MY TURN

‘Everyone Welcome’—Even Now

After a senseless act of violence in our church, we did not give in to anger. We sought a better way.

By Chris Buice | NEWSWEEK
Published Jan 10, 2009
From the magazine issue dated Jan 19, 2009

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  • Posted By: RobinEdgar @ 04/10/2009 3:39:10 PM

    Here are the final two sentences that were cut off -

    Sorry Old Boh but your insinuation here is quite typical of the kind of snide character assassination that U*Us engage in quite regularly. Thank you for showing your true colors whether you are a U*U or not. . .

    Anyone desiring more information about the Unitarian*Universalist injustices, abuses and hypocrisy that I have been protesting against for over a decade now thanks to the obstinate refusal of U*Us to redress my legitimate grievances and clean up their hypocritical act need only Google - "Robin Edgar" and Unitarians - or visit the appropriate blogs.

    http://emersonavenger.blogspot.com

    http://the-emerson-avenger-for-uua-president.blogspot.com

  • Posted By: RobinEdgar @ 02/11/2009 2:17:56 PM

    My rebuttal of sdjowers' insulting and defamatory words that equate me with Jim Adkisson -

    :The shooter's letter was released to the press today and you sound as extreme and ridiculous as he did.

    I don't think so. Nowhere close really. But I know of some U*Us who have said extreme and ridiculous things that very closely parallel, if not duplicate, some of the ridiculous and extreme things that Jim Adkisson said in his "manifesto". In fact one of the U*U injustices that I am protesting against is intolerant and abusive "Humanist" Unitarian*Universalists falsely and maliciously slandering my religious activities as a "cult". . . The anti-liberal bigot Jim Adkisson did call Unitarian*Universalism a cult in his "manifesto" didn't he? I see no difference whatsoever between that particular act of bigotry and fundamentalist atheist "Humanist" U*Us labeling an inter-religious event that I had successfully organized as a "cult" out of their deep-seated anti-religious intolerance and bigotry. Do you?

    You know what sdjowers? In spite of his obvious serious psychological problems Jim Adkisson is one up on U*Us in at least one respect. He *owned* his hate-crime which is more than can be said for many U*Us who obstinately refuse to take personal responsibility for their own "hate speech", other forms of intolerance and bigotry, or diverse other injustices and abuses. I am still waiting for outrageously hypocritical Unitarian*Univeralists aka U*Us to responsibly acknowledge the "hate speech" and/or other intolerance and bigotry, or otherwise insulting and defamatory language, that they are clearly and unequivocally guilty of. I am still waiting for the Unitarian Church of Montreal and the UUA to responsibly *own* their own shameful failure, indeed their apparent obstinate refusal. . . to provide genuine restorative justice to me and other people who are victims of U*U clergy misconduct or who have otherwise been victimized by U*Us.

    One more thing sdjowers, I believe Jim Adksisson when he says that he was subjected to hate by U*Us because he was a political conservative. I see no shortage of anti-Republican and broader anti-conservative intolerance, and even outright hated on the part of Unitarian*Universalists, to say nothing of the anti-Christian and broader anti-religious intolerance and bigotry that pervades and degrades Unitarian*Universalism. There is no excuse for what Jim Adkisson did but U*Us may well have reaped hatred that they sowed themselves in hating Jim Adkisson and other conservatives. Unitarian*Universalists can be thankful that I am far from being a "crazy" "psychotic" "nutcase" as maliciously alleged by rather too many foolish intolerant and abusive U*Us because, if I was, I might have done a Jim Adkisson by now. As it is I have been totally non-violent throughout this conflict which is more than can be said about belligerent U

    • Posted By: Old_Boh @ 03/26/2009 8:57:28 PM

      Dear RobinEdgar:
      It's very sad -- your leap from some specific incident that hurt you to therefore condemning all UUs as intolerant-- that's part of the problem.
      "By their fruits ye shall know them," said a wise man long ago -
      If you look at the overall outcomes of UU beliefs and actions, your charges of intolerance would not hold up.
      BTW< we don't regard disagreeing with someone, or criticizing Bush-Cheney (for unconstitutional acts, illegal and dishonest war, Katrina, and Economic Crash) -- as intolerant -- we regard that as democracy.
      Criticizing Republicans -- some of us do that (though Republicans are some of our most treasured members) ;
      hating Republicans - no --
      Remember Adkisson was about as pure a hater as we'll encounter in this life, so I would be wary of believing his depictions.
      Finally, if you see no difference between name-calling and shotgun blasts in a church, then we will have to worry about you -- and pray for you.

      • Posted By: RobinEdgar @ 04/10/2009 3:21:21 PM

        Dear Old Boh,

        It's very sad -- your leap from my talking about diverse Unitarian*Universalist injustices and abuses that certainly have harmed me and plenty of other people, to pretending that I am "condemning all UUs as intolerant". I am doing no such thing. Au contraire, I am usually very good at naming the names of the individual U*Us who are the main perpetrators of the injustices and abuses that I am indeed condemning, and naming and shaming those U*Us, especially U*U clergy and UUA administrators, who are most responsible for perpetuating those injustices and abuses with their negligent and effectively complicit, to say nothing of unjustly punitive. . . responses to my own and other people's legitimate complaints about them.

        :"By their fruits ye shall know them," said a wise man long ago -

        I couldn't agree more. I seem to recall Jeopardy host Alex Trebek saying something very similar to that -

        "Don't tell me what U*Us believe in.

        I'll observe how U*Us behave and I will make my own determination."

        Be assured that I am talking about some pretty strange fruits aka rather bad behaviour that U*Us, including U*U clergy and top-level UUA administrators, are directly or indirectly responsible for. Have a small sampling of U*U fruit -

        http://emersonavenger.blogspot.com/2008/10/billie-holiday-sings-strange-fruit-for.html

        http://emersonavenger.blogspot.com/2009/02/are-rev-beth-miller-and-rev-dr-tracey.html

        http://emersonavenger.blogspot.com/2008/09/rev-victoria-weinstein-aka-peacebang.html

        :If you look at the overall outcomes of UU beliefs and actions, your charges of intolerance would not hold up.

        You are badly mistaken if you really believe that. My charges of intolerance on the part of Unitarian*Universalist U*Us will certainly hold up in the court of public opinion to say nothing of a court of law. . . One of the overall outcomes of U*U intolerance is that very few people want to attend U*U "churches" these days. The anti-religious intolerance and bigotry of fundamentalist atheist "Humanist" U*Us that is still found in many U*U "churches" throughout North America, to say nothing of the anti-conservative intolerance of a great many U*Us, is one of the main reasons that Unitarian*Universalism is a "tiny, declining, fringe religion" these days. . . There are reasons for why well under 200,000 Americans have adopted Unitarian*Universalism as their chosen faith and those two forms of intolerance are major contributing factors to that fact. Indeed at least one U*U minister has publicly validated my "theory" by saying -

        "Robin's got his finger on one of our major problems."

        http://iminister.blogspot.com/2009/03/multi-cultural-uu-removing.html

        • Posted By: RobinEdgar @ 04/10/2009 3:27:06 PM

          Part 2 of my response to Old Boh -

          :BTW we don't regard disagreeing with someone, or criticizing Bush-Cheney (for unconstitutional acts, illegal and dishonest war, Katrina, and Economic Crash) -- as intolerant -- we regard that as democracy.

          So do I. That is why it is *democracy* and not "intolerant" when I disagree with Unitarian*Universalist injustices, abuses and hypocrisy such as anti-religious intolerance and bigotry, anti-conservative intolerance and bigotry, clergy misconduct of various kinds including some egregious clergy sexual misconduct, anti-democratic acts that infringe on constitutional rights and freedoms aka civil liberties, illegal (indeed criminal) behavior and dishonesty in this "war of words", Peacebang, and UUA financial shenanigans that apparently include fraudulent manipulation of charitable trusts. . .

          :Criticizing Republicans -- some of us do that (though Republicans are some of our most treasured members) ; hating Republicans - no --

          You are dead wrong Old Boh, possibly even in deep psychological denial. Some U*U criticism of Republicans, as well as some U*U criticism of Christians and/or other God believing people such as myself. . . can be very properly described as capital 'H' Hate, certainly it can be properly described as bigotry. Here is just one example -

          http://istenaldjon.blogspot.com/2008/09/omg-mean-people-do-suck.html

          :Remember Adkisson was about as pure a hater as we'll encounter in this life, so I would be wary of believing his depictions.

          I know some U*Us who could probably give Jim David Adkisson a run for his money in the hating department, even if they won't go quite so far as to express their hatred with shotgun blasts. Just because Jim David Adkisson was clearly a hater himself in no way means that he did not experience hatred from intolerant and abusive U*Us.

          :Finally, if you see no difference between name-calling and shotgun blasts in a church, then we will have to worry about you -- and pray for you.

          I do not appreciate the underlying insinuation of that comment Old Boh, especially since there is nothing in what I have said which justifies pretending that I see no difference between name-calling and shotgun blasts in a church. I have a proven track record of peaceful public protest aka non-violent direct action in my response to U*U "name-calling" aka verbally abusive insulting and defamatory language, and other even worse U*U injustices and abuses. In fact I have been subjected to what one 911 dispatcher characterized as "death threats" by a U*U, even though I did not see his threats of physical violence as "death threats" myself, and I have had a couple of Montreal Unitarian U*Us successfully prosecuted for uttering threats against me, stealing my picket signs, and physically assaulting me in the commission of that theft. Sorry Old Boh but your snide insinuation here is quite typical of the kind of character assassination aka verbal

      • Posted By: RobinEdgar @ 04/10/2009 3:21:51 PM

        Dear Old Boh,

        It's very sad -- your leap from my talking about diverse Unitarian*Universalist injustices and abuses that certainly have harmed me and plenty of other people, to pretending that I am "condemning all UUs as intolerant". I am doing no such thing. Au contraire, I am usually very good at naming the names of the individual U*Us who are the main perpetrators of the injustices and abuses that I am indeed condemning, and naming and shaming those U*Us, especially U*U clergy and UUA administrators, who are most responsible for perpetuating those injustices and abuses with their negligent and effectively complicit, to say nothing of unjustly punitive. . . responses to my own and other people's legitimate complaints about them.

        :"By their fruits ye shall know them," said a wise man long ago -

        I couldn't agree more. I seem to recall Jeopardy host Alex Trebek saying something very similar to that -

        "Don't tell me what U*Us believe in.

        I'll observe how U*Us behave and I will make my own determination."

        Be assured that I am talking about some pretty strange fruits aka rather bad behaviour that U*Us, including U*U clergy and top-level UUA administrators, are directly or indirectly responsible for. Have a small sampling of U*U fruit -

        http://emersonavenger.blogspot.com/2008/10/billie-holiday-sings-strange-fruit-for.html

        http://emersonavenger.blogspot.com/2009/02/are-rev-beth-miller-and-rev-dr-tracey.html

        http://emersonavenger.blogspot.com/2008/09/rev-victoria-weinstein-aka-peacebang.html

        :If you look at the overall outcomes of UU beliefs and actions, your charges of intolerance would not hold up.

        You are badly mistaken if you really believe that. My charges of intolerance on the part of Unitarian*Universalist U*Us will certainly hold up in the court of public opinion to say nothing of a court of law. . . One of the overall outcomes of U*U intolerance is that very few people want to attend U*U "churches" these days. The anti-religious intolerance and bigotry of fundamentalist atheist "Humanist" U*Us that is still found in many U*U "churches" throughout North America, to say nothing of the anti-conservative intolerance of a great many U*Us, is one of the main reasons that Unitarian*Universalism is a "tiny, declining, fringe religion" these days. . . There are reasons for why well under 200,000 Americans have adopted Unitarian*Universalism as their chosen faith and those two forms of intolerance are major contributing factors to that fact. Indeed at least one U*U minister has publicly validated my "theory" by saying -

        "Robin's got his finger on one of our major problems."

        http://iminister.blogspot.com/2009/03/multi-cultural-uu-removing.html

  • Posted By: RobinEdgar @ 02/11/2009 1:25:59 PM

    :RobinEdgar: There are some very intolerant and obnoxious people all over the place- in the UU church, in the Baptist church, in the Catholic church, in all political parties and in every walk of life. You count yourself amongst them, right?

    Wrong. Most people who know me know that I am one of the most tolerant people you are ever likely to meet. I tolerate a lot of things that very few people tolerate but, like everyone, I do have *some* limits to what I will tolerate and, quite regrettably, Unitarian*Universalists have repeatedly tested those very broad limits with their own intolerance and various other injustices and abuses.

    :For heavens sakes- look at all this spewing you are doing about intolerance when that is exactly what YOU are... my goodness!

    If you bother to check just what I am intolerant of it is obvious that I am intolerant of injustices, abuses and hypocrisy.

    :And do you honestly have the time to stand in front of Montreal UU to protest?

    Sure why not? It actually takes up less of my time to protest against U*U injustices, abuses and hypocrisy outside the Unitarian Church of Montreal, or indeed UUA headquarters at 25 Beacon Street in Boston on occasion, than if I was attending the service as a welcome member of this considerably less than welcoming congregation.

    :What specifically are you protesting? What specifically did they do to you?

    A fair number of things sdjowers. Save me the trouble of repeating myself for the umpteenth time and run some appropriate Google searches in a free and responsible search for the truth and meaning of my public protest against U*U injustices, abuses and hypocrisy. You can start by Googling - "Robin Edgar" and "Unitarian Church of Montreal", or "Robin Edgar" and "Ray Drennan", or "Robin Edgar" and Unitarian bigotry

    :Continue your spewing if you've nothing more important or useful to do... but you are telling everyone so much more about YOU than you are telling anyone about UU.

    You are quite mistaken about that sdjowers, I may indeed be telling a fair bit about me, such as I don't take crap from outrageously hypocritical U*Us just for starters, but I am telling everyone plenty of very real U*U injustices, abuses and hypocrisy and not just those that affect me personally by any means. Google Unitarian clergy sexual misconduct some time when you have nothing better to do.

  • Posted By: RobinEdgar @ 01/17/2009 2:56:55 PM

    :In our church, the word "liberal" is meant to describe whom we include, not whom we exclude.

    What is this U*U jargon supposed to mean? The fact of the matter is that Unitarian*Universalist "churches" knowingly and willfully exclude all kinds of people. They certainly tend to exclude Republicans and other political conservatives but some U*U "churches" exclude political liberals if they are Christian oriented or otherwise theistic.

    :The children in our congregation say these words in chapel services: "Ours is the church of the loving heart, open mind and helping hands."

    Children and adults repeat that U*U "mantra" in many if not most U*U "Welcoming Congregations", but that does not mean that many Unitarian*Universalist congregations are not in fact remarkably cold-hearted, obstinately closed minded, and anything but helping handed.

    :Our understanding of liberalism speaks to a generosity of spirit that transcends partisan politics.

    That *may*, or may not, be true of Rev. Buice's Tennessee Valley U*U church but it is far from true of most U*U "churches". The Unitarian*Universalist "religious community" is not known as "the religious arm of the Democratic Party", to say nothing of "the Church of the Far Left", for nothing. . .

    :Sadly, though, the word "liberal" has become demonized.

    Sadly, the word "liberal" has become *devalued* by the words and actions of too many self-described "liberals" and I say that as a moderate left-leaning political liberal myself. Some Unitarian*Universalist "liberals" don't seem to know the meaning of the word "liberal" judging by their far from genuinely liberal words and actions. I invite Unitarian*Universalists to look the word "liberal" up in a good dictionary and refresh their memories as they seem to have forgotten its meaning.

    :The man accused of the shootings owned books by popular media personalities who vilify liberals as evil, unpatriotic, godless and treasonous.

    Quite regrettably *some* "liberals", including U*U "liberals", say and do evil things, are questionably patriotic, and definitely are godless as in being atheists, although that should not be a crime in and of itself.

    :I think our country needs to reclaim the word from those who defame it.

    The U*U World would be very well advised to reclaim the word "liberal" from the outrageously hypocritical Totalitarian U*Unitarians who devalue and indeed defame the word "liberal" through their own illiberal words and actions.

    :Far from being evil, we liberals aspire to overcome evil with good.

    Rev. Chris Buice is badly mistaken aka naive *if* he actually believes this brazen generalization about liberals. If he doesn't really believe it then he is being disingenuous aka lying. . . There are plenty of self-described U*U "liberals" who

    • Posted By: ShanaCat @ 01/23/2009 1:48:05 PM

      Ironic you respond with the exact prejudice and hatred that this article is trying to combat.
      if you look for evil in the world, you will find it. I'm sure if we google searched any religion, or philosphy even Tibetan Buddhists, we would all find some website somewhere that lists something offensive said by a member or clergy of said religion. But just because google exists and it is possible to find the WORST examples of ANY group in existance, that doesn't mean we should use these ISOLATED incidents to judge the whole.
      Your experience with U*Us obviously is not personal, but comes from anti liberal websites which mine the internet to find these isolated incidents and try and pretend the represent the whole.

      Ironic that you respond to such a beautiful message of peace with the exact hatred, prejudice, and paranoia that the good Rev is trying to combat.

      • Posted By: sdjowers @ 02/10/2009 6:07:01 PM

        Well said, ShanaCat.

  • Posted By: sdjowers @ 02/10/2009 5:53:26 PM

    RobinEdgar: There are some very intolerant and obnoxious people all over the place- in the UU church, in the Baptist church, in the Catholic church, in all political parties and in every walk of life. You count yourself amongst them, right? For heavens sakes- look at all this spewing you are doing about intolerance when that is exactly what YOU are... my goodness! And do you honestly have the time to stand in front of Montreal UU to protest? What specifically are you protesting? What specifically did they do to you? Continue your spewing if you've nothing more important or useful to do... but you are telling everyone so much more about YOU than you are telling anyone about UU. The shooter's letter was released to the press today and you sound as extreme and ridiculous as he did.

  • Posted By: RobinEdgar @ 02/02/2009 9:36:07 PM

    :I suspect that any negative response RobinEdgar has received from UU members has more to do with RobinEdgar than with UU.

    *Suspect* all you want suspicious minded sdpowers. The fact of the matter is that there are some very intolerant and obnoxious people amongst the U*Us. I have already provided links to a few examples of U*U intolerance and bigotry of various kinds but would happily provide some more if you would like. . . You might want to Google anti-Christian Unitarians or anti-religious Unitarians just for starters.

    :RobinEdgar probably encounters disagreement, disinterest and rejection from many other people aside from UU's.

    You would be quite mistaken. I encounter very little disagreement, disinterest and rejection from other people. On the contrary many other people agree with my exposing and denouncing of U*U injustices, abuses and hypocrisy. I would say that 8 to 9 out of 10 people who register a response to my public protest in front of the Unitarian Church of Montreal express approval for it.

    :RobinEdgar and the shooter probably would have enjoyed each other's company.

    I expect not. Most ironically however the anti-Christian shooter and U*U anti-Christian bigots would have enjoyed each other's company. . .

  • Posted By: johnnynate @ 01/30/2009 10:52:08 PM

    I found this story very toughing because it expresses how i feel about the world today we all need to have compassion for one another and give love where there is hate. Or we become what we set out to defeat. But just by hearing this story my own faith was lifted. Just by hearing about the love and frendship and how it healed your hearts. AMEN

  • Posted By: sdjowers @ 01/27/2009 6:25:42 PM

    I live in the Knoxville area. I am not a member of UU but have visited this church a few times and have always come away peaceful and uplifted. This congregation endured a shocking and tragic act of ignorance and hatred at the hands of a misguided, sick man. Reverend Buice here is writing about how they are dealing with this and how they are doing now. That RobinEdgar reads this and then spends multiple hours and days constructing comments to discredit and tear down the UU church as a whole is sad. I wonder how many UU churches RobinEdgar has visited, and visited more than once? I suspect that any negative response RobinEdgar has received from UU members has more to do with RobinEdgar than with UU. RobinEdgar probably encounters disagreement, disinterest and rejection from many other people aside from UU's. RobinEdgar and the shooter probably would have enjoyed each other's company.

  • Posted By: RobinEdgar @ 01/26/2009 1:51:18 PM

    It looks like the concluding sentence of my unpublished letter to the editors of Newsweek was automatically truncated because my post went a bit over the 3000 characters limit for comment here. Here is the sentence intact -

    It is time for Rev. Chris Buice and other "like-minded" (naïve, if not outright disingenuous,) U*Us to wake up and smell the spoiled Bridgehead coffee that too many people are being served in too many U*U "churches".


    Sincerely,

    Robin Edgar

  • Posted By: RobinEdgar @ 01/26/2009 1:40:17 PM

    William, your U*U church may well be the exception that proves the rule of ever so "liberal" U*Us discriminating against political conservatives in general and Republicans in particular. My point was simply that Rev. Chris Buice's assertion that U*U "understanding of liberalism speaks to a generosity of spirit that transcends partisan politics" was quite misleading if not outright untrue aka false. Whether Rev. Buice's false and misleading claims arise out of sheer naïvety or outright disingenuous remains to be seen. . . Here is the full text of the letter to the editor that I submitted to Newsweek almost a week ago. -

    Dear Editors,

    Some of Rev. Chris Buice's claims about Unitarian*Universalism are either incredibly naïve or outright disingenuous. Unitarian*Universalist liberalism by no means transcends partisan politics in many U*U "churches". The so-called "Church of the Far Left" is not known as "the religious arm of the Democratic Party" for nothing. . . Many U*U "churches" include political liberals to the exclusion of political conservatives who are bona fide religious liberals yet find themselves "less than welcome" in many U*U "Welcoming Congregations". Even political liberals are excluded by some "Humanist" dominated U*U "churches" if they are Christian Unitarians or Universalists, or otherwise believe in God. (Some U*U "churches" can be remarkably cold-hearted, obstinately closed minded, and anything but helping handed in their human relations non-U*Us and even some U*U "church" members.)

    Sadly, the word "liberal" has become *devalued* by the words and actions of too many self-described "liberals" and I say that as both a political and religious liberal myself. Some U*U "liberals" defame the word "liberal" with their far from genuinely liberal words and actions. I invite U*Us to look the word "liberal" up in a good dictionary since they seem to have forgotten its core meanings -

    Open to new ideas for progress, tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others, broad-minded, free from bigotry.

    Unitarian*Universalists of good faith would be very well advised to reclaim the word "liberal" from the hypocritical "liberal" U*Us of bad faith who devalue, and indeed defame, the word "liberal" through their far from genuinely liberal words and actions.

    Rev. Chris Buice is naïve *if* he actually believes that liberals always "aspire to overcome evil with good". There are many U*U "liberals" who do the exact opposite, and too many sheepish and sheep-like U*Us who allow these hypocrites to "get away with murder". It is time for Rev. Chris Buice and other "like-minded" (naïve, if not outright disingenuous,) U*Us to wake up and smell the spoiled Bridgehead coffee that too many people are being

  • Posted By: Williamb3 @ 01/24/2009 3:12:51 PM

    Kudos to Rev. Buice for an outstanding article. Couldn't have said it better myself. As a member of the UU church in Springfield IL, he articulates many of the reasons I became a UU, a decision I have never regretted. As for an earlier poster's charge about the intolerance of UUs, yes, I'm sure there are many intolerant, arrogant, hypocritical ones out there, just as there are such people in the general population. It hasn't been my experience with the UUs I've known, and you might want to ask the conservative Republicans who attend my church, many of whom have been doing so for years, if they feel excluded or discriminated against. Why do they keep coming back? I'm guessing it's because they find something in it that speaks to them. If it weren't for the UUs, I almost certainly wouldn't attend any church at all. It's a church that articulates what I consider important, and Rev. Buice has demonstrated that very well here.

  • Posted By: DonGStevens @ 01/24/2009 10:36:38 AM

    So much for cutting and pasting! I had E-mailed this article to a number of friends. Being lazy, I just cut and pasted my short E-mailed intro to the piece as my comment here, but apparently my punctuation caused a problem. My comment should read: The description by Rev. Buice of the response to extreme violence by the members of his church, the people of Knoxville, TN, and the world reminded me of what Jesus told the scribe in Mark 12:28-34, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God."

  • Posted By: DonGStevens @ 01/24/2009 10:22:53 AM

    Rev. Buice???s description of the response to extreme violence by the members of his church, the people of Knoxville, TN, and the world reminded me of what Jesus told the scribe in Mark 12:28-34, ???You are not far from the Kingdom of God.???

  • Posted By: ShanaCat @ 01/23/2009 1:43:53 PM

    What a wonderful and inspiring message. Thank you, Rev. It is important to remember that when you hate someone, you give them power over you. You give up your power when you allow OTHERS to affect the way you feel emotionally and spiritually. Forgiveness is a sign of being in charge of your own emotions, hatred just the opposite.

  • Posted By: wildechild66 @ 01/19/2009 5:31:10 PM

    I offer my congratulations and support to Rev. Buice, and the exemplary aims he has for his congregation. While not a Unitarian Universalist, I respect the way they allow people with differing views on faith to worship together. A dear friend's parents went to a UU church, I recall, because she was Catholic, he was Jewish, and they wanted to be able to go to church together without conflict, and I know they appreciated the UU church for providing that place.

  • Posted By: RobinEdgar @ 01/17/2009 1:30:43 PM

    Here, verbatim, is just one example of the intolerant and abusive, insulting and defamatory language hurled at Republicans by some Unitarian*Universalist U*Us, in this case Rev. Cynthia P. Cain, minister of the Lexington KY U*U "church". Her anti-Republican aka Republicanphobic invective and vitriol may be read on her Isten Aldjon, Y'all blog here - istenaldjon.blogspot.com/2008/09/omg-mean-people-do-suck.html


    OMG! Mean people DO suck.
    And I just heard from a whole bunch of really mean people.

    Republicans.

    I can not believe that woman (yes, I said that woman) stood up there and trash-mouthed Barack Obama after he stuck up for her when people attacked her pregnant daughter.

    I can not believe they are still selling this line about keeping America safe... using fear to sell their agenda. Pretending we can go along finding more oil indefinitely. Acting as if America is so holier than thou, not just the "best" country.. but the only country.

    And Mitt Romney! Egads.. he sounded like a facist.

    Back to Sarah Palin. I would like to like something about her, but I don't. She's very, very nasty and she will be loved for it, because she is charming (in a phony way) and attractive (in a creepy beauty-queen way). I was horrified by her politics but now I am repelled by her ugly soul.

    And, most surreal of all... these people really believe they are the Christians!

    Rachel Maddow just said it... sarcasm, nasty sniping, ridicule & insult. And people will eat it up.

    That's what makes me sad. We've been down this road before. I have a queasy feeling, and I can't sleep.

  • Posted By: RobinEdgar @ 01/17/2009 1:02:21 PM

    Would that more Unitarian*Universalist people felt the same way as Rev. Buice *claims* to feel. The U*U World would be a much better place. . . Quite regrettably the Unitarian*Universalist aka U*U "liberals" that I and many other people know are anything but accepting and tolerant and merciful. Many Unitarian*Universalist U*Us are very judgmental, and thus they *are* judged and found wanting by me and many other members of the public. There are various reasons why Unitarian*Universalism is a "tiny, declining, fringe religion" today but one major reason is the anti-Christian, more broadly anti-religious, and/or anti-conservative and anti-Republican, intolerance and bigotry that is found in many U*U "churches" throughout the so-called U*U World. My own judgment of the intolerance and hypocrisy of the U*Us may be found on The Emerson Avenger blog at emersonavenger.blogspot.com but anyone can found out more about what I have said here by running appropriate Google searches. Unitarian*Universalist U*Us are not what they are cracked up to be in their "church" propaganda. . . I take note of how they are using this article to attract "new blood" aka suckers to their aging and dwindling, and highly questionable "churches".

  • Posted By: hoperich @ 01/14/2009 12:15:22 PM

    I stopped going to chuch a long time ago. If I lived in your area, yours is a chuch I would attend. Thank you for your compassion and conviction.

    • Posted By: Liz Grimes @ 01/17/2009 8:22:34 AM

      There are Unitarian Universalist Churches all across our country. You could find one close to you by checking the national website uua.org You would most likely find that church also to be open, peaceful, healing and overall a very supportive environment for spiritual growth. I have been truly inspired by the stories that have come out of the Knoxville events. The personal stories of bravery and love are wonderful.

    • Posted By: Liz Grimes @ 01/17/2009 8:14:55 AM

      There are Unitarian Universalist Churches all across our country. You could find a church in your area! I bet you would find it to also be open, loving and a haven for peace and forgiveness. I know my UU Church has been a wonderful support to me in all times of my life. Check out the national website uua.org in order to find a church near you. The response of the Knoxville church has been a true inspiration to me.

  • Posted By: William Hartung @ 01/14/2009 2:02:14 PM

    Would that more people felt the same way as Rev. Buice. The world would be a much better place.

  • Posted By: slsaenz @ 01/13/2009 4:55:40 PM

    I feel for the members of your congregation and hope and pray you will have full healing. As for the "liberal" word. I completely agree that this word is not used as intended. Liberals are accepting and tolerant and merciful- at least the ones I know - we try not to judge lest we be judged. We try to live good honest lives and feel everyone has the freedom to do the same. There is nothing wrong with that and Jesus was closer to living as such than the people who claim to hate liberals and persecute those who do not believe in their every single thought. May God bless you. Wonderful, insightful article.

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