Rev. Dr. Meredith Garmon Ph.D. And Sociopathic Unitarian Universalist Clergy - What's The Connection?
Rev. Dr. Meredith Garmon, Ph.D., minister of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Gainesville, Florida, has brought up the subject of sociopathy aka psychopathy aka "anti-social behavior" in the 'From Evil to Sociopathy' post of his Lake Chalice blog as part of his recent series of blog posts regarding what is commonly known as evil. In light of the fact that a certain percentage of the population are sociopaths, and furthermore. . . in light of the fact that sociopaths are known to seek positions of power and prestige in society, it stands to good old Unitarian Reason that a certain percentage of Unitarian Universalist ministers aka "pastors" are sociopaths aka psychopaths aka "wolves in shepherd's clothing" as it were. . .
I *had* been meaning to blog about this topic for some time now so I hereby thank Rev. Dr. Meredith Garmon for:
A) reminding me to finally get around to blogging about sociopathic Unitarian Universalist clergy
and
B) providing me with a Big Fat U*U Foil to play off. . .
Without further ado here is the (typo corrected) comment that I just posted in response to Rev. Dr. Meredith Garmon's 'From Evil to Sociopathy' blog post -
I wonder how many Unitarian Universalist ministers are sociopaths?
The American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, fourth edition (DSM-IV-TR), gives the prevalence of psychopathy as 3% in males and 1% in females, however it is known that sociopaths tend to seek positions of prestige and/or power in society so one could reasonably expect that the percentages would be higher for clergy of all kinds, not just Unitarian Universalist clergy. But let's stick with the provided percentages and calculate how many sociopathic North American U*U clergy there are using those statistics in conjunction with official UUA statistics.
According to these comparatively recent UUA membership statistics there were 1,752 fellowshipped U*U clergy in 2009. Let's round that up to 1800 in light of the fairly steady increase in the number of fellowshipped U*U clergy who only numbered 856 in 1961 and 1559 at the turn of the millennium. For the sake of argument we will deem that the ratio of male to female U*U clergy is approximately 4-6 or so these days. That would provide a figure of 720 male U*U ministers and 1080 female U*U ministers, this of course notwithstanding the fact that a certain percentage of U*U clergy may not identify as being 100% male or female. Three percent of 720 is 21 or so, one percent of 1080 is 10 or so, Thus, based on the American Psychiatric Association's statistics, we can reasonably expect that there are at least 30 fellowshipped Unitarian Universalist ministers in the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations who are sociopaths, with at least 20 of them being males and at least 10 of them being females.
Now we can play the "Guess The Sociopathic Unitarian Universalist Minister Guessing Game"!
I can think of several sociopathic U*U ministers just of the top of my head. . .
I *had* been meaning to blog about this topic for some time now so I hereby thank Rev. Dr. Meredith Garmon for:
A) reminding me to finally get around to blogging about sociopathic Unitarian Universalist clergy
and
B) providing me with a Big Fat U*U Foil to play off. . .
Without further ado here is the (typo corrected) comment that I just posted in response to Rev. Dr. Meredith Garmon's 'From Evil to Sociopathy' blog post -
I wonder how many Unitarian Universalist ministers are sociopaths?
The American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, fourth edition (DSM-IV-TR), gives the prevalence of psychopathy as 3% in males and 1% in females, however it is known that sociopaths tend to seek positions of prestige and/or power in society so one could reasonably expect that the percentages would be higher for clergy of all kinds, not just Unitarian Universalist clergy. But let's stick with the provided percentages and calculate how many sociopathic North American U*U clergy there are using those statistics in conjunction with official UUA statistics.
According to these comparatively recent UUA membership statistics there were 1,752 fellowshipped U*U clergy in 2009. Let's round that up to 1800 in light of the fairly steady increase in the number of fellowshipped U*U clergy who only numbered 856 in 1961 and 1559 at the turn of the millennium. For the sake of argument we will deem that the ratio of male to female U*U clergy is approximately 4-6 or so these days. That would provide a figure of 720 male U*U ministers and 1080 female U*U ministers, this of course notwithstanding the fact that a certain percentage of U*U clergy may not identify as being 100% male or female. Three percent of 720 is 21 or so, one percent of 1080 is 10 or so, Thus, based on the American Psychiatric Association's statistics, we can reasonably expect that there are at least 30 fellowshipped Unitarian Universalist ministers in the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations who are sociopaths, with at least 20 of them being males and at least 10 of them being females.
Now we can play the "Guess The Sociopathic Unitarian Universalist Minister Guessing Game"!
I can think of several sociopathic U*U ministers just of the top of my head. . .
Comments
This is silly, of course, because you can't become a UU minister simply out of a desire for power or fame. You have to go through several rounds of being tested for fitness and then actually hired, if you are going to gain the prestige of leading a congregation of (on average) 150 people. That's a lot of power for one person to wield, except that they have to share it with a democratically elected board....
In short, while the weeding-out process is imperfect, I think any right-thinking person would quickly see that your numbers don't hold up to the facts of the situation.
You are playing games to try and bring shame and suspicion on your hated foe. I thought I would point out that, in reality, you just look silly and pathetic.
Seek help, Robin.
There is however nothing "absurd" about my statistics which are a far from unreasonable extrapolation from, or interpretation of, official statistics found in The American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, fourth edition (DSM-IV-TR), and official UUA membership statistics. Do you think that the sociopaths who get into prominent positions in politics and business etc. don't go through various screening processes? Quite frankly, based on what I have seen of how the UUA negligently and complicitly deals with abusive UU clergy who are clearly guilty of "anti-social behavior" of one kind or another, I have reasonable grounds to believe that the initial UUA screening processes are fairly lax or ineffective. Hell the UUA even appointed the intolerant and abusive, and quite possibly socioptahic, Rev. Ray Drennan to the Canadian Regional Sub-Committee on Candidacy of the UUA Ministerial Fellowship Committee. Rev. Calvin O. Dame was on the UUA Board of Trustees, and came close to being UUA Moderator at one point, before his egregious clergy sexual misconduct that devastated the Augusta Maine UU congregation came to light. Rev. Mack Mitchell displayed most if not all of the traits of a sociopath.
Hate is an emotion I have little use for. I am not "playing games", I am simply pointing out that a certain percentage of Unitarian Universalist clergy are sociopaths. If you want to place the percentage somewhat lower than me be my guest but, in light of the fact that sociopaths often actively seek out positions of prestige and power (or at least *perceived* prestige and power) it is entirely possible that the percentage of sociopaths amongst the clergy (and please note that I said "not just Unitarian Universalist clergy") is actually somewhat higher than the overall population.