One of Robin Edgar’s most blatant displays of hypocrisy is when he posts outrageous or ridiculous statements, and then tries to counter any criticism or questions regarding said same by accusing those who criticise him of not understanding that his post was intended as ‘sarcasm’ or ‘parody’.
So we have to wonder if that is what he will claim about his most recent post, where he is now practically gloating over the tornado damage done on the First Church of Monson, Massachusetts, ‘wondering’ whether this was a sign that Unitarian Universalists were ‘reaping the whirlwind’.
This is about as outrageous as Fred Phelps claiming that the death of US soldiers is a sign of God’s disapproval of homosexuality. Or how about Jerry Falwell blaming the 9/11 attacks on pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays and lesbians, the ACLU and People for the American Way. Let’s also not forget the Reverend Thomas Prince, who preached in1755 that the proliferation of lightning rods in Boston had caused God’s wrath to be made manifest with a marked increase in earthquakes.
Such incredulous statements usually cause sensible people of any religion to wonder: ‘Is this guy serious?’ Well, we’ve wondered that about Robin Edgar for some time – and now, even more so. If he seriously believes that the tragedy of the Monson tornado is a sign of divine wrath against UUs, we have to wonder just how much his grasp on reality is slipping. Of course, he can always fall back on the old canard of claiming ‘sarcasm’ and ‘parody’. But that must make us wonder if anything this man says can be taken serious. Not to mention just how increasingly mean-spirited he has become, to exploit this sad episode simply to draw attention to himself and his obsessive grudge.
Robin Edgar Sucks 
Obsession, narcissism, and hubris make an ugly and tragic combination, don’t they?
I’ll be interested to see what you think of his insistence that The Charlotte Observer is censoring him by deleting his comments he left on their article about the 2011 GA.
If he even bothered to read, he would have noticed that the Observer shut off all comments after being bombarded with hateful messages from fundamentalists. Apparently he is incapable of realising that editors and publishers often make decisions which have nothing at all to do with him.
He has been quite busy today, and getting extreme, even for Robin Edgar. It is high time the white-coat people took him away.
Robin Edgar doesn’t learn. More of the same griping and lashing out doesn’t get you anywhere. All it gets is more and more individuals asking: ‘Doesn’t this guy have anything better to do?’
Another question for UU blogger: Why do you publish his outlandish, defamatory comments? It is not censorship to refuse to do so, since he has his own forum to present his views (such as they are). Why allow this man to domineer your online conversations with his bile and venom?
The thing that we’re missing is that he is not interested in getting anywhere – that is not at all his objective. In fact, it would subvert his raison d’etre. Everyone who approves his posts, I think, is under the misapprehension that he actually is interested in some sort of justice, some sort of theological transformation, something, as they themselves are interested in various transformations of our shared faith. His Kierkegaardian defining commitment is essentially to draw attention to himself, nothing more or nothing less. Without it, he would be lost. His defining commitment was once the solar eclipse – when is the last time he ever blogged anything about that? His nascent movement (which had some merit, and some metaphorical power, in my opinion) died on the vine, not because of anything the UU Church of Montreal did or didn’t do, but because of his pathological behavior, which kept, and continues to keep, him isolated.
UU Bloggers should stop feeding the troll, plain and simple. Very occasionally his posts are friendly, compassionate, on point and insightful. Approve these – they are not of the troll. Otherwise, leave him to his blog and to Google Analytics and his occasional hit. It gives him joy. More joy to him. This blog should perhaps make one final, encompassing post for the record, on who this person is, his modus operandi, his likely pathologies, and let it stand for Internet eternity side by side with his blog. But please, please, people, stop the feeding.
“his nascent movement” … Did he really have one? Not just a loose collection of curious individuals?
As for this blog, we will continue to monitor Robin Edgar. The one thing about such pathological behaviour is that it tends to escalate. Hopefully it will not in his case, but in case it does, we will respond accordingly.
Thank you for your insights!
RE: “nascent movement” – I was being a sarcastic, but sincere in my perspective on the metaphor of the eye of god.
I still think that the troll feeding should be very limited. I’d suggest that this blog limit itself to a factual accounting of the most egregious troll behavior, as it seems you’ve been doing recently. No point in repeating yourself in response to his repetition. However, you might also include monitoring comments on other UU blogs.
All our readers are welcome to report on Robin Edgar’s activity on other blogs.
He spends a lot of time at The Huffington Post, commenting on a couple articles that had the temerity to complement UUs. Several newspapers as well. And do you monitor his other blogs, too? He had one for his campaign for UU president, and several that were parodies of real UU blogs.
It’s certainly difficult keeping up with him. As other have asked, ‘Does this man even have a life?’ If this is all he does, then he certainly is pathologically obsessed.