[Vision2020] condemning rape

Tue Apr 22 08:54:38 PDT 2008

Gary, you believe Sue engaged in character assassination and bigotry by asserting that Christ Church consists of a group of patriarchal men willing to tolerate, even protect, males in their congregation who are sexual predators.  These are her words, not mine.  I agree with her general point, but I don't really know how they would tolerate, even protect, another sexual predator.  I only know how they acted when one was revealed.  And so I'll propose a minimum standard for responsibly, Biblically, dealing with active sexual predators who rape children in the congregation and perhaps elsewhere.

1.  Tell the police, which Wilson did. 
2.  Express horror, outrage, grief, and humility.  The public face of Christ Church during this was defensive and arrogant; privately, on his blog, Wilson continued the usual scatological, snarky sarcasm that he trades in so richly.  Remember the "youth minister" cartoon?  In context or out, a real knee-slapper, that.
 3.  Then tell the mothers, who are usually the ones who would notice trauma-driven behaviors or odd physical changes in their children, and tell the fathers.  Wilson didn't.  The male heads of households were told; it was up to them whether or not to bring the information home to their subordinate wives.
4.  Tell the community.  Wilson didn't, even though the  perp lived in Moscow and presumably emerged at some point from the Kirk social network.
5.  Don't deny that he's "one of yours."  Be honest here -- Wilson took pains to point out that the man was not an official member of Christ Church or Trinity Reformed.  The man studied in the Kirk's New St. Andrews, attended weekly service at CC, lived in a Kirk family's home as a boarder in a program overseen by Kirk elders, came to Moscow to be part of Christ Church, and would have, prior to the crimes, been identified as a Christ Church kind of guy.  I think that's what people mean and not the absence of official enrollment when they say he was "from Christ Church."  I think that honesty about the man's connection to your church fellowship is what people mean by "ethical" and "straightforward."
6. As the justice system adjudicates the case, which it did here with surprising results, be available to comfort the families and minister grace to the offender.  Wilson believes he did that.  He also counseled the predator, something he is woefully, breathtakingly, unqualified to do.
7.  Examine if there's anything in the pastor's teachings or beliefs that might encourage bad behavior or misapprehends the Scriptures and doctrines of the Church.  In response to my admonishment that the Kirk elders do so, one of them, our pal Dale, simply responds by making fun of Tom Hansen.  I think that wasn't quite what I meant by "sober reflection," and I'm pretty sure Christ didn't.

OK, gc . . . have at it, and have a lovely day.

Keely

From: suehovey at moscow.com
To: jampot at roadrunner.com; kjajmix1 at msn.com; vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] condemning rape
Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2008 01:26:16 -0700

A wildly reckless assertion!!!  Character 
assassination and bigotry?  Coming from you, Gary, I would call 
it displacement.  

Sue H.      

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: 
  g. 
  crabtree 
  To: Sue Hovey ; keely emerinemix ; vision2020 at moscow.com 
  Sent: Monday, April 21, 2008 3:13 
PM
  Subject: Re: [Vision2020] condemning 
  rape

  I defy you to provide even a shred of documentation for 
  the wildly reckless assertion made in the final sentence of your post. It is 
  my understanding that when evidence of misconduct became known within the 
  "congregation" in question it was dealt with promptly and in an absolutely 
  correct manner. To claim anything else is unsupportable character 
  assassination and bigotry. It is also, unfortunately, par for the course with 
  a certain group which prides itself on its unfailing tolerance.

  g

    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: 
    Sue Hovey 

    To: keely emerinemix ; vision2020 at moscow.com 
    Sent: Monday, April 21, 2008 12:14 
    PM
    Subject: Re: [Vision2020] condemning 
    rape

    Keely,  I appreciate that you read Dale's blog 
    and keep us in the loop.  It's important we are called upon 
    to remember a significant number of people in this community are willing 
    to twist a tragic issue and use it as a bludgeon to attack 
    those of us who define ourselves as liberal.  I think we shouldn't 
    be surprised this would be his issue now.  He's  representative of 
    a group of patriarchial men, willing to tolerate, even 
    protect, males in their congregation who are sexual 
    predators.   

    Sue H.

      ----- Original Message ----- 
      From: 
      keely 
      emerinemix 
      To: vision2020 at moscow.com 
      Sent: Sunday, April 20, 2008 3:16 
      PM
      Subject: [Vision2020] condemning 
      rape

Visionaires,

The Everlasting Blogstalker, Dale 
      Courtney, laments today on his Right-Mind blog that Moscow's liberals are 
      quick to jump on the bandwagon of disapproval of the recent revelations 
      that young girls in the FLDS polygamist cult in West Texas are routinely 
      forced into sexual relationships with older men who believe that these 
      polygamous "celestial marriages" are essential to the practice of their 
      faith, while remaining silent about things like young girls being forced 
      to "marry" older men in some Muslim cultures.  Dale believes that the 
      shameful tolerance his liberal foes exhibit toward the behavior of some 
      Muslims is hypocritical in light of their disgust over offshoot-Mormon 
      group practices, and he, like a good "Christian" libertarian man of chest, 
      must make note of it.  It seems that we liberals just can't muster 
      any disapproval of Islam, so busy are we, I suppose, hating groups that 
      call themselves Christian.  

Certainly Dale's worldview is 
      energized by the thought that he and his pals are witnesses to the 
      persecution of the Church from their vantage point of those suffering 
      under it.  It's a silly assertion, of course, as is his smug 
      denouncement of feminized, morally bankrupt liberals who pick and choose 
      their objects of outrage from a tortured position of ethical 
      spinelessness.  I am a liberal; I know of no one, liberal or 
      conservative, who isn't disgusted by the reality of adult men who engage 
      in sex with children.  I'm not aware of anyone who thinks that 
      religion excuses the horrors that men visit upon their victims, whether 
      that religion is a perversion of Christianity or a perversion of 
      Islam.  Because most of the people I know are rational, decent 
      people, they are angered by child rape and outraged that it can be, and 
      is, committed as a sort of religious expression.  Atheists and the 
      religious are united in believing that no God would be honored by 
      inflicting horror on the little ones he created.

I don't know if 
      Muhammed had a sexual relationship with a nine-year-old girl, as Dale 
      asserts, just as I don't know if Joseph Smith slept with underage 
      girls.  My not being Muslim or Mormon, or part of any group that 
      claims to be the "true expression" of either, has nothing to do with the 
      sexual sin of the men each faith reveres as prophets.  I am much more 
      concerned about my own faith and the men who claim it, and who, as 
      Christians, perpetuate patriarchy, hierarchy, power, manipulation and 
      sexism in their homes, churches, and relationships.   If, for 
      example, there were a Christian church in town that had witnessed one or 
      two specific instances of their men preying on young children or teenage 
      girls, I would expect that that church would reflect on any connection 
      between the rape committed by their young students of patriarchy and 
      power, sexism and sexuality, and the practices and teaching that the 
      predators received from their teachers.  I would expect that that 
      church would publicly repent of any gender-based arrogance, hierarchy, or 
      wielding of power it had exhibited.  I would hope that its leaders 
      would examine a theology that has as its origin the reality of a post-Fall 
      seizing of ungodly power and descent into violence, rather than the 
      redemptive, radical justice and equality ushered in by the Savior they 
      claim to worship.  I would pray that such a church would see that its 
      elevation of male power and privilege, its defense of patriarchy, its 
      practice of gender hierarchy and unilateral submission, and its defensive 
      clinging to the ways of the world and not the fruit of the Spirit are 
      sinful, reflecting the depotism of evil and not the gentleness of 
      Christlike love.  I would expect that.  

I would be 
      disappointed.

And so I will lead the charge, if that is 
      indeed  what Dale's asking for, by announcing that this middle-aged, 
      progressive, evangelical homemaker, and everyone she knows, thinks men who 
      sleep with girls are evil.  There.  Now that the totality of 
      liberal condemnation of rape and pedophilia has been thusly offered to 
      this erstwhile elder, let's see if he and his other patriarchal heads of 
      household pause and examine if the perpetuation of sexual violence on the 
      weak in the name of religion has more to do with bad theology, teaching, 
      and practice than with the perceived indifference of Moscow's 
      liberals.  It could be the start of an incredible spiritual renewal, 
      revolutionary in scope and profound in effect.  Or, Dale could just 
      write this off as the emotional blather of someone who just doesn't know 
      her place, a position that is probably a lot easier to undertake while 
      enjoying the Sabbath with other puny patriarchs.  

I guess 
      we'll see . . . 

Keely

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