Unitarian*Universalist Ministers aka U*U Clergy Have The Right To Call People Names And/Or Speak To Them With Disrespect. . . I Have It In Writing.

In a blog post entitled 'Don't call me Bitch, BOY!' U*U seminarian Lizard Eater writes about how she dealt with a potty-mouthed U*U teenager "jokingly" calling her nine year old daughter a "bitch" in church last Sunday. Here is the comment that I submitted in response to her blog posts in which LE asserts that no one has the right to call her daughter names or speak to her with disrespect. . .

"We talked about the fact that no one has the right to call her names or speak to her with disrespect."

Quite regrettably that is not really true LE. The UUA and its very aptly named Ministerial Fellowship Committee have made it abundantly clear to me that U*U ministers have the right to call me and other people names or speak to me and other people with not only considerable disrespect but outright hostility and contempt.

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In case anyone unfamiliar with this blog doubts what I said in that comment I will simply refer them to this Emerson Avenger blog post which shows that the UUA's very aptly named Ministerial Fellowship Committee, under the rather dubious leadership of former UUA Presidential candidate Rev. Diane Miller, pretended that it was "within the appropriate guidelines of ministerial leadership" for the bigoted fundamentalist atheist "Humanist" U*U minister Rev. Ray Drennan to belittle and malign my monotheistic religious beliefs as being nothing but "silliness and fantasy", contemptuously dismiss the revelatory mystical experience which informed my religious beliefs as being a "psychotic experience" and angrily insist that I seek "professional help" immediately, and put the icing on the proverbial cake by falsely and maliciously labeling Creation Day as "your cult". As if that was not enough to prove that the UUA effectively gives insulting and abusive U*U clergy the right to call people names and/or speak to people (or about people) with not only deep disrespect but outright hostility and contempt top-level UUA administrators Rev. Tracey Robinson-Harris and the current Executive Secretary of the Ministerial Fellowship Committee Rev. Beth Miller later pretended that it was acceptable for Rev. Victoria Weinstein to insult and defame people with complete impunity on her pseudonymous Peacebang blog.

Comments

Anonymous said…
WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!

What's that noise?

Oh, yeah. It's you, beating a dead horse.

You've been repeating this gripe now for how many years??

Such a pity that you're not able to let go and move on with your life.

And as for hypocrisy ... What about your use of "Reverend Stinky Vestments"? Hello, pot -- this is the kettle, and you're black!
Robin Edgar said…
WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!

What's that noise?

Oh, yeah. It's The Emerson Avenger aka The *Real* U*U Enforcer giving outrageously hypocritical U*Us a well deserved virtual*verbal "spanking". . .

:You've been repeating this gripe now for how many years??

For as many years as outrageously hypocritical U*Us have been not only been obstinately ignoring this and other legitimate gripes but going to extreme lengths to try to prevent me from sharing what UUA President Bill Sinkford once described as my "obviously deep concerns" about these and other U*U injustices, abuses and hypocrisy. You figure it out how many years that has been oh so anonymous one. If Unitarian*Universalist U*Us had responsibly redressed my legitimate and quite serious "gripes" years ago when I first aired them with some genuine justice, equity, and compassion in human relations rather than repeatedly making a total mockery of U*U principles with their grossly negligent, effectively complicit, and outright punitive responses to my "gripes" I would not feel obliged to repeat them ad nauseum for years would I? In any case there is hardly a month that goes by when stunningly hypocritical U*U don't pass me some more ammunition. . .

:Such a pity that you're not able to let go and move on with your life.

This blog is part and parcel of me getting on with my life. . . Generally speaking I do not consider it wise to "let go" of quests for justice that are denied by egregious institutional stonewalling and denial. The whole strategy and diverse tactics of institutional stonewalling and denial are to try to force victims of injustices and abuses to "let go" of their legitimate grievances, whatever they may be, without ever obtaining the slightest justice or even acknowledgment of wrongdoing. I long ago told U*Us that when I know that I am right about something, but more particularly when I know that I have been wronged in some way. . . that I do not "let go" until things have been put right. They would have been well advised to pay heed to my fair warning. . .

:And as for hypocrisy ... What about your use of "Reverend Stinky Vestments"? Hello, pot -- this is the kettle, and you're black!

Wrong. You might have done well to engage in a free and responsible search for the truth and meaning of why I decided to "namecall" Rev. Dr. Timothy W. Jensen as Rev. StinkyVestments. I did so because *he* "namecalled" me black first. Black as in a much maligned black animal that has one or two white stripes running down its back aka a skunk aka a zorillo. If Rev. Dr. Tim Jensen is rude enough, to say nothing of foolish enough, to insultingly characterize me as a "skunk" who is engaged in a "pissing match" with him he really shouldn't be all that surprised if I have a bit of fun with his insulting and defamatory language and quite appropriately describe him as Rev. StinkyVestments. Surely Rev. Tim Jensen cannot reasonably expect to get into a "pissing match with a skunk", indeed very publicly start one by insulting and defaming me on his The Eclectic Cleric blog. . . and come away from any "pissing match" with *this* alleged skunk with less than stinky vestments. N'est-ce pas Anonymous?
Anonymous said…
Well, I've had my own share of complaints about select UUs and UU institutions. I've also managed to make a positive difference, rather than ranting and raving the same thing over and over and over and over...

WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!

You say this is "getting on with your life" -- how?? How have you moved on and acheived anything positive? How is writing long, long, long screeds chock full of the same complaints and verbiage accomplishing anything? How does targeting people for verbal abuse and excusing it as "tit for tat" get anything constructive done?

WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!

If I find I can't work with a certain person or group, then I move on. I work with people with whom I can create something positive. I refrain from calling others names, even if they called me names. It's not worth the effort, because it accomplishes nothing.

And what have you accomplished? I count eight blogs connected to your profile, all repeating the same thing over and over. I read about picketing the same church over and over, writing letter after letter about the same issues and accusations over and over.

Show me one constructive change you have brought about as a result of all of this.

As far as I can see, all you've done is tick off a lot of people.

And your original proposal of interfaith celebrations? What's happened with that? Nothing, as far as I can see.

Reminds me of Santayana's observation: "Fanaticism consists in redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim."

WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!

The horse is dead. You're not accomplishing a bloody thing. And yet you cannot see it.

More's the pity.