Peacebang aka Rev. Victoria Weinstein Serendipitously Gets A Heaping Helping Of The Emerson Avenger's U*U World Famous "Eat Your Words Diet". . .
Veteran, and apparently quite exemplary, U*U minister Rev. Christine Robinson, who recently blogged about Excellence in Ministry during the UUA's Summit on Excellence in Ministry on her "less than perfect" but otherwise quite excellent iminister blog, posted a thoughtful and informative blog post about "Freedom of the Pulpit" yesterday. I saw it early this morning and decided to post a comment asking the following question -
To what extent, if any, can the UUA and its department of Ministry and/or the UUMA hold a minister accountable for misusing and abusing his or her "Freedom of the Pulpit"? (typo corrected)
while I was in the process of writing my initial comment/query it was the chosen fate of U*U überblogger Peacebang aka Rev. Victoria Weinstein to come along and quite serendipitously, and I dare say even synchronistically. . . post a couple of comments before I had completed writing mine. I only saw Peacebang's comments after submitting my initial comment which I had expected to be the first comment posted. Peacebang's comments gushed about how she LOVED Rev. Christine Robinson's blog post about "Freedom of the Pulpit". Considering just how irresponsibly wayward Rev. Victoria Weinstein's considerably "less than virtual" "virtual pulpit" in the form of her Peacebang blog is she comes across as a shameless two-faced hypocrite. Here are her exact words with pertinent "Eat Your Words Diet" embedded links that expose ever so "Christian" U*U minister Rev. Victoria Weinstein's big fat U*U hypocrisy. . .
I LOVE this! I love that you speak about going beyond the bonds of the covenant -- right ON. I believe UUs have taken the concept of freedom of the pulpit to sloppy, irresponsible extremes. I always work with speakers to help them clarify their message, to respectfully ask them if parts of their message are respectful and productive (around here, it's usually some form of "I used to be a Catholic and here's why Catholicism sucks"), and to emphasize, when necessary, that the pulpit is neither podium nor soapbox. Thanks so much for this.
I should have added that your straight talk about how ministers abuse FOP* and why it should result in our dismissal when it happens warmed the cockles of my heart.
That's it for now, but I definitely have more to say about Rev. Victoria Weinstein and other U*U ministers, such as Rev. Cynthia P. Cain, Rev. Gary Kowalski, and Rev. Dr. Tim Jensen just for *starters*. . . abusing the freedom of the not so virtual pulpits of their personal blogs, as well as the fact that the UUA's department of ministry has so far proven itself to be chronically unready, obstinately unwilling, and possibly even technically unable to hold U*U ministers accountable for unbecoming conduct in the form of insulting and defamatory language, or otherwise intolerant, abusive, and unbecoming words, published on their blogs. I may add more to this blog post or start a brand spanking new Emerson Avenger blog post about these issues.
* In a follow-up comment responding to my questions Rev. Christine Robinson has made it clear that blogging by U*U ministers is not covered under Freedom of the pulpit. I none-the-less consider the blogs of U*U ministers to be a form of virtual pulpit, even if it is not their actual church pulpit, if and when they use their blog as a form of public ministry as Peacebang aka Rev. Victoria Weinstein and a good number of other U*U ministers do.
To what extent, if any, can the UUA and its department of Ministry and/or the UUMA hold a minister accountable for misusing and abusing his or her "Freedom of the Pulpit"? (typo corrected)
while I was in the process of writing my initial comment/query it was the chosen fate of U*U überblogger Peacebang aka Rev. Victoria Weinstein to come along and quite serendipitously, and I dare say even synchronistically. . . post a couple of comments before I had completed writing mine. I only saw Peacebang's comments after submitting my initial comment which I had expected to be the first comment posted. Peacebang's comments gushed about how she LOVED Rev. Christine Robinson's blog post about "Freedom of the Pulpit". Considering just how irresponsibly wayward Rev. Victoria Weinstein's considerably "less than virtual" "virtual pulpit" in the form of her Peacebang blog is she comes across as a shameless two-faced hypocrite. Here are her exact words with pertinent "Eat Your Words Diet" embedded links that expose ever so "Christian" U*U minister Rev. Victoria Weinstein's big fat U*U hypocrisy. . .
I LOVE this! I love that you speak about going beyond the bonds of the covenant -- right ON. I believe UUs have taken the concept of freedom of the pulpit to sloppy, irresponsible extremes. I always work with speakers to help them clarify their message, to respectfully ask them if parts of their message are respectful and productive (around here, it's usually some form of "I used to be a Catholic and here's why Catholicism sucks"), and to emphasize, when necessary, that the pulpit is neither podium nor soapbox. Thanks so much for this.
I should have added that your straight talk about how ministers abuse FOP* and why it should result in our dismissal when it happens warmed the cockles of my heart.
That's it for now, but I definitely have more to say about Rev. Victoria Weinstein and other U*U ministers, such as Rev. Cynthia P. Cain, Rev. Gary Kowalski, and Rev. Dr. Tim Jensen just for *starters*. . . abusing the freedom of the not so virtual pulpits of their personal blogs, as well as the fact that the UUA's department of ministry has so far proven itself to be chronically unready, obstinately unwilling, and possibly even technically unable to hold U*U ministers accountable for unbecoming conduct in the form of insulting and defamatory language, or otherwise intolerant, abusive, and unbecoming words, published on their blogs. I may add more to this blog post or start a brand spanking new Emerson Avenger blog post about these issues.
* In a follow-up comment responding to my questions Rev. Christine Robinson has made it clear that blogging by U*U ministers is not covered under Freedom of the pulpit. I none-the-less consider the blogs of U*U ministers to be a form of virtual pulpit, even if it is not their actual church pulpit, if and when they use their blog as a form of public ministry as Peacebang aka Rev. Victoria Weinstein and a good number of other U*U ministers do.
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