"Fuckshit" Leslie Mac is a blight on UUism. I listened to that diatribe some years ago. It is a clear example of "revenge racism". Leslie is as vile a racist as any person in the KKK.
Leslie Mac is who she is. My real quarrel is with the handful of people who wield power in the UUA and have transformed views like hers into the new gospel of UUism.
Thank you for writing this, although I'm sure it was painful to relive, since it shines a much needed light on the hatefulness of so called Anti-Racism. I've experienced shunning and sidelining in my personal and professional life (teacher) as a result of my refusal to conform, but nothing so publicly humiliating. Examples like yours work to silence dissent and maintain control. Their impulse to hurt and shame "heretics" is the root of all evil and it must be called out. Thank you again for all your work for justice and your eloquence in standing up to hate.
Thank you, Brigid. People like us need to get our stories out because a frequent reaction from our "liberal" friends is: "Yes, there is some extreme behavior, but it's rare." That's why I wanted to have this complete story on record.
Well, that Leslie Mac Facebook rant was removed from the site this morning. I saw it. It was about 10 minutes of an ad hominem attack that was full of pure hate for Mel and white men in general.
A good reminder of why I left the UUA some decades ago. This, of course, was well before the current ideological takeover, but I could sense that the "soil was fertile" for that type of thing to eventually happen. If anything, I am surprised that it didn't happen sooner. Several years later, I did return to religious faith in another denominational tradition - one which affirms the liberal religious concepts that I was seeking for, - minus the irrelevant leftist political ideology.
Thank you for writing this! I'm an agnostic and developed a serious Zen practice over the years. By all rights, at least based on what UU used to be, we should be UU. I and spouse (atheist, scientist) attended a smart UU church, with a minister who called them on their contradictions and self-deception, until that minister retired. I have tried, and tried, to return and I cannot. At least at my local UU church, the culture is still always kind of angry and mean under the surface (there has been a lot of infighting over the years, sabotaging ministers and interims since the retirement of the long term guy) but now also performatively progressive. Very proud that every month they eat at one Black-owned restaurant, for example. And that's about it, lots of aggression and one public act and then they resume complaining and infighting. The last minister told me that Thoreau and Emerson were no longer welcome reading because they were white men (sorry, I choose Thoreau and Emerson over that now-former-minister). They're also shrinking fast. The full room we saw 15-20 years ago, and enough families to have a children's program, is now sparse and aged out. While the big Episcopal Church up the road, that welcomes all but stays out of politics and divisive didaction, is bursting with familiies and LGBTQ people (who are active volunteers and donors and bring their friends and the place gets more full and more friendly and enthusiastic every month). I don't see how UU is going to survive, going this way, which is a shame (at least losing what it used to be would be a shame).
Yes, that's the shame of it. The UU ministers who knew how to meet the needs of a spiritually and ideologically diverse congregation are disappearing and being replaced with those trained in a rigid dogma based on this arbitrary thing we call race.
Mel. thanks for posting. I remember when i first viewed Leslie Mac's 18-minute vituperative rant slamming you how shocked i was at all the encouragement she got from others, with people cheerleading for her, urging her on, telling you to be quiet and "learn" from her....like telling a Jew to be quiet and learn from Goebbels, demonstrating not fairness, equity, and anti-racism, but stupidity, colossal ignorance and chutzpah, complete lack of the capacity for discernment, and a hubris beyond just about anything i've ever witnessed. I felt then that UU was headed for the shitcan. Here's Leslie calling you out for LIVING in Loudoun County - wouldn't that apply to ALL THE OTHER UUs in Loudoun County? And the idea that this phony, incompetent dunce McDonald could be Executive VP of our Association... almost literally unbelievable. It's like Trump becoming President of the U.S. Not just regrettable, but how does such a thing HAPPEN? What we've seen SINCE then, of course, has borne out ALL the disheartening predictions observers have made. But i thank you for your calm and wise reflections on all this, and wish you all the best. Your fellow '46er, Jack Reich.
I'm the friend that texted you about the missing prayer. You may remember. I'm now a lapsed UU, having been attacked once too often from pulpits and from committee tables for my privilege. Not racial, but economic.
I still am shocked that no mediating conversations took place at that time or thereafter. I'm not sure how I feel, still, about some of the controversies like the removal from fellowship of a few Ministers, and the statement of purposes and principles was something I was very critical of before the Morales controversy. It seems like the UUA did some work on itself after it's moral panic to right the ship but restorative justice ought to be part of that. Too late now for me and it seems, for you too.
I'm still a Unitarian. Give and virtually attend at Unitarian Church of Dublin. Citizen of the world, not just the diseased corners of it still struggling with the aftermath of race-based chattel slavery.
"Fuckshit" Leslie Mac is a blight on UUism. I listened to that diatribe some years ago. It is a clear example of "revenge racism". Leslie is as vile a racist as any person in the KKK.
Leslie Mac is who she is. My real quarrel is with the handful of people who wield power in the UUA and have transformed views like hers into the new gospel of UUism.
Thanks Mel for the unrestricted posting of this. MORE diaries like this are needed from those who were thrown out of UUism by racist black persons.
Thank you for writing this, although I'm sure it was painful to relive, since it shines a much needed light on the hatefulness of so called Anti-Racism. I've experienced shunning and sidelining in my personal and professional life (teacher) as a result of my refusal to conform, but nothing so publicly humiliating. Examples like yours work to silence dissent and maintain control. Their impulse to hurt and shame "heretics" is the root of all evil and it must be called out. Thank you again for all your work for justice and your eloquence in standing up to hate.
Thank you, Brigid. People like us need to get our stories out because a frequent reaction from our "liberal" friends is: "Yes, there is some extreme behavior, but it's rare." That's why I wanted to have this complete story on record.
regarding the JETPIG song;
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/20527-those-who-can-make-you-believe-absurdities-can-make-you
Well, that Leslie Mac Facebook rant was removed from the site this morning. I saw it. It was about 10 minutes of an ad hominem attack that was full of pure hate for Mel and white men in general.
Thanks for the heads-up, Mike. I've edited the post to reflect that the link no longer works.
A good reminder of why I left the UUA some decades ago. This, of course, was well before the current ideological takeover, but I could sense that the "soil was fertile" for that type of thing to eventually happen. If anything, I am surprised that it didn't happen sooner. Several years later, I did return to religious faith in another denominational tradition - one which affirms the liberal religious concepts that I was seeking for, - minus the irrelevant leftist political ideology.
I'm glad you found a spiritual home.
Thank you for writing this! I'm an agnostic and developed a serious Zen practice over the years. By all rights, at least based on what UU used to be, we should be UU. I and spouse (atheist, scientist) attended a smart UU church, with a minister who called them on their contradictions and self-deception, until that minister retired. I have tried, and tried, to return and I cannot. At least at my local UU church, the culture is still always kind of angry and mean under the surface (there has been a lot of infighting over the years, sabotaging ministers and interims since the retirement of the long term guy) but now also performatively progressive. Very proud that every month they eat at one Black-owned restaurant, for example. And that's about it, lots of aggression and one public act and then they resume complaining and infighting. The last minister told me that Thoreau and Emerson were no longer welcome reading because they were white men (sorry, I choose Thoreau and Emerson over that now-former-minister). They're also shrinking fast. The full room we saw 15-20 years ago, and enough families to have a children's program, is now sparse and aged out. While the big Episcopal Church up the road, that welcomes all but stays out of politics and divisive didaction, is bursting with familiies and LGBTQ people (who are active volunteers and donors and bring their friends and the place gets more full and more friendly and enthusiastic every month). I don't see how UU is going to survive, going this way, which is a shame (at least losing what it used to be would be a shame).
Yes, that's the shame of it. The UU ministers who knew how to meet the needs of a spiritually and ideologically diverse congregation are disappearing and being replaced with those trained in a rigid dogma based on this arbitrary thing we call race.
Mel. thanks for posting. I remember when i first viewed Leslie Mac's 18-minute vituperative rant slamming you how shocked i was at all the encouragement she got from others, with people cheerleading for her, urging her on, telling you to be quiet and "learn" from her....like telling a Jew to be quiet and learn from Goebbels, demonstrating not fairness, equity, and anti-racism, but stupidity, colossal ignorance and chutzpah, complete lack of the capacity for discernment, and a hubris beyond just about anything i've ever witnessed. I felt then that UU was headed for the shitcan. Here's Leslie calling you out for LIVING in Loudoun County - wouldn't that apply to ALL THE OTHER UUs in Loudoun County? And the idea that this phony, incompetent dunce McDonald could be Executive VP of our Association... almost literally unbelievable. It's like Trump becoming President of the U.S. Not just regrettable, but how does such a thing HAPPEN? What we've seen SINCE then, of course, has borne out ALL the disheartening predictions observers have made. But i thank you for your calm and wise reflections on all this, and wish you all the best. Your fellow '46er, Jack Reich.
I'm the friend that texted you about the missing prayer. You may remember. I'm now a lapsed UU, having been attacked once too often from pulpits and from committee tables for my privilege. Not racial, but economic.
I still am shocked that no mediating conversations took place at that time or thereafter. I'm not sure how I feel, still, about some of the controversies like the removal from fellowship of a few Ministers, and the statement of purposes and principles was something I was very critical of before the Morales controversy. It seems like the UUA did some work on itself after it's moral panic to right the ship but restorative justice ought to be part of that. Too late now for me and it seems, for you too.
I'm still a Unitarian. Give and virtually attend at Unitarian Church of Dublin. Citizen of the world, not just the diseased corners of it still struggling with the aftermath of race-based chattel slavery.