John,
Wednesday night I received a link to your letter dated November 17, 2017. It has taken me several days to process the new level to which you have stooped, in the name of church. It is disconcerting that you were able to get 50 people from the church, to sign on to your inane letter. Apparently, you thought using the names and reputations of as many people as possible to back up your accumulated dishonesty was the best way to show your strength and righteousness.
I’m glad I finally got a chance to see it. Because your letter makes many false claims and many of the statements are based on false assumptions. Let’s really look at what you offered in November and manipulated decent folks into signing.
You claim:
“Central to our faith is our belief that Christ calls us to participate in God’s reign of justice, peace, and compassion on earth.”
Now John, based on the behavior of you, your council friends and especially your clergy, you are not at all interested in justice, peace or compassion. You bully. You slander. You lie. You cannot and will not have a conversation with the folks you claim you are being victimized by.
Nevertheless, you claim:
“We seek to live out an inclusive vision in which all may safely and respectfully participate in every aspect of the church’s life.”
I believe that the church used to seek an “inclusive vision”, but that was before Christina. You cannot claim that Rev. Kukuk is a woman who holds an inclusive vision. She amputated us based on lies. She turned the whole community upside down with her strategies of enemy making. It is her ethical misconduct that cannot be discussed. There is nothing safe or respectful about Rev. Kukuk’s behavior. There is nothing respectful about your behavior, John. Lying is not respectful. Using your “church friends” to back up your lies, is neither safe, nor respectful. And banning people from church property to cover for the ethical misconduct of your deceitful minister is institutionalized pathology.
You further claim:
“One has verbally attacked and physically intimidated members of our congregation in a variety of public settings—a coffee shop, the Growers’ Market, and on public sidewalks.”
Here you are speaking of my attempts at street accountability. I know accountability is a dirty word at Ashland UCC these days, but I it remains true that accountability for people in positions of power is fundamental to justice and there is no justice at your church.
I believe that you used the term “physically intimidated” simply to mislead and breed fear. I don’t believe that at 5’4’’ my silver haired, asking of questions, was truly physically intimidating. I do believe that people felt put on the spot, when I called them on their behaviors. I believe they want to go along with your claim that my talking to anyone from the church constitutes harassment, but that is really just privileged, white fragility, not actual harassment.
Let’s get specific. At the Growers’ Market, I asked Joanna Niemann, “How did it feel lying about me to the whole church?”
Joanna immediately claimed I was harassing her, but the truth is, I sincerely wanted to know why she was willing to be so destructive and dishonest. This is called natural consequences.
Within seconds she said, “I’m calling the police.”
I said, “Please do! I want to talk to them about your fascist church.”
She looked concerned, reconsidered and put her phone down…
I asked her other questions. Among them:
“How do you feel being a fraud in the community?
Do you feel badly for taking money from me to teach things you don’t have integrity with?
How do you justify calling yourself an expert in Restorative Circles and holding no integrity with the principles of Restorative Circles?”
These questions could not be more warranted. Joanna refused to answer anything and looked at her phone for rescue. If you lie about people in public settings and you see those people around town, it is a natural consequence that the people you have been lying about might feel they have a bone to pick with you.
When you claim to be an expert of Restorative Circles and you promote none of the actual principles of Restorative Circles, and the result of your lies is destruction of the reputation of someone else’s life in the community, it should be expected that your amputated former student would want to ask you about your deception when she encounters you in public.
Joanna has aided Rev. Kukuk in suppressing a conflict, thereby feeding the initial power imbalances and helping to expand the conflict to multiple conflicts. Joanna used her persona of “expert” of social justice to endorse Rev. Kukuk’s false claim that Daniel and I are not capable of civil discourse and therefore not worthy of a Restorative Circle. This is entirely untrue. Joanna, apparently, made her assessment of our abilities based on Christina’s agenda and her desire to ingratiate herself to the new minister, because she didn’t talk to us. Joanna’s input helped justify Rev. Kukuk’s slanderous conviction of us. Now Joanna is on the church council and John has characterized our encounter as “an unwarranted attack”.
I see Joanna’s behavior as the very antithesis of non violent or socially just. I have found Joanna’s behavior egregiously destructive to me personally and to justice, the church and community in general. Therefore, I asked questions of her at the Growers’ Market.
Apparently, Joanna, you and 50 others, believe that asking Joanna about her deceptions constitutes an “attack”. I believe Joanna felt attacked simply because she knows what a heinous thing she has done to me. She knows how infuriated I have every right to be, over the life shattering lies she told. She knows the magnitude of the injustice she has enabled. So when I show up in front of her at the Market, she’s scared. That’s natural consequences.
I submit that Joanna felt attacked because she is guilty of slanderous behavior against me and Daniel and she didn’t like hearing about it. She felt embarrassed. She is committed to hiding these ugly realities about herself. At her church everyone is hiding ugly realities. It seems as though Joanna feels that she should be universally protected from her lies, like she is protected at her church.
But John, Joanna should be embarrassed. So should you.
You continue:
“While we continue to wish them peace, we will no longer remain silent.”
This statement is laughable. You, your clergy and your council friends do not and never have wished us peace. You have slandered us continuously as you shunned us. Then without ever talking to us, you amputated us from the Body of Christ, all the while relentlessly assassinating our characters. In your letter you stoop lower than I have seen before, in attempting to breed baseless fears further into the community.
Do you know the definition of “peace” John? Peace is not what your church is doing.
You claim you “will no longer remain silent.”
Really? How so? You write a fraudulent letter and get 50 of your “faith community friends” to sign onto it and then you present it as your holy defense. To whom?
Who are you accusing? Where did you send the letter?
You are silent about all the facts. And you don’t mention the intention behind your “open letter”, which is to distract from the enormous cluster of ugly policies and corruption that you and leadership have been up to for nearly two years. You don’t want to have a reputation for what your church actually does. You feel it is better for “minding the gap” (bringing in money) for people to continue to believe you foster an inclusive community. Your letter was written in an effort to protect your propaganda and, of course, your reverend.
Then this:
“Each time a member of our community yields to expressions of hatred, our community is weakened.”
I agree with this statement and I do see that Rev. Kukuk’s ministry has spread an ugly weakness throughout the community. Y’all are extremely motivated to mischaracterize everything about yourselves, your church, me and Daniel. When you can’t be honest, when you can’t communicate directly, when you use language to manipulate and mislead, you are weak. How do you not see that the aggressively, deceptive style of church that Rev. Kukuk is teaching you, has weakened “our community?” This is a serious question John, I wish you would at least consider answering it.
Then you claim:
“We must stand up to it wherever it shows itself – and especially when it happens in our own community.”
So your answer to our publishing your corruption, which you characterize as “attacks”, is to “stand up to it wherever it shows itself.”
How is your letter an act of standing up? What is courageous about it?
You don’t name us, you don’t name your ministers, you didn’t send your letter to us and you forever and always refuse to answer the questions we ask. You have stood for nothing other than Rev. Kukuk, thereby betraying us all.
You wrap up with:
“We will not allow this behavior to interfere with the sanctity of our church or the work of our faith community.”
It has been painfully obvious for quite some time (and your letter further proves the point) that you have completely jettisoned anything remotely resembling sanctity in your faith community. When you unite against your neighbors, you are not following Christ. Christ’s message was, “love thy neighbor”. Can you remember that?
It is because I believe in the teachings of Christ that your behavior on behalf of “the church” is so utterly offensive. You actively mislead people to fear us as a way of protecting your minister from any accountability for her deceitful and toxic leadership.
You and your church have gotten it completely backwards and your letter proves that you are attempting to drag as many people as possible backwards with you.
The truth is, John, your minister is a very sick woman. It is as though she has had the flu for two years and has infected everything and everyone. You can deny and pretend and create messages all you want. There is still an infection in the Body of Christ. You cannot clean up the church with Christina as your leader. She needs to be relieved of her duties and be quarantined for a while. She is seriously ill and she has made spreading what ails her a ministry. With your letter you have had 50 of your friends sign on to an infection. You have broadcast this infection to try to make people afraid, in order to protect your leader. Please consider these facts. She is sick, John. You can no longer hide or deny that fact. It’s time to change course.
Illumination!
~ L Citizen