Rev. Diane Rollert - "Damsel In Distress" Or "Dragon Lady"?
Here is the full unexpurgated text of the follow-up letter to the editor that I am about to submit to Montreal's only English language daily 'The Gazette' in response to Irwin Block's news report titled 'Man Contests Minister's Bid For Restraining Order'. I expect that it is rather too long to be published intact and will be edited, if it is published at all. . . so I am making the full version available here. As is my habit I am embedding hyperlinks to pertinent web pages or Google searches so that U*Us, and indeed non-U*Us, can enter into a free and responsible search for the truth and meaning of the larger and more complex conflict that this brand spanking new letter to the editor arises from -
Letter To The Editor re. 'Man Contests Minister's Bid For Restraining Order'
Rev. Diane Rollert has no "reasonable grounds" to fear that I will commit "a serious personal injury offence" against her or any other member of the Unitarian Church of Montreal. There is no threat of physical harm whatsoever in the emails that she describes as "email threats" in her highly questionable declarations to the police. The full text of those emails may be read on The Emerson Avenger blog that exposes the U*U injustices, abuses and hypocrisy (not "theological issues" as reported) that I am protesting against. Just Google "Rev. Diane Rollert" to find the blog and pertinent posts.
The very fact that not a single Montreal Unitarian, including those most responsible for harming me. . . has ever suffered the slightest physical injury caused by me in the near decade that I have been peacefully protesting in front of their so-called "church" casts considerable "reasonable doubt" on the trumped up criminal charges that Rev. Rollert has so cynically and hypocritically brought against me. In that I have been the victim of genuine threats of assault (including one threat that a 911 operator characterized as "death threats". . .), as well as several physical assaults committed by Montreal Unitarians, I have rather more "reasonable grounds" to fear that a belligerent Montreal U*U might in future commit a "serious personal injury offence" against me. I felt it necessary to bring criminal charges against two of these belligerent Montreal U*Us. They both copped pleas and were subjected to "non-judicial treatment" for their criminal acts against me.
Unitarian*Universalists aka U*Us fraudulently claim to be "opposed to censorship by church, state, or any other institution" in their deceptive religious propaganda, but censorship and suppression of criticism and dissent, especially when it criticizes U*U clergy misconduct. . . is all too common in this uncommonly hypocritical denomination. Montreal U*Us have given a whole new meaning to the term "police harassment" by calling in numerous spurious complaints to the Montreal police force. This is now the second time that stunningly hypocritical Montreal U*Us have attempted to impose U*U "church" censorship on my Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guaranteed right to peaceful public protest by cynically misusing and abusing the "state" laws of the Canadian Criminal Code in their deeply misguided efforts to force an end to my legal and peaceful public protest. I was rightly acquitted of the first trumped up criminal charge of disturbing the order or solemnity of religious worship and I fully expect to be vindicated in this case.
Rev. Diane Rollert has most ironically synthesized the archetypal role of the "Knight in (not so) Shining Armour" boldly championing her "church", with that of the helpless and victimized "damsel in distress". From where I stand however, she is looking a lot like the archetypal "Dragon-Lady". I have very reasonable grounds to believe that Rev. Rollert is knowingly and willfully lying to the police in claiming to be "very frightened" of me in a very ill-advised effort to obtain a restraining order that would suspend my protest in front of her "church" for a year or less. If however she genuinely is "very frightened" of me, I can only politely suggest that she might benefit from seeking some "professional help" to responsibly address her unfounded irrational fears aka paranoid delusions.
Sincerely,
Robin Edgar
P.S. Although my current legal name is Robert Edgar I am commonly known as Robin Edgar and have been known as Robin Edgar by family, friends, and associates for all my life. I am told that an Anglican priest botched my christening. . . Please use the name Robin Edgar in publishing this letter to the editor and in any future Gazette news reports or other articles about me.
Letter To The Editor re. 'Man Contests Minister's Bid For Restraining Order'
Rev. Diane Rollert has no "reasonable grounds" to fear that I will commit "a serious personal injury offence" against her or any other member of the Unitarian Church of Montreal. There is no threat of physical harm whatsoever in the emails that she describes as "email threats" in her highly questionable declarations to the police. The full text of those emails may be read on The Emerson Avenger blog that exposes the U*U injustices, abuses and hypocrisy (not "theological issues" as reported) that I am protesting against. Just Google "Rev. Diane Rollert" to find the blog and pertinent posts.
The very fact that not a single Montreal Unitarian, including those most responsible for harming me. . . has ever suffered the slightest physical injury caused by me in the near decade that I have been peacefully protesting in front of their so-called "church" casts considerable "reasonable doubt" on the trumped up criminal charges that Rev. Rollert has so cynically and hypocritically brought against me. In that I have been the victim of genuine threats of assault (including one threat that a 911 operator characterized as "death threats". . .), as well as several physical assaults committed by Montreal Unitarians, I have rather more "reasonable grounds" to fear that a belligerent Montreal U*U might in future commit a "serious personal injury offence" against me. I felt it necessary to bring criminal charges against two of these belligerent Montreal U*Us. They both copped pleas and were subjected to "non-judicial treatment" for their criminal acts against me.
Unitarian*Universalists aka U*Us fraudulently claim to be "opposed to censorship by church, state, or any other institution" in their deceptive religious propaganda, but censorship and suppression of criticism and dissent, especially when it criticizes U*U clergy misconduct. . . is all too common in this uncommonly hypocritical denomination. Montreal U*Us have given a whole new meaning to the term "police harassment" by calling in numerous spurious complaints to the Montreal police force. This is now the second time that stunningly hypocritical Montreal U*Us have attempted to impose U*U "church" censorship on my Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guaranteed right to peaceful public protest by cynically misusing and abusing the "state" laws of the Canadian Criminal Code in their deeply misguided efforts to force an end to my legal and peaceful public protest. I was rightly acquitted of the first trumped up criminal charge of disturbing the order or solemnity of religious worship and I fully expect to be vindicated in this case.
Rev. Diane Rollert has most ironically synthesized the archetypal role of the "Knight in (not so) Shining Armour" boldly championing her "church", with that of the helpless and victimized "damsel in distress". From where I stand however, she is looking a lot like the archetypal "Dragon-Lady". I have very reasonable grounds to believe that Rev. Rollert is knowingly and willfully lying to the police in claiming to be "very frightened" of me in a very ill-advised effort to obtain a restraining order that would suspend my protest in front of her "church" for a year or less. If however she genuinely is "very frightened" of me, I can only politely suggest that she might benefit from seeking some "professional help" to responsibly address her unfounded irrational fears aka paranoid delusions.
Sincerely,
Robin Edgar
P.S. Although my current legal name is Robert Edgar I am commonly known as Robin Edgar and have been known as Robin Edgar by family, friends, and associates for all my life. I am told that an Anglican priest botched my christening. . . Please use the name Robin Edgar in publishing this letter to the editor and in any future Gazette news reports or other articles about me.
Comments
Do you drop by every potential new Unitarian's blog to tell them your story and try to put them off, just because you fell out with one UU congregation?
Do you think the fact that they asked you to leave for disruptive behaviour justifies ten years of haranguing them? Get Over It. I'm truly sorry for your hurt, but please go and do something more worthwhile with your life. Smile at the beauty of nature, help the poor and suffering, whatever.
I repeatedly offered forgiveness and reconciliation, following a formal retraction of, and sincere and adequate formal apology for Rev. Ray Drennan's insulting and defamatory attack on me, in first few years of this "war of words" but Rev. Ray Drennan and the outrageously hypocritical Montreal U*Us who condoned his anti-relogious intolerance and bigoptry not only ignored and rejected those offers but expelled me from their alleged "church" for making those offers. Sorry but U*Us are guilty of making a total mockery of pretty much every principle, purpose, and ideal that they claim to "affirm and promote" in their well-documented inhuman relations with me and I intend to see to it that outrageously hypocritical U*Us start actually practicing what they so insincerely, hypocritically, and outright fraudulently preach. I dare say that I am smiling at the beauty of nature and helping the poor and suffering every time I engage in my alternative spiritual practice of protesting U*U injustices, abuses and hypocrisy in front of the Unitarian Church of Montreal. Be assured that my protest activities have alleviated the suffering of uugrrl and I most likely other victims of various U*U injustices and abuses. Both Creation Day and World Day of Conscience are intended to help the poor and suffering, and preserve the beauty of nature, in a big way but the obstinate refusal of hypocritical U*Us to negotiate a settlement to this ludicrously drawn-out conflict and U*U persistence in spreading slanderous lies about me seriously harms my ability to promote these proposals. I suggest that U*us would do very well to examine their consciences and finally agree to negotiate a genuinely just, equitable and compassionate settlement of this conflict instead of engaging in what most people of intyellignce and conscience will rightly recognize as particularly egregious DIM Thinking institutional stonewalling and denial. . .
In case you hadn't noticed, I'm in Britain. The other side of the Atlantic. Unitarianism here is different. Please don't try to carry your conflict to other continents as well as your own.
Even if they haven't forgiven you (though it sounds as if they have tried to several times over) it doesn't justify terrorising and defaming them.
Please don't bother posting comments on my blog again, unless you have something constructive to offer.
Peace.
:Look, I don't know the rights and wrongs of the case, but it sounds as if wrongs have been committed on both sides.
Maybe you should enter into a genuinely free and *responsible* search for the truth and meaning of what just what wrongs have been committed in this matter then Yvonne. Please be so kind as to list what "wrongs" I have committed.
:I don't really want to argue with you about it.
Of course not, because you would likely lose the arguement. ..
:As I say, I am sorry you have been hurt, but it sounds as if you have inflicted just as much hurt as you received.
Perhaps I have, but the difference is that I am telling well-documented truths about U*Us whereas U*Us persist in telling unfounded slanderous lies about me. . . When U*Us take steps to heal the wounds that they have inflicted on me, to say nothing of other people U*Us have harmed. . . I will be more somewhat more diplomatic in my legitimate criticism of U*U injustices, abuses and hypocrisy.
:In case you hadn't noticed, I'm in Britain. The other side of the Atlantic. Unitarianism here is different. Please don't try to carry your conflict to other continents as well as your own.
Sorry but, the last time I checked, there was this thing called that U*Us call the interconnected web of all existence and that means that you are not immune to hearingh about U*U injustices, abuses and hypocrisy on this side of the pond. Likewise Canadian and Americam U*Us should not ignore the disturbing allegations of German anti-fascist and anti-racist groups that the German Unitarian religious community was subverted by Nazi ideologues following WWII. If I see U*U injustices, abuses and hypocrisy on your side of the pond I can and will expose and denounce them. Similarly you and other European U*Us might be well advised to share your concerns about U*U injustices, abuses and hypocrisy on our side of the pond when they are brought to your attention rather than ignoring them and suppressing them.
:Even if they haven't forgiven you (though it sounds as if they have tried to several times over)
Oh really Yvonne? How do you get that bizarre imprssion? Please present the slightest scrap of evidence supporting that bizarre claim. Anyway most of what I am doing does not warrant or require any forgiveness on the part of U*Us. My protest activities are highly legitimate.
:it doesn't justify terrorising and defaming them.
I am neither "terrorising" nor "defaming" U*Us. It is ridiculous for you to accuse me of "terrorising" U*Us when I have not uttered the slightest threat of physical harm towards a single U*U in the whole decade-long course of this conflict. Just because a paranoid, or just plain duplicitous. . . U*U minister claims to be "very frightened" of me in highly questionable declarations to the police does mot meant that I am actually doing anything to "terrorize" her or other U*Us. Telling unpleasant, and even harmful and damaging, truths about people or institutions is not "defaming" them. Look the word "defame" up in a good dictionary.
:Please don't bother posting comments on my blog again, unless you have something constructive to offer.
Exposing U*U injustices, abuses and hypocrisy is constructive Yvonne. If I remember correctly, all I said in the comment that you deleted is that waht U*Us say and what U*Us do can be two very different things. N'est-ce pas?
:Peace.
Not until I and other victims of U*U injustices and abuses see some justice Yvonne. . .
I will check out what you say about the Nazi thing, but that is also true of a number of other religious organisations (Catholic and Protestant). I heard that Unitarians helped Jews to escape the Nazis. Also there is such a thing as repentance.
I am not denying that there may be abuses in the UUA. As I said, there are abuses in every organisation. It just seems to me that you have carried your campaign to extremes.
Of course it is legitimate to criticise abuses, but it really seems to me that you have blown this out of all proportion.
I can assure you that if I encountered abusive behaviour I would run a mile - and probably blow the whistle, depending on how serious I felt it was.
I googled for Unitarians and Nazis on www.google.de and found this page about the writer Sigrid Hunke. I speak German, so looked at both German and English results.
The first thing it says is, "Not to be confused with the British or North American Unitarians, the German Unitarianism of Hunke criticizes Christianity as totally alien to the European mind."
I know a number of NeoPagans who feel that way, but it doesn't make them NeoNazis, necessarily.
Also, the majority of Unitarians seem to have helped the Jews escape from the Nazis. Nor does it seem as if Hunke's view is embraced by the majority of German Unitarians. They wouldn't get very far these days in Germany if they were anti-Semitic, it's pretty much illegal.
Also the group calling itself Unitarian that embraced Hunke's views apparently died out in the 1980s: "Ich will aber nicht verschweigen, dass es bei den DU früher einen „völkischen“ Flügel gab, der sich in den 1980-er Jahren (endlich) abgespalten hat." (post by hraban)
Translation: "But I don't want to deny that there was among the German Unitarians a "völkisch" (nationalist) wing, that finally died out in the 1980s."
Good.
:I was just trying to say that the British Unitarians are a different organisation.
That is true but I am not convinced that British Unitarians are less prone to anti-religious intolerance and/or other injustices, abuses and hypocrisy than their Canadian or American counterparts. In fact I have seen clear evidence of anti-Christian intolerance amongst British Unitarians and they seem to be quite proud of their "irreverence" which is usually directed at other religions. . .
:I will check out what you say about the Nazi thing, but that is also true of a number of other religious organisations (Catholic and Protestant).
Just Google - Deutsche Unitarier Nazis - to find pertinent web pages, most of which are written in German of course.
:I heard that Unitarians helped Jews to escape the Nazis.
Some did, but it seems that other Unit*Aryans (as it were) may well have helped the Nazis to persecute Jews and held top-level leadership positions in the Deutsche Unitarier Religionsgemeinschaft following WWII.
:Also there is such a thing as repentance.
Indeed there is and am still waiting for Montreal U*Us and the UUA to show some. . .
:I am not denying that there may be abuses in the UUA. As I said, there are abuses in every organisation.
Which is not an excuse for you or any other U*U to ignore or condone injustices and abuses which take place within *your* chosen faith.
:It just seems to me that you have carried your campaign to extremes.
I suggest that you responsibly compare my alleged "extremes" with the very well-documented "extremes" of the U*Us who I am in conflict with. . .
:Of course it is legitimate to criticise abuses, but it really seems to me that you have blown this out of all proportion.
Really? How so? Again I suggest that you enter into a free and responsible search into just who has blown things out of all proportion in this conflict. A good starting point in terms of recent history is to read the emails that I sent to Rev. Diane Rollert and compare that with how she grossly over-reacted to them by characterizing them as "email threats" that caused her to be "very frightened" of me and having me arrested on trumped up criminal charges based on alleged "reasonable grounds" to fear that I would commit a "serious personal injury offence" against her. And that is but one recent example of stunningly hypocritical U*Us blowing things out of all proportion. . .
:I can assure you that if I encountered abusive behaviour I would run a mile - and probably blow the whistle, depending on how serious I felt it was.
Well I have been blowing my whistle for over a decade now but DIM Thinking U*Us must think I'm whistling Dixie or something.
:PS - I deleted your first comment because I felt you were trying to spoil my happiness, not to suppress your views, which are more than adequately represented all over the internet. I will post a link to the Google results that you posted, so people can make up their own minds, if that'll make you happy.
Fair enough.
Thanks and Allah prochaine. . .
Dear Editors,
Here is a much shorter letter to the editor responding to Irwin Block`s article:
Man contests minister's bid for restraining order - Friday, August 31
Please be so kind as to publish this letter to the editor so that the stigma of being perceived as someone who might seriously injure Rev. Diane Rollert or other Montreal U*Us in Irwin Block`s article is dealt with now -
Rev. Diane Rollert has no "reasonable grounds" to fear that I will commit "a serious personal injury offence" against her. I have not physically harmed a single Montreal U*U during the near decade that I have been peacefully protesting and have no history of violence.
I actually have more "reasonable grounds" to fear that a Montreal Unitarian U*U might commit a "serious personal injury offence" against me. Some Montreal U*Us have threatened me with assault (including one threat that a 911 dispatcher characterized as "death threats") and I have actually been assaulted by some U*Us. I felt obliged to press criminal charges against two Montreal U*Us who were subjected to "non-judicial treatment" for their criminal acts against me.
This is the second time that outrageously hypocritical Montreal Unitarian U*Us have attempted to subvert my charter guaranteed right to peaceful public protest by cynically misusing and abusing the Canadian Criminal Code in deeply misguided efforts to force an end to my protest. I was rightly acquitted of the first trumped up criminal charge of disturbing religious worship, and I fully expect to be vindicated in this case.
This conflict arises from the anti-religious intolerance and bigotry of Rev. Ray Drennan and other militant atheist U*Us. There is much more to this story than The Gazette has ever reported. Googling pertinent key words and phrases will provide much more information for those who want to know more.
Robin Edgar