Biblical Mennonite Alliance and credential removal of past abusers

[GelassenheitBnksi]

An outside inquiry is very unlikely. Generally speaking, Anabaptists are entrenched in a mindset of exceptionalism that runs counter to the idea of hiring someone from the outside to provide perspective. Very necessary, but that would mean we don’t have all the answers.

We’re special, exceptional, and can’t we just get busy doing the work of the Lord, right?

CAM couldn’t bring themselves to do one, my guess is that BMA will take the same route.

In 2024, a BMA founding church, United Bethel, did use GRACE for an outside investigation, and the final report was made public and can be found online.

Also, did not another inquiry by GRACE happen in Harrisonburg, VA?

Word on the street is that BMA leadership formally rejected calls for an outside inquiry, citing it as being unnecessary. It’s one thing for BMA leadership to support a congregational inquiry, it’s quite another to call one on yourself. That requires humility that I seriously doubt exists. Hopefully I am incorrect.

[I Timothy]

An outside inquiry is very unlikely. Generally speaking, Anabaptists are entrenched in a mindset of exceptionalism that runs counter to the idea of hiring someone from the outside to provide perspective. Very necessary, but that would mean we don’t have all the answers.

We’re special, exceptional, and can’t we just get busy doing the work of the Lord, right?

CAM couldn’t bring themselves to do one, my guess is that BMA will take the same route.

In 2024, a BMA founding church, United Bethel, did use GRACE for an outside investigation, and the final report was made public and can be found online.

Also, did not another inquiry by GRACE happen in Harrisonburg, VA?

Word on the street is that BMA leadership formally rejected calls for an outside inquiry, citing it as being unnecessary. It’s one thing for BMA leadership to support a congregational inquiry, it’s quite another to call one on yourself. That requires humility that I seriously doubt exists. Hopefully I am incorrect.

When allegations within BMA become impossible to ignore, they:

Appoint an investigative committee drawn from senior leadership.

Select investigators who already understand the organization and the people being investigated.

Produce findings largely by interviewing leadership.

Reassure the constituency that the matter has been thoroughly reviewed.

Discover that the whistleblowers remain unconvinced.

Explain that critics simply do not understand the “complete picture.”

Then wait for Mexican authorities to contribute some additional perspective by removing the children.

I mean, this sounds like a robust independent accountability process, right?


/sarcasm

Each line sounds individually defensible but when taken as a whole it shows the conflict of interest problem.

Grace has investigated individual congregations so will BMA leadership appreciate the same attention put on themselves?

[Judas Maccabeus]

If you want an impartial inquiry, an "advocate" is the last person who should be leading it.

Why? (I confess that I know very little of what being an "advocate" entails.)

So, rather than be totally ignorant, I posed the following question on Google:

Should an abuse advocate be involved as a supervisor in an investigation of sexual abuse accusations?

(Normally I do not ask questions there that I don't already have an idea of the correct answer. In this case, I will depend on others here to correct the AI overview below. Some of the statements below - like legal nondisclosure 'rights' of counselors - make sense to me, but mostly I simply do not know.)

AI Overview
An abuse advocate should not serve as an active supervisor over the technical operations or outcome decisions of a sexual abuse investigation. Their standard operational role is structurally separate from law enforcement or corporate chain-of-command management to ensure an objective fact-finding process.
However, advocates frequently interact with investigative supervisors within structured multidisciplinary teams or independent audit capacities.
Core Boundary Conflicts
Evidentiary Neutrality: Investigative supervisors must review case files, evaluate evidence, and make determinations strictly on objective facts. An advocate’s primary ethical mandate is to support and validate the victim. Mixing these roles compromises the perceived and actual impartiality of the final investigation.
Confidentiality Privileges: In many jurisdictions, communications between a victim and a sexual assault advocate are legally privileged or highly confidential. If an advocate acts as an investigative supervisor, that privilege is eroded.
The info they receive could become part of the discoverable evidence file.
Chain of Command: Formal investigations—whether conducted by police or human resources—require supervisors who possess specific legal or corporate authority to assign detectives, issue warrants, or implement disciplinary actions. External advocates lack this institutional authority.
Appropriate Collaborative Roles
Instead of supervising the active case files or direct evidence, advocates interface with the investigative framework in specific ways:
Support System Integration: Advocates assist survivors during medical forensic examinations and law enforcement interviews, acting as a buffer rather than a process commander.
System and Quality Audits: Many agencies designate independent groups, including victim advocates, to review closed sexual assault cases periodically. These audits analyze case dispositions, testing protocols, and overall compliance with trauma-informed standards, reporting directly to top-tier leadership.
Policy Consultation: Advocates routinely guide law enforcement and organizational leaders in designing trauma-informed reporting channels, ensuring the broader framework protects the safety and dignity of the victim.

An “advocate “ would be firmly in the “we must believe the victims “ camp. That does not lend itself to an impartial investigation.

[Neto]

If you want an impartial inquiry, an "advocate" is the last person who should be leading it.

Why? (I confess that I know very little of what being an "advocate" entails.)

So, rather than be totally ignorant, I posed the following question on Google:

Should an abuse advocate be involved as a supervisor in an investigation of sexual abuse accusations?

(Normally I do not ask questions there that I don't already have an idea of the correct answer. In this case, I will depend on others here to correct the AI overview below. Some of the statements below - like legal nondisclosure 'rights' of counselors - make sense to me, but mostly I simply do not know.)

<SEE PREVIOUS POSTS FOR AI CONTENT.>

An “advocate “ would be firmly in the “we must believe the victims “ camp. That does not lend itself to an impartial investigation.

I am now wondering if there is a difference between a "sexual assault advocate" (term used in the AI results) and a "sexual assault counselor" (my term). My point is that if the advocate is working under the information privileges of someone like a pastor or priest, then their focus should possibly be primarily on helping the victim. (That is, report to the authorities as much as allowed by the victim, but not actively 'prosecute' the perpetrator.) Once the reported victim is separated from continued risk or influence of the reported perpetrator, what part does conviction and punishment of the reported perpetrator play in their emotional recovery and health? (This is my main question at this point.)

[I've added the adjective 'reported' here not to disregard or ignore the victim's testimony, or to cast any doubt on their truthfulness, but to turn the focus onto the injured person, to achieve their healing. I will repeat here what I said before, that I have not experienced this type of abuse, nor do I have any educational background in this field. But I DID experienced on-going 'bulling' in my childhood, and from people who have never confessed or apologized in any way.

I also dealt directly with a situation where a young man shot and killed another young man, and since I had known both sets of parents since these boys were young children, I think this may provide some sort of experience-level 'education' in the matter. The cultural 'rule' was that the death must have a response from the victim's family that results in the death of the perpetrator. The primary obligation of this fell to the father. But he agreed to allow God to 'settle the score' in place of revenge killing'. Culturally this 'shamed' the father, and he was also a fairly new believer at the time. (My feeling was and is that this revealed a deep trust in God, especially for such a new believer.) Obviously the actual victim was not 'healed', because he did not survive the 16 gauge 3T shotgun blast to his abdomen. Unfortunately we were out of the village at the time, and our emergency flight was not in time to even attempt to save his life, nor for me to speak with him before his death.]

[barnhart]

Neto, I don't know if this answers your question but my feeling is an important step in recovery/restoration of victims is when the crime is treated as a terrible thing. When this does not occur the victim is forced to live the non- reality of terrible, life changing injury being normalized.

The Christian response of forgiveness is notable when it acknowledges the evil as destructive and yet chooses not to respond in kind but rather give over the "right" of retribution to God. I think your story illustrates that quite well. A problem arises when a society or community moves from acknowledging the evil in real terms to quick symbolism that is quieted, swept under the rug and never acknowledged again.

Forgiveness is real but so are consequences and when a social group like a church denies the reality of consequences for the perpetrator they also deny the reality of consequences for the victim. I think this is a barrier to recovery and can cause further wounding. Such denial likely harms the perpetrator as well by promoting irreality. It is not until we realize how destructive our sin truly is and see it from God's perspective that we can be healed.

[Neto]

Neto, I don't know if this answers your question but my feeling is an important step in recovery/restoration of victims is when the crime is treated as a terrible thing. When this does not occur the victim is forced to live the non- reality of terrible, life changing injury being normalized.

The Christian response of forgiveness is notable when it acknowledges the evil as destructive and yet chooses not to respond in kind but rather give over the "right" of retribution to God. I think your story illustrates that quite well. A problem arises when a society or community moves from acknowledging the evil in real terms to quick symbolism that is quieted, swept under the rug and never acknowledged again.

Forgiveness is real but so are consequences and when a social group like a church denies the reality of consequences for the perpetrator they also deny the reality of consequences for the victim. I think this is a barrier to recovery and can cause further wounding. Such denial likely harms the perpetrator as well by promoting irreality. It is not until we realize how destructive our sin truly is and see it from God's perspective that we can be healed.

I understand the importance of the legal process of criminal conviction, but that doesn't always happen. Does this mean that the victim cannot regain peace of spirit & mind? I tend to think that while it WILL BE more difficult, I strongly hesitate to limit the power of God by saying that healing cannot come about without the apprehension and punishment of the perpetrator.

I did a quick Google search, and of course their AI is the thing that gave a response. I am shocked at these numbers.

Search Question (I specified for cases where the victim survives because the subject for this question deals with emotional recovery of the victim.)
What percentage of reported rape cases where the victim survives are never settled?

Summary of Case Outcomes
Stage of Reported Case- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Approximate Percentage
Never result in a conviction (Unsettled) - - - - - - - - - - - - 90% – 96%
Fail to result in an arrest - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 81% – 82%
Result in actual conviction or plea - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 4% – 10%

[barnhart]

I wouldn't say consequences are limited to the legal system.

[GelassenheitBnksi]

If these men resigned because of the orphanage situation, there’s likely far more to the story than meets the eye.

If that is the case, I would imagine that BMA is motivated to be in discussions with Trudy for the purpose of doing damage control. This would also indicate that Eicher is a very convenient distraction to a much larger story.

If 1Timothy’s insinuations are even partially correct, BMA has a lot of legal and criminal exposure.

[Jeff Altweg]

I know of the Eicher man involved,but never met him as an adult , I know some of his relatives quite well though ,They're the Stolls from Aylmer Ontario , The late great ,but very strict Elmo Stoll ,of Cookville Tn. was his Uncle , he resembles him a lot .That line had a lot of issues like that ,keeping themselves to their own wives ....The way I understand it , this all happened on the mission field 20 plus years ago ,did not involve minor children, and he was right honest about it when confronted .....where is the forgiveness that we all need and have experienced over our own lifetimes?
It's my contention that many missionaries we send out are like that ,or evolve into those situations , it's just so available and easy to fall into, that's why mission Boards really need to restrict service like that to a few years, then send'em back home to do real work......
And as for the BMA churches , I'm not a fan of their set-up ,at this point in time , they're regressing quite a bit ..

[I Timothy]

I know of the Eicher man involved,but never met him as an adult , I know some of his relatives quite well though ,They're the Stolls from Aylmer Ontario , The late great ,but very strict Elmo Stoll ,of Cookville Tn. was his Uncle , he resembles him a lot .That line had a lot of issues like that ,keeping themselves to their own wives ....The way I understand it , this all happened on the mission field 20 plus years ago ,did not involve minor children, and he was right honest about it when confronted .....where is the forgiveness that we all need and have experienced over our own lifetimes?
It's my contention that many missionaries we send out are like that ,or evolve into those situations , it's just so available and easy to fall into, that's why mission Boards really need to restrict service like that to a few years, then send'em back home to do real work......
And as for the BMA churches , I'm not a fan of their set-up ,at this point in time , they're regressing quite a bit ..

Are you kidding me? 

“It happened 20-plus years ago.”
“They weren't minors.”
“He was honest when confronted.”
“Where is the forgiveness?”
“Missionaries evolve into those situations because it's available and easy to fall into.”

That's an impressive list of excuses for Eicher. I can see why he is still doing Bible studies, his congregation doesn't demand accountability

Forgiveness is not the same thing as qualification for leadership. A person can be genuinely repentant amd forgiven while not being the appropriate person to place in a position of authority involving vulnerable people.

Describing sexual misconduct on the mission field as something missionaries “evolve into” because temptation is readily available is troubling. That's like saying accountants accidentally evolve into embezzlement. Adults make choices. Leaders entrusted with authority are responsible for those choices.

Ironically, you eventually arrive at the point I've been making in that **mission boards need safeguards**.

Asking “where is the forgiveness?” when past history becomes relevant to a position of authority isn't accountability.

Forgive? Absolutely.

Pretend someones past has no bearing on whether they should be in leadership over vulnerable populations?

Those are two entirely different questions.