This is about my UU church in Wyoming, PA. I don't want to leave the church, but I don't know what to do. I've been UU for a long time I love the values and principles of UU. But we have a person here who is a problem.
There is so much fear and hate here. Its been going on for a couple years but gotten worse the last year and the last couple months. I even heard one of the pagans say "there's hate between the walls" but I haven't seen her anymore. Its one woman at the center of it. She used to be in the pagan group and I think they kicked her out. I don't blame them. She's hateful and toxic and abusive. I don't even know why she's still in the church.
She screams at people. She attacks people on Facebook publicly and behind their backs. She spreads lies and rumors. She makes up things just to use them to attack people. She twists things so she can get attention. She makes everything about her. Even her joys and concerns are just about her being seen not about the people they're about. Anyone she disagrees with gets treated like sh*t. She supports a spiritual leader who glorifies r*pe and sexu*l *ssault. (Seriously.) Everyone I've talked to is afraid of her and doesn't feel safe around her. Even most of the people that go to her house and hang out with her say they don't want to end up her victims. She makes a lot of people uncomfortable. Someone even said that some group she was in before kicked her out for the same things. Its difficult to believe anything she says.
She screamed at our last board president during Sunday service over plastic bags being cleaned up by minimum wage workers. It was really abusive and pretty stupid. Then she stalked out of the church and screamed at the people that went to talk to her. We could hear her from inside the church. Then she posted on her Facebook how proud she was of herself for standing up for minimum wage workers.
She spread a bunch of lies about our religious education director being transphobic and attacked her in a board meeting over it. It was all bullsh*t and everyone knows it. The RE director is one of the most caring people I know and is not transphobic. I heard she screamed at her in the middle of the board meeting for using a member's dead-name when it was actually a name they said they were okay with. The board decided to have sensitivity training. I think it was the right thing to do because education is always good. But they should have gotten rid of her after that. All she did was create a problem where there wasn't one just to make herself look good. She posted on her Facebook how proud she was of herself for "dealing with severe transphobia" and attacked the board for "rug-sweeping" even though it was all lies and made up bullsh*t. A couple of months later she attacked the board again for not getting the sensitivity training fast enough. I heard she was the one that was supposed to get it scheduled and just didn't. One of the board members got the training scheduled. She posted on her Facebook taking credit for it though. A lot of us saw it before it suddenly wasn't there anymore. Its disgusting still seeing her other Facebook posts knowing they're made up lies. She made a problem out of nothing and tried to make everyone see how she was the hero and "fixed" it. All she really did was throw a public fit over something she imagined then screamed at people about it.
The same board member recently resigned claiming mental health needs. I think she had something to do with him resigning. Everyone knows she doesn't like him and was looking for reasons to attack him. And he's one of the pagan leaders so of course she attacks him behind his back. Before he resigned he addressed the church and said he suffered a mental breakdown and apologized for not reaching out. He also said he broke a couple of people's trust and had apologized to them. I don't know what happened exactly but I heard about her screaming at someone, I think the leader of the pagan group, afterward even though I was told it had nothing to do with her. Him and the leader of the pagan group are married, I think. She obviously made it about herself again and used it to attack the leader of the pagan group again. And I'm sure there's a Facebook post about it which is probably lies. I just don't have the heart to look because her Facebook page makes me sick.
She accused a guy in the pagan group of sexu*lly *ssaulting her. No police were called and I heard they both said it was a misunderstanding. I've heard all kinds of things about it, but what I saw happen was he stopped coming to the church after that. I did hear someone tell her that if she needed more than just what our policy does, she needed to go to the police. But she keeps attacking the pagan group for some reason even though they have nothing to do with the policy and he stopped being around. The guy hasn't been near the church in over a year and a half.
I keep hearing a story about her posting something on the pagan group's Facebook page and the leader of the pagan group taking it down and her screaming at the leader of the pagan group and threatening her. Her own Facebook page says the post that got taken down was by a guy named Raven Kaldera. I Googled Raven Kaldera and he's a disgusting piece of sh*t. He's a sexual predator. He's been involved in multiple r*pes and sexu*l *ssaults of women and men. He's banned from a lot of pagan groups and places. So are a lot of people he associates with. Some incidents he's been involved in say he tells people that r*pe and sexu*l *ssault are something that makes people spiritually stronger. I didn't even have to look very hard. I'm disgusted that anyone in my church would accept someone like that as a spiritual leader. We accept all faiths, but faiths that accept and glorify r*pe and sexu*l *ssault shouldn't be allowed. I don't even know how our church would accept someone like that. I think the leader of the pagan group was right to take the post down. And if those are her religious beliefs, I don't know why she's even allowed in the church. I don't want my religious organization accepting someone that glorifies r*pe and sexu*l *ssault. And she still uses the incident to attack the leader of the pagan group on her Facebook page. Of course its only posts that people she wants can see and never the people they are about and doesn't use names, but we all know who she is talking about.
It makes me wonder about the accusation she made against the pagan guy though. She's lied and spread false rumors and twisted everything before. Her spiritual leader glorifies r*pe and sexu*l *ssault. I try to ignore rumors, but all of that make some of the things I've heard hard to ignore. Regardless of all of that, they still believed her and acted within our churches policy.
The posts she makes are her accusing the pagan group of protecting the guy she accused of sexual assault even though they have nothing to do with the policy and he hasn't come back since And if it was an accident what are they protecting him from? It looks like they took her post down because she was posting someone who endorses r*pe and sexu*l *ssault and she got angry and invented a reason to attack them. She's done it before. Protecting sexual predators seems to be okay when she does it. But she's not just protecting one, she's endorsing one. It seriously feels like a pig painting a horse pink then trying to shame it for being a pig.
I also learned that the local pagan shop won't do business with the pagan group because of her lies and rumor spreading. I did hear that the pagan shop won't do business with her anymore either though.
She is the membership committee chair and got some policy enacted where new members need to be approved by her. I don't know how that's possible, but it feels really wrong and I don't know why the board would allow it.
Her lies and manipulation has destroyed friendships and divided our community.
I don't know how to deal with someone like her. And I don't like that the board seems to just accept her abuse. I avoid her but she's destroying my community and I don't know what to do. The pagans seem like good people and the services they do are always powerful and spiritual. The pagans did so much for the church and they support so many causes, and now most of them don't show up anymore. They have been kind and accepting and caring. She has been manipulative and toxic and abusive. The leader of the pagan group was always there when people cried or needed support. She always came to service. She was there for people. She did the new year's service every year and it was really amazing. The pagan board member that resigned always sat in the back of the church and watched out for everyone. He threw a guy out of the church once when the guy started preaching to us how we were all going to hell. I have trauma around that and was going to leave, but he took care of it. I know he is a veteran and a cop and carries a gun. I never realized how safe it made me feel just having him there. I heard someone say he was the one who got the panic buttons and started our food pantry. And I use it sometimes. He does a beautiful service for Memorial Day. He doesn't show up anymore. It seems like most of the pagans don't show up anymore. There's a few, but not many. And she cries about there not being enough volunteers but with the pagans not around anymore there won't be. They did a lot.
I know there are things that I don't know. I know that some of this is just me guessing what is happening. I know there are things that probably happened that I don't know about. But all I is see her attacking people and screaming at people and being abusive. I see her making up things and lying and screaming about it to get attention. I never see any of the pagans doing any of that. Most of them don't even seem to want to be noticed for anything they do. She seems to want to create problems just to be noticed. I didn't even get most of this from the pagans. Some of it is on her own Facebook page when you read between the lines. I see good people who look out for us and do so much for the community leaving and her staying. And no one is doing anything about it. Our last president was a good guy but didn't do anything about her. The current president isn't around much and doesn't seem to care. I think because he's not around much he doesn't see any of her abuse. He seems kind of spineless and clueless. I want the board member who resigned back. I want the leader of the pagan group back. I feel safe with the pagans. I don't feel safe with her at all. And no one I asked does either. And the current church leadership isn't doing anything about it.
I admit I don't want to become another one of her victims, so I am not using my real profile. She will probably accuse one of the pagans for posting this and I don't want them to be attacked either. But something needs to be done about her. I've already written to the board and told them about this, but it still keeps happening. No one else seems to want to speak up and I know they all see it. I don't want to just leave the church but I don't know if I can stay in it knowing she's free to just abuse people.
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