The Salt Lake Tribune Gets A Letter To The Editor About The Hate Speech Of The U*Us And Other Forms Of U*U Intolerance And Bigotry From Your's Truly
Read it and weep U*Us. . .
Re: Changing the climate that's feeding hate crime
Saturday, June 20, 2009 9:57 PM
From: robinedgar59@yahoo.ca
To: letters@sltrib.com
Robin Edgar
XXXX St. Hubert
Montreal, Quebec
Canada H2J 2X6
Tel.: 514-XXX-XXXX or 514-XXX-XXXX
Re: Changing the climate that's feeding hate crime
By Laurel Hallman And Peter Morales
Friday June 19, 2009
Dear Editors,
UUA presidential candidates Rev. Dr. Laurel Hallman and Rev. Peter Morales apparently believe that no Unitarian*Universalist would ever commit any kind of hate crime. The closest they come to acknowledging that Unitarian*Universalists might themselves engage in hate speech or hate crime is in saying,
"We must be equally aware of its intrusion in workplaces, neighborhoods and in conversations with relatives and friends."
What about the intrusion of hate speech and other forms of intolerance and oppression within Unitarian*Universalist churches or the larger U*U religious community? Do Hallman and Morales really believe that Unitarian*Universalists are completely above intolerance and oppression and engaging in hate speech or even some forms of hate crime?
Rev. Hallman and Rev. Morales and other U*Us in positions of responsibility would be well advised to be vigilant about various kinds of intolerance, perhaps most notably anti-Christian or more broadly anti-religious intolerance as well as anti-Republican or anti-conservative intolerance, within the U*U Movement itself. Intolerant and even outright bigoted speech which promotes oppression is a cancer within the U*U Movement itself and some forms of intolerance and oppression have gone unchallenged for years if not decades. U*U clergy and UUA officials have not only maintained shameful complicit silence when U*U clergy have engaged in hate speech or various other forms of intolerance and oppression but are even on record as pretending that the intolerant and abusive hate speech of U*U clergy is "within the appropriate guidelines of ministerial leadership." Christian oriented U*U seminarians have been discouraged from becoming U*U ministers by the powers that be at the UUA, and I know of one intolerant and abusive "fundamentalist atheist" Humanist U*U minister who was put in charge of screening ministerial candidates even though he was clearly guilty of quite egregious anti-religious intolerance and bigotry.
I call upon whoever is elected as the next president of the UUA to break this shameful complicit silence and responsibly acknowledge that some Unitarian*Universalists, including some intolerant and abusive U*U clergy, are guilty of various forms of intolerance and bigotry and related discrimination, harassment, and oppression of innocent people. I demand that the UUA, and all implicated U*U congregations, should formally apologize for any intolerance and bigotry that has been perpetrated by U*U ministers and perpetuated by the complicit silence, institutional stonewalling, and victim blaming of these congregations and/or the UUA. When will the UUA finally get around to providing genuine and tangible restorative justice to any and all people who have been oppressed and otherwise harmed by intolerant and abusive U*U ministers and the U*U congregations that support them?
Robin Edgar
Re: Changing the climate that's feeding hate crime
Saturday, June 20, 2009 9:57 PM
From: robinedgar59@yahoo.ca
To: letters@sltrib.com
Robin Edgar
XXXX St. Hubert
Montreal, Quebec
Canada H2J 2X6
Tel.: 514-XXX-XXXX or 514-XXX-XXXX
Re: Changing the climate that's feeding hate crime
By Laurel Hallman And Peter Morales
Friday June 19, 2009
Dear Editors,
UUA presidential candidates Rev. Dr. Laurel Hallman and Rev. Peter Morales apparently believe that no Unitarian*Universalist would ever commit any kind of hate crime. The closest they come to acknowledging that Unitarian*Universalists might themselves engage in hate speech or hate crime is in saying,
"We must be equally aware of its intrusion in workplaces, neighborhoods and in conversations with relatives and friends."
What about the intrusion of hate speech and other forms of intolerance and oppression within Unitarian*Universalist churches or the larger U*U religious community? Do Hallman and Morales really believe that Unitarian*Universalists are completely above intolerance and oppression and engaging in hate speech or even some forms of hate crime?
Rev. Hallman and Rev. Morales and other U*Us in positions of responsibility would be well advised to be vigilant about various kinds of intolerance, perhaps most notably anti-Christian or more broadly anti-religious intolerance as well as anti-Republican or anti-conservative intolerance, within the U*U Movement itself. Intolerant and even outright bigoted speech which promotes oppression is a cancer within the U*U Movement itself and some forms of intolerance and oppression have gone unchallenged for years if not decades. U*U clergy and UUA officials have not only maintained shameful complicit silence when U*U clergy have engaged in hate speech or various other forms of intolerance and oppression but are even on record as pretending that the intolerant and abusive hate speech of U*U clergy is "within the appropriate guidelines of ministerial leadership." Christian oriented U*U seminarians have been discouraged from becoming U*U ministers by the powers that be at the UUA, and I know of one intolerant and abusive "fundamentalist atheist" Humanist U*U minister who was put in charge of screening ministerial candidates even though he was clearly guilty of quite egregious anti-religious intolerance and bigotry.
I call upon whoever is elected as the next president of the UUA to break this shameful complicit silence and responsibly acknowledge that some Unitarian*Universalists, including some intolerant and abusive U*U clergy, are guilty of various forms of intolerance and bigotry and related discrimination, harassment, and oppression of innocent people. I demand that the UUA, and all implicated U*U congregations, should formally apologize for any intolerance and bigotry that has been perpetrated by U*U ministers and perpetuated by the complicit silence, institutional stonewalling, and victim blaming of these congregations and/or the UUA. When will the UUA finally get around to providing genuine and tangible restorative justice to any and all people who have been oppressed and otherwise harmed by intolerant and abusive U*U ministers and the U*U congregations that support them?
Robin Edgar
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