What's wrong with this handling of a clergy abuse case?

[Ed Pettibone]

[Ed Pettibone]

[Ed Pettibone]

[William Thornton]

I'm done with this also. Absurd is too kind a word.

[Hal Eaton]

William sez: "Ed and Hal are both ignorant here. The facts of the case don't lend themselves to your conclusion. Both of you foolishly blame the victim."

But I had said (in my introductory line): "It's too bad that the expression of opinions on both sides of this issue end up with reprimands, accusations, and name-calling on both sides."

Notice that I did not assign blame to anyone; I noted the psychological pressures which can contribute to unfortunate (sinful or not) conduct of perpetrators/victims, young or old. Seldom have we had such harsh judgmental expressions on a situation about which none of us begin to know all the elements involved.

To tell the story, without sufficient detail, and soliciting responses, is akin to saying "sic 'em" to a dog. And perhaps it would be profitable to review the psychological influences which have assisted in forming the written responses herein. (I have assessed mine; how 'bout you?)

[William Thornton]

[Ed Pettibone]

Ed: I have brought this thread to the surface as the result of of a heads up to me by Aaron (AKA Big Daddy) Weaver on on another board at this site. Aaron directed me to a long list of Baptist (mostly Southern Baptist) leaders compiled Christa Brown a former attorney in Texas who has for several years been on a crusade to force the SBC to create a registry of clergy who have been accused of sexual impropriety especially in cases involving under age parishioners. This list is made up of people who Christa charges with protecting sexual predators in the clergy.

This thread started with a discussion of one church in Indiana that took pro active action to be involved with the redemption of a pastor from another church who has confessed to having been involved with a 15 year old girl in his former congregation and at the time was awaiting sentencing.

To my amazement Christa or some one at her organization has included me in their list of those attempting to protect predators. Her by offering consist of a few words and phrases lifted out of their much longer original context and she embellishes them with her own reading of what is meant in an effort to make them look like evidence of her false claim. To her credit Christa states her purpose and that of her organization is to stop clergy who are sexual predators.

Should I have been surprised, to be on a list from Christa perhaps not. It has long been my position that her methodology and many of her accusations are less than ethical and fail to make adequate distinction between the accused and the guilty. I have said that she take on too many roles, from investigative reporter, to prosecutor, to jury and Judge. I invite all to read a month or so of her blog post for confirmation. That might not bother me if she where an average working housewife in a field other than Law. But with her training I have a notion that she that she could/should display greater respect for due process and accurate reporting.

In the list she inaccurately identifies me as "a retired Baptist Pastor", I am not. I did enter college in 1956 as a ministerial student but majoring in Sociology, after a few years I discovered other ministries apart from the pastorate. I also entered SBTS in 1963. after a year of classes in RE not SW, I dropped out to wait for them to get the social work program operating, and went to work as a welfare worker in my home county in Indiana. Later I was recruited by the Labor dept to a program to train counselors to work with "the Hard Core unemployed" . I worked with the Indiana Employment Security Div for several years before retiring in 1985. I latter worked in a Florida facility caring for mentally retarded and at the Lee County Mental health Crisis unit. I did return to SBTS in Jan. 1990 and earned an MA in Christian Education, in 1992. Then came the Takeover of the SBC. My last full time employment was at Parr's Rest a Baptist owned "Home for old Ladies" in Louisville KY., as identified on the papers of incorporation. That was while my wife was working doing her M. Div. at southern 1995-98. We have been members of American Baptist churches since 1999 while Trudy was studying at Hebrew Union in Cincinnati. Trudy has been a pastor since 2001. And I served as a lay person on the ABCNYS Board of missions for two years while in the Adirondack association. We are now in the Capital Area of the state.

As I have said previously In a few of my secular jobs, Employment Counselor, Welfare case worker, Mental Health worker, I have dealt with men and women who do fit the predator profile, and I am convinced many are redeemable and that it is a sin for those of us in the Church to turn our backs on them. Errant former pastors should be no exception to our redemptive efforts. If that bothers Christa Brown - I will be glad to chat with her on these boards not on her turf where she controls the edit button.

[William Thornton]

Ed, I got your PM and read your post above but I don't know where Christa Brown has your name in a list. If you want to link it or PM me with the link, I will look at it.

If you want to avoid being on her list, please stop contributing to any discussions of clergy sex abuse. After refreshing my memory of the discussion from April on this particular abuse case involving a 49 year old pastor and a 15 year old girl, I can see why you get special mention from Brown.

Your posts on the subject and your previous exchanges with Christa Brown are really painful to read. You will help yourself if you just avoid the subject. While I suspect that you would take the right actions should you be confronted with a case of clergy abuse in an arena you are involved in, you are either ignorant or woefully incapable of expressing yourself when discussing such things.

[Ed Pettibone]

[William Thornton]

[Tim Bonney]

Ed you are digging a deep hole and burying yourself. Please go take a course in clergy sexual ethics from your ABC region and you will find out that blaming the victim in any way shape or form is inappropriate. The clergy person is the person with formal and institutional power and the one with the full responsibility because of his/her position of leadership to guarantee that nothing inappropriate happens.

I would strongly encourage you not to say another word on the subject until you have taken a new course on the subject. The information you have is either erroneous or has been superseded by more accurate and recent information. I'm sure your region offers such a course for its clergy.

[Ed Pettibone]

[Ed Pettibone]

Ed: Did you receive the PM with map to HicktownPress discussions? Did it work?

[Tim Bonney]

Ed I'm aware you aren't clergy. But I still think the course would be valuable information for you.

[Ed Pettibone]

[Tim Bonney]

Ed I think you are missing the point. I'm sorry you discount so easily the training that denominations are doing in the area of abuse prevention. I've been to a number of these workshops and found them to be quite valuable. I have an undergrad degree in Behavioral Science from the 1980s and I can tell you that a lot has happened since then in areas of societal attitudes towards children, a lot more issues of abuse are now known than was ever known then. And a lot more study has been done on the subject since then. So unless you took a course pretty recently, I'm not impressed with how current you are on the subject.

The fact remains that you dug this hole yourself and that for some reason you keep digging. When you hit China let me know.

[Ed Pettibone]

[Tim Bonney]

Ed I've taken two classes in the area of clergy abuse prevention and healthy ministerial relationships. The first I took with ABC/IN-KY in I believe 1996. The second class I took on July 10th, 2010 given by the Iowa Conference of United Methodists. And I will be taking a refresher course every three years from now on as clergy serving in the UMC. For UMC clergy these classes aren't optional. They are a condition of appointment.

[Ed Pettibone]

[Tim Bonney]

[Ed Pettibone]

[Tim Bonney]

[Tim Bonney]

[Ed Pettibone]