Ernie wrote:Judas Maccabeus wrote:Ernie wrote:
And one final point, the online publicity and broadcasting has consumed extra resources and energy from CAM staff. If people were really interested in helping CAM and the victims, they could have shared their findings with those who are part of the solution. I assume they felt that airing their thoughts and findings publicly was part of the solution, but I think it was a big mistake. I don't think they realize how much more difficult they made the situation. And I don't think they realize how much additional help they were to the Kingdom of Darkness.
For the record, I'm talking specifically about the publicity. I'm very much in favor of transparency and of exposing the works of darkness to those who need to know.
Would this have been swept under the rug if it was not for the publicity....I am now convinced absolutely it would have.
J.M.
J.M., Are you still of this persuasion?
Yes. Most of the time that is the normal panic response in christian circles when things go wrong. I have seen it too many times.
I was part of the evangelical missions community from the late 80s to the early 00s. I first heard whispers, than picketing of general council (C&MA). Yes these people picketed to get themselves heard, with denials still coming from the podium. What broke finally was a scandal of abuse, both sexual and otherwise, at Mamou Alliance Academy Boarding School. The Alliance had a mandatory boarding school policy in place at that time for all children. Finally, the C&MA appointed an independent investigative committee, and got to the bottom of the mess. An apology was issued, and counseling was paid for. ABWE and New Tribes had similar scandals occur. None came clean on it until publicity forced them to. Gospel Missionary Union, who had children in one of the same schools is still in denial last I heard.
The mandatory boarding school policy was abandoned, and we transferred to another mission, as the Alliance basically had no place to put us, and we "aged out." We were re-screened to what appeared to be much tougher standards. This included an interview with a psychologist that seemed to last forever, and yes, he was looking for that, or so I remember. My girls went to local expat day schools. Boarding schools for MK's has largely become a thing of the past, replaced by homeschooling and local MK schools.
A scandal irrupted in my church while I was overseas. What happened...you guessed it.
Sovereign Grace, which I have close friends in, same thing. Abuse, followed by a cover up, and denials. One of theirs went to jail. SBC, ARBCA same thing. Notice a pattern here.
In this case, I believe it is poor training, poor candidate selection, and poor supervision that is more to blame than anyone other than the perpetrator. Add to what seems to be a bit of suspect theology from his local church, and you have disaster looking for a place to happen.
The men were demonstrably good men, without the training to handle this, who made bad decisions. would hope I would do better. Maybe I would not.
I believe at the local church we have very good policies in place. Our lack of "junior church" programs, and the close proximity of the parents to everything reduces the risk. We use the same policy as the EPMC. This is about as good as it gets. I have total confidence in my local church and conference leadership. I wonder if this could have been avoided if policy were in place in Haiti similar to the mission we served under in the UAE. I will tell you, the training sure helped, if nothing else, it taught us what to look for.
So, yes, had it never broken publicly I have little confidence that CAM would have done any better than the groups named above, but the real test will be if it can avoid a repeat.
J.M.
