CAM Molestation Issue

[Josh]

Can you give me one good reason why this kind of thing needs to be plastered in the main stream media? And the reason "to make people aware" doesn't count as I think this story has spread like wildfire in the Mennonite communities and beyond, without the help of the main stream media.

Actually, this has been kept a secret for years. Mainstream media is one path towards awareness and getting to the bottom of the actual facts.

Back in 2004 there was an expose' done in the Lancaster Newspapers about sexual abuse. Being from Lancaster County certain elements of the articles were either not true, embellished, or twisted. The thrust of the stories were that sexual abuse is huge in Lancaster County. But almost all the stories were from people that lived out of state. You would have thought if it was out of control in Lancaster county, there would have been many victims, right here, that had stories to tell.

Grace, to be frank, you sound like someone who prefers abuse to stay covered up and hidden. This is wrong and against how Christians are supposed to live. If you don’t want stories in the newspaper about abuse, then stop the cover ups.

CAM diverting money to pay hush money to sexual abuse victims of one of its employees is worthy of being in a newspaper.

[mike]

What I understood Ernie to say is that some of what was said is true and there were some inaccuracies. I believe this is very possible. Trudy Metzger's blog posts, and folks' posts and comments on social media, are not the inspired word of God. We have snippets of information but none of us, her included, knows all the information. I am not going to place my full and complete trust in any person's perspective and knowledge.

Of course not, but Metzger’s information is well-researched, well-sourced, and she has brought it to the appropriate parties in private. The burden of proof is to disprove what she is saying.

Trudy posted on her Facebook page that she has corrected a few details in her original blog post about this story because she is passionate about truth. It would be nice if you would apologize to Ernie for accusing him of making "a baseless allegation she lied in her blog post" when all he said was that some things were inaccurate, which she apparently may have now corrected.

[Grace]

First off, CAM paying hush money to sexually abuse victims is a blanket statement implying that CAM as a whole was aware of the hush money. That is unverifiable. Yes there were CAM workers that knew about the abuse, but I highly doubt it reached the upper levels of the organization. To accuse the whole organization, for the negligence of a few is very presumptuous.

I am not opposed to promoting awareness, but the Main stream media often distorts and embellishes stories. You cannot depend on the mainstream media to report accurately especially when it involves Christendom. So why would you go to a secular outlet to report on the matter, when you can’t trust them? Yes the media will report when crimes are committed, but I do question the motives behind giving them a vast amount of information, that really does not serve any purpose in the secular world except to help the enemy in his glorying about this horrible situation.

This story has Spread like wild fire without the help of the secular main stream media so far.

[Wade]

First off, CAM paying hush money to sexually abuse victims is a blanket statement implying that CAM as a whole was aware of the hush money. That is unverifiable. Yes there were CAM workers that knew about the abuse, but I highly doubt it reached the upper levels of the organization. To accuse the whole organization, for the negligence of a few is very presumptuous.

I am not opposed to promoting awareness, but the Main stream media often distorts and embellishes stories. You cannot depend on the mainstream media to report accurately especially when it involves Christendom. So why would you go to a secular outlet to report on the matter, when you can’t trust them? Yes the media will report when crimes are committed, but I do question the motives behind giving them a vast amount of information, that really does not serve any purpose in the secular world except to help the enemy in his glorying about this horrible situation.

This story has Spread like wild fire without the help of the secular main stream media so far.

It sounds like you are worried about your reputation....

[temporal1]

It isn't easy for anyone, unfortunately. Children being hurt in more ways than one.

I was excited to get things from CAM and read stuff to my family and pray. They are excited to read the Billboard Evangelism team card with a couple recognizable faces. We had a Christmas where my parents came by with a load of secular presents and our house was chaos, the only thing that seemed to calm them was sitting at the computer looking at the CAM programs and them slowly coming over and reading about the programs to them. Eventually they got to choose one. They talk about that throughout the year.
Then to see their faces the other day to tell them CAM seems to not hold people to a proper accountability and children are hurt because of it...
I feel like I let them down...

i would suggest use this as an important teaching moment.

i would make it about the grave sin of idol worship.
no human is perfect, our most respected and trusted friends, or family, can disappoint us, or let us down. even our mothers and fathers, who, ordinarily would not harm us, can fail.
knowing and keeping God at center is our strength, He is our coping mechanism.

one sign of idol worship sneaking into our minds is when we become “so hurt” by others’ betrayal or bad behavior. when we keep the recognition that “none is perfect,” the disappointments don’t cut quite so sharply. idol worship is sneaky! it creeps in when we least expect it.

a few days ago, i read a post by someone, a grown man, who was devastated to learn Martin Luther King Jr., had affairs, and a seedy side. i empathized, saying it can be sad to learn those we respect and trust are imperfect. we are imperfect.

we are not to worship sacred cows. we don’t think we do!
but, when these big disappointments occur, they can serve as a good nudge to rethink just who, or what, it is we worship.

does that make any sense at all?

i try to convey this to my (now adult) children, even when they were young, “we are your parents. we love you!” but, only One Perfect One who will not fail you. worship and trust God.
it’s easier to forgive when, to begin, perfection was not expected.

it seems, CAM has some serious accounting to attend to. this must not be minimized.
like Hats Off, i would not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

[Valerie]

It isn't easy for anyone, unfortunately. Children being hurt in more ways than one.

I was excited to get things from CAM and read stuff to my family and pray. They are excited to read the Billboard Evangelism team card with a couple recognizable faces. We had a Christmas where my parents came by with a load of secular presents and our house was chaos, the only thing that seemed to calm them was sitting at the computer looking at the CAM programs and them slowly coming over and reading about the programs to them. Eventually they got to choose one. They talk about that throughout the year.
Then to see their faces the other day to tell them CAM seems to not hold people to a proper accountability and children are hurt because of it...
I feel like I let them down...

i would suggest use this as an important teaching moment.

i would make it about the grave sin of idol worship.
no human is perfect, our most respected and trusted friends, or family, can disappoint us, or let us down. even our mothers and fathers, who, ordinarily would not harm us, can fail.
knowing and keeping God at center is our strength, He is our coping mechanism.

one sign of idol worship sneaking into our minds is when we become “so hurt” by others’ betrayal or bad behavior. when we keep the recognition that “none is perfect,” the disappointments don’t cut quite so sharply. idol worship is sneaky! it creeps in when we least expect it.

a few days ago, i read a post by someone, a grown man, who was devastated to learn Martin Luther King Jr., had affairs, and a seedy side. i empathized, saying it can be sad to learn those we respect and trust are imperfect. we are imperfect.

we are not to worship sacred cows. we don’t think we do!
but, when these big disappointments occur, they can serve as a good nudge to rethink just who, or what, it is we worship.

does that make any sense at all?

i try to convey this to my (now adult) children, even when they were young, “we are your parents. we love you!” but, only One Perfect One who will not fail you. worship and trust God.
it’s easier to forgive when, to begin, perfection was not expected.

it seems, CAM has some serious accounting to attend to. this must not be minimized.
like Hats Off, i would not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Good advice- I think I may have entered into this when first seeking Anabaptism without realizing it- putting them up on a pedestal I should not have-

[MaxPC]

Southern Baptists are also dealing with their own sex abuse scandal.
https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/r ... 405737001/

https://caringwell.com/wp-content/uploa ... e-2019.pdf

It seems to be an epidemic across denominations and cultures. What do you think is causing it?

[knotdust]

I hesitate to even post any comments since this has been responded to by many with some excellent comments.

I grieve for the victims who are now scarred emotionally and socially because of no fault of their own.

I personally know of 2 very conservative mennonite churches where it was handled the best way they could. The one was a male school teacher in their church school. He was removed immediately. This was in days before mandatory reporting but I do believe that other schools were made aware of the situation and he was told that if they found out he was teaching school anywhere else they would report him. The other they had no clue until the authorities picked the man up when he came back from his on the road job. He is now in prison.

So some churches take it seriously enough that they deal with it promptly as I think we should. This sin of sexual abuse is prevalent enough that any church/organization who tries to operate without some sort of policy in place is a bit foolish in my opinion. Business places do it all the time in their employee manuals.

I believe that I have said enough and will probably not comment further.

[steve-in-kville]

I may have said this before, but I'm a bit shocked that the local papers/media in Lancaster County hasn't latched on to this yet. They do to anything else that involves the plain community.

Give it time. They will.
Trudy Metzger makes sure the media is well informed.

https://www.post-gazette.com/news/faith ... 1906110110

I heard last evening that local media is trying to contact someone at CAM and they hang up the phone.

[Grace]

I heard last evening that local media is trying to contact someone at CAM and they hang up the phone.

Give it time, they will contact Trudy, she seem to relish informing the world of all the sad and tragic details, (sometimes unverifiable stuff) involved in sexual misconduct in conservative Anabaptist circles.