Biblical Mennonite Alliance and credential removal of past abusers

[JohnH]

Are you kidding me? 

“It happened 20-plus years ago.”
“They weren't minors.”
“He was honest when confronted.”

Okay, so perhaps you can clue us in and tell us what happened?

[R7ehr]

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 ....

What? Are you saying that this extended family has a track record of adultery? Or what are you saying?

[JohnH]

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 ....

What? Are you saying that this extended family has a track record of adultery? Or what are you saying?

Or perhaps they didn't have a track record of adultery if they "kept themselves to their own wives". I mean, that would be a good family trait to have.

[R7ehr]

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 ....

What? Are you saying that this extended family has a track record of adultery? Or what are you saying?

Or perhaps they didn't have a track record of adultery if they "kept themselves to their own wives". I mean, that would be a good family trait to have.

I hope you are right, maybe I read it wrong.

[Thomas_muntzer]

BMA is not an institution that represents the kind of "authority" to report an "abuser" to American authorities, let alone ones in Mexico (where I am sure the laws are quite different, although I am bemused to see that some seem to have a very high degree of confidence in the Mexican government).

That would be up to whomever was actually operating the orphange and its board. BMA is not a rigid conference-like structure, doesn't own much of anything, and doesn't control things like EBI. It's a voluntary association. Their power is limited to removing a listing in a directory - although "soft power" certainly counts too.

For those who don't like this... I'd like to hear you explain (a) why you think rigid, high-control power structures in churches are a good thing, and then (b) explain why episcopal-style high-control power structures didn't prevent abuse in the Catholic church, Anglican church in Australia, or many other places.

Brother John, I truly believe the debate isn't about flat, decentralized organizations versus hierarchical ones.

Rather, it's about what BMA, as an institution, has done regarding the issues that arose at its orphanage. I'm only just now finding out; I don't know exactly what happened. I participate virtually in a monthly meeting held by Destination Internationals (DNI), and on several occasions, we've prayed for the Lord to guide the work at this orphanage. It saddens me greatly to learn of these things, but when Jesus commands us to always speak the truth, He also means bringing light to terrible things that may be happening, even if they involve people from our own community or even family.

[ohio jones]

BMA is not a rigid conference-like structure, doesn't own much of anything, and doesn't control things like EBI.

Where did you get the idea they don't control EBI???

[Jeff Altweg]

OK I may clarify a bit , about Eicher's background ,what little I know of him.He was about 8 years old when I would have known him and his home family ...He is a very forceful speaker today , just look him up on Youtube, speaking as recently as Aug. 02-26....
The Aylmer Ont. Amish , have been a very corrupt lot , preachers and all taking part in some of the vilest sexual situations one can imagine ,I won't repeat them here in detail ,they're so bad ...and well documented, some involved minor children , jail time was served by several preachers , much of it was swept under the rug, so to speak.
It may be that's fairly common in mature Amish areas ....anywhere and everywhere ...A good bit of that may come from how most Amish look at and use and abuse their women , they have no standing or respect for them at all , just as objects .
And then the way they ,most Amish ,regard their preachers and Bishops , they're like untouchable ,for life .A preacher gets out of Jail for molesting his daughters ,he's put right back to preaching ...How vile is that ..

The Limited info I Have about Eicher , is that his acts are , as he himself described it as "Improper touching , or rubbing ,of young girls , but there was always clothes ,or cloth ,between his hands and the subject"....
That he ended up at the BMA Church in Va. Where the Bishop before him was a giant BMA Pillar,and BMA Bible school principle ,who was later exposed and jailed for molesting young boys, is remarkable indeed .at least he's not preaching today..Compared to him ,Eicher's misdeeds,decades ago, sound rather minor, indeed ....

[ken_sylvania]

BMA is not a rigid conference-like structure, doesn't own much of anything, and doesn't control things like EBI. It's a voluntary association. Their power is limited to removing a listing in a directory - although "soft power" certainly counts too.

I guess maybe to a guy like you $4MM in net assets isn't much of anything. For some of us $4MM would count as something.
What do they do with their $3MM to $4MM in annual revenue if they don't control anything?

[anndet92]

OK I may clarify a bit , about Eicher's background ,what little I know of him.He was about 8 years old when I would have known him and his home family ...He is a very forceful speaker today , just look him up on Youtube, speaking as recently as Aug. 02-26....
The Aylmer Ont. Amish , have been a very corrupt lot , preachers and all taking part in some of the vilest sexual situations one can imagine ,I won't repeat them here in detail ,they're so bad ...and well documented, some involved minor children , jail time was served by several preachers , much of it was swept under the rug, so to speak.
It may be that's fairly common in mature Amish areas ....anywhere and everywhere ...A good bit of that may come from how most Amish look at and use and abuse their women , they have no standing or respect for them at all , just as objects .
And then the way they ,most Amish ,regard their preachers and Bishops , they're like untouchable ,for life .A preacher gets out of Jail for molesting his daughters ,he's put right back to preaching ...How vile is that ..

The Limited info I Have about Eicher , is that his acts are , as he himself described it as "Improper touching , or rubbing ,of young girls , but there was always clothes ,or cloth ,between his hands and the subject"....
That he ended up at the BMA Church in Va. Where the Bishop before him was a giant BMA Pillar,and BMA Bible school principle ,who was later exposed and jailed for molesting young boys, is remarkable indeed .at least he's not preaching today..Compared to him ,Eicher's misdeeds,decades ago, sound rather minor, indeed ....

With all due respect, sir, I feel compelled to respond to your comment:

The language you are using in this comment is extremely dismissive. I understand that you used Eicher’s language to describe his own crimes, but the last sentence you described them as “minor”.

I understand that many people feel that abuse over clothing is minor or not as bad as full blown rape. But the reality is that the impact is the same on victims in many ways, and I would caution everyone against using this kind of language when describing it.

Also, please keep in mind that Eicher is using minimizing words to describe his actions. “Improper touching” is still abuse. “Rubbing” is still abuse. Him making sure there’s cloth between his hands and the GIRL (again the word “subject” is dehumanizing and objectifying in this context) does not change the fact that this is full blown abuse!

Eicher needs people to minimize what he did in order to retain some respect/reputation. I don’t care how forceful of a speaker he is.

What he did is evil. The girl carry the scars; and I’m not going to sit back while his crimes are minimized on this forum.

[I Timothy]

BMA is not a rigid conference-like structure, doesn't own much of anything, and doesn't control things like EBI. It's a voluntary association. Their power is limited to removing a listing in a directory - although "soft power" certainly counts too.

I guess maybe to a guy like you $4MM in net assets isn't much of anything. For some of us $4MM would count as something.
What do they do with their $3MM to $4MM in annual revenue if they don't control anything?

Something interesting shows up in Biblical Mennonite Alliance's IRS record online. BMA filed Form 990s for a number of years, and data shows returns in 2020 and 2023. However, 2019, 2021, and 2022 appear missing in publicly available records. Why aren't those records online like other organizations?

There's another interesting change. Apparently BMA is not required to file Form 990 because the IRS now designates it as a church starting August 2024. That may be entirely legitimate. What changed in 2024? BMA apparently went from an organization with a Form 990 filing requirement, like a non profit, to one classified as a church and exempt from that requirement. You won't see where the money is going anymore.

BMA still solicits missions funds from donors, including churches not within it's association. Lot's of questions here also with less accountability.