Some Critical Thinking About *Religiously* Ignorant And Stagnant Unitarian*Universalists

The following comment has been submitted to the 'The Future is Now…or Why Children Are Not Special' post on U*U seminarian Kim Hampton's thought-provoking 'East Of Midnight' blog in response to this remarkably ignorant, if not sincerely ignorant. . . question posed by a presumed DIM Thinking Anonymous U*U going by the interesting handle of GKW*. . .

"Robin, has there ever been a criticism of the UUA or Unitarian Universalists that you didn’t immediately believe and assume to be correct? Do you ever approach other people’s complaints with any critical thinking at all?"

GKW said this on December 15, 2008 at 3:26 pm

Herewith my currently "moderated" response to "GKW" -

In my experience and observation of the U*U World a much better question would be -

Do U*Us, especially the UUA and its very aptly named Ministerial Fellowship Committee, ever approach other people’s complaints with any critical thinking at all?

Be assured that I am no slouch when it comes to critical thinking GKW. Why not wander over to The Emerson Avenger blog to see some recent fine examples of my critical thinking to say nothing of a vintage one in the form of my response to former UUA President Rev. Dr. John A* Buehrens' glaring dearth of critical thinking in his negligent and effectively complicit response to my serious complaint about Rev. Ray Drennan's not so unique and original "insulting and defamatory language" that was inspired by his "fundamentalist atheist" anti-religious intolerance and bigotry.

For the record I have seen plenty of evidence of U*Us being both “Religiously ignorant/stagnant” in the sense that Kim Hampton means here, and also *religiously* ignorant/stagnant in the sense that I reinterpreted that phrase. In fact I am not sure that I can point to a better example of U*Us being *religiously* ignorant and stagnant in the sense of being "scrupulously faithful" and "conscientious" in their willful ignorance and stagnance, or being willfully ignorant and stagnant "with extreme conscientiousness", than the well-documented egregious institutional stonewalling that I have been dealing with for the better part of thirteen years. . . Can you?

Thank you so much GKW for providing me with yet another opportunity to remind *religiously* ignorant/stagnant U*Us of one of my all time favorite sayings of the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. -

"Nothing in all the U*U world is more dangerous than
sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. . ."


Hopefully MLK will forgive me for slightly modifying his not so
"bon mot". In light of his own "less than excellent" experience of Unitarian*Universalism aka U*Uism I expect that he would concur. . .


* I don't know who GKW is, although I can hazard an educated guess or two. . . but I am fully confident that God knows who GKW is.

Comments

Joel Monka said…
"Be assured that I am no slouch when it comes to critical thinking GKW." Don't sell yourself short- you're a heck of a slouch!
Robin Edgar said…
Oh really Joel? Perhaps you should have engaged in some critical thinking of your own before shooting your big fat U*U mouth off here, to say nothing of here, or other places where you have exhibited dim thinking if not DIM Thinking. . . It seems to me that if I am "a heck of a slouch" when it comes to critical thinking that you should be able to back up that allegation by pointing to a good number of examples of "excessively relaxed" critical thinking by yours truly. Two or three won't cut it. How about a dozen Joel? Can you find and produce a dozen examples of "excessively relaxed" or "careless" critical thinking on my part?
Chalicechick said…
(((Do U*Us, especially the UUA and its very aptly named Ministerial Fellowship Committee, ever approach other people’s complaints with any critical thinking at all?)))

I assume so. I mean, if they blindly accepted every complaint without critically thinking about it, they would have accepted yours.

If they blindly assumed every complaint was incorrect, then no minister would ever have his or her credentials denied or face any consequences for misconduct and I know some ministers are disciplined and some are denied credentials, though I'm not going to give you the details.

So yeah, I assume some critical thinking is involved someplace.

I'm not sure why Joel would bother to provide examples without someone unbiased to judge whether or not whatever he provided was a good example of critical thinking. I assume you think everything you write is properly reasoned or you wouldn't write it, so you are very unlikely to accept his examples.

Do you have a suggestion of someone who isn't you, but whose opinion you trust, who might be willing to decide?

CC
Robin Edgar said…
CC said - I assume so. I mean, if they blindly accepted every complaint without critically thinking about it, they would have accepted yours.

Fair enough CC but it really is most unfortunate for virtually everyone *concerned* how the Board and congregation of the Unitarian Church of Montreal, as well as the UUA and its very aptly named Ministerial *Fellowship* Committee, so abjectly failed, and indeed quite *religiously* refused, to use anything even remotely resembling bona fide critical thinking in their *religiously* ignorant (as in DIM Thinking) and indeed *religiously* stagnant (as in the "practical procrastination"* of institutional stonewalling) failure to accept, responsibly act upon, and adequately redress, my legitimate complaints. Where is the critical thinking in former UUA President Rev. Dr. John A. Buehrens' brazen assertion that his "own examination of (my original lengthy and very detailed letter of complaint) leads me to believe that there is nothing in it which warrants investigation." Where is the critical thinking in former Executive Secretary of the UUA's very aptly named Ministerial *Fellowship* Committee Rev. Diane Miller's declaration that Rev. Ray Drennan's unbecoming conduct, indeed his insulting and defamatory, hostile and abusive, anti-religious intolerance and bigotry, as it was described at length and in detail in my original letter of complaint, was "within the appropriate guidelines of ministerial leadership"? Here are the UUMA Guidelines for the Conduct of Ministry and its Code of Professional Practice aka Code of Ethics. Read them and weep. . . Where is the critical thinking in UUA Congregational Services Director Rev. Dr. Tracey Robinson-Harris' ever so *religious* refusal to accept my much more recent complaint about Rev. Victoria Weinstein's very public, and at times quite obscene. . . unbecoming conduct? Where is the critical thinking involved in MFC Executive Secretary Rev. Beth Miller's lame endorsement of Rev. Dr. Tracey Robinson-Harris' negligent, and effectively complicit, refusal to accept my very well founded complaint about Peacbang's insulting and defamatory verbally abusive attacks on people? I could go on with more examples of the abject failure and quite *religious* refusal of U*Us to use critical thinking in their "approach" to my own and other people's complaint but I do believe that I have adequately made my point here.

:If they blindly assumed every complaint was incorrect, then no minister would ever have his or her credentials denied or face any consequences for misconduct and I know some ministers are disciplined and some are denied credentials, though I'm not going to give you the details.

You know as well as I do that I was being just a tad sarcastic in feeding GKW's conscientiously stupid question back to him or her, while making a valid point. . . I may not know all of the cases that you are aware of but I expect that I know about some of them, and you may be unaware of some of the cases I know about but have yet to speak about. Does "Small Groups Ministry" meaning anything to you CC? Be assured that at least one U*U minister interpreted that term rather "liberally" and was pressured into resigning in the last year or so. I might have posted about it by now if there had not been a number of distractions, including yet another Unitarian*Universalist Reverend Doctor *religiously* failing to use any critical thinking in his approach to my private, and reasonably polite, complaints about his apparent plagiarism of my "work".

:So yeah, I assume some critical thinking is involved someplace.

Ya. "Someplace" but not anywhere near where I am coming from. . . Right CC? Yes, every now and then, the UUA, U*U "churches", and individual U*Us, including U*U clergy, may use a bit of critical thinking in their approach to people's complaints but all too often they fail to do so. In fact GKW pretty much failed to use critical thinking before asking his or her *religiously* stupid question. There is abundant evidence that I use critical thinking in my approach to other people's criticism of the UUA and Unitarian Universalists if one bothers to enter into a free and *responsible* search for what Reverend. Doctor Timothy W. Jensen calls the TRUTH. . .

:I'm not sure why Joel would bother to provide examples without someone unbiased to judge whether or not whatever he provided was a good example of critical thinking.

Lots of "unbiased" people read this blog CC, I often refer to them as "people of intelligence and conscience". Heck lots of people "biased" against me and in favor of *religiously* ignorant U*Us read this blog. How unbiased are you, to say nothing of Rev. Dr. Tim Jensen aka The Eclectic Cleric?

:I assume you think everything you write is properly reasoned or you wouldn't write it, so you are very unlikely to accept his examples.

This is a public blog CC. People from all around the world read it, and I don't just mean the tiny and declining U*U World. . . I am challenging Joel Monka to provide a dozen or so examples of "less than excellent" critical thinking on my part so that the proverbial "Court of Public Opinion" can judge whether or not Joel Monka has any "reasonable grounds" to believe that I am a "slouch" when it comes to critical thinking. If Joel can't put up he should have shut up. . . We will see who failed to use critical thinking before shooting their mouth off here.

:Do you have a suggestion of someone who isn't you, but whose opinion you trust, who might be willing to decide?

Who needs a single judge when one has the "jury" of public opinion at their disposal CC? There are some U*Us, including some respectable U*U clergy, whose opinions I consider to be reasonably trustworthy and they are cordially invited to put in their common sense worth here if that should be their chosen fate.

Come to critically think of it. . . I quite critically think that I will henceforth refer to former UUA President Rev. Dr. John Buehrens' negligent and complicit DIM Thinking response to my original complaint against Rev. Ray Drennan as his "Chosen Fate". Imagine where the U*U World might be today if UUA President John Buehrens and his DIM Thinking colleague Rev. Diane Miller had actually used a modicum of critical thinking in their approach to my legitimate and quite serious complaint way back in 1996?
Joel Monka said…
A truly critical thinker might have recognized a classic line from a movie universally rated as one of the funniest comedies of all time, Caddyshack.
Robin Edgar said…
Well, to "plagiarize" a not so good U*U Reverend Doctor I happen to know, a very basic point is that in almost ALL cases a truly critical thinker has to have actually SEEN the "work", in this case the "low-brow" Rodney Dangerfield comedy film 'Caddyshack', in order to "recognize" it. A truly critical thinker can't really *recognize* something that they have never even SEEN or read can they Joel? As it happens I have seen bits and pieces of 'Caddyshack' over the years and, now that you have *reminded* me about it, I vaguely remember that waggish Rodney Dangerfield line although a free and responsible Google search reveals that it was actually -

"Don't sell yourself short Joel, you're a *tremendous* slouch"

Sorta. . .

A truly critical thinker would also *recognize* that a truly critical thinker cannot re-cognize something that they actually have SEEN and thus "previously known" if they simply don't remember having SEEN or otherwise previously known it. Right Joel?

Come to think of it, maybe the not so good Reverend Doctor aka "The Probably Plagiarizing Pastor" is suffering from amnesia, or the deep psychological Denial that seems to be so prevalent amongst U*Us, including Ph.D* holding U*U "pastors". . . Now how about putting up a dozen or so examples of my alleged, or at least insinuated, dearth of critical thinking here in this comment thread or shutting up? :-)


* U*Us gotta wonder just what it is that's "Piled High and Deep" eh? ;-)
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