U*U Reflections On UUA President Bill Sinkford's Meeting With Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

The blog of the Fellowship of Reconciliation has posted a follow-up article about the response to the FOR meetings with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other delegates from Iran titled 'More reflections on the Ahmadinejad meetings'. The blog post mentions an article about Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb's speech presented to President Ahmadinejad titled 'Speaking Up to Iran Leader -- Gingerly', that appears in the current issue of The Jewish Week.

When contrasted with the content of Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb's speech UUA President Bill Sinkford's participation in the Fellowship of Reconciliation meetings with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad comes across as more pathetic than prophetic and I said so in this comment that I just submitted to the Fellowship of Reconciliation blog titled 'UUA President Bill Sinkford - Diplomat Or Dilettante?' -

The response from Unitarian*Universalists aka U*Us to UUA President Bill Sinkford's participation in the FOR meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is overwhelmingly critical and negative, at least insofar as it is represented by U*U bloggers. Most U*U bloggers who blogged about President Sinkford's participation, and most U*U comments posted to those blog posts, expressed disappointment and even dismay at President Sinkford's role. Most U*U bloggers who wrote about it perceived President Sinkford's participation as a self-aggrandizing UUA PR stunt that did more harm than good. The content of the Unitarian Universalist Association's "press release" about President Bill Sinkford's participation that you link to tends to bear out this negative assessment.

Please allow me to provide the URLs of the various U*U related blog posts about this issue that I am aware of, so that your readers may make up their own minds about UUA President Bill Sinkford's questionable participation in this meeting and U*U response to it -

http://pfarrerstreccius.blogspot.com/2008/09/ahmadinejad-honors-rev-sinkford.html

http://pfarrerstreccius.blogspot.com/2008/10/sinkford-and-ahmadinejad-its-not-wwjd.html

http://www.peacebang.com/2008/10/01/welcome-for-ahmadinejad/

http://www.peacebang.com/2008/10/02/a-response-from-the-exec-director-of-the-fellowship-of-reconciliation/

http://chalicechick.blogspot.com/2008/10/cc-goes-off-on-sinkford-meeting-with.html

http://boyinthebands.com/archives/on-sinkford-and-ahmadinejad/

http://www.paulwilczynski.com/2008/10/sinkford-thinks-talking-to-mahmoud.html

http://beeveedee.wordpress.com/2008/10/02/simply-talking-does-not-make-you-a-prophet-sometimes-it-makes-you-a-fool/

http://mskittyssaloonandroadshow.blogspot.com/2008/10/just-full-of-questions-today.html

http://serenityhome.wordpress.com/2008/10/03/the-fool-as-prophetic-voice/

When contrasted with Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb's presentation as described in The Jewish Week article, UUA President Bill Sinkford's participation in the FOR dialogue with Iranian President Ahmadinejad comes across as more pathetic than prophetic, particularly when one sees how President Ahmadinejad completely ignored all but one of Rev. Bill Sinkford's soft-ball "questions and concerns" and responded to his question about the treatment of women in Iran in a condescending and dismissive manner.