UUMA Board Trustees And Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. - What's The Connection?
How about this "electronic communication" that I just sent to the Board of Trustees of the Unitarian Universalist Ministers' Association in response to the UUMA Board's letter of December 20, 2019, that I did not actually receive until January 13, 2020?
Monday January 20, 2020
Dear UUMA Board Trustees,
Thank you for taking the time to thank me for taking the time to communicate to you, and indeed "the world", my serious concerns regarding your problematic apology letter for clergy sexual misconduct of June 3rd, 2019. I believe that this is the first time that a group of Unitarian Universalist ministers have actually expressed appreciation for my public criticism of Unitarian Universalism's clergy abuse problem, although a few individual UUA ministers have done so privately. When I say "a few" I really mean "a few", as in 1-5.
As you know doubt know, it is Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day today. There are a number of MLK quotations that are quite applicable to your seriously flawed letter of apology for clergy sexual misconduct, and the UUMA's generations worth of "minimization" of clergy sex abuse. I invite you to refresh your memories of the words of the famously non-Unitarian Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and then engage in a free and genuinely responsible search for how their truth and meaning may be applicable to your flawed apology, as well as historic and recent UUMA and UUA (mis)handling of clergy misconduct.
https://www.brainyquote.com/
The following quote of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is particularly apropos of behaviour that the UUMA Board of Trustees has more or less acknowledged in its flawed apology, but apparently continues to engage in.
“Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?'
I and many other people who have
been mistreated by Unitarian Universalist ministers, UUA leaders, and
Unitarian Universalists more generally, are still waiting for you, and
all other UUA clergy, to say nothing of UUA leadership and Unitarian
Universalists more generally, to consistently take positions that
actually "do the right thing", and which genuinely honour and uphold
Unitarian Universalism's 'Seven Principles', and other claimed ideals,
with a high level of honesty and integrity.
I am not only saying that your actions, or more precisely your words, are not nearly enough to address the harm experienced by victims of clergy misconduct. I am saying that your "letter of apology for clergy sexual misconduct" itself is seriously flawed, both in its content and in how it was delivered, or indeed not delivered. . . to actual victims of clergy sexual misconduct who have not only been harmed by the sexual misconduct of numerous UUMA members, but who have also been revictimized and reabused by the generations worth of negligent, oppressive, and effectively complicit responses to clergy sexual misconduct complaints by the UUA, and its aptly named Ministerial *Fellowship* Committee.
Do you agree with that assessment of your apology letter?
I certainly agree with you that:
"The harm done is so great, no action and certainly no words could be adequate."
but this does not mean that no action should be taken, or that no words should be spoken, to try to ensure that victims of clergy misconduct, both sexual misconduct and non-sexual forms of clergy misconduct, are treated in a manner that genuinely honours and upholds Unitarian Universalism's 'Seven Principles', and other claimed ideals and values of Unitarian Universalism, towards the end of practicing genuine justice, and providing some tangible healing. The letter of apology that you sent out to your members in June of last year is not even close to being an adequate apology for UU clergy sexual misconduct itself, or the UUMA's decades worth of negligent and irresponsible "minimization" of clergy sexual misconduct which ensured that few, if any, victims of clergy sexual misconduct were treated in a manner that upheld UUism's "Seven Principles", or indeed the UUMA's own Guidelines and Code of Ethics etc.
As I pointed out in my two initial emails to you, after acknowledging that the UUMA has minimized clergy sexual misconduct for generations, you then went on to minimize the extent and seriousness of clergy sexual misconduct in your "letter of apology" itself. This is simply not acceptable, and this "mistake" must be responsibly acknowledged, and properly corrected, by the UUMA Board in a timely manner.
At present, the UUMA letter of apology for clergy sexual misconduct disregards and violates Unitarian Universalism's 4th Principle which calls for a "free and responsible search for truth and meaning" and, by extension, this violates UUism's 2nd Principle which calls for "justice, equity, and compassion in human relations", to say nothing of the other claimed principles of UUism. The UUA Board apology of 2014 is also seriously flawed, indeed it not only minimizes UUism's clergy sexual misconduct problem, but it contains a brazen bald faced lie about child sex abuse committed by Unitarian Universalist ministers, and that brazen lie told by UUA Moderator Jim Key on behalf of the UUA Board of Trustees has yet to be responsibly acknowledged and corrected.
See: http://emersonavenger.
I do understand that the UUMA, and indeed UUA, are somewhat limited by the nature of their association and their polity, but the UUMA Board's ostensible apology for clergy sexual misconduct is nowhere close to being adequate, and it even contains demonstrable falsehoods, some of which could be reasonably construed as being knowing and willful lies. Surely the UUMA Board of Trustees is perfectly aware that significantly more than just "a few" UUMA members are guilty of various forms of clergy sexual misconduct, and that a certain number of UUA ministers, hopefully only "a few". . . have committed what the UUA's Canadian attorney has described as "such despicable crimes as pedophilia and rape". Any apology for Unitarian Universalist clergy sexual misconduct must acknowledge these readily verifiable facts, as well as the fact that certain UUA ministers (who are presumably UUMA members) have gone to extreme and foolish lengths to try to conceal the worst forms of UU clergy sexual abuse, even after certain UUA ministers have been charged, tried, and convicted of committing such despicable crimes, to say nothing of other sex crimes such as indecent exposure and child pornography offenses etc.
Regarding the UUMA Board of Trustees being limited when it comes to resources, including your time and energy, this is largely a matter of what you as Board members choose to prioritize, particularly when it comes to your time and energy. In my opinion the UUMA Board, and the UUMA more generally, have a moral and ethical obligation to prioritize more time and energy to responsibly addressing and redressing generations worth of negligence towards, admitted minimization of, and thus complicity in clergy sexual misconduct committed by UUMA members. I certainly agree that you must also prioritize "creating structures of healthier accountability to attempt to prevent or at least decrease the amount of harm currently being done by misconductors", and I applaud you for attempting to do so, but you cannot simply promise a better future without responsibly and adequately redressing past clergy sexual misconduct, to say nothing of past non-sexual misconduct which, to my knowledge, has never been officially acknowledged and apologized for by the UUMA, UUA, or any other institution of the Unitarian Universalist religion.
I am certainly happy to see the UUMA Board finally getting around to trying to reform and improve the UUMA's seriously flawed Guidelines etc., and updating your accountability process. I brought serious flaws in the UUMA Guidelines, and the UUA's clergy misconduct accountability processes, to the attention of the UUA Board of Trustees during the April 2010 UUA Board meeting. I was promised by UUA Moderator Gini Courter that the UUA Board would follow-up with me regarding the serious concerns and constructive recommendations that I shared with them, but they did no such thing. Some of what you are addressing in your proposed improvements of the UUMA Guidelines could have been addressed almost a decade ago if I my legitimate concerns, and recommendations for reform, had not been studiously ignored, and effectively dismissed out of hand, by the UUA Board of Trustees in April 2010.
I do intend to provide you with my analysis and recommendations regarding your proposed reform of the UUMA Guidelines etc., but I expect you to respond in responsibility to the spirit of my very legitimate concerns about your seriously flawed, and thus unacceptable, apology for clergy sexual misconduct in a timely manner. I only became aware of the UUMA apology letter in November of last year. I can't imagine that other people, including certain UUMA members, did not share similar concerns with you months before I did, even soon after you emailed your letter of apology to UUMA members in early June of 2019. You would be well advised to treat most of the "suggestions" in my previous communications as quite reasonable demands, not just "suggestions" that can be disregarded, ignored, or arbitrarily dismissed.
The "independent ethics board" that you speak of is "all well and good", but there are potential problems with taking that approach. I seem to recall that the UUA hired an independent company to take in ethics complaints not so long ago, and seeing the legitimate complaints that I submitted to the UUA via that method being unjustly dismissed by this supposedly independent body.
Believe me, I am all for the establishment of clear ethical guidelines for UUA ministers, and uniform enforcement of them by the UUA and UUMA etc., but I can state from direct personal experience, and considerable observation spanning a quarter century, that UUA institutions, including the UUA's Ministerial *Fellowship* Committee etc., have historically disregarded, and even knowingly and willfully violated, existing ethical guidelines that have been in place for decades if not generations. A case in point being the false accusation of blasphemous libel that the Rev. Dr. Peter Morales led UUA brought against me on Friday June 1st of 2012, in a "less than honest" and "less than ethical" abusive misuse of Canada's archaic blasphemy law in authoritarian and oppressive UUA legal bullying that sought to intimidate me into taking down aka "memory holing" The Emerson Avenger blog posts that told the readily verifiable truth about "such despicable crimes as pedophilia and rape" committed by "certain Unitarian Universalist ministers" etc.
See: http://emersonavenger.
I am still waiting for the UUA to formally withdraw that false accusation of blasphemous libel, publicly apologize for it, and publicly disclose just how many Unitarian Universalist ministers, to say nothing of UUA Religious Educators etc., have been charged, tried, and convicted of such despicable crimes, to say nothing of other sex crimes. Perhaps the UUMA Board of Trustees could prevail upon current UUA President Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray to responsibly deal with *that* "less than ethical", "less than competent", and quite oppressive conduct on the part of Rev. Dr. Peter Morales as a UUA minister, and the UUA as an institution. Please forward this email to her, and ask her to responsibly work with me towards the goal of resolving *that* shameful UUA fiasco, as well as various other clergy misconduct matters that she must responsibly deal with if she does not wish to remain complicit in them.
I like to think of me and my alter ego The Emerson Avenger as working to establish continuing education expectations, including a regular class on healthy boundaries and power dynamics, for "less than healthy" Unitarian Universalist ministers and institutions.
Here is just one example of our continuing education program on healthy boundaries and UUA power dynamics:
https://emersonavenger.
We too are seeking to add additional opportunities for your members, or indeed UU clergy who are not members in the UUMA, to learn about trauma-informed care if they continue to behave abusively, are enablers of abusive UUA clergy, or are otherwise deserving of some trauma-informed care. This is in addition to the blog posts, Tweets, and other "electronic communications" that we already offer to current UUMA members addressing the impact of UUA clergy misconduct of all kinds.
These little Tweets of mine are just a small sampling of that education effort:
https://twitter.com/search?q=%
I propose that we work together on these and other clergy misconduct matters in the future.
Thank you for informing me that you believe that your slice of the accountability pie is fairly narrow, I am not sure that we agree on that point, but I would be quite happy to discuss this matter further with you. From my perspective, the UUMA Board of Trustees represents the Unitarian Universalist Ministers' Association, which in turn represents over 1000 Unitarian Universalist ministers, although there seem to be a few "rogue" UU ministers who are not members in the UUMA. Then again, one could say that there are a certain number of "rogue" Unitarian Universalist ministers who appear to have been UUMA members in the past, and some who still are UUMA members. I find it quite ironic how *those* misconducting ministers found a UUMA letter of apology for clergy sexual misconduct in *their* email inbox last June.
The way I see it, the vast majority of Unitarian Universalist ministers who are guilty of clergy sexual misconduct of one kind or another have been members in the UUMA, as well as the numerous other UU ministers who enabled these misconducting Unitarian Universalist ministers in various ways, were members in the Unitarian Universalist Ministers' Association, indeed some UU ministers included in both of those categories are still members in the UUMA if I am not mistaken. That is quite a large slice of the accountability pie in my opinion, although I would be the first to acknowledge that there are a few other UUA institutions that have some significant slices in the accountability pie as well.
I have been aware that the UUMA deals exclusively with colleague to colleague misconduct for some time now. I pointed out the disconnect between the UUMA (and its flawed UUMA guidelines) and the UUA's aptly named Ministerial *Fellowship* Committee during the April 2010 UUA Board meeting. Sadly, my serious concerns and constructive recommendations were willfully ignored, and the promised UUA Board follow-up to my sharing of my concerns never materialized. If the UUA Board of Trustees had actually responded in responsibility to the spirit of my concerns in 2010, to say nothing of earlier. . . many of your current proposed improvements to the UUMA Guidelines would have been implemented years ago. Presumably this problematic disconnect between the UUMA Guidelines, and the UUA's Ministerial *Fellowship* Committee, which is supposed to discipline misconducting UUA ministers, still exists, precisely because the UUMA "deals exclusively with colleague to colleague misconduct", and thus does not deal with clergy misconduct complaints brought against UUMA members by ordinary people.
Am I mistaken or misinformed about that?
I have often said that, even if the UUMA Guidelines were perfect and beyond reproach, they are effectively meaningless and unenforceable if there is no effective accountability process in place to properly enforce them. This disconnect between the UUMA Guidelines etc. and the UUA's accountability processes needs to be responsibly dealt with, and corrected, so that UUMA Guidelines can be properly and effectively enforced when a clergy misconduct victim or non-victim whistleblower files a clergy misconduct complaint against a Unitarian Universalist minister.
You wrote:
"This means that you will need to work with the UUA office of Ethics and Safety to address your experiences."
To borrow a phrase from the "less than polite" Rev. Raymond Drennan, surely "you mean":
"This means that the UUA office of Ethics and Safety will need to work with you to address your experiences."
In the wake of being falsely accused of violating Canada's blasphemy law by the Rev. Dr. Peter Morales led UUA, in highly UNethical clergy abuse cover-up legal bullying, that was quite evidently intended to conceal "such despicable crimes as pedophilia and rape" committed by "certain Unitarian Universalist ministers" from what you call "the world", and I call the general public, I made a number of phone calls to the UUA's "Office of Ethics and Safety" spread over some months, and even some years. My communications were disregarded and ignored. Neither Heather Bond, nor any other UUA employee ever responded to any of the phone messages that I left for her with the UUA staffers who answered my phone calls, or that I left on answering machines.
Perhaps the UUMA Board of Trustees could prevail upon Heather Bond, or other staff of the UUA office of Ethics and Safety (assuming that there actually are any others), to finally get around to responsibly working with me to ensure that Rev. Dr. Peter Morales, and some other "less than perfect" UUA ministers, face some long overdue accountability for their "less than ethical", to say nothing of "less than safe", behaviour towards me and other people. For the record, I have been informed by certain other people that their own complaints about certain Unitarian Universalist ministers have also been completely ignored by the UUA's Office of Ethics and Safety, which appears to be yet another "less than ethical" UUA institution itself in light of its past, and apparently ongoing. . . failure (if not refusal) to properly respond to clergy misconduct complaints.
Here's an idea. . .
In that the UUMA deals exclusively with colleague to colleague misconduct, how about if some (or even all) members of the UUMA Board of Trustees file an internal UUMA clergy misconduct complaint against Rev. Dr. Peter Morales for his UNethical and UNsafe authorization of the UUA's Canadian attorney to falsely accuse me of violating Canada's blasphemy law, in complete disregard of not only most of Unitarian Universalism's "Seven Principles", but also in complete violation of the centuries old tradition of opposing blasphemy laws that Unitarians*Universalists proudly held to until Rev. Dr. President Peter Morales, with some help from UUA Executive *Vice* President Kathleen "Kay" Montgomery, ignominiously terminated that proud Unitarian*Universalist tradition on Friday June 1st of 2012?
Perhaps the UUMA Board of Trustees can even publicly censure Rev. Dr. Peter Morales for his UNbelievably shameful, and embarrassing beyond belief, oppressive abusive misuse of Canada's now repealed blasphemy law in UNbelievably incompetent, and quite UNethical, UUA legal bullying that was quite evidently intended to conceal the worst forms of Unitarian Universalist clergy sex abuse from "the world". In falsely accusing me of the archaic criminal act of "blasphemous libel", the Rev. Peter Morales led UUA not only flagrantly violated UUism's claimed principles, traditions, and values, but it even (presumably quite inadvertently) implied that Unitarian Universalists hold "such despicable crimes as pedophilia and rape" to be sacred and holy to Unitarian Universalism, at least when such despicable crimes are committed by "certain Unitarian Universalist ministers".
Surely the Unitarian Universalist Ministers' Association would prefer that the Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray led UUA officially and publicly ceased and desisted from continuing to obstinately hold on to *that* shameful and embarrassing Unitarian Universalist theological stance that was expressed by the Unitarian Universalist Association in June of 2012, and has yet to be responsibly and publicly repudiated by the UUA, or any other Unitarian Universalist institution. In fact, I am not aware of one single UUMA minister, or UUA leader, who has ever publicly condemned and repudiated the UUA's immoral, UNethical, and borderline criminal abusive misuse of Canada's blasphemy law in clergy sex abuse cover-up legal bullying. Sadly, not even Rev. Deborah Pope-Lance, or Rev. Dr. Gail Seavey, have dared to publicly share their concerns about what Rev. Seavey has privately agreed is "outrageous", and even "insane", UUA clergy sex abuse cover-up legal bullying.
Does the UUMA Board of Trustees possess the honesty and integrity required to publicly repudiate the UUA, and to publicly censure Rev. Dr. Peter Morales and other implicated UU clergy, for this shameful episode in Unitarian*Universalist history that has yet to become "a thing of the past" thanks to the ongoing obstinate refusal of the UUA to formally withdraw its false accusation of blasphemous libel?
I am not sure how to interpret:
"We thank you in advance for respecting the limitations of our capacity and our responsibility and bringing further concerns there."
In light of the dearth of commas, it appears that you *could* be thanking me in advance "for bringing further concerns there." In any case, I will say "You're welcome", because I fully expect to be bringing further concerns to your attention over the coming weeks, months, and years. I will however keep in mind the limitations of your capacity, and your claimed-perceived limitations of responsibility, when doing so.
Obviously I agree that the trauma of clergy misconduct lingers in individuals (and not just the immediate victims-survivors of clergy misconduct) as well in "systems". Instead of passively "hoping" that I and other persons of inherent worth and dignity are getting the support and care that we need to heal in the wake of our personal experiences of clergy misconduct, may I suggest that you and the UUA, and implicated Unitarian Universalist congregations, actively DO something to ensure that ALL victims-survivors of ALL forms of clergy misconduct aka clergy abuse actually are getting the support and care that they need to heal in the wake of their "experiences"? I seem to recall that the 2nd Principle of Unitarian*Universalism calls for justice, equity, and *compassion* in human relations. . . Could you please try harder to authentically and consistently practice UUism's 2nd principle, to say nothing of the six other ones, with a high level of honesty and integrity?
It might interest you to know that one woman who read your letter responding to my two emails said in a private message that she has given me permission to share with you, and indeed "the world":
"I feel it is a blow off!
I don’t see much concern or compassion in it and, as they say, they are limited in what they can do. I don’t think there should be any limits on what they should and can do."
A 65 year old French Canadian man, who has considerable knowledge about how the Roman Catholic church deals with its clergy sexual abuse problems, wrote:
"It reads as a (form letter) addressed to victims.
It looks to me like the UU has been flooded by complaints and they took that step of looking for outside PR help."
Another woman wrote:
"well, well, well......those last few sentences are def a slap in the face......."
Do you tell victims-survivors of clergy sexual misconduct aka clergy sex abuse that you "hope" they are getting the support and care they need to heal in the wake of their personal experiences, without providing the slightest offer of any support or care towards the goal of healing from the UUMA or UUA?
Yes, once shattered, trust is indeed difficult if not impossible to repair. Sadly, Unitarian Universalists in general, and Unitarian Universalist clergy and UUA leaders in particular, have not only done little or nothing to attempt to repair and restore trust with me and other clergy misconduct complainants, or indeed non-victim whistleblowers and advocates etc., but they have repeatedly said and done things that only serve to escalate the conflict and prolong the damage done by years if not decades. . . Ultimately that oppressive and combative behaviour harms not only the direct victims of clergy abuse themselves, but the Unitarian Universalist religious community as a whole. I suggest that you start saying and doing things that genuinely serve to repair and restore the betrayed and broken trust of not only hundreds of clergy misconduct victims, but hundreds of affected UUA congregations, to say nothing of the non-UU public who are aware of UUism's clergy abuse problem. As I have already suggested, responsibly and publicly acknowledging that your letter of apology for clergy sexual misconduct of June 3rd, 2019, was*is seriously flawed, and offering a new and significantly improved public apology for UU clergy misconduct of all kinds is a necessary step towards restoring and reestablishing trust in not only me personally, but numerous other people whose trust has been shattered, and indeed betrayed, by abusive Unitarian Universalist ministers and their complicit enablers, many of whom are UUMA members, as well as "less than ethical" and demonstrably oppressive UUA institutions.
Expedient institutional apologies that contain readily provable falsehoods, if not outright lies, are absolutely not worthy of anyone's trust. You have a moral and ethical obligation to address this "mistake", properly and publicly acknowledge it, and responsibly correct it with a new and improved UUMA Board apology.
As you may have noticed, I can and do find depths of resilience and opportunities for healing in my own special way, even in the wake of indifferent, aggressive, combative, and yes. . . oppressive behaviour on the part of abusive UUA ministers, their complicit UU enablers, and negligent UUA institutions etc.
Again, instead of passively expressing "hope" that "one day" I will count myself among those people who find healing, I suggest that the UUMA Board of Trustees, and the UUMA more generally, should start saying and doing things that actively promote healing for not only me as an individual, but the numerous other people who have not only been harmed by abusive UUMA clergy, but who have been abusively revictimized by negligent and oppressive UUA institutions, and-or their own congregations, in the wake of filing a clergy misconduct complaint against a misconducting Unitarian Universalist minister. After all, it's not as if the Unitarian Universalist religious community doesn't need considerable healing from the harm that has been done to numerous UUA congregations thanks to generations worth of UUMA and UUA negligence towards, and complicity in, hundreds of cases of clergy misconduct of all kinds.
There will be little or no healing for the larger Unitarian Universalist religious community without genuine restorative justice and healing for the direct victims and "survivors" of clergy misconduct, whether that misconduct is sexual misconduct or non-sexual misconduct. There are things that the UUMA Board must say and do to promote healing via "restorative justice for all", but you are not saying enough of them or doing enough of them from what I can see so far. Au contraire, you have said things and done things that should not have been said or done. . .
These "mistakes" need to be corrected for healing to be able to happen.
Some years ago, I asked Rev. Deborah Pope-Lance how many victims of Unitarian Universalist clergy abuse had ever received the "restorative justice for all" that the UUA promised in its first official apology for clergy sexual misconduct during the 2000 UUA GA, and in subsequent UUA statements, her blunt response was a single four letter word:
"None."
I am not aware of one single victim-survivor of Unitarian Universalist clergy misconduct who has ever received any genuine and tangible "restorative justice". Perhaps there are a few, but they are awfully quiet if they actually exist, and neither I nor Rev. Pope-Lance are aware of who they are. Even if a few clergy misconduct victims-survivors have actually received a modicum of the "Restorative Justice For All" that the UUA promised almost two decades ago, the vast majority of victims-survivors have not. This broken promise needs to be responsibly lived up to by the UUA and UUMA. It is time for all members of the Unitarian Universalist Ministers' Association to start saying and doing things to ensure that all victims of all forms of UU clergy misconduct actually receive some "restorative justice for all". You can start by responsibly acting upon most if not all of the "suggestions" that I made in my previous emails.
In my experience and observation spread over a quarter century, Unitarian Universalist ministers have repeatedly "bent justice" in such away as to delay justice, obstruct justice, and outright deny justice to victims of clergy misconduct of all kinds. Unitarian Universalist ministers, including UUMA members holding top-level positions of leadership in the UUA, have repeatedly said and done "less than moral" and quite UNethical things which knowingly and willfully bend the arc of the moral universe well away from justice, not toward it. I call upon you, and all other Unitarian Universalist ministers, whether they are UUMA members or not, to make a sincere, concerted, effective and measurable effort to bend the arc of the moral universe back toward justice for all victims of all forms of Unitarian Universalist clergy misconduct in the remainder of this year, so that the UUMA, UUA, and indeed the "UU World" will not be dragging a generations old legacy of negligence towards, and complicity in, UU clergy misconduct into the 3rd decade of the 2nd millennium AD when it officially begins on January 1st of 2021.
Sincerely,
Robin Edgar aka The Emerson Avenger
Monday January 20, 2020
Dear UUMA Board Trustees,
Thank you for taking the time to thank me for taking the time to communicate to you, and indeed "the world", my serious concerns regarding your problematic apology letter for clergy sexual misconduct of June 3rd, 2019. I believe that this is the first time that a group of Unitarian Universalist ministers have actually expressed appreciation for my public criticism of Unitarian Universalism's clergy abuse problem, although a few individual UUA ministers have done so privately. When I say "a few" I really mean "a few", as in 1-5.
As you know doubt know, it is Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day today. There are a number of MLK quotations that are quite applicable to your seriously flawed letter of apology for clergy sexual misconduct, and the UUMA's generations worth of "minimization" of clergy sex abuse. I invite you to refresh your memories of the words of the famously non-Unitarian Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and then engage in a free and genuinely responsible search for how their truth and meaning may be applicable to your flawed apology, as well as historic and recent UUMA and UUA (mis)handling of clergy misconduct.
https://www.brainyquote.com/
The following quote of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is particularly apropos of behaviour that the UUMA Board of Trustees has more or less acknowledged in its flawed apology, but apparently continues to engage in.
He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it.
He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.
Here is another very pertinent MLK quotation:
“Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?'
Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?'
Vanity asks the question,
'Is it popular?'
But, conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?'
And
there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe,
nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because one's conscience
tells one that it is right.”
I and many other people who have
been mistreated by Unitarian Universalist ministers, UUA leaders, and
Unitarian Universalists more generally, are still waiting for you, and
all other UUA clergy, to say nothing of UUA leadership and Unitarian
Universalists more generally, to consistently take positions that
actually "do the right thing", and which genuinely honour and uphold
Unitarian Universalism's 'Seven Principles', and other claimed ideals,
with a high level of honesty and integrity.I am not only saying that your actions, or more precisely your words, are not nearly enough to address the harm experienced by victims of clergy misconduct. I am saying that your "letter of apology for clergy sexual misconduct" itself is seriously flawed, both in its content and in how it was delivered, or indeed not delivered. . . to actual victims of clergy sexual misconduct who have not only been harmed by the sexual misconduct of numerous UUMA members, but who have also been revictimized and reabused by the generations worth of negligent, oppressive, and effectively complicit responses to clergy sexual misconduct complaints by the UUA, and its aptly named Ministerial *Fellowship* Committee.
Do you agree with that assessment of your apology letter?
I certainly agree with you that:
"The harm done is so great, no action and certainly no words could be adequate."
but this does not mean that no action should be taken, or that no words should be spoken, to try to ensure that victims of clergy misconduct, both sexual misconduct and non-sexual forms of clergy misconduct, are treated in a manner that genuinely honours and upholds Unitarian Universalism's 'Seven Principles', and other claimed ideals and values of Unitarian Universalism, towards the end of practicing genuine justice, and providing some tangible healing. The letter of apology that you sent out to your members in June of last year is not even close to being an adequate apology for UU clergy sexual misconduct itself, or the UUMA's decades worth of negligent and irresponsible "minimization" of clergy sexual misconduct which ensured that few, if any, victims of clergy sexual misconduct were treated in a manner that upheld UUism's "Seven Principles", or indeed the UUMA's own Guidelines and Code of Ethics etc.
As I pointed out in my two initial emails to you, after acknowledging that the UUMA has minimized clergy sexual misconduct for generations, you then went on to minimize the extent and seriousness of clergy sexual misconduct in your "letter of apology" itself. This is simply not acceptable, and this "mistake" must be responsibly acknowledged, and properly corrected, by the UUMA Board in a timely manner.
At present, the UUMA letter of apology for clergy sexual misconduct disregards and violates Unitarian Universalism's 4th Principle which calls for a "free and responsible search for truth and meaning" and, by extension, this violates UUism's 2nd Principle which calls for "justice, equity, and compassion in human relations", to say nothing of the other claimed principles of UUism. The UUA Board apology of 2014 is also seriously flawed, indeed it not only minimizes UUism's clergy sexual misconduct problem, but it contains a brazen bald faced lie about child sex abuse committed by Unitarian Universalist ministers, and that brazen lie told by UUA Moderator Jim Key on behalf of the UUA Board of Trustees has yet to be responsibly acknowledged and corrected.
See: http://emersonavenger.
I do understand that the UUMA, and indeed UUA, are somewhat limited by the nature of their association and their polity, but the UUMA Board's ostensible apology for clergy sexual misconduct is nowhere close to being adequate, and it even contains demonstrable falsehoods, some of which could be reasonably construed as being knowing and willful lies. Surely the UUMA Board of Trustees is perfectly aware that significantly more than just "a few" UUMA members are guilty of various forms of clergy sexual misconduct, and that a certain number of UUA ministers, hopefully only "a few". . . have committed what the UUA's Canadian attorney has described as "such despicable crimes as pedophilia and rape". Any apology for Unitarian Universalist clergy sexual misconduct must acknowledge these readily verifiable facts, as well as the fact that certain UUA ministers (who are presumably UUMA members) have gone to extreme and foolish lengths to try to conceal the worst forms of UU clergy sexual abuse, even after certain UUA ministers have been charged, tried, and convicted of committing such despicable crimes, to say nothing of other sex crimes such as indecent exposure and child pornography offenses etc.
Regarding the UUMA Board of Trustees being limited when it comes to resources, including your time and energy, this is largely a matter of what you as Board members choose to prioritize, particularly when it comes to your time and energy. In my opinion the UUMA Board, and the UUMA more generally, have a moral and ethical obligation to prioritize more time and energy to responsibly addressing and redressing generations worth of negligence towards, admitted minimization of, and thus complicity in clergy sexual misconduct committed by UUMA members. I certainly agree that you must also prioritize "creating structures of healthier accountability to attempt to prevent or at least decrease the amount of harm currently being done by misconductors", and I applaud you for attempting to do so, but you cannot simply promise a better future without responsibly and adequately redressing past clergy sexual misconduct, to say nothing of past non-sexual misconduct which, to my knowledge, has never been officially acknowledged and apologized for by the UUMA, UUA, or any other institution of the Unitarian Universalist religion.
I am certainly happy to see the UUMA Board finally getting around to trying to reform and improve the UUMA's seriously flawed Guidelines etc., and updating your accountability process. I brought serious flaws in the UUMA Guidelines, and the UUA's clergy misconduct accountability processes, to the attention of the UUA Board of Trustees during the April 2010 UUA Board meeting. I was promised by UUA Moderator Gini Courter that the UUA Board would follow-up with me regarding the serious concerns and constructive recommendations that I shared with them, but they did no such thing. Some of what you are addressing in your proposed improvements of the UUMA Guidelines could have been addressed almost a decade ago if I my legitimate concerns, and recommendations for reform, had not been studiously ignored, and effectively dismissed out of hand, by the UUA Board of Trustees in April 2010.
I do intend to provide you with my analysis and recommendations regarding your proposed reform of the UUMA Guidelines etc., but I expect you to respond in responsibility to the spirit of my very legitimate concerns about your seriously flawed, and thus unacceptable, apology for clergy sexual misconduct in a timely manner. I only became aware of the UUMA apology letter in November of last year. I can't imagine that other people, including certain UUMA members, did not share similar concerns with you months before I did, even soon after you emailed your letter of apology to UUMA members in early June of 2019. You would be well advised to treat most of the "suggestions" in my previous communications as quite reasonable demands, not just "suggestions" that can be disregarded, ignored, or arbitrarily dismissed.
The "independent ethics board" that you speak of is "all well and good", but there are potential problems with taking that approach. I seem to recall that the UUA hired an independent company to take in ethics complaints not so long ago, and seeing the legitimate complaints that I submitted to the UUA via that method being unjustly dismissed by this supposedly independent body.
Believe me, I am all for the establishment of clear ethical guidelines for UUA ministers, and uniform enforcement of them by the UUA and UUMA etc., but I can state from direct personal experience, and considerable observation spanning a quarter century, that UUA institutions, including the UUA's Ministerial *Fellowship* Committee etc., have historically disregarded, and even knowingly and willfully violated, existing ethical guidelines that have been in place for decades if not generations. A case in point being the false accusation of blasphemous libel that the Rev. Dr. Peter Morales led UUA brought against me on Friday June 1st of 2012, in a "less than honest" and "less than ethical" abusive misuse of Canada's archaic blasphemy law in authoritarian and oppressive UUA legal bullying that sought to intimidate me into taking down aka "memory holing" The Emerson Avenger blog posts that told the readily verifiable truth about "such despicable crimes as pedophilia and rape" committed by "certain Unitarian Universalist ministers" etc.
See: http://emersonavenger.
I am still waiting for the UUA to formally withdraw that false accusation of blasphemous libel, publicly apologize for it, and publicly disclose just how many Unitarian Universalist ministers, to say nothing of UUA Religious Educators etc., have been charged, tried, and convicted of such despicable crimes, to say nothing of other sex crimes. Perhaps the UUMA Board of Trustees could prevail upon current UUA President Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray to responsibly deal with *that* "less than ethical", "less than competent", and quite oppressive conduct on the part of Rev. Dr. Peter Morales as a UUA minister, and the UUA as an institution. Please forward this email to her, and ask her to responsibly work with me towards the goal of resolving *that* shameful UUA fiasco, as well as various other clergy misconduct matters that she must responsibly deal with if she does not wish to remain complicit in them.
I like to think of me and my alter ego The Emerson Avenger as working to establish continuing education expectations, including a regular class on healthy boundaries and power dynamics, for "less than healthy" Unitarian Universalist ministers and institutions.
Here is just one example of our continuing education program on healthy boundaries and UUA power dynamics:
https://emersonavenger.
We too are seeking to add additional opportunities for your members, or indeed UU clergy who are not members in the UUMA, to learn about trauma-informed care if they continue to behave abusively, are enablers of abusive UUA clergy, or are otherwise deserving of some trauma-informed care. This is in addition to the blog posts, Tweets, and other "electronic communications" that we already offer to current UUMA members addressing the impact of UUA clergy misconduct of all kinds.
These little Tweets of mine are just a small sampling of that education effort:
https://twitter.com/search?q=%
I propose that we work together on these and other clergy misconduct matters in the future.
Thank you for informing me that you believe that your slice of the accountability pie is fairly narrow, I am not sure that we agree on that point, but I would be quite happy to discuss this matter further with you. From my perspective, the UUMA Board of Trustees represents the Unitarian Universalist Ministers' Association, which in turn represents over 1000 Unitarian Universalist ministers, although there seem to be a few "rogue" UU ministers who are not members in the UUMA. Then again, one could say that there are a certain number of "rogue" Unitarian Universalist ministers who appear to have been UUMA members in the past, and some who still are UUMA members. I find it quite ironic how *those* misconducting ministers found a UUMA letter of apology for clergy sexual misconduct in *their* email inbox last June.
The way I see it, the vast majority of Unitarian Universalist ministers who are guilty of clergy sexual misconduct of one kind or another have been members in the UUMA, as well as the numerous other UU ministers who enabled these misconducting Unitarian Universalist ministers in various ways, were members in the Unitarian Universalist Ministers' Association, indeed some UU ministers included in both of those categories are still members in the UUMA if I am not mistaken. That is quite a large slice of the accountability pie in my opinion, although I would be the first to acknowledge that there are a few other UUA institutions that have some significant slices in the accountability pie as well.
I have been aware that the UUMA deals exclusively with colleague to colleague misconduct for some time now. I pointed out the disconnect between the UUMA (and its flawed UUMA guidelines) and the UUA's aptly named Ministerial *Fellowship* Committee during the April 2010 UUA Board meeting. Sadly, my serious concerns and constructive recommendations were willfully ignored, and the promised UUA Board follow-up to my sharing of my concerns never materialized. If the UUA Board of Trustees had actually responded in responsibility to the spirit of my concerns in 2010, to say nothing of earlier. . . many of your current proposed improvements to the UUMA Guidelines would have been implemented years ago. Presumably this problematic disconnect between the UUMA Guidelines, and the UUA's Ministerial *Fellowship* Committee, which is supposed to discipline misconducting UUA ministers, still exists, precisely because the UUMA "deals exclusively with colleague to colleague misconduct", and thus does not deal with clergy misconduct complaints brought against UUMA members by ordinary people.
Am I mistaken or misinformed about that?
I have often said that, even if the UUMA Guidelines were perfect and beyond reproach, they are effectively meaningless and unenforceable if there is no effective accountability process in place to properly enforce them. This disconnect between the UUMA Guidelines etc. and the UUA's accountability processes needs to be responsibly dealt with, and corrected, so that UUMA Guidelines can be properly and effectively enforced when a clergy misconduct victim or non-victim whistleblower files a clergy misconduct complaint against a Unitarian Universalist minister.
You wrote:
"This means that you will need to work with the UUA office of Ethics and Safety to address your experiences."
To borrow a phrase from the "less than polite" Rev. Raymond Drennan, surely "you mean":
"This means that the UUA office of Ethics and Safety will need to work with you to address your experiences."
In the wake of being falsely accused of violating Canada's blasphemy law by the Rev. Dr. Peter Morales led UUA, in highly UNethical clergy abuse cover-up legal bullying, that was quite evidently intended to conceal "such despicable crimes as pedophilia and rape" committed by "certain Unitarian Universalist ministers" from what you call "the world", and I call the general public, I made a number of phone calls to the UUA's "Office of Ethics and Safety" spread over some months, and even some years. My communications were disregarded and ignored. Neither Heather Bond, nor any other UUA employee ever responded to any of the phone messages that I left for her with the UUA staffers who answered my phone calls, or that I left on answering machines.
Perhaps the UUMA Board of Trustees could prevail upon Heather Bond, or other staff of the UUA office of Ethics and Safety (assuming that there actually are any others), to finally get around to responsibly working with me to ensure that Rev. Dr. Peter Morales, and some other "less than perfect" UUA ministers, face some long overdue accountability for their "less than ethical", to say nothing of "less than safe", behaviour towards me and other people. For the record, I have been informed by certain other people that their own complaints about certain Unitarian Universalist ministers have also been completely ignored by the UUA's Office of Ethics and Safety, which appears to be yet another "less than ethical" UUA institution itself in light of its past, and apparently ongoing. . . failure (if not refusal) to properly respond to clergy misconduct complaints.
Here's an idea. . .
In that the UUMA deals exclusively with colleague to colleague misconduct, how about if some (or even all) members of the UUMA Board of Trustees file an internal UUMA clergy misconduct complaint against Rev. Dr. Peter Morales for his UNethical and UNsafe authorization of the UUA's Canadian attorney to falsely accuse me of violating Canada's blasphemy law, in complete disregard of not only most of Unitarian Universalism's "Seven Principles", but also in complete violation of the centuries old tradition of opposing blasphemy laws that Unitarians*Universalists proudly held to until Rev. Dr. President Peter Morales, with some help from UUA Executive *Vice* President Kathleen "Kay" Montgomery, ignominiously terminated that proud Unitarian*Universalist tradition on Friday June 1st of 2012?
Perhaps the UUMA Board of Trustees can even publicly censure Rev. Dr. Peter Morales for his UNbelievably shameful, and embarrassing beyond belief, oppressive abusive misuse of Canada's now repealed blasphemy law in UNbelievably incompetent, and quite UNethical, UUA legal bullying that was quite evidently intended to conceal the worst forms of Unitarian Universalist clergy sex abuse from "the world". In falsely accusing me of the archaic criminal act of "blasphemous libel", the Rev. Peter Morales led UUA not only flagrantly violated UUism's claimed principles, traditions, and values, but it even (presumably quite inadvertently) implied that Unitarian Universalists hold "such despicable crimes as pedophilia and rape" to be sacred and holy to Unitarian Universalism, at least when such despicable crimes are committed by "certain Unitarian Universalist ministers".
Surely the Unitarian Universalist Ministers' Association would prefer that the Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray led UUA officially and publicly ceased and desisted from continuing to obstinately hold on to *that* shameful and embarrassing Unitarian Universalist theological stance that was expressed by the Unitarian Universalist Association in June of 2012, and has yet to be responsibly and publicly repudiated by the UUA, or any other Unitarian Universalist institution. In fact, I am not aware of one single UUMA minister, or UUA leader, who has ever publicly condemned and repudiated the UUA's immoral, UNethical, and borderline criminal abusive misuse of Canada's blasphemy law in clergy sex abuse cover-up legal bullying. Sadly, not even Rev. Deborah Pope-Lance, or Rev. Dr. Gail Seavey, have dared to publicly share their concerns about what Rev. Seavey has privately agreed is "outrageous", and even "insane", UUA clergy sex abuse cover-up legal bullying.
Does the UUMA Board of Trustees possess the honesty and integrity required to publicly repudiate the UUA, and to publicly censure Rev. Dr. Peter Morales and other implicated UU clergy, for this shameful episode in Unitarian*Universalist history that has yet to become "a thing of the past" thanks to the ongoing obstinate refusal of the UUA to formally withdraw its false accusation of blasphemous libel?
I am not sure how to interpret:
"We thank you in advance for respecting the limitations of our capacity and our responsibility and bringing further concerns there."
In light of the dearth of commas, it appears that you *could* be thanking me in advance "for bringing further concerns there." In any case, I will say "You're welcome", because I fully expect to be bringing further concerns to your attention over the coming weeks, months, and years. I will however keep in mind the limitations of your capacity, and your claimed-perceived limitations of responsibility, when doing so.
Obviously I agree that the trauma of clergy misconduct lingers in individuals (and not just the immediate victims-survivors of clergy misconduct) as well in "systems". Instead of passively "hoping" that I and other persons of inherent worth and dignity are getting the support and care that we need to heal in the wake of our personal experiences of clergy misconduct, may I suggest that you and the UUA, and implicated Unitarian Universalist congregations, actively DO something to ensure that ALL victims-survivors of ALL forms of clergy misconduct aka clergy abuse actually are getting the support and care that they need to heal in the wake of their "experiences"? I seem to recall that the 2nd Principle of Unitarian*Universalism calls for justice, equity, and *compassion* in human relations. . . Could you please try harder to authentically and consistently practice UUism's 2nd principle, to say nothing of the six other ones, with a high level of honesty and integrity?
It might interest you to know that one woman who read your letter responding to my two emails said in a private message that she has given me permission to share with you, and indeed "the world":
"I feel it is a blow off!
I don’t see much concern or compassion in it and, as they say, they are limited in what they can do. I don’t think there should be any limits on what they should and can do."
A 65 year old French Canadian man, who has considerable knowledge about how the Roman Catholic church deals with its clergy sexual abuse problems, wrote:
"It reads as a (form letter) addressed to victims.
It looks to me like the UU has been flooded by complaints and they took that step of looking for outside PR help."
Another woman wrote:
"well, well, well......those last few sentences are def a slap in the face......."
Do you tell victims-survivors of clergy sexual misconduct aka clergy sex abuse that you "hope" they are getting the support and care they need to heal in the wake of their personal experiences, without providing the slightest offer of any support or care towards the goal of healing from the UUMA or UUA?
Yes, once shattered, trust is indeed difficult if not impossible to repair. Sadly, Unitarian Universalists in general, and Unitarian Universalist clergy and UUA leaders in particular, have not only done little or nothing to attempt to repair and restore trust with me and other clergy misconduct complainants, or indeed non-victim whistleblowers and advocates etc., but they have repeatedly said and done things that only serve to escalate the conflict and prolong the damage done by years if not decades. . . Ultimately that oppressive and combative behaviour harms not only the direct victims of clergy abuse themselves, but the Unitarian Universalist religious community as a whole. I suggest that you start saying and doing things that genuinely serve to repair and restore the betrayed and broken trust of not only hundreds of clergy misconduct victims, but hundreds of affected UUA congregations, to say nothing of the non-UU public who are aware of UUism's clergy abuse problem. As I have already suggested, responsibly and publicly acknowledging that your letter of apology for clergy sexual misconduct of June 3rd, 2019, was*is seriously flawed, and offering a new and significantly improved public apology for UU clergy misconduct of all kinds is a necessary step towards restoring and reestablishing trust in not only me personally, but numerous other people whose trust has been shattered, and indeed betrayed, by abusive Unitarian Universalist ministers and their complicit enablers, many of whom are UUMA members, as well as "less than ethical" and demonstrably oppressive UUA institutions.
Expedient institutional apologies that contain readily provable falsehoods, if not outright lies, are absolutely not worthy of anyone's trust. You have a moral and ethical obligation to address this "mistake", properly and publicly acknowledge it, and responsibly correct it with a new and improved UUMA Board apology.
As you may have noticed, I can and do find depths of resilience and opportunities for healing in my own special way, even in the wake of indifferent, aggressive, combative, and yes. . . oppressive behaviour on the part of abusive UUA ministers, their complicit UU enablers, and negligent UUA institutions etc.
Again, instead of passively expressing "hope" that "one day" I will count myself among those people who find healing, I suggest that the UUMA Board of Trustees, and the UUMA more generally, should start saying and doing things that actively promote healing for not only me as an individual, but the numerous other people who have not only been harmed by abusive UUMA clergy, but who have been abusively revictimized by negligent and oppressive UUA institutions, and-or their own congregations, in the wake of filing a clergy misconduct complaint against a misconducting Unitarian Universalist minister. After all, it's not as if the Unitarian Universalist religious community doesn't need considerable healing from the harm that has been done to numerous UUA congregations thanks to generations worth of UUMA and UUA negligence towards, and complicity in, hundreds of cases of clergy misconduct of all kinds.
There will be little or no healing for the larger Unitarian Universalist religious community without genuine restorative justice and healing for the direct victims and "survivors" of clergy misconduct, whether that misconduct is sexual misconduct or non-sexual misconduct. There are things that the UUMA Board must say and do to promote healing via "restorative justice for all", but you are not saying enough of them or doing enough of them from what I can see so far. Au contraire, you have said things and done things that should not have been said or done. . .
These "mistakes" need to be corrected for healing to be able to happen.
Some years ago, I asked Rev. Deborah Pope-Lance how many victims of Unitarian Universalist clergy abuse had ever received the "restorative justice for all" that the UUA promised in its first official apology for clergy sexual misconduct during the 2000 UUA GA, and in subsequent UUA statements, her blunt response was a single four letter word:
"None."
I am not aware of one single victim-survivor of Unitarian Universalist clergy misconduct who has ever received any genuine and tangible "restorative justice". Perhaps there are a few, but they are awfully quiet if they actually exist, and neither I nor Rev. Pope-Lance are aware of who they are. Even if a few clergy misconduct victims-survivors have actually received a modicum of the "Restorative Justice For All" that the UUA promised almost two decades ago, the vast majority of victims-survivors have not. This broken promise needs to be responsibly lived up to by the UUA and UUMA. It is time for all members of the Unitarian Universalist Ministers' Association to start saying and doing things to ensure that all victims of all forms of UU clergy misconduct actually receive some "restorative justice for all". You can start by responsibly acting upon most if not all of the "suggestions" that I made in my previous emails.
There
is more that I can say, and will say, about your initial response to my
recent communications with you, but I will say it in future
communications. I remind you that I am interested in speaking with
members of the Board of Trustees in some phone calls towards the end of
ensuring that my legitimate concerns are properly understood, openly
discussed in dialogue, and responsibly dealt with before the next meeting of the
UUMA Board of Trustees which I understand takes place between February
17-20. Hopefully, over the course of the coming weeks, we can make
significant progress which can then be addressed during the February 2020
meeting of the UUMA Board of Trustees.
You are probably well acquainted with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous words which reference the words of "Famous Unitarian" Rev. Theodore Parker:
You are probably well acquainted with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous words which reference the words of "Famous Unitarian" Rev. Theodore Parker:
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
See: https://quoteinvestigator.com/In my experience and observation spread over a quarter century, Unitarian Universalist ministers have repeatedly "bent justice" in such away as to delay justice, obstruct justice, and outright deny justice to victims of clergy misconduct of all kinds. Unitarian Universalist ministers, including UUMA members holding top-level positions of leadership in the UUA, have repeatedly said and done "less than moral" and quite UNethical things which knowingly and willfully bend the arc of the moral universe well away from justice, not toward it. I call upon you, and all other Unitarian Universalist ministers, whether they are UUMA members or not, to make a sincere, concerted, effective and measurable effort to bend the arc of the moral universe back toward justice for all victims of all forms of Unitarian Universalist clergy misconduct in the remainder of this year, so that the UUMA, UUA, and indeed the "UU World" will not be dragging a generations old legacy of negligence towards, and complicity in, UU clergy misconduct into the 3rd decade of the 2nd millennium AD when it officially begins on January 1st of 2021.
Sincerely,
Robin Edgar aka The Emerson Avenger
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