[Insert EYEROLL here]
I’ve already written about my experience at the Unitarian Universalist church, but sadly, it took me a while to muster up the nuts to publish this letter I sent to the Reverend the next day. Here it is, in all its closet-free glory. I think it’s definitely worth noting that I have yet to receive a response…
Dear Rev. Sinkford,
I attended Sunday’s service as a first time visitor to your parish. In fact, it was the first Sunday I’ve been to church in over a decade. Like you, I am a blogger and I always appreciate feedback, be it constructive, flattering, or my perennial favorite: critical. As such, I thought you’d like to see what I wrote about the service on Sunday.
I’m a staunch libertarian, a single mother, and a bisexual. I’m also an agnostic at the beginning of my own personal spiritual quest. Everything I had read about UU made it sound like a perfect landing spot for someone like me and I was more than a little shocked to find out that, in fact, I wasn’t actually welcome there at all. At least not if I wanted to feel safe.
My specific beef is with the church’s stance on the second amendment and its allegiance with Cease Fire. It’s not so much the Gun Free Zone that bothers me, actually. I’m used to that particular knee-jerk response (guns are bad!). It’s that the issue deserves a much deeper exploration than that.
I know that you stand for victim’s rights, but has it not occurred to you that GUN rights are also GAY rights? By taking guns off the streets – away from law-abiding citizens who have every right to protect themselves and those around them – you are actually putting ME at risk. Considering the fact that 95% of all gun massacres occur within supposedly “gun free” zones, I think it’s a bit of a stretch to assume that criminals are actually following such rules.
It saddens me that my right to protect myself from being a victim also makes me unwelcome at your church. And I’ll be honest: my blog post is not flattering. It’s snarky and a bit mean and for that, I sincerely apologize. I hope that won’t prevent you from giving some additional thoughts to this subject. The post can be found here: http://www.mandajuice.com/mandajuice/2011/01/unitarian-universalism-progressive-indeed.html
I would love to hear your thoughts. I would also encourage you to learn more about the Pink Pistols, a national organization dedicated to promoting gun safety and self-defense for homosexuals: www.pinkpistols.org.
I look forward to your feedback.
Sincerely,
Amanda P. Westmont
