Rev. Daniel Harper And Unitarian Universalist Child Sex Abuse Cover-Up And Denial - What's The Connection?

Rev. Daniel Harper, the assistant minister of religious education at the Unitarian Universalist "Church" of Palo Alto, California, is one of the few Unitarian Universalist ministers who blog about sexual misconduct in the Unitarian Universalist "religion". Minutes ago I became aware of a comparatively recent blog post that I was previously UNaware of in which Rev. Dan Harper praises the Union for Reform Judaism for commissioning an outside law firm to investigate sexual misconduct in their movement’s youth programs and summer camps over the past half century, and publishing the report in its entirety, with no redactions whatsoever, on the URJ's website.

Dan Harper speaks about being "impressed that URJ has both commissioned this investigation, and that they’re being completely open and transparent about the results. Really impressed. Really, really impressed."

Clearly Rev. Harper is "less than impressed" with the Unitarian Universalist Association aka UUA when he concludes his blog post by saying:

"The UUA doesn’t have a great track record of investigating and publicly admitting the sexual misconduct that’s happened in our denomination. This is a grand opportunity for us to do the right thing. I hope our denominational leaders will follow the shining lead of the Reform Jews."

This is something of an understatement, Rev. Daniel Harper is well positioned to know that the UUA has gone to extreme and foolish lengths to try to cover-up, and even officially deny, egregious child sex abuse committed by Unitarian Universalist clergy such as Rev. Mack Wallace Mitchell, to say nothing of UUA Religious Educators such as Steven Craig Bulleit.

The UNwritten subtext of Rev. Dan Harper saying,

"This is a grand opportunity for us to do the right thing."

is that the UUA, and Unitarian Universalists more generally. . . have not yet done the right thing when it comes to the issue of sexual misconduct involving the sexual exploitation, and even egregious sexual abuse, of children by U*Us. Indeed the UUA has yet to do the right thing regarding sexual misconduct committed by UUA clergy and UUA Religious Educators in general, but I can say with some authority, even direct personal experience of Unitarian Universalist legal bullying and brazen lying. . . that the UUA, and many individual Unitarian Universalists, have done the WRONG thing on multiple occasions. . .

Rev. Harper says:

"It’s time for the Unitarian Universalist Association to commission a similar investigation into our denominational youth ministries. I was very active in denominational youth activities in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and I heard enough stories back then to make me think that an investigation would turn up more sexual misconduct than anyone would feel comfortable with"

Quelle surprise. . .

The problem is. . . the UUA has yet to deal responsibly with sexual misconduct committed by UUA clergy, and UUA Religious Educators. So, while I agree that it IS time for the Unitarian Universalist Association to commission a similar investigation into sexual misconduct in UUA youth ministries, it is ALSO time for the UUA to commission a much broader independent investigation into ALL sexual misconduct committed by UUA clergy, UUA Religious Educators, and UUA lay leaders, not just sexual misconduct in youth ministries.

Rev. Harper asks:

"If the UUA were to commission a law firm to carry out this kind of investigation, what should we look for?"

And answers:

"We should look for exactly what the URJ looked for: sexual misconduct by adults (anyone over age 18) against minors (anyone under age 18); sexual misconduct between minors; and sexual misconduct between adults at youth activities. As I look back 50 years to 1972, at a minimum the following programs should be investigated: “ConCon,” the former continental youth conference; district youth conferences; and any other programs or summer camps run by Liberal Religious Youth (LRY) or its successor Young Religious Unitarian Universalists (YRUU)."

Fair enough, but any investigation of sexual misconduct and sexual abuse in the UUA should ALSO look for what the UUA's Canadian attorney, Stikeman Elliott Barristers & Solicitors defamation lawyer Maître Marc-André Coulombe very aptly described as "such despicable crimes as pedophilia and rape" almost ten years ago now when he falsely accused me of the archaic criminal act of blasphemous libel for blogging about hebophile rapist Rev. Mack Wallace Mitchell, and Rev. Dr. Victoria Weinstein's pedophile rapist First Parish Norwell parishioner Richard "Dick" Buell.

Additionally, any investigation into sexual misconduct in The U*U Movement should ALSO look for: sexual misconduct by adult UUA clergy against other adults (anyone over age 18), There has been LOTS of adult on adult clergy sexual misconduct in The U*U Movement according to my quite reliable sources. . . like a minimum of 400 UUA congregations affected by sexual misconduct, and as much as 600+ according to Rev. Deborah Pope-Lance, Rev. Gail Seavey, and other U*Us who are "in the know" about Unitarian Universalist clergy sexual misconduct. This recently published list of UUA ministers who have been removed from fellowship in the UUA's aptly described Ministerial *Fellowship* Committee is FAR from genuine transparency. Only a small fraction of UUA ministers who were-are guilty of committing sexual misconduct of one kind or another were ever "defellowshipped" aka "disfellowshipped" by the MFC. I even invite the UUA to investigate clergy sexual misconduct between adult UUA clergy and other adult UUA clergy &or UU seminarians etc., at UUA GAs as a small subset of adult on adult clergy sexual misconduct. . .

Indeed any investigation of sexual misconduct in The U*U Movement should investigate not only the sexual misconduct itself, but the obstruction of justice for and silencing of those victims-survivors who dared to complain about sexual misconduct. There are hundreds of such people, if not some thousands. . . Any and ALL forms of institutional cover-up and denial of sexual misconduct should also be investigated.  

Getting back to the question that I posed in the title of this blog post. . . Rev. Daniel Harper And Unitarian Universalist Child Sex Abuse Cover-Up And Denial - What's The Connection?

One of the answers to that question is that Rev. Daniel Harper has known for years, indeed the better part of a decade. . . that the Unitarian Universalist Association falsely accused Yours Truly of the archaic criminal act of "blasphemous libel" in immoral, UNethical, borderline criminal, and yes. . . #BatShitCrazy UUA child sex abuse cover-up legal bullying that sought to intimidate Yours Truly into "memory holing" The Emerson Avenger blog posts that told, and still tell. . . the readily verifiable Truth about "such despicable crimes as pedophilia and rape" most certainly committed by "certain Unitarian Universalist ministers", but Rev. Daniel Harper has yet to gather up the ethical integrity and moral courage required to publicly blow the whistle on, and publicly repudiate, the UUA's utterly shameful abusive misuse of Canada's archaic, and now repealed, anti-blasphemy law that ignominiously terminated a centuries old Unitarian*Universalist tradition of opposing blasphemy laws on "Less Than Good" Friday June 1st, 2012.

And. . .

Rev. Daniel Harper has ALSO known for years, indeed the better part of eight years. . . that UUA Moderator Jim Key aka *Certified* Risk Management consultant James "See NO evil" Key not only minimized the extent and seriousness of Unitarian Universalist clergy sexual misconduct in general, but brazenly lied about "such despicable crimes as pedophilia and rape" committed by "certain Unitarian Universalist ministers" in saying, "there were no incidents of abuse of children or elders" in what was billed as a UUA Board of Trustees "official apology" for clergy sexual misconduct that Jim Key inappropriately inserted into the middle of his first Moderator's Report to a UUA GA in late June 2014.

If it's any consolation to him. . . Rev. Deborah Pope-Lance, Rev. Gail Seavey, Rev. Debra Haffner, Rev. Jason Shelton, and other UUA ministers who set themselves up as advocates for victims of clergy sexual misconduct are just as guilty of complicit silence about these UNethical attempts to cover-up and deny child sex abuse committed by UUA clergy as Rev. Dan Harper is.

And so it goes U*Us. . .