It has taken awhile to decide what to do, but (glup) I did it . . . I mailed a letter with the copy of the article to the governing body where I had my last call . . . the body that chose to do nothing about this pastor who may be . . . and this is the operative phrase, "may be" a serial sexual harrasser or worse. I sent it the old fashion way . . . snail mail . . . whether it gets there before they meet I don't know . . . at least the deed is done . . . my conscious is clear . . . I have done what I felt called to do . . . it is now out of my hands.
Whenever that nagging fear surfaces . . . that it will come back to bite me in the butt . . . I repeat my mantra -- "fear not" . . . this weekend reading randomly in the Bible these word jumped out . . . "for I am with you."
The odd thing is about 2 years ago I attended a meeting with some of the folks . . . some of the leadership, in that other place . . . part of the meeting was talking about how as a denomination we could no longer pass on pastors who had demoostrated bad behavior . . . of course, this man wasn't passed on . . . he was allowed to honorably retire . . . we no longer provide for any other kind of retirement . . . jsut honorable. I wonder . . . if the allegations are all true or even half of then, what does this say about what we believe about the word honorable? Has it lost its meaning?
This isn't a new thing . . . that we pass "problemed" pastors on . . . when I was in my 20's one was passed on to our church . . . he was accused of raping a 16 year old boy . . . the boy wouldn't testify in a church trial and the other eyewitness fled the juridiction when he got wind of it . . . his wife died several years later of AIDS . . . a few years later he followed.
I serve in a governing body that works hard not to do this . . . to pass on "troubled" pastors . . . we try to get them the help they need . . . even when it causes hard feelings . . . but isn't that what you do when you love someone . . . and aren't we called to love one another?
Whenever that nagging fear surfaces . . . that it will come back to bite me in the butt . . . I repeat my mantra -- "fear not" . . . this weekend reading randomly in the Bible these word jumped out . . . "for I am with you."
The odd thing is about 2 years ago I attended a meeting with some of the folks . . . some of the leadership, in that other place . . . part of the meeting was talking about how as a denomination we could no longer pass on pastors who had demoostrated bad behavior . . . of course, this man wasn't passed on . . . he was allowed to honorably retire . . . we no longer provide for any other kind of retirement . . . jsut honorable. I wonder . . . if the allegations are all true or even half of then, what does this say about what we believe about the word honorable? Has it lost its meaning?
This isn't a new thing . . . that we pass "problemed" pastors on . . . when I was in my 20's one was passed on to our church . . . he was accused of raping a 16 year old boy . . . the boy wouldn't testify in a church trial and the other eyewitness fled the juridiction when he got wind of it . . . his wife died several years later of AIDS . . . a few years later he followed.
I serve in a governing body that works hard not to do this . . . to pass on "troubled" pastors . . . we try to get them the help they need . . . even when it causes hard feelings . . . but isn't that what you do when you love someone . . . and aren't we called to love one another?
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