Sunday, November 05, 2006

With profound regret...

I'm enabling moderation of comments.

Robyn Edgars has chosen to spam this blog, as with so many others, with off-topic remarks which revolve entirely around his bone-bruised ego and a run-in with a number of UUs years ago.

When I can figure out how to filter just his comments, I'll do so. And as long as they're on-topic, and not part of his dog-returning-to-its-vomit routine, I won't filter out those.

Censorship!, I'm sure Robyn will cry. But this isn't a public place. This is my semi-public, private space, and people who misbehave get chastised for it. I don't let guests come and insult me in my home--and if they do, I'm more than willing to show them the door and invite them not to return.

Robyn can have his own blog and complain all he wants to all who want to come listen there.

At this point, he's so abused the patience of a number of bloggers that I have trouble mustering up concern about his complaints.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi,
I'm "anonymous" from the UCM, I would like to post the following, as I have elsewhere, so that others can know our side on this continuing saga. If you feel this inapropriate please feel free to moderate and remove it.

The withdrawal of Mr. Edgar’s membership from the Unitarian Church of Montreal was not motivated by his religious beliefs, but by his disruptive and aggressive behaviour towards the members of this congregation. His inappropriate behaviour has continued for more than ten years. Seven years ago he was brought before a Disruptive Behaviour Committee on several occasions, where over the next three years attempts were made to have him moderate his unacceptable behaviours. He would agree to proposed solutions and then go on as before. He was repeatedly warned that failure to comply with what he had agreed to do would result in serious consequences. Over this period, he was suspended from participation in Church life for six months. Unfortunately, upon his return his behaviour worsene , and he was suspended for an additional year. Again when he returned, his inappropriate behaviour continued. Finally in November 1999, at a meeting of the full congregation, during which he spoke on his own behalf, a congregational vote was taken and his membership was revoked. This decade long process, during which sincere attempts were made by the congregation to negotiate a solution, ended when it became clear that he had no intention of ceasing his disruptive and aggressive behaviours. It should be noted that Reverend Ray Drennan did apologise, in person, on more than one occasion. However, this did not meet with Mr Edgar’s satisfaction. Mr. Edgar has redressed his grievances to whomever he has saw fit, be it the UUA, CUC, etc., and his complaint to the Quebec Human Rights Commission in 2002 was summarily dismissed as being without merit. Mr Edgar continues to picket the church in the futile belief that the Church will act. Reverend Drennan is no longer the minister as he left at the end of August 2005, to follow his own life’s journey; and the church has simply moved on.

Here are my personal comments.

I am “Anonymous”. I am a member of the UCM and I shall remain anonymous as I have myself and my family to PROTECT. Robin has been verbally abusive over the years with a number of members as they have entered the church on Sunday, myself included, and there was a chair throwing incident while he was a member that scared the staff, who demanded that something be done. I was in church one Sunday when, during “Cares and Concerns” Robin got up and publicly harangued Minister Drennan before the congregation for how he felt he had been wronged.

. My reaction, how socially inept your behaviour was, especially as Reverend Drennan had already apologised, but you never came forward later and apologized for your behaviour. How many times were you asked to stop “harassing” members with your handouts complaining about your situation and our church’s refusal to continue to support your “Creation Day”; and of course how badly Reverend Drennan had treated you? What you wanted was his head “on a plate.” You promised to stop handing out your letters and then just started up again. One of them was 23 pages long! You were asked to stop using church stationary to promote your “Creation Day” and were really upset when office privileges were finally denied you.

How many times have you sent unsolicited emails of your complaints, to members, who are in no way interested in having anything further to do with you, myself included?

If you read the post I have added to many of Robin’s blogs etc., you will see that the UCM made every effort to accommodate Robin, but he convinced us by his behaviours that he was ONLY interested in what he WANTED, and “BE DAMNED THE REST OF YOU.” If anything YOU took advantage of our being tolerant, to a fault. If you had behaved in another church as you did in ours, you would have been told to leave and not come back long before we voted to revoke your membership.

I was present as this drama unfolded over several years until finally the congregation decided to revoke your membership. And there was much debate and discussion before members made that decision. In the 164 year history of the UCM, never has a membership been revoked before yours, nor has it happened since! I wonder why? Could it be that Robin did enough unacceptable things, often enough, that finally, the only avenue left to the church, was to remove Robin?

Go through what Robin has written about us wherever it has been written, it’s always negative and/or insulting. Robin resorts to name-calling, he has defamed several of our members (we have a legal opinion to that effect). Look at the pictures he so proudly posts, and his sidewalk writing, it’s always NEGATIVE. Why would our church even contemplate talking to someone who has done nothing but “dump” on us, add infinitem.

His efforts to drag the UCM before the Quebec Human Rights Commission were summarily dismissed as being without merit, and of course Robin denigrated the Commission’s decision. There is a pattern throughout this saga from its very beginning until today, “Everybody is out of step but Robin.” He is always right and EVERYONE, without exception, is wrong. The UCM, the CUC, the UUA, and their leadership, and the Quebec Human Rights Commission, you name them, they are wrong.

We have “walked the walk with you” Robin and NEVER will we (the UCM) entertain the idea of even talking to you ever again. We want absolutely nothing to do with you. You have so turned us off that I, for one, would leave the church should the idea of entering into a dialogue with you even be raised. Continue to picket, and picket, and picket until you are either too old and/or too infirm; for as far as I am concerned, the UCM should divest itself of its assets and surrender its charter and disband the membership before YOU cross our threshold again.
You are so obsessed with your being right and always right, that your blinkers preclude anyone else even having a modicum of sense or reason to support their point of view.

I know that if you were to rejoin us that soon we would be right back where we were before your membership was revoked. We would be expected to support your “Creation Day”, providing manpower, and space, and office supplies, etc.; and then someone would wrong you and you would go after them and there would be letters of complaint, and meetings, and discussions, and more meetings, and more discussions, and more letters from you, and more discussions, etc., etc., etc.

We have moved on Robin, you should do so as well.

Anonymous said...

I am so glad to finally hear someone give the other side of the story, since I have only heard Robin's. I started out being sympathetic to him, but he bit me back.
I hope this ends the whole thing.