Stellar Snowflake Cluster: The newly revealed infant stars appear as pink and red specks toward the center and appear to have formed in regularly spaced intervals along linear structures.
“Child abuse casts a shadow the length of a lifetime.” Herbert Ward
I plan to post tomorrow instead of Wednesday.
As the numbers of ARBCA churches continues to decline, another molester in an ARBCA church is arrested and charged. Todd wrote this post at his website: Thou Art the Man and has given me permission to reprint it at TWW.
A damning statement by the judge in the Tom Chantry trial.
Basically, although ARBCA was not on trial during the Tom Chantry hearing, it is apparent to observers that ARBCA leadership did what they could to keep Tom Chantry from being found out.
Todd’s research into this matter also turned the fact that Woods had been arrested in the past for indecent liberties in the state of Washington.
According to sources, David Wood’s father, now deceased, served as pastor of First Baptist Church (GARBC) of Clarkston, WA. David Wood, up until a few years ago, would occasionally fill in as a preacher at First Baptist Church.
In my research of David Wood, I discovered, not surprisingly, that his recent arrest for sexual crimes was not his first. Below you will see documentation that Wood was sentenced in 1993 on two cases of “Indecent Liberties” in Washington state. I am not aware of what type of sentence Wood received, but I am guessing he did not receive any prison time. Wood lived in Yakima, WA from 1992-2008 and a source told me while living in Yakima he frequently drove over Snoqualmie pass to attend church in the Seattle area.
Here is the information I found when researching what the felony crime of “Indecent Liberties” consists of:
Indecent Liberties Under Washington Law There are two elements to the crime of indecent liberties. These are:
- The defendant engaged in forcible sexual contact without the victim’s consent; and,
- Either the defendant used “forcible compulsion,” or, the victim was incapable of consent because he or she was physically helpless, mentally incapacitated, or developmentally disabled.
The definition of “sexual contact” is any touching of the sexual or other intimate parts of a person done for the purpose of gratifying the sexual desire of either party or a third party. The definition of “forcible compulsion” is the same as used for rape. Indecent liberties is a Class A felony punishable by up to life in prison, and/or a $50,000 fine.
Mandatory Sex Offender Registration In addition to the above penalties, a defendant guilty of either rape or indecent liberties must register in the Sex Offender Registry. Sex offenders that intentionally do not register, or that provide false information when registering, face even more penalties. These can include additional prison time.
Port Cities Reformed Baptist Church is a small church that was formed in 1995. Nearly 25 years later they still do not own any property but meet in the Lewiston Community Center.
Former ARBCA pastor, Arden Hodgins’ biography sheds some light on the history of PCRBC. Hodgins was the first pastor of the church, being sent out by Tom Lyon’s Providence Reformed Baptist Church. Lyon’s church just recently withdrew from ARBCA. Lyon was good friends with Tom Chantry. Chantry fled to Lyon’s church after he resigned from Miller Valley Baptist Church in Prescott, AZ. Lyon presided at Chantry’s wedding and also preached at Chantry’s ordination service at Christ Reformed Baptist Church of Hales Crossings, WI.
Hodgins is no longer in the ministry, having resigned from Trinity Reformed Baptist Church in La Mirada, CA. (Trinity has also recently resigned from ARBCA.) He has returned to the Seattle area.
According to sources, prior to Hodgins leaving Lewiston, he managed to get Michael Kelly voted in as an elder. Not all church members were enamored with this move; nasty emails were exchanged and all church members CC’ed. Hodgins and Kelly managed to oust a few of the troublemakers from the church and many others left of their own volition. Michael Kelly was then ordained to the ministry in what can only be described as an unusual, private ceremony with Arden Hodgins and Tom Lyon present.
Soon after, Hodgins moved to California to assume his new job ad pastor of Trinity Reformed Baptist Church. Kelly called a church meeting and said he would be preaching and wanted the church to set his pay for this. Kelly left the room while church members discussed what he would be paid. They all assumed he was an interim pastor at that point therefore they also discussed setting up a search committee.
Here are two photos of the Administrative Council of ARBCA. Notice Al Huber’s obvious affection for Kelly? Huber is the father-in-law and financial underwriter of convicted felon Tom Chantry, the pedophile. A finer judge of character would be hard to find!
On December 16th I placed a call to Michael Kelly. I hoped to ask him a few questions about David Wood, a member of his church – you know, one of those souls for whom Kelly must give account to God. (“Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account.” Hebrews 13:17 NIV)
I began our conversation by identifying myself, informing Kelly of my name and the fact that I write a blog called “Thou Art the Man.” I said I wanted to ask him a few questions about David Wood.
Kelly replied he was not interested in speaking about David Wood with me.
Why not, I asked?
He replied, “Because the matter is in the hands of the authorities and I don’t want it all over “the blogs.”
Kellly then abruptly hung up! As you can see, the entire conversation lasted 46 seconds
Had ARBCA Pastor Michael Kelly had the courage to speak with me I would have liked to ask him if, in his role of keeping watch over David Wood’s soul, he was aware of Wood’s prior felony convictions in 1993 for “Indecent Liberties.” I would have asked him what type of support, if any, he and his church were providing for the abused. I would have asked him if he knew what church Wood was attending in the Seattle area when he made the weekly trek from Yakima to Seattle.
But alas, ARBCA Pastor Michael Kelly didn’t speak to me because he didn’t want the story on the blogs. Sorry, Michael. Stories of abuse of children in ARBCA churches have a way of getting out. Providential, I guess.
I support the victims.
I hope the members of Port Cities Reformed Baptist Church do as well.
I also hope they have the good sense to prevail upon their pastor to resign from ARBCA. If not, I suggest they find a new church. In my opinion, their pastor is hopelessly deceived. Perhaps it’s time for him to find a new line of work.
https://web.archive.org/web/20181127055744/https://portcitiesreformed.org/
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Sigh
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It never ends…
My latest articles dealing with sexual abuse and the United Pentecostal Church:
This pastor called his sexual assault of boys a “mistake.” http://blogs.spiritualabuse.org/2019/12/20/united-pentecostal-pastor-ronald-terry-litz-child-sexual-assault/
This youth leaders wasn’t the first instance of sexual assault involving this church: http://blogs.spiritualabuse.org/2019/12/17/united-pentecostal-youth-leader-diego-rodriguez-child-sex-crimes/
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Speaking of sex abuse, when I saw this article in the Washington Post, I reflected that the Boston Globe’s Spotlight articles on sex abuse in the Catholic Church are almost old enough to vote (first came out in February 2002).
Today the Post published a report that had been commissioned by the Vatican regarding the shenanigans surrounding Bishop Michael J. Bransfield. The Post has had the report for six months, the authorities have been issuing subpoenas to the church which have not been answered, so the Post posted its copy.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/the-bransfield-report-post-publishes-secret-vatican-document-as-parishioners-demand-answers/2019/12/23/69f77f68-0007-11ea-9777-5cd51c6fec6f_story.html
This is getting very tiresome.
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I’m not surprised about anything with the RCC anymore. I’m almost convinced it’s actually *systemic* there. What surprises me more (and places like this help inform me) is the extent of tragedy in the Evangelical world.
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I become convinced that is actually and fully systematic in every religious institution that gets large enough and lasts long enough to pass a certain min. requirement for corruption. The RCC and the SBC are way, way past those requirements as are all the other big names that we know of. This is fallen human nature at work. Jesus warned us about the god of this world.
My journey has led me to the place where I recognize that this is true. The way of the cross does not lead to power, wealth and fame. It leads the exact opposite way. Jesus praised no one as highly as the prophets. They were poor, no one liked them or wanted to listen to them and they became infamous to the point that most were murdered. This is the way of righteousness. We do not want to hear it, but this is where the scriptures lead if you actually analyze and pay attention to what the real Jesus Christ actually says…
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I should add that I just mean the issue of celibacy makes the RCC more systemic. Which is ironic for me to say, I suppose, since I am celibate myself. But I know it’s not for everyone (and Jesus explicitly said not all could do it) – which is the point on why I say it’s a problem to make it a requirement across the board. You aren’t going to get that many sincere seekers of celibacy that way. Only God can call us to do that. What you’ll get this way are men who simply use celibacy as a cover for the fact that they I don’t like healthy, adult females and raising a family (believe me, I love women. If it was up to me, I wouldn’t be celibate! I don’t do it out of some distaste for females or family). Thus I say the problem is system in the RCC. It’s attracting the wrong sort of individuals. Worse than “wrong” really.
But as for Evangelicals, I just can’t figure it out. There are no such requirements like celibacy. Yet it’s attracting the worst kind of predators anyhow. I’m clearing missing something huge here, and I wish we knew what the root of the problem was. Celibacy doesn’t help the RCC and institutionalizes predatory behavior – but there’s something else going on even before that…seeing that even Pentecostals, of all people, are experiencing similar things.
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A peripheral detail in Todd’s reporting caught my eye, probably because of echoes in my own recent experience: the collapse of attendance, from ~50 to ~15, after the appointment and ordination of a ‘teaching elder’ who did not have widespread support among the flock. This reminds me a bit of the ‘iron law of institutions’, that institutional office-holders are usually more interested in their own power within the institution than they are interested in the health of the institution itself.
I may be getting tiresome, nattering on as I do about the application of secular ‘proverbs’ to the churches. That such applications are possible is evidence IMO that, too often, the churches are not that different from ‘the world.’
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Where the major difference is there is more transparency and accountability in most secular institutions.
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The root of the problem is an authoritarian culture of compliance. Power not sex provides the predator with the kick they need and Christians believe there is no power greater than God.
Authoritarian structures like so called complementarian doctrines are tailor made for this garbage.
Celibacy has nothing to do with it.
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Jack,
Bingo. It’s power. Not sexual gratification. Power gratification in all its forms.
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“There is no Right, there is no Wrong, there is only POWER.”
— Lord Voldemort
“The only goal of Power is POWER. And POWER consists of inflicting suffering among the Powerless.”
— Comrade O’Brian, Inner Party, Airstrip One, Oceania, Nineteen Eighty-Four
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Another Church-Sanctioned, Church-Protected Short-Eyes.
Welcome to The New Normal.
They really need to institute a Take-a-Number system.
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I more or less agree, but would suggest that purity culture prevents children and young adults from mastering the emotional challenges of normal friendships. A sheltered, highly indoctrinated young man with limited social skills might look holy to grownups, but young women might see warning flags and avoid him.
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Unfortunately, blaming everything on Celibacy is a Holy Grail of the Lunatic Fringe of Progressive Catholics. (Probably the same ones who pushed the envelope until it broke after Vatican II.)
As someone who was NOT raised in Purity Culture but ended up internalizing most of its tropes (still wonder how that happened), I can attest that a Purity Culture “Good Kid” is very messed up inside and can be practically autistic when outside his Purity Culture Safe Space.
The problem is compounded by CHRISTIAN Purity Culture; adding God to the mix ramps up every jot and tittle to (literally) COSMIC Importance. God or Satan, Heaven or HELL, what a burden to put on top of every thought of a kid.
Much has been written on how destructive Purity Culture can be to the girls. Well, it’s just a destructive to boys but in a different way. Compounded by the Male-Supremacy “Complementarianism” and “Biblical Manhood” Hypermasculinity it’s often linked with.
What I find especially insidious is Purity Culture’s bribing boys to save themselves for marriage(TM) with promises of Barn-Burning Swinging-from-the-Chandeliers Dynamite Married SEX SEX SEX starting the wedding night. (You only have to wait wait wait until she says “I Do”.) That produces shall we say “Unrealistic Expectations” on both sides of the marriage bed; he’s expecting to make up instantly for all those years of InCel between puberty and now (influenced by all the locker-rom leakage from the surrounding culture, never mind the Pelvic Issue Obsession you get inside Churches) and she’s expected to morph immediately from Virgin Unto Death to his personal sex toy servicing all those paraphiliae he built up on his side of Purity Culture.
With everybody coming out so messed up and Expectations so Unrealistic, no wonder Christian Courtship(TM) and Patriarch-Arrranged Marriages (sometimes cash-on-the-barrelhead bride price) are also part of Purity Culture.(Feature, not Bug?) It’s the only way guys and gals so messed up by Purity Culture can legitimately get hitched.
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If it’s power, why choose these more congregational and/or “republican” type of denominations? There isn’t as much power to spread around there compared to, say, the cult of prelacy in Catholic and Orthodox circles. These freaks aren’t thinking “big” if it’s power that they want. Why choose the Pentecostal shack down the street? 😛
Strangely, I’d say that Orthodox circles have the highest base of clerical power (even more than Catholics.. who still have a ton of laity-based companies and organizations)… yet the Orthodox scandals don’t seem to be as *widespread*. Not that we know of at least (perhaps it’s all covered up, for the fact that it IS so powerful.. but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt).
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It’s a very complex topic but I consider purity culture part of toxic power structure within the culture of compliance.
Ostensibly one who chose celibacy as a way of life then that’s a choice.
However in the history of the Roman Catholic Church celibacy was co opted as a way of ensuring the priests progeny would not get their hands on the church assets.
Interesting to note that Ukrainian Catholic priests who also acknowledge the supremacy of Rome can get married.
Men and women were (and still are) pressured into the clergy. In some areas it’s the best way to leave poverty and get education.
But I digress…
The decision to be celibate in and of itself is not a root cause.
The power structure that controls or coerces our most inner thoughts and feelings to conform to an unrealistic standard most certainly is part of the problem.
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Nobody is immune. The abuse in all of these organizations is due to them being closed communities.
The RC & Baptists are coming to the forefront here because of numbers and their political influence.
Per capita you’re probably looking at the same numbers in any religion. Particularly more authoritarian ones.
Whatever your faith or not, we need to be vigilant, questioning, and protective of our communities. Particularly the vulnerable like children.
The solution to this issue starts in the congregation.
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I didn’t mean immune, but it isn’t as *reportedly* widespread. They definitely have scandals that do get reported on, but they’re almost comical half of the time or strictly adult scandals. Like one bishop getting defrocked recently for somehow making his way to Vegas and splurging a lot of funds on gambling. There are many financial scandals of a similar nature (pocketing cash, taking bribes, etc). There are sex crimes, but it’s often adults. There are “abuse” crimes, but many are actually disciplinary and not sexual… of priests being too “old world” and harsh for Western sensibilities.
I’m just mentioning this because you have the biggest and most powerful clerical base (ratio wise), but you’re not seeing the same crime reports. That’s why I’m finding these power theory a little dubious. It’s not leading to sexual crimes necessarily. I’d say the same thing for Muslim organizations as well, to be fair. There isn’t anybody as powerful as that.
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Really? See what happens to ya’ if you’re caught bedding another consenting adult; the requirement (celibacy) is by proxy.
Agreed. Purity culture is both unrealistic and unworkable.
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Not surprising, considering that a victim is in truth a life-long witness – a living testimony that identifies a predator. They know the truth, and the truth sets us free, in this case, from predators using the church as their hunting ground.
“Child abuse casts a shadow the length of a lifetime.” Herbert Ward
More than a shadow, child abuse records for a lifetime: the facts identifying the predator.
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If the predators are in the pulpit, is the congregation the pimp?
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Saraph
I will let this comment stand but you have it all wrong. A normal man who cannot marry and decides to break his vows will do so with a consenting adult. He does not decide to have criminal sex with a 5 year old boy. A pedophile is a pedophile. What you are saying has further implications. You are saying that every person who doesn’t get married and doesn’t engage in sexual behavior is at risk of becoming a pedophile. Thi is outright wrong.
Now, you left a subsequent comment that will not be approved. We shall place you in permanent moderation because that comment is derogatory of other faith ands cultural groups.
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In a time and place where political power (even entire countries and their populations) was passed from father to son like any other personal property. (With accompanying inheritance blood feuds.)
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I also read the article about the Catholic church this morning and was musing over the similar dynamics with the ARBCA story. Both deal with ‘reports’ that were commissioned with no plans to make them public, and then pretending to the membership that all was fine and the church could be trusted.
The question is asked, why do these scandals happen in various denominations.
Here are my observations, for what they’re worth:
Those with criminal intent know instinctively the structures that will support them.
A culture where those in the employ or official capacity of the church are implicitly trusted is ideal for pedophiles. An authoritarian culture fosters adults and children who do not trust their own perceptions or question things, but rather default to the authority figure; pastor, priest, elder, or whatever. Authoritarian culture fosters children who are afraid to speak up and where children will be disbelieved in favor of the “man of God” who is “doing such good things for God.” A culture where the average person is naive and unrealistic about human nature, where people tend towards magical thinking and superstition, blinds people to red flags in peoples’ character. It enables sociopaths to easily fool people with a superficial mask and the right lingo. A culture where the leadership has a firm grip on the power structure, where there is little transparency, where appearances are more important than substance, and where the leadership will do whatever it takes to protect and maintain the power structure, will be easily utilized by them for their purposes.
This is just off the top of my head, I’m sure other people can think of more dynamics these situations all have in common.
Provide the conditions and the pedophiles will be there.
If the ideal conditions exist but you haven’t heard of any pedophile scandals, then perhaps just haven’t been exposed yet.
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Headless Unicorn Guy,
I thought the celibacy requirement came into being because of some of the illiterate rual parish priest were keeping women as concubines, defending it by saying that the Bible didn’t said they could keep women on the side?
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This was my experience growing up on the fringes of purity culture. But it also created girls who were emotionally dependent on others for approval and afraid or incapable of making adult decisions on their own. I think both genders were affected, but in different ways.
And I agree with others that sex abuse is about power, not sex. I think the scandals in the SBC are proof enough of that.
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That is a very thought-provoking question. Having been in that type of congregation before… yes, sadly.
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Saraph,
Muslim, Hindu, Mormon, Scientology and on and on.
Abuse has manifested in all religions in some way, shape or form.
To imply that a certain group is somehow better than another is a hubris that allows predation to occur.
Folks have the impression this a new problem. Look at the timelines. This has gone on for a long time, years, decades, probably centuries.
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Not quite what I was getting at. I think it depends on the congregation. Some of them are terrified of the leadership, some have benefited from the church a la The Village church, in some of the bigger churches, they may not even see it happening. Predators are master manipulators.
When your entire life revolves around the church, the strange can be normalized. I think it’s like the frog in slowly boiling water… won’t move even it’s too late.
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Anyways, my wife is on the late shift, kids are tracking Santa on NORAD and I’m getting dinner ready while listening to Indie Christmas on Google Play.
Hope your Christmas Eve is equally peaceful.
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I’m wondering if this same dynamic is why so many ‘churches’ are so reluctant to adopt serious vetting protocols before ‘volunteers’ can get anywhere near kids and teens.
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I’m reluctant to compare church sexual abuse with the world’s oldest profession (which is sometimes voluntary). Congregations enable and cover up predation, and reward the predators. But the victims and survivors should not be cast in an even more dubious moral light, when they already face so many questions and difficulties.
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Would the analogy of traffickers better describe the congregation that enables the pastor in this case?
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Where the easy prey gathers, the Predators will Swarm.
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I think this analogy fits better considering a church on an institutional level, as I struggle to see how an unhealthy church leadership can survive without the support (coerced or willing) of a congregation. But you’re right, it falls apart when looking at the people involved at an individual level, and we shouldn’t forget the individuals involved and their personal stories and motivations. Thank you for the reminder.
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“Kelly replied he was not interested in speaking about David Wood with me.
Why not, I asked?
He replied, “Because the matter is in the hands of the authorities and I don’t want it all over “the blogs.””
Fact of the matter is, most of these abuse stories would never see the light of day if it weren’t for the Christian blogosphere; nor would the authorities ever get involved. Abusers would still be passed from church to church, with wayward ministers and their ministries protected by their peers. ARBCA has put a whole new spin on bad-boy preachers … reports of their misbehaving continue to hit cyberspace.