Will Rev. Peter Morales Answer My Question During The UUA Presidential Candidates Telephone Forum Of Friday April 17, 2009?

I guess I should thank my very good friend ever so "conservative" U*U pagan Joel Monka for giving me this U*U heads up about tomorrow's telephone forum with the UUA presidential candidates Rev. Dr. Laurel Hallman and Rev. Peter Morales. I have posed a number of as yet unanswered questions to Rev. Peter Morales, or his associate Martin Voelker, in comments posted months ago on his apparently quite moribund 'Along The Campaign Trail' blog. These important questions have never been responded to in any way whatsoever by Rev. Peter Morales. I decided to take a cue from Joel Monka's 'My question for the telephone forum' blog post and submit the most important of these unanswered questions to Rev. Peter Morales as a question to be answered during tomorrow's telephone forum.

Time will tell if the question I submitted is actually posed to Rev. Peter Morales and if he answers it adequately. Indeed in less than 24 hours we will know if Rev. Morales was asked this question, or a similar one posed by somebody else. Without further ado here is the full text of the email that I just sent to the moderator of this telephone forum, UUA Secretary Paul Rickter, with some additional embedded hyperlinks and an embedded YouTube video of Rev. Peter Morales' "stump speech" that is referenced in my preamble:

Here is my question addressed to UUA Presidential candidate Rev. Peter Morales for tomorrow's telephone forum -

The preamble - Rev. Morales, you have not unjustifiably described Unitarian*Universalism as a "tiny, declining, fringe religion" in your "stump speech" announcing your candidacy for President of the UUA.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvTP5mFyeZg

In that "stump speech", which is also a Sunday sermon titled 'A Religion For Our Time' you suggest that Unitarian*Universalism could be "the religion of our time". Indeed your primary campaign slogan, as prominently displayed on your campaign website and other promotional materials, is -

"We can be the religion for our time."

Here is my question -

What objective criteria does Unitarian*Universalism need to meet in order for U*Uism to be able to be credibly described as "the religion of our time" as per your presidential campaign slogan, and what is your comprehensive and, more importantly, realistic plan to "grow" and/or transform Unitarian*Universalism from the "tiny, declining, fringe religion", that you openly acknowledge Unitarian*Universalism currently is, into a religion that can be credibly described as "the religion of our time" within *our* time, let's say 30 years at the outside?

Thank you,

Robin Edgar

What Is Rev. Peter Morales *For* As UUA President If He Is *Actually* S*Elected As President Of The UUA?

As a late coming Dark Horse candidate in the UUA Presidential campaign as part of the 2009 UUA elections *I* personally have not yet developed a Presidential platform. While I, in close consultation with *my* advisors, am busy figuring out exactly what *my* platform for President Reject of the UUA will be, in *order* that Unitarian*Universalists aka U*Us and *even* non-Unitarian*Universalist U*Us can very freely and irresponsibly excorcise their proverbial "right of conscience" if not *rite* of conscience. . . by actually voting for me, I feel that it can't hurt *too* much to yet again U*Unilaterally and U*Universally ask some questions that *I* put to UUA Presidential candidate Rev. Peter Morales quite some time ago, indeed the better part of 6 months ago, by posting them as comments on his moribU*Und aka langU*Uishing, to say nothing of "less than U*User friendly", Along the Campaign Trail blog.
To date, well more precisely. . . to *this* date, UUA Presidential candidate Rev. Peter Morales has not answered a single one of these questions to *my* 'Satisfaction' yet for the *simple* reason that he has not answered any of them at all. . .


I would like to ask you a few more questions about your campaign for President of the UUA, including a few questions about some rather problematic public statements that you made in your U*UTubed "stump speech" announcing your candidacy for UUA President. I will draw up a modest list of questions and send them to you, or post them publicly as an "open letter" blog post, in the coming days or weeks. I do however have a few important questions that just came to mind within the last few days that I will ask you now. I hope to receive adequate and detailed answers to these questions ASAP and I expect many U*Us would want to hear your response to these important questions. In your "stump speech" you quite justifiably describe Unitarian*Universalism as a "tiny, declining, fringe religion" but you then go on to say that you believe that U*Uism "can be the religion of our time." Indeed it would appear that your campaign slogan is,

"We can be the religion of our time."

Here are my questions that arise out of those public statements -

Do you genuinely believe that Unitarian*Universalism can actually become "the religion of our time" or is your campaign slogan just empty campaign rhetoric intended to help you to gain votes and win the UUA Presidential election?

What specific conditions do you believe would need to be attained and sustained for Unitarian*Universalism to credibly be able to claim the status of being "the religion of our time"?

How do you propose to transform Unitarian*Universalism from the "tiny,declining, fringe religion" that it currently is to "the religion of our time" within a reasonable time frame, let's say 25 years?

Please provide detailed and realistic answers to the latter two questions which are obviously posed on the assumption that you do genuinely believe that Unitarian*Universalism actually can become "the religion of our time."

Needless to say you need not answer the latter two questions if your campaign slogan is simply over-the-top campaign rhetoric that you don't genuinely believe in.* I look forward to seeing your detailed answers to these three important questions in the coming days. Let's say a week or two at most. I expect that a good number of Unitarian*Universalists would be very interested in seeing your answers to these important questions as well.

Sincerely,

Robin Edgar


* Brand spanking new candidate for UUA President Reject Robin Edgar aka The Emerson Avenger cannot *help* but take note of the fact that it is now the better part, if not the worse part. . . of six months since *We* quite reasonably and rationally, albeit just a tad "less than politely" aka *bluntly* asked UUA Presidential candidate Rev. Peter Morales that question. So. . . perhaps in his own special way Rev. Morales has answered *that* particular question.