Elie Weisel And George Bernard Shaw Join The U*U Jihad Army And Speak Out Against The Inhuman And Inhumane Indifference Of The U*Us. . .
This blog post was accidentally published prematurely but it will none-the-less stay up because I fully intended to complete it and publish it later today. Consider it a work in progress for now. It began as a comment responding to David G. Markham's Morning Meditation - Love and Hate Two Sides Of The Same Coin post on his UU A Way Of Life blog.
Perhaps taking a cue from Elie Weisel and/or George Bernard Shaw psychotherapist and "unchurched" Unitarian*Universalist David G. Markham said - "What is the opposite of caring? Not caring. So the opposite of love is indifference."
Here is my response to these insightful words -
I am pretty sure that that is what George Bernard Shaw was trying to get at when he said -
"The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity."
In fact it was this well known saying of GBS, combined with the callous indifference of the Board and congregation of the Unitarian Church of Montreal, the UUA and its ever so aptly named Ministerial Fellowship Committee, and rather too many other Unitarian*Universalists to my own and other people's serious grievances that inspired me to come up with the saying -
Quite regrettably, it is all too human to be inhuman.
When I came up with this not so bon mot, some years ago now, I was thinking very much in terms of the indifference of Montreal Unitarians walking past my picket signs protesting against the anti-religious intolerance and bigotry of Rev. Ray Drennan and other self-described "Humanist" U*Us Sunday after Sunday for years without making the slightest attempt to redress my serious grievances. I was not thinking in terms of even worse forms of inhumanity but had GBS' saying very much in mind. It was only later that I discovered that Elie Weisel had been inspired to say something very similar as a result of his experiences in Nazi Germany. I believe that it is worthwhile posting some of what he has to say about the inhumanity of indifference here -
"In a way, to be indifferent to that suffering is what makes the human being inhuman. Indifference, after all, is more dangerous than anger and hatred. Anger can at times be creative. One writes a great poem, a great symphony, one does something special for the sake of humanity because one is angry at the injustice that one witnesses. But indifference is never creative. Even hatred at times may elicit a response. You fight it. You denounce it. You disarm it. Indifference elicits no response. Indifference is not a response.
Indifference is not a beginning, it is an end. And, therefore, indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor -- never his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten. The political prisoner in his cell, the hungry children, the homeless refugees -- not to respond to their plight, not to relieve their solitude by offering them a spark of hope is to exile them from human memory. And in denying their humanity we betray our own.
Indifference, then, is not only a sin, it is a punishment. And this is one of the most important lessons of this outgoing century's wide-ranging experiments in good and evil."
I wonder if the callously indifferent Unitarian*Universalists at the Unitarian Church of Montreal and 25 Beacon Street in Boston, to say nothing of elsewhere in the U*U World are proud of their inhuman(e) indifference to me and other victims of clergy misconduct and/or other U*U injustices and abuses?
Perhaps taking a cue from Elie Weisel and/or George Bernard Shaw psychotherapist and "unchurched" Unitarian*Universalist David G. Markham said - "What is the opposite of caring? Not caring. So the opposite of love is indifference."
Here is my response to these insightful words -
I am pretty sure that that is what George Bernard Shaw was trying to get at when he said -
"The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity."
In fact it was this well known saying of GBS, combined with the callous indifference of the Board and congregation of the Unitarian Church of Montreal, the UUA and its ever so aptly named Ministerial Fellowship Committee, and rather too many other Unitarian*Universalists to my own and other people's serious grievances that inspired me to come up with the saying -
Quite regrettably, it is all too human to be inhuman.
When I came up with this not so bon mot, some years ago now, I was thinking very much in terms of the indifference of Montreal Unitarians walking past my picket signs protesting against the anti-religious intolerance and bigotry of Rev. Ray Drennan and other self-described "Humanist" U*Us Sunday after Sunday for years without making the slightest attempt to redress my serious grievances. I was not thinking in terms of even worse forms of inhumanity but had GBS' saying very much in mind. It was only later that I discovered that Elie Weisel had been inspired to say something very similar as a result of his experiences in Nazi Germany. I believe that it is worthwhile posting some of what he has to say about the inhumanity of indifference here -
"In a way, to be indifferent to that suffering is what makes the human being inhuman. Indifference, after all, is more dangerous than anger and hatred. Anger can at times be creative. One writes a great poem, a great symphony, one does something special for the sake of humanity because one is angry at the injustice that one witnesses. But indifference is never creative. Even hatred at times may elicit a response. You fight it. You denounce it. You disarm it. Indifference elicits no response. Indifference is not a response.
Indifference is not a beginning, it is an end. And, therefore, indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor -- never his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten. The political prisoner in his cell, the hungry children, the homeless refugees -- not to respond to their plight, not to relieve their solitude by offering them a spark of hope is to exile them from human memory. And in denying their humanity we betray our own.
Indifference, then, is not only a sin, it is a punishment. And this is one of the most important lessons of this outgoing century's wide-ranging experiments in good and evil."
I wonder if the callously indifferent Unitarian*Universalists at the Unitarian Church of Montreal and 25 Beacon Street in Boston, to say nothing of elsewhere in the U*U World are proud of their inhuman(e) indifference to me and other victims of clergy misconduct and/or other U*U injustices and abuses?
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