The Silence Of The U*U Ministers About UUA President Bill Sinkford's "Historic Meeting" With Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

U*U minister Rev. Kit Ketchum is one of the few U*U ministers who has openly praised UUA President Bill Sinkford's participation in the Fellowship of Reconciliation's recent meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, she has even characterized Rev. Bill Sinkford's participation in this "historic meeting" as "incredibly courageous." Other U*U ministers like Rev. Scott Wells and Rev. Victoria Weinstein have been rather less than favorably impressed with President Sinkford's participation in this meeting with President Ahmadinejad and have said so in no uncertain terms on their respective Boy In The Bands and Peacebang blogs. Rev. Ketchum has now twice noted a complete lack of discussion about "this issue" on the UUA ministers' email list that only U*U ministers have access to. Here is the comment that I just submitted to her most recent iteration of that possibly quite revealing information -

I would interpret the general lack of conversation about UUA President Bill Sinkford's meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the ministers' email list and elsewhere as most likely being embarrassed silence, particularly in light of what has already been posted on some minister's blogs. Let's face it. There are very few U*U ministers lavishing praise on President Sinkford for his alleged "incredibly courageous" and "historic" PR stunt. You know the old saying, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." It applies very well to U*U ministers who pretty well have such a code of silence written into the UUMA Guidelines and Code of Professional Practice (PDF file). N'est-ce pas?

I have to say that it is certainly quite refreshing to see some U*U ministers disregarding this Omerta-like code of silence that strongly discourages U*U ministers from publicly criticizing the actions of their colleagues. Would that more U*U ministers would openly criticize questionable behaviour of their colleagues, to say nothing of the unquestionably unprofessional and unbecoming conduct of some U*U ministers.