All Saints Day As Observed Or Indeed Celebrated In The Emerson Avenger's Religious Calendar. . .
As I mentioned in a comment on Rev. Kit Ketcham's slightly premature blog post about All Souls' Day earlier today, All Saints' Day has a special place in The Emerson Avenger's "religious calendar", if only because it is the day that was finally chosen as the first actual trial date when I defended myself against the trumped up criminal charges of disrupting a religious service (i.e. Section 176.3 of the Canadian Criminal Code) that the DIM Thinking leaders of the so-called Unitarian Church of Montreal had me falsely arrested on in December 2000 in yet another deeply misguided, to say nothing of outrageously hypocritical. . . effort to over-ride and/or abrogate my Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guaranteed right to engage in peaceful public protest against U*U injustices, abuses, and hypocrisy in front of this alleged Unitarian "church".
To observe*celebrate this auspicious occasion I will re*post this old post from the CFUU forum which describes in some detail the events leading up to the eight month delay in the trial date which had originally been scheduled for February 21st, 2002 -
: Last Sunday as I was engaging in my "alternative spiritual practice" of protesting against the demeaning and abusive labeling of my religious activities as a "manipulative and secretive" CULT by Rev. Ray Drennan and other leading members of the Unitarian "Church" of Montreal (to say nothing of other demeaning and abusive behavior by these and other UUs) I was approached by John Inder the Past President of the Unitarian "Church" of Montreal. It seemed that he wanted to gloat over the fact that my trial on "public nuisance" charges was upcoming on the 21st of this month. During our conversation he repeatedly referred to Creation Day and my other religious activities and/or beliefs as a "cult" and "cult-like", he also referred to me as a "nutcase protestor" and a "nacissistic" (sic) one at that... This was the first time that he had actually used the "C" word openly although in the past he had indirectly insinuated these things. Needless to say when I asked him to explain to me just how Creation Day and/or my other religious activities were a "cult" or even "cult-like" he in typical UU fashion said that this was his "opinion" and that he was not required to back up his "opinion" with facts... I said that as long as he and other UUs insisted on labeling my religious activities as a "cult" I would be obliged to continue picketing the Unitarian "Church" of Montreal with a sign saying CULT IS A FOUR LETTER WORD... No doubt he was baiting me and just waiting for me to say this and he immediately responded that in his "opinion" I would not be picketing the UCM for much longer. I replied by saying don't be so sure about that...
As it turns out I received a subpoena in my mailbox on Tuesday morning. I thought that it was most probably a reminder of the February 21st trial. On opening it however it turned out to be a subpoena asking me to come to court this morning because one of the UCM's witnesses against me had asked for a postponement of the trial because it conflicted with surgery that he had to undergo.
I showed up at the Montreal court house at 9 am this morning as the subpoena had suggested and noted that my name was the very last name on the long list of people to be processed. It was 11:30 by the time I was finally called up but I spent the time productively by going over all the evidence that I will present to defend myself and by rereading the charges and UU "evidence" against me. I found that there were some problems with the UU "evidence" and was able to sort them out by having a nice chat with the court official representing the "crown" when the judge took a twenty minute break. When asked if I had any objections to the postponement of the trial I needless to say replied that I had no objections at all. I noted that since the reason for postponement was surgery that it might be wise to set a date a few weeks or even a few months later. The judge agreed of course and suggested May 24th as a possible date saying that otherwise my trial for being an alleged "public nuisance" would have to be put off until November... The police officer checked the prosecution's schedule in his laptop computer and indicated that May 24th was not convenient so the judge rescheduled the trial for November 1st. When the judge asked me if I had any objections to this new court date I said not at all and even noted that it was a very propitious date, All Saints Day, which prompted a smile from at least one or two court officials.
When I think back to all the deliberate stalling and institutional denial and stonewalling that I have had to put up with from UUs who repeatedly refused to responsibly address my legitimate grievances I can't help but think that this significant delay in the trial date is a form of divine justice that they thoroughly deserve. I guess that I will be picketing them for several more months unless they come to their senses and offer to negotiate a settlement of this dispute that actually lives up to UU "covenants" to affirm and promote justice, equity and compassion in human relations. BTW The Quebec Civil Liberties Union seems to finally be taking and interest in this case. Things could get quite interesting between now and All Souls' Day...
end quote
So here we are on All Saints' Day November 1st 2009 and very little has changed.
All Souls' Day could still be interesting though...
I might well dedicate All U*U Souls' Day to blogging about some of the ass*inine U*U Souls I have had the displeasure of dealing with throughout The War of the U*U World.
I dare say that it was quite prophetic of me to tell Montreal Unitarian U*U Soul John Inder that he should not be so sure that I would not be protesting in front of the Unitarian Church of Montreal for much longer way back in February of 2002. . .
No U*Us?
Chances are pretty good that I will still be protesting in front of the Unitarian Church of Montreal in February of 2010 with picket signs saying CULT IS A FOUR LETTER WORD and UNSAFE SECT? etc. etc. unless certain U*U Souls in Montreal and Boston finally get around to pulling their DIM Thinking heads out of their U*Us and *finally* take steps towards responsibly settling this ludicrously drawn out war of words in a manner that actually honors and upholds the Seven Principles of Unitarian*Universalism and other claimed U*U ideals.
To observe*celebrate this auspicious occasion I will re*post this old post from the CFUU forum which describes in some detail the events leading up to the eight month delay in the trial date which had originally been scheduled for February 21st, 2002 -
: Last Sunday as I was engaging in my "alternative spiritual practice" of protesting against the demeaning and abusive labeling of my religious activities as a "manipulative and secretive" CULT by Rev. Ray Drennan and other leading members of the Unitarian "Church" of Montreal (to say nothing of other demeaning and abusive behavior by these and other UUs) I was approached by John Inder the Past President of the Unitarian "Church" of Montreal. It seemed that he wanted to gloat over the fact that my trial on "public nuisance" charges was upcoming on the 21st of this month. During our conversation he repeatedly referred to Creation Day and my other religious activities and/or beliefs as a "cult" and "cult-like", he also referred to me as a "nutcase protestor" and a "nacissistic" (sic) one at that... This was the first time that he had actually used the "C" word openly although in the past he had indirectly insinuated these things. Needless to say when I asked him to explain to me just how Creation Day and/or my other religious activities were a "cult" or even "cult-like" he in typical UU fashion said that this was his "opinion" and that he was not required to back up his "opinion" with facts... I said that as long as he and other UUs insisted on labeling my religious activities as a "cult" I would be obliged to continue picketing the Unitarian "Church" of Montreal with a sign saying CULT IS A FOUR LETTER WORD... No doubt he was baiting me and just waiting for me to say this and he immediately responded that in his "opinion" I would not be picketing the UCM for much longer. I replied by saying don't be so sure about that...
As it turns out I received a subpoena in my mailbox on Tuesday morning. I thought that it was most probably a reminder of the February 21st trial. On opening it however it turned out to be a subpoena asking me to come to court this morning because one of the UCM's witnesses against me had asked for a postponement of the trial because it conflicted with surgery that he had to undergo.
I showed up at the Montreal court house at 9 am this morning as the subpoena had suggested and noted that my name was the very last name on the long list of people to be processed. It was 11:30 by the time I was finally called up but I spent the time productively by going over all the evidence that I will present to defend myself and by rereading the charges and UU "evidence" against me. I found that there were some problems with the UU "evidence" and was able to sort them out by having a nice chat with the court official representing the "crown" when the judge took a twenty minute break. When asked if I had any objections to the postponement of the trial I needless to say replied that I had no objections at all. I noted that since the reason for postponement was surgery that it might be wise to set a date a few weeks or even a few months later. The judge agreed of course and suggested May 24th as a possible date saying that otherwise my trial for being an alleged "public nuisance" would have to be put off until November... The police officer checked the prosecution's schedule in his laptop computer and indicated that May 24th was not convenient so the judge rescheduled the trial for November 1st. When the judge asked me if I had any objections to this new court date I said not at all and even noted that it was a very propitious date, All Saints Day, which prompted a smile from at least one or two court officials.
When I think back to all the deliberate stalling and institutional denial and stonewalling that I have had to put up with from UUs who repeatedly refused to responsibly address my legitimate grievances I can't help but think that this significant delay in the trial date is a form of divine justice that they thoroughly deserve. I guess that I will be picketing them for several more months unless they come to their senses and offer to negotiate a settlement of this dispute that actually lives up to UU "covenants" to affirm and promote justice, equity and compassion in human relations. BTW The Quebec Civil Liberties Union seems to finally be taking and interest in this case. Things could get quite interesting between now and All Souls' Day...
end quote
So here we are on All Saints' Day November 1st 2009 and very little has changed.
All Souls' Day could still be interesting though...
I might well dedicate All U*U Souls' Day to blogging about some of the ass*inine U*U Souls I have had the displeasure of dealing with throughout The War of the U*U World.
I dare say that it was quite prophetic of me to tell Montreal Unitarian U*U Soul John Inder that he should not be so sure that I would not be protesting in front of the Unitarian Church of Montreal for much longer way back in February of 2002. . .
No U*Us?
Chances are pretty good that I will still be protesting in front of the Unitarian Church of Montreal in February of 2010 with picket signs saying CULT IS A FOUR LETTER WORD and UNSAFE SECT? etc. etc. unless certain U*U Souls in Montreal and Boston finally get around to pulling their DIM Thinking heads out of their U*Us and *finally* take steps towards responsibly settling this ludicrously drawn out war of words in a manner that actually honors and upholds the Seven Principles of Unitarian*Universalism and other claimed U*U ideals.
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