Further reflections on Russell Miller’s “hetero-phobia” lawsuit

Following our post yesterday about Russell Miller’s spurious lawsuit against St. Paul’s Montvale, the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, and various related individuals, Anglican Watch further investigated Miller’s claims. Following is additional context for Miller’s lawsuit.

We also reflect on Miller’s claims and his conduct. Specifically, we believe Miller to be disingenuous, dishonest, and manipulative — to put it kindly. As such, his conduct reflects badly on Miller himself, his family, his business, and the rest of the St. Paul’s dissidents.

Additional information

• As stated in our previous post, Miller’s lawsuit appears to be an effort to address the criminal charges against him. How he believes a civil case will undo the criminal charges is not clear. Yet in that regard, Miller twice provides the court with false and misleading information. Not only is his statement that there is no other litigation in the matter inaccurate but he tries to pull a fast one on the court, telling it that he was charged (with defiant trespass, although he never comes right out and says this) after attempting to attend worship and failing to leave promptly. But he omits a key point, which is that he and his family had previously received actual notice that they were barred from the property. So, Miller tries to make it sound like he showed up one Sunday and was surprised to be turned away, but the reality is he already knew he was not permitted to enter the property.
• In 2010, Russell appears to have gotten into a kerfuffle with the state of New Jersey over its Open Records Act following a request for information pertaining to construction of the Westwood School District stadium.
• Miller appears to have been elected to the Westwood School Board in 2012.
• While campaigning for the Westwood School Board position, Miller sent a letter to the editor that is much more articulate than the inchoate ramblings in his pro se lawsuit. Thus, we suspect that his wife Louise ghostwrote the letter for him.
• Amusingly, in Miller’s letter, he touted his business experience, saying:

Maintaining a local business for over 30 years has provided me with critical experience handling everything from labor to legal to finance. Thirty years has taught me to be a diplomat when handling issues, some very sensitive. (Emphasis added.)

• When interviewed about his qualifications for the school board, Miller tellingly stated:

It will be my intention to improve the overall operation of the district. Whether financial or academic, cost effective procedures eluding (sic) to a gain in achievement should be the main goal of the Board of Education.

• The Westwood School board attempted to secure a declaratory judgment that Miller was ineligible to serve due to a conflict of interest relating to the district’s contract with Miller’s business, Westwood Truck Center. It was determined that the conflict was cured when the contract was terminated.
• Miller’s wife Louise also has run for the school board.
• Louise Miller works for one of the Williams Sonoma brands, Pottery Barn. The company is well known for its inclusive policies, leading us to wonder how the company feels about her husband’s “hetero-phobia” lawsuit.

Further reflections on miller and his conduct

Since Russell Miller wants to trade on gender and sexuality, we think it only fair that openly gay members of the Anglican Watch staff offer these observations on being a real man:

Real men don’t lie. They don’t play games. They communicate directly and clearly. They do so without being manipulative. They accept responsibility for their actions. They give others the benefit of the doubt. They work for peace. They seek to leave the world a better place. They aren’t afraid to be kind to others, even if doing so will make them less popular. They think for themselves and are willing to stand up for the underdog.

When conflict arises, real men own their role in the conflict. They don’t trade on prejudice and stereotypes to try to get the upper hand. They don’t bully others. They don’t try to lie their way out of responsibility. They have the integrity to look the other side in the eye and ask, “What can I do to solve this conflict?” Then they take action to fix things, without blaming others.

In Miller’s case, he lies to the court in his pleadings with his fabrication about showing up at church and being charged for not leaving promptly.

He trades on homophobia, cloaked in his BS about “hetero-phobia.”

He doesn’t take responsibility for his actions.

And he goes after a priest with his lies about “hetero-phobia,” —even though he doesn’t have enough personal knowledge about Pastor Jill to know her email address.

Nor does he have the integrity to speak directly with Pastor Jill in an effort to resolve his apparent concerns.

Moreover, Miller’s lawsuit appears to be a last-ditch effort, with the him and the other dissidents flailing about looking for some way to gain the upper hand, versus trying to work towards reconciliation. And given the lack of insight into the potential ramifications of filing a civil suit while criminal charges are pending against him, Miller evinces a lack of structured thinking.

As to having his faith questioned, we can parse that issue by looking to Jesus’ test: “By their fruits you shall know them.”

Thus, we see nothing Christian about Miller.

Instead, we see an insecure, disingenuous, bigoted, hateful, childish, and manipulative individual whose conduct is profoundly at variance with the message of the Gospels. We see no sign on his part of love for Pastor Jill or the members of St. Paul’s. In fact, he sounds like he is very much of the same ilk as Joe Wahler.

In other words, it’s time for Miller to man up and start acting like a man. And he can start down that path by repudiating his hate speech.

In the meantime, we can all be glad to Miller is no longer involved with local schools. His hateful rhetoric has no legitimate role in our educational system. And anyone considering hiring Westwood Truck Center would be well advised to consider Miller’s behavior before entering into a contract with the firm. And we’d be damned careful about dealing with his wife Louise—something about birds of a feather. Moreover, Louise allegedly has been part of the protests outside the church.

As for Miller’s claims that Anglican Watch has defamed him, he is welcome to put his money where his big heterosexual mouth is and file suit. Let the chips fall where they may.

Photo courtesy Westwood School Board