‘I know Robin Edgar…’

We had received this comment a couple of months ago, but hesitated to post it until we made some effort to check it out as best as we can.  Even so, we would not be surprised if Robin Edgar goes off on another one of his tirades, accusing us of ‘more moronic Big Fat U*U BS.’

Well, he can make all the accusations he wants.  Read the comment for yourselves, and decide:

Came across your website and read thru it. I know Robin Edgar from years before, none of this surprises me or others I know who know about him. I’m not Unitarian, or any religion for that matter, but I lived with him in a boarding house here in Montreal. He can come across as nice enough, but as you say he is indeed obsessive. Cameras, for example. He can’t just tell you he took a picture, he has to describe in detail exactly what camera he is using, even his technical opinion, showing off what a great photographer he thinks he is.

I was around when he had his revelation, and like everything else he gets fixed on, he could not stop talking about it. Was convinced he could start his own religious movement around total eclipses, that the Unitarians would be a good place to start. Then things started falling apart, and the rest you know.

You also got right how he handles criticism or disagreement. If you ever cross him, he goes halfcocked about you being crazy or stupid or immoral. It’s hot and cold with him, you are either totally with him or you must be totally against him. He keeps losing friends, either driving them away or going all ballistic on him, then he’ll deny saying what he said or how he yells at people, then when he’s cornered and shown yes he said X Y Z or lost his cool, he goes on justifying it because nothing is ever his fault. Also takes a lot of things the wrong way, sometimes twists it around in really bizarre ways.

Robin has driven away more friends than anyone I know, and he is downright oblivious to his own problems.  People have suggested he see someone, get counseling or learn how to deal better with people. Like you said, that is the worst, he will explode like an atom bomb, how dare anyone say he has any kind of problem. Just like before, running hot and cold, he can only think crazy or sane, and if you are crazy he sees it as a moral failing.

The way Robin behaves gets him in so much trouble, he has a very hard time holding down a job or living in any one place long enough. The few people he can still manage to relate with try not to bring up the Unitarian thing, or just humour him. The alternative of going thru the same old routine – blow up, attack people, deny he did it, be shown he did, then hear him justify everything he just denied – is not worth it for some, but most can only handle that for so long. The only thing unusual is how long he has obsessed with the Unitarians, I think because he figures they are the most convenient target so he can keep denying and avoiding his own problems.

Robin Edgar, we know you read this blog.  Rest assured, we did take considerable steps to have some background checked before deciding to post this.  You can continue to deny and lash out at us, but this is not a ‘Big Fat U*U’ problem.  This is your problem, and it is more obvious to those around you than you realize.  We have said it before, we will say it again, as apparently so many have said to you before: You need professional help.  Stop avoiding, denying, blaming and attacking.

The Pot Calling the Kettle Black

It’s no surprise that Robin Edgar reads one UU minister’s blog entry, critical of some aspect of Unitarian Universalism, and makes it into a broad denunciation of anything and everything UUs believe and do.  But this time his accusation is the greatest of all hypocrisies.

Yes, Robin Edgar has decreed that Unitarian Universalists are narcissists.

This from the man who, for some two decades, has lashed out at an increasing number of UU ministers and leaders and congregations, indeed the entire UU movement, because they will not do what he demands.  Nothing else matters to Robin Edgar but what Robin Edgar wants.  Fail to do so, and he sees it as justification to insult, belittle, attack and harass those whom he once idealized and now devalues.

Forget that Unitarian Universalists have done so much work for the benefit of others, simply because it is the right thing to do.  Unitarians and Universalists worked for the abolition of slavery, equality for women, helping refugees from Nazi Germany, civil rights and racial equality, and now equality for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.  Not good enough for Robin Edgar, and not simply because Unitarian Universalists are no more perfect than anybody else.  No, it’s not good enough for Robin Edgar because Robin Edgar does not like how some UUs treated him.

Nor does it matter how outrageous his own behaviour has been.  If the Unitarian Church of Montreal will not authorise a second ‘Creation Day’ event, then he believes himself justified to throw a temper tantrum, accuse others in the church of intolerance, and demand that the minister meet him in his small apartment – and nowhere else – to ‘explain’ why total eclipses are such spiritual events.

It also does not matter that UUs have always been engaged in self-critical discussions about the evolution of our faith, and the needs of our members.  Once again, another example of his egoistic black-and-white thinking – only those who kowtow to him are good and right, and anybody who dares to question or criticise him are bad and wrong.

For Robin Edgar to accuse anybody else of narcissism is a classic example of ‘the pot calling the kettle black.’  Of course, when somebody becomes as self-centred and self-absorbed as he is, it’s expected that he fails to see this.  All we can hope is that UUs will remember all the good we have, and can continue, to do, and learn from that.

The Ultimate Hypocrisy of Robin Edgar

Having discovered Twitter, Robin Edgar has used it to pursue Unitarian Universalists with manic, obsessive abandon.  The response of many UUs has been to block him from further rants and harassment.

His response?  Indignation, if not outright rage.  How dare anybody ignore Robin Edgar, aka The Emerson Avenger!

So once again he spirals into another blast of manic posts, lashing out at UUs refusing to indulge his immature need for absolute attention.

But here is the most pathetic – and hypocritical – part of this never-ending cycle in the life of Robin Edgar.  While he decries UUs, especially UU ministers, of allegedly being insulting and rude to him, he goes out of his way to behave in even more rude and insulting behaviour, then acts as shocked as Claude Rains in ‘Casablanca’ that they would respond the way they do.

Yes, of course, he has repeatedly tried to distance himself from his actions, often by claiming that it’s not really him who is so obnoxious, but his supposed alter ego, ‘The Emerson Avenger’.  Read this excerpt from a comment on his blog, dated Sunday, July 12th, 2009:

‘The Emerson Avenger is something of a “persona” aka an “act” and is often quite deliberately rude and “in your face” offensive’

The cycle continues.  He doesn’t like what a Unitarian Universalist says, either about him or anything else.  He considers it a deliberate insult to him, so he now considers himself justified in insulting, attacking and harassing the UU in question.  When called on the carpet for his behaviour, he attempts to distance himself: ‘That wasn’t me, that was my persona!’  And the reason for this ‘act’?  The big bad UU was mean to him, so that justifies his even worse behaviour.  When the victim of his obsessive lashing out realizes that responding to his juvenile antics only leads to more of the same, and decides to break the cycle by both refusing to respond and denying him from hijacking thier Twitter account or blog, guess what? Robin Edgar decrees that this is another ‘reason’ for expressing his rage.  How dare UUs ignore him!

Respond to him, and he lashes out.  Ignore him, and he lashes out.  You can’t win, break even, or even leave the game.

This is Robin Edgar’s ultimate hypocrisy.  He demands that UUs be perfect, and when they are not, then he proclaims them evil, stupid, and every other insult he can throw at them - while he, conversely, is blameless and righteous in all things, and more importantly, deserving of attention if not outright adulation and submission to his will.

You can’t have it both ways, Mister Edgar.  You can’t demand of others a standard which you yourself refuse to live by.  And no matter how many times you try to rationalize your ‘deliberately rude and “in your face” offensive’ behaviour, there is simply no excuse for it.  Even your pathetic attempts at distancing yourself from what you do is meaningless.  After all, you created your so-called ‘Emerson Avenger persona’, and are thus ultimately responsible for everything you attribute to that ‘act’.