They need to apologize publicly for their grievous mistreatment of the whistleblower. They should begin the church discipline process on Don Logan, NOT welcome him back to membership. He deceived many people and organizations. An investigation of the entire 30 year history of Logan should be undertaken.

Grace: There needs to be a trauma informed plan of action/care that provides a way for people to report concerns,

Yes!

The step this church would have the elders of the church resign immediately. It was adumpster fire and excrement sandwich of their own making. They all need to take a bite.

So let’s just say I was an elder in a church and I just found out about criminal activity like what we are discussing here. If for no other reason than to protect my own reputation I would blow the whistle. That would not be the proper motivation but these guys have the whole “reputation” thing backwards. Don’t they know that they will wind up on TWW?

This makes me think that in addition to being enablers, they are just stupid.

George: This makes me think that in addition to being enablers, they are just stupid.

I don’t want to insult their intelligence, but it’s clear that their collective Biblical/spiritual IQ is not very high. There is just no defence for hiring/retaining a pastor who had disqualified himself from ministry, who is also on a sex offender registry!

Grainne: I would never join an elder led church, where elders make all the decisions and await the occasional rubber stamp from the congregation.

IMO, congregational governance is the proper Biblical model, not elder-rule polity. Elders/deacons are to be servants to the congregation, not overlords.

Grainne: An ambitious desire to be in the ‘in group’, to be the decision makers, subsumes many so that they willingly toe the party line.

The lure of the inner ring, with its prestige and power, has been the downfall of many. Being a yes-man church leader is an ugly thing to behold.

Grainne: the priesthood of the believer, and the emphasis on soul competency place the responsibility firmly on each church member

Priesthood of the believer and soul competency are Biblical truths that are hidden in every elder-ruled church; you’ll never hear them preach/teach on these doctrines. If “Pastor” and his yes-men elders can prevent the church from knowing who they really are in Christ, they can control the spiritual daylights out of members.

“The Church Needs Some New Elders.”

Preferably elders who don’t want to abolish the sex offender registry because it causes “hurt” to pedophiles.

Lorne James is unfit to hold any position of authority or responsibility within the church.

Dale Rudiger: An investigation of the entire 30 year history of Logan should be undertaken.

30 years may not be enough. The investigation probably needs to go back to his time in Bible College in Cincinnati. I assume that the elders at Eternal Church have now read the case file from 1997. Two of the testimonial letters written by children are quite disturbing.

Dale Rudiger,

Can the case file be found online? I am friends with a member of the church and she has been told two very different things from different elders. I’d like to be able to show her the truth.

Bridget: Like I said before, the elders should be out as well. They hired him knowing . . .

If the “perpetual” elders missed this one, they could be perpetually wrong about a lot of stuff!

Max: If the “perpetual” elders missed this one, they could be perpetually wrong about a lot of stuff!

Wait…
PERPETUAL ELDERS(TM) OF ETERNAL CHURCH(TM)???
Move over God, there are those whose Throne is more Exalted than Thou’s.

(“Perpetual” and “Eternal”… Does anyone remember The Thousand-Year Reich that lasted maybe Twelve?)

Max: IMO, congregational governance is the proper Biblical model, not elder-rule polity. Elders/deacons are to be servants to the congregation, not overlords.

Your proper Biblical model also has a Dark Side.
When the congregation becomes Mob Rule.
When the congregation falls under the Mass Charm Person of a charismated Gatekeeper who actually runs everything.

“You’re just here to Keep Us Comfortable, preacher! And we can always find another preacher who’ll work for less!”

dee,
100% agree with putting precautions in place but allowing him and his family to attend. I am a social worker and well aware of the likelihood of reoffending. Hence, why we do supervised visits when this occurs within the family unit; along with treatment and counseling. If he goes to a different church, they may not be aware of the issue. There are struggles we all hide that may be “victimless” in nature, we all need help to fight those urges to sin, we all sin. You can also see a direct correlation in many studies that the perpetrators were more likely to have been victimized themselves as children. We should be willing to not just call out the sin/sinner but also walk beside them to help if they seek it.

Headless Unicorn Guy: Your proper Biblical model also has a Dark Side.
When the congregation becomes Mob Rule.

Yes, I’ve experienced that too … where influential members rule the roost … they are usually long-time members who think they own the church because they gave so much money to it, prominent businessmen in the community, and assorted religious bigmouths … most don’t have a spiritual bone in their bodies … they can get downright ugly at business meetings, demanding their way for everything from color of the carpet to color of the preacher! Yeah, congregational governance can get out of control, too. Come Lord Jesus!

Grace:

My heart breaks for the congregation. This whole situation must be incredibly difficult on so many levels for all involved.

We went to a church that went through a “revelation” and attempted (but failed) cover up by the elders.

Many years later that church is a shell of what it used to be. It destroyed a great community. To this day I am still affected by the whole series of events and I still mourn the loss of that community. We were all collateral damage.

The victim and her family were obviously affected many orders of magnitude more.

What a travesty these things are.

There is no situation like this where the pastors or elders who are involved in the actions and cover-up should be allowed in ministry ever again. Be a member? Maybe, depending on their contrition. But be in any form of leadership? H— no.

Afterburne: The victim and her family were obviously affected many orders of magnitude more.

They were at Ground Zero, but you were still in the splash zone.

dee: we are called to love, but that love means we are to be wise as serpents to protect the innocent

We are also called to forgive, but forgiveness doesn’t mean that we are to be so open-minded about sin in the camp that our spiritual brains fall out. Church bad boys have been know to take advantage of forgiving hearts to transgress again. We read about them all the time on TWW.

Bridget: No one here advocates shunning a repentant person.

Two things always happen with TWW posts like this. (1) There are always church members who defend their pastor, and (2) Christians who post concerns about such church leaders always catch hell from the same members.

As Christians, we all understand repentance and forgiveness. But as Christians, we should all understand when lines are crossed that demand we protect the little ones by exercising tough love by not restoring a pastor who abused a child. Forgive them if they repent? Certainly. Restore them to ministry. Absolutely not! Their transgression disqualified them from that sacred office permanently. There are other places they can serve in the Body of Christ, without shunning but with close supervision.

To clarify, there were two girls from Kirklin who were interviewed,one of whom was the SA victim and one who was groomed and in process. The latter he kissed on the lips on multiple occasions and on one occasion told her that he wanted to walk in the woods and rape her.

The two letters that I spoke of were testimonial letters on behalf of Logan from two sisters, 12 and 13. Their mother let them go with him on a trip to Cincinnati. Both said that he did nothing to them, but one said that he hardly spent any time at all with them. There was a third girl, a friend of the sisters, who also was on the trip.

Logan was careful to confirm that his victim was 14 (the law is much harsher for 13 and under). My thought was, “what was he doing in Cincinnati?” The crime that he was convicted for occurred at Kirklin where he was the victim’s former youth pastor, not in Geneva where he was then an associate pastor. I was concerned about possible victim(s) in Cincinnati where he graduated from Bible College. Also I was concerned about the friend mentioned in the 12 yo’s letter.

Dee also has the file, and I think she will be posting something this week.

There is a post on the Fort Mill Sun Facebook page that states the files were retrieved by another member on 7/4. I cannot imagine that leadership reviewed the file prior to the 7/7 service.

Dale Rudiger: It has been confirmed that they did not receive the file until the evening after the service.

I am certainly relieved about that!

Muff Potter,

You are correct!