Unitarian Universalist Association's First "Official Apology" To Victims Of U*U Clergy Sexual Misconduct aka U*U Clergy Sex Abuse Has Been "Memory Holed" For Some Years Now. . .
But today I came across some pertinent excerpts from the "less than honest" official apology to Unitarian Universalist clergy sexual misconduct victims that UUA Executive *Vice* President Kathleen aka Kay Montgomery delivered during the 2000 General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association aka 2000 UUA GA, less than two months after I protested against Unitarian Universalist clergy abuse, and the UUA's negligent and complicit responses to clergy misconduct complaints, outside UUA HQ on 25 Beacon Street in Boston, in early May 2000, in a comment that I posted in response to a comment posted by one pbmax on this The Emerson Avenger blog post about Rev. Scott Wells' so-called 'UU clergy sexual misconduct roll call'.
I am reproducing an "annotated" version of that comment here, with some typos corrected, to ensure that at least *some* of what was stated in the UUA's first official apology to victims of Unitarian Universalist clergy sexual misconduct aka U*U clergy sex abuse is more readily available to be read by the public:
The UUA official apology is in fact made to victims of clergy sexual misconduct committed by "less than excellent" U*U clergy and negligently responded to by the UUA and its very aptly named Ministerial *Fellowship* Committee. The proactive effort for support of past victims of U*U clergy sexual that it talks about has never been lived up to from what I can see. I asked an expert in U*U clergy sexual misconduct how much actual "restorative justice" past victims of U*U clergy sexual misconduct have actually received in the near decade since that apology was delivered and they answered with one four letter word -
"None."
The document does mention the sexual misconduct that has occurred in other denominations and you might want to pay attention to the following excerpts from the UUA apology -
:The Ministerial Fellowship Committee has *struggled* with finding justice in dealing with complaints of ministerial misconduct.
(Read *failed* where it says struggled)
:The painful challenge is this: for victims/survivors, the mission of service *never* reached them; the commitment of trust and support was *elusive* and often *missing*; fulfilling our promise was a dream unfulfilled."
That was then and, from what I can tell, it is not a whole lot better now a decade later. . .
:Let me say this as simply and unequivocally as I know how: the Association has largely *failed* (see you don't even have to take my word for it. . .) the people most hurt by sexual misconduct, the victims and survivors. Other denominations have *done better*. These brave and bruised people have, more often than not I suspect, been left *lonely*, confused, afraid, angry and *betrayed*. *Un-ministered* to.
To my knowledge the UUA's "pledge" that this gap, this *failure*, will be remedied has never been lived up to.
The apology talks only about clergy sexual misconduct but I am quite sure that it is every bit as applicable to victims of diverse non-sexual forms of clergy misconduct such as myself. My own experience and observations leaves me with the distinct impression that victims of non-sexual clergy misconduct got even less justice from the UUA and MFC than victims of clergy sexual misconduct.
If you want to be pointed to a few specific cases of U*U clergy sexual misconduct I would suggest Googling Rev. Mack Mitchell for one of the most egregious ones that *some* U*Us consider to be "ancient history" and Rev. Calvin Dame for a more recent case or at least a more recently discovered case since his sexual misconduct may well have spanned a decade or two. . . Indeed the Unitarian Universalist Community of Church of Augusta Maine got hit with a bit of a double whammy in that its music director *also* was found to have committed sexual misconduct. Who knows? Maybe Rev. Calvin Dame acted in concert with the UUCC's music director. Clergy sexual misconduct exists in *all* denominations. How much paedophilia there is in the UUA is not a known quantity to me. You should probably be more concerned about a "less than excellent" U*U minister trying to have an affair with your wife than your three kids being molested.
If you want to see just how flaky U*Us can be with respect to clergy sexual misconduct do check out U*U BDSM "dom" Desmond Ravenstone's recent blog post about clergy sexual misconduct in which he tries to point the finger at Catholics while covering up and hiding egregious cases of U*U clergy sexual misconduct involving real bondage and domination in the form of the rape of teenage Tibetan refugees by Rev. Mack Mitchell. No doubt my suppressed comments responding to his demand for evidence, which Desmond Ravenstone pretends are vitriolic, hit a little too close to home for Mr. U*U BDSM. . .
I am reproducing an "annotated" version of that comment here, with some typos corrected, to ensure that at least *some* of what was stated in the UUA's first official apology to victims of Unitarian Universalist clergy sexual misconduct aka U*U clergy sex abuse is more readily available to be read by the public:
The UUA official apology is in fact made to victims of clergy sexual misconduct committed by "less than excellent" U*U clergy and negligently responded to by the UUA and its very aptly named Ministerial *Fellowship* Committee. The proactive effort for support of past victims of U*U clergy sexual that it talks about has never been lived up to from what I can see. I asked an expert in U*U clergy sexual misconduct how much actual "restorative justice" past victims of U*U clergy sexual misconduct have actually received in the near decade since that apology was delivered and they answered with one four letter word -
"None."
The document does mention the sexual misconduct that has occurred in other denominations and you might want to pay attention to the following excerpts from the UUA apology -
:The Ministerial Fellowship Committee has *struggled* with finding justice in dealing with complaints of ministerial misconduct.
(Read *failed* where it says struggled)
:The painful challenge is this: for victims/survivors, the mission of service *never* reached them; the commitment of trust and support was *elusive* and often *missing*; fulfilling our promise was a dream unfulfilled."
That was then and, from what I can tell, it is not a whole lot better now a decade later. . .
:Let me say this as simply and unequivocally as I know how: the Association has largely *failed* (see you don't even have to take my word for it. . .) the people most hurt by sexual misconduct, the victims and survivors. Other denominations have *done better*. These brave and bruised people have, more often than not I suspect, been left *lonely*, confused, afraid, angry and *betrayed*. *Un-ministered* to.
To my knowledge the UUA's "pledge" that this gap, this *failure*, will be remedied has never been lived up to.
The apology talks only about clergy sexual misconduct but I am quite sure that it is every bit as applicable to victims of diverse non-sexual forms of clergy misconduct such as myself. My own experience and observations leaves me with the distinct impression that victims of non-sexual clergy misconduct got even less justice from the UUA and MFC than victims of clergy sexual misconduct.
If you want to be pointed to a few specific cases of U*U clergy sexual misconduct I would suggest Googling Rev. Mack Mitchell for one of the most egregious ones that *some* U*Us consider to be "ancient history" and Rev. Calvin Dame for a more recent case or at least a more recently discovered case since his sexual misconduct may well have spanned a decade or two. . . Indeed the Unitarian Universalist Community of Church of Augusta Maine got hit with a bit of a double whammy in that its music director *also* was found to have committed sexual misconduct. Who knows? Maybe Rev. Calvin Dame acted in concert with the UUCC's music director. Clergy sexual misconduct exists in *all* denominations. How much paedophilia there is in the UUA is not a known quantity to me. You should probably be more concerned about a "less than excellent" U*U minister trying to have an affair with your wife than your three kids being molested.
If you want to see just how flaky U*Us can be with respect to clergy sexual misconduct do check out U*U BDSM "dom" Desmond Ravenstone's recent blog post about clergy sexual misconduct in which he tries to point the finger at Catholics while covering up and hiding egregious cases of U*U clergy sexual misconduct involving real bondage and domination in the form of the rape of teenage Tibetan refugees by Rev. Mack Mitchell. No doubt my suppressed comments responding to his demand for evidence, which Desmond Ravenstone pretends are vitriolic, hit a little too close to home for Mr. U*U BDSM. . .
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