CAM Molestation Issue

[steve-in-kville]

He's currently married and has at least one child.

Oh wow, I did not know that. That certainly complicates things.

[paulyoder]

This begs the question, if his father-in-law knew about it, did his wife know about it before she married him? Or did she marry him innocently being deceived?

I know this is not going to be a popular opinion on here but Jeriah has repeatedly broken the marriage covenant, I would suggest she should be filing for divorce instead of renewing the vows. The way these things are done, the issues smoothed over and vows renewed, makes a mockery of the marriage covenant. Staying in this type of situation will ensure that she will never emotionally be able to recover and have a normal life.

[steve-in-kville]

I know this is not going to be a popular opinion on here but Jeriah has repeatedly broken the marriage covenant, I would suggest she should be filing for divorce instead of renewing the vows. The way these things are done, the issues smoothed over and vows renewed, makes a mockery of the marriage covenant. Staying in this type of situation will ensure that she will never emotionally be able to recover and have a normal life.

This is not our decision to make, thankfully. And I would use divorce as an absolute last resort to protect herself and the child. I know of situations where a church stepped in and had couples permanently separate, but no small children were in the picture at that point.

As mentioned, I'm glad this is not my call to make. I didn't realize he had a family until today.

[Ken]

I know this is not going to be a popular opinion on here but Jeriah has repeatedly broken the marriage covenant, I would suggest she should be filing for divorce instead of renewing the vows. The way these things are done, the issues smoothed over and vows renewed, makes a mockery of the marriage covenant. Staying in this type of situation will ensure that she will never emotionally be able to recover and have a normal life.

This is not our decision to make, thankfully. And I would use divorce as an absolute last resort to protect herself and the child. I know of situations where a church stepped in and had couples permanently separate, but no small children were in the picture at that point.

As mentioned, I'm glad this is not my call to make. I didn't realize he had a family until today.

We know that long-term child molestors like JMast tend to be highly manipulative and deceitful personalities. That is their stock in trade. So there is no reason to believe he hasn't acted the same way with his family and that they haven't been subject to the same relentless deceit, grooming, and manipulation for years and years. Anyway, I find this train of discussion to be unfruitful. Clearly we are talking about an utterly dysfunctional family. And he is unlikely to ever have contact with his family for decades that isn't with bulletproof glass inbetween.

The more important discussion is how are AB organizations going to respond to make sure that new JMasts don't creep into our midst and be given positions of unsupervised control over children. And how is AB culture going to evolve to make sure that these problems don't fester in secret like they have in the past.

[Aurien]

This begs the question, if his father-in-law knew about it, did his wife know about it before she married him? Or did she marry him innocently being deceived?

I know this is not going to be a popular opinion on here but Jeriah has repeatedly broken the marriage covenant, I would suggest she should be filing for divorce instead of renewing the vows. The way these things are done, the issues smoothed over and vows renewed, makes a mockery of the marriage covenant. Staying in this type of situation will ensure that she will never emotionally be able to recover and have a normal life.

I was wondering too if his wife knew about it before she married him. I absolutely cannot imagine marrying a man who had molested young boys much less having children with him. I'm wondering if it was her choice though. The following statements from the conversation with Harold Herr raises questions in my mind.
Harold Herr said this,
"Well actually the courting hadn't taken place yet because his potential father-in-law came down and I was so concerned that I said to him, 'Do you know about this?' and he said, 'Yes but we've checked it out and we feel like he's repented' and I didn't enter into it anymore."
Then the other man who was there at the meeting with Trudy and Harold said,
"Wasn't it Marian's dad that required that Jeriah live in the States for like six months? Something like that. Learn to know each other or something."

Did Jeriah and Marian even learn to know each other before he came back to the States before their wedding? I really hope so because otherwise this sounds like an arranged marriage and I didn't think modern day Anabaptists did stuff like that.

It makes me wonder how much say Conservative Anabaptist women have in what happens to them. I don't know if any of you read the Pittsburgh Post Gazette series that was done recently on sexual abuse in Mennonite/Amish circles, but the case of "Kay" and "Shirk" illustrates just how messed up things have gotten in regards to women always submitting to their husbands and church authority no matter what.

[Dan Z]

The more important discussion is how are AB organizations going to respond to make sure that new JMasts don't creep into our midst and be given positions of unsupervised control over children. And how is AB culture going to evolve to make sure that these problems don't fester in secret like they have in the past.

This is the more important question Ken - and it deserves its own thread: http://forum.mennonet.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2083

[ken_sylvania]

...
Did Jeriah and Marian even learn to know each other before he came back to the States before their wedding? I really hope so because otherwise this sounds like an arranged marriage and I didn't think modern day Anabaptists did stuff like that.
....

You'll find some of that type thinking among some of the Charity types.

[Aurien]

I know this is not going to be a popular opinion on here but Jeriah has repeatedly broken the marriage covenant, I would suggest she should be filing for divorce instead of renewing the vows. The way these things are done, the issues smoothed over and vows renewed, makes a mockery of the marriage covenant. Staying in this type of situation will ensure that she will never emotionally be able to recover and have a normal life.

This is not our decision to make, thankfully. And I would use divorce as an absolute last resort to protect herself and the child. I know of situations where a church stepped in and had couples permanently separate, but no small children were in the picture at that point.

As mentioned, I'm glad this is not my call to make. I didn't realize he had a family until today.

We know that long-term child molestors like JMast tend to be highly manipulative and deceitful personalities. That is their stock in trade. So there is no reason to believe he hasn't acted the same way with his family and that they haven't been subject to the same relentless deceit, grooming, and manipulation for years and years. Anyway, I find this train of discussion to be unfruitful. Clearly we are talking about an utterly dysfunctional family. And he is unlikely to ever have contact with his family for decades that isn't with bulletproof glass inbetween.

The more important discussion is how are AB organizations going to respond to make sure that new JMasts don't creep into our midst and be given positions of unsupervised control over children. And how is AB culture going to evolve to make sure that these problems don't fester in secret like they have in the past.

But is he having contact with his wife and children now? If he hasn't been arrested and jailed or given a court order to stay away then are his own children safe? A number of people on Facebook have mentioned that he has children so there must be more than one. I believe one of them is a girl but I don't know the genders of any other children they have. The boys he molested in Haiti were reported to be between the ages of 8-14 so hopefully if any of his children are boys they're either too young to interest him or he draws the line at molesting his own children.

[Aurien]

...
Did Jeriah and Marian even learn to know each other before he came back to the States before their wedding? I really hope so because otherwise this sounds like an arranged marriage and I didn't think modern day Anabaptists did stuff like that.
....

You'll find some of that type thinking among some of the Charity types.

Ugh. Really? I heard that Jeriah's home church is a Charity type church but I have no idea if his wife is from the same church or same type of church.

[paulyoder]

I know this is not going to be a popular opinion on here but Jeriah has repeatedly broken the marriage covenant, I would suggest she should be filing for divorce instead of renewing the vows. The way these things are done, the issues smoothed over and vows renewed, makes a mockery of the marriage covenant. Staying in this type of situation will ensure that she will never emotionally be able to recover and have a normal life.

This is not our decision to make, thankfully. And I would use divorce as an absolute last resort to protect herself and the child. I know of situations where a church stepped in and had couples permanently separate, but no small children were in the picture at that point.

As mentioned, I'm glad this is not my call to make. I didn't realize he had a family until today.

We know that long-term child molestors like JMast tend to be highly manipulative and deceitful personalities. That is their stock in trade. So there is no reason to believe he hasn't acted the same way with his family and that they haven't been subject to the same relentless deceit, grooming, and manipulation for years and years. Anyway, I find this train of discussion to be unfruitful. Clearly we are talking about an utterly dysfunctional family. And he is unlikely to ever have contact with his family for decades that isn't with bulletproof glass inbetween.

The more important discussion is how are AB organizations going to respond to make sure that new JMasts don't creep into our midst and be given positions of unsupervised control over children. And how is AB culture going to evolve to make sure that these problems don't fester in secret like they have in the past.

What kind of counsel you'd give to a wife like this is highly relevant to the discussion of how the AB culture must evolve to ensure these problems don't fester in secret like they do now.

Secondly, the primary discussion should not be "how to keep them out of organizations" but how to nip them in the bud. How to expose and deal with them immediately before they have time to climb the ladder of leadership in their homes, communities, and churches.