Did The Rev. Dr. William Schulz aka Rev. Bill Schulz UUA Administration Attempt To Protect U*U Rapist Rev. Mack Wallace Mitchell From Criminal Charges

By trying to persuade the teenage Tibetan refugees who Rev. Mack Wallace Mitchell, the (former) minister of First Parish Church Unitarian of Northboro and the Unitarian Universalist Congregational Society of Westborough, Massachusetts, was convicted of raping to sign confidentiality agreements that would have silenced them, and thus would have prevented them from sharing their allegations about Rev. Mack Mitchell with the police; or anyone else for that matter? I think this is a reasonable question to ask, based upon a free and responsible search for the Truth and *meaning* of the information that is provided in the following information that was provided in a follow-up report on the Rev. Mack Mitchell case in a news report by Mary Frain headlined 'Couple quit church, cite hostility' that was published in the Telegram & Gazette of Worcester, Massachusetts on April 22nd, 1992:

(Karen) Braucher was chairman of the (Westborough) society's Board of Trustees when Mitchell, a 56-year-old Northboro resident, was arrested by Northboro police last fall. He has since been indicted on 20 counts of rape, five counts of indecent assault and battery and one count of assault and battery and is awaiting trial. Braucher resigned from her post in January.

Braucher said she and her husband were among those who asked police to investigate Mitchell's relationship with two Tibetan girls living in his home.

Church officials had sought advice and intervention by leaders of the Unitarian Universalist Association after Mary Trainor, Mitchell's colleague in the ministry, came to them in September with concerns about the propriety of Mitchell's relationship with the girls.

INVESTIGATION POSTPONED

Arrangements for a confidential investigation by the association were made and then postponed when another parishioner came forward, after speaking with the Tibetans, to report alleged criminal actions on Mitchell's part, Braucher said. The parishioners and Trainor then went to police, she said.

Braucher said the Unitarians have a long history of social action, which made the reactions of some members of the Unitarian churches in Westboro and Northboro to the news of Mitchell's arrest surprising and distressing.

The Westboro church and the First Parish Church Unitarian of Northboro had a lengthy agreement to share the cost of the minister's services.

`PRIDE THEMSELVES'

"Unitarian Universalists pride themselves on celebrating those who fight for the oppressed," Braucher said.

But Braucher said Trainor was treated as a whistle-blower for acting on her concerns about Mitchell and she became a lightning rod for the shock and anger felt by church members.

Braucher said the hostile treatment also was extended to her since she and her husband were two of four Westboro church members who went to police.

Church members who reacted with hostility missed the point, she said. "If you think there may have been a crime ... you have a moral obligation to report it. That doesn't mean you think the person is guilty," she said.

MINIMIZED ARREST

Although there were meetings to brief members on developments, there was little general discussion of the situation, she said. She believes church members denied and minimized the news of Mitchell's arrest as a way of coping with the crisis. That's unlikely to be an effective strategy in the long run, she said.

"I thought we were different and we're not," she said. Reports of ministerial sexual misconduct has been surfacing in all denominations, she said. There are lessons to be learned from the crisis but it will require open discussion.

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Clearly this version of events differs considerably from the sanitized "official story" that Unitarian Universalists like to tell about Rev. Mack Mitchell egregious "clergy sexual misconduct" against at least two teenage Tibetan refugees who he had lured away from the families in India with promises of "a better life in America." Here's the sanitized version of the Rev. Mack Mitchell case that the UU World magazine spoon fed to U*Us in UU World contributing editor Kimberly French's article in the Winter 2014 edition of UU World magazine headlined 'Reforms take aim at clergy misconduct':

"In the early ’90s, three instances of UU clergy misconduct brought national media attention. In the most shocking case, the Rev. Mack Mitchell was arrested and convicted in 1992 for raping a teenage girl he had helped to emigrate from Tibet. Mitchell lost his job and ministerial fellowship, after members of the Massachusetts congregation he served raised an alarm. He was imprisoned for three years."

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The turn of a phrase "helped to emigrate from Tibet" sure sounds a LOT better than "brought to the United States from refugee camps under the guise of a new life in America" aka lured away from the families in India with promises of "a better life in America" doesn't it? And yes, "Mitchell lost his job and ministerial fellowship, after members of the Massachusetts congregation he served raised an alarm." But this is what current President Emeritus of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, former Executive Director of Amnesty International USA, former UUA President, and apparemtly former "Human Rights Champion" Rev. Dr. William F. Schulz aka Rev. Bill Schulz might say "inaccurately" describes what *really* happened. As they say, "A half Truth is a WHOLE lie. . ."

There is ZERO mention whatsoever of ANY involvement by the Unitarian Universalist Association in the Rev. Mack Mitchell case in Kimberly French's "less than honest" #FakeNews article. Besides singing in the choir at the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Middleborough, Massachusetts, UU World contributing editor Kimberly French has also written for SalonTikkunUtne Reader, and other publications. One would think that Kimberly French is every bit as capable of engaging in a free and *responsible* search for the Truth and meaning of "the Rev. Mack Mitchell story" by freely and *responsibly* researching the "back story" in contemporaneous newspaper articles about it in online databases as Yours Truly can. No U*Us?

And U*Us will never guess who was President of the UUA back when "Church officials had sought advice and intervention by leaders of the Unitarian Universalist Association after Mary Trainor, Mitchell's colleague in the ministry, came to them in September (of 1991. . .) with concerns about the propriety of Mitchell's relationship with the girls", and "Arrangements for a confidential investigation by the association were made and then postponed when another parishioner came forward, after speaking with the Tibetans, to report alleged criminal actions on Mitchell's part."? Yes, you guessed it, Rev. Dr. William F. Schulz aka Rev. Bill Schulz.

Can U*Us guess who was Executive *Vice* President in 1992?

Yes, you guessed it. . . Kathleen "Kay" Montgomery.

So. . . These two prominent U*Us, and not doubt various other UUA leaders of the time, were in the processing of making "Arrangements for a confidential investigation by the association" when these "arrangements" were "postponed" indefinitely, indeed effectively sabotaged. . . thanks to one parishioner reporting alleged criminal actions on Rev. Mack Mitchell's part after speaking with his "alleged" victims. So, while it is indeed True that a total of four parishioners of the Unitarian Universalist Congregational Society of Westborough, Massachusetts, did in fact "do the right thing" by responsibly reporting the "alleged criminal actions on Rev. Mack Mitchell's part" to the police, the thanks they got was to be subjected to hostile (mis)treatment by their fellow parishioners. This is pretty much "par for the course" for those people who dare to "blow the whistle" on abusive UUA ministers who are guilty of clergy sexual misconduct, and*or non-sexual clergy misconduct.

But where were Rev. Dr. William F. Schulz and Kathleen "Kay" Montgomery in all this? Clearly they were numbered among those leaders of the Unitarian Universalist Association who had been attempting to make arrangements for a confidential investigation by the association, assuming they weren't the prime "movers and shakers" behind this UUA attempt to silence Rev. Mack Wallace Mitchell's victims by having them sign confidentiality agreements, which Kay Montgomery at least quite probably was. . . After all Kay Montgomery's official job description stated clearly that one of her responsibilities as Executive *Vice* President of the UUA was to coordinate the work of the UUA's legal counsel. In light of the proclivity of "retired" UUA Executive *Vice* President Kathleen "Kay" Montgomery, and former UUA President Rev. Dr. William F. Schulz, to engage in rather questionable legal bullying that quite evidently seeks to silence clergy misconduct "whistle-blowers" and clergy abuse critics, to say nothing of clergy abuse victims. . . as evidenced by the false blasphemous libel accusation that the Rev. Dr. Peter Morales UUA brought against Yours Truly in June of 2012, and former "Human Rights Champion" Rev. Bill Schulz's very recent legal bullying of Rev. Gail Seavey and the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association which "successfully" bullied the UUMA into "redacting" the official transcript of Rev. Seavey's ironically titled "If Our Secrets Define Us” Berry Street Essay, and editing the video of said Berry Street Essay aka Berry Street *Lecture*, I think that I can at least suggest the possibility that UUA President Rev. Bill Schulz, and his UUA administration's Executive *Vice* President Kathleen Montgomery, were trying to silence Rev. Mack Mitchell's teenage Tibetan refugee rape victims by attempting to "persuade" them to sign confidentiality agreements, before their efforts to make these "arrangements" were made fU*Utile aka U*Useless by four U*U parishioners doing the right thing as opposed to doing the WRONG thing. . .

Can I interest any U*Us in engaging in a free and responsible search for the Truth and meaning of these two former leaders of the Unitarian Universalist Association attempting to make arrangements for a confidential investigation by the association?Just asking. . .





Comments

Robin Edgar said…
Oops! In rereading this post today, it has come to my attention that it contains an error that I have not yet corrected.

It was Rev. David Maynard, not former UUA President Rev. Dr. Bill Schulz, who threatened Rev. Gail Seavey and the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association with legal action if the did not redact reference to him in Rev. Seacvey's 2016 Berry Street Lecture. I have corrected this mistake elsewhere, but I am correcting it here as well. Unlike the UUA, and Unitarian Universalists more generally. . . I correct my mistakes, often even before having them pointed out to me by other people.

Having said that, I stand by my assertion that the Rev. Dr. William Schulz aka Rev. Bill Schulz led UUA administration appears to have attempted to protect U*U child rapist Rev. Mack Wallace Mitchell from criminal charges arising out of his rape of teenage Tibetan refugees by trying to initiate a so-called "confidential investigation".