of U*U ministers. . .
:As a young survivor of rape (I was ten years old) I *know* all too painfully many of the psychological, social, and physical problems that can be caused by such an action. I shudder at what must have happened to some of these youngsters who endured repeated rapes and abuse.
I am sorry to hear that but similar things have happened within the U*U religious community. I was appalled when a particularly obnoxious U*U minister stridently criticized Roman Catholics over comparatively minor sexual abuse (alleged homosexual fondling) at a time when one of her own parishioners had just been convicted of forcibly raping a neighbour's daughter and a "female family member" both of whom were not much older than ten at the time the rapes took place. This U*U minister called upon her parishioners to pray for the rapist but there is no evidence that she made a similar call to pray for his victims. . .
:To call these actions something to be "offended" by is an insult to me and every other rape victim in the world and makes it patently clear that the Vatican is completely out of touch.
How do you feel about UUA Executive Vice-President Kathleen (Kay) Montgomery asserting that she does not feel any "guilt" about U*U clergy sexual misconduct in the UUA's official apology to victims of clergy misconduct? How do you feel about the fact that Kathleen Montgomery's "pledge" that the UUA's failure to responsibly redress clergy sexual misconduct "will be remedied" has been neglected, if not outright broken, and that the UUA continues to fail to "bend toward justice"?
http://www25.uua.org/cde/csm/apology.html
Institutionally, the 46-year-old UUA still has some growing up to do before it becomes a responsible adult. I think that the UUA, and plenty of individual U*U churches that have failed to responsibly address clergy misconduct of various kinds, have made a total mockery of the Seven Principles of U*Uism and could use some lessons in lovingkindness, to say nothing of basic moral and ethical integrity, themselves.
Comments
If you are not part of the solution, you are part-of-the-problem.
It seems that Laura would like to be part of the solution and is doing what she can with a problem that hits a bit too close to home for her.