Sick Puppy: Jack Schaap

Posted on March 14, 2013 by chucklestravels

The Chicago Post Tribune reports.

Preacher: Sex with 17-year-old was Lord’s work

BY Teresa Auch Schultz tauch@post-trib.com

Former First Baptist Church of Hammond pastor Jack Schaap’s affair with a 17-year-old girl last summer not only wasn’t wrong but was desired by Jesus Christ.

That’s what he claimed in one of several letters he wrote to the victim during his crime, couching the sexual relationship as part of her personal salvation and something Jesus Christ wanted.

“In our ‘fantasy talk,’ you have affectionately spoken of being ‘my wife,’ ” Schaap wrote in one letter. “That is exactly what Christ desires for us. He wants to marry us + become eternal lovers!”

Federal prosecutors included the letters in the government’s sentencing memorandum for Schaap, which was filed Wednesday evening in U.S. District Court in Hammond.

Schaap has pleaded guilty to causing the girl to be transported to Illinois and Michigan last year for a sexual relationship. Schaap resigned from the megachurch, one of the largest in the country, last summer after church members discovered his relationship with the girl and reported it to local law enforcement.

In his letters to the girl, Schaap often discusses how he helped save her from self-destruction, helping to put her on a “better path of living — that’s what we call Righteousness.”

In another letter, he talks about how he wanted their time together for three days — which appears to reference their time in Michigan — to show her how much she matters to Jesus Christ.

The girl and her family are still dealing with the ramifications of the relationship, according to letters they wrote to the court.

The girl wrote about how she spent her entire life in the church, listening to Schaap preach three times a week and being taught that he was a messenger of God.

“He told me to confide in him, to trust him, and he made me feel safe and comfortable around him as a man of God,” she wrote. “(Schaap) preyed on that trust and my vulnerability.”

In another letter written to Schaap, she says she was shocked when he first kissed her. When she asked if it was wrong, Schaap told her it was OK.

“You told me that I was sent to you from God, I was his gift to you,” the letter says.

She admits that by the time they were discovered, she thought she was in love with him and at first didn’t admit he had victimized her.

Now she’s had to transfer schools, and her family was told it wasn’t safe for them to return to the church, according to letters from her parents. The girl writes that although she still struggles every day, she is determined to “get through this and grow from it.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jill Koster says in the sentencing memorandum that Schaap started grooming the victim in April 2012, after an administrator at the girl’s high school, run by the church, emailed Schaap about how she was “frightened, confused and emotionally traumatized” and in need of guidance.

The administrator wrote that he told the girl to let other people guide her life for now and to trust her leaders.

Schaap encouraged her to talk to him about a past romantic relationships and to view him as a friend. The two called and texted each other frequently, including 662 times in the month, before he was discovered. Phone records show he instigated contact in all but five of those days.

The government’s filing says he duped church employees into helping transport the girl across state lines, telling them the girl was “in an extremely vulnerable state” and that he needed prolonged alone time with her to help her.

However, he really took her to his personal property in Crete, Ill., and to his cabin in Cadillac, Mich., once spending 36 hours alone with her. When the employee grew concerned about the girl’s continued absence and texted Schaap, he claimed the girl had fallen asleep on his couch.

He also engaged in sexual behavior with her in his office at the church during a youth conference, according to the government’s filing.

Schaap later lied to his staff when they grew concerned about the amount of time he spent with the girl by claiming the girl was on her period and was just resting on his couch. A staff member found photos of the two a few days later, which led to the federal investigation.

Koster disputes claims in Schaap’s own sentencing memorandum that he was stressed from the church’s decreasing finances and having to work 100 hours a week to make up for fewer staff members.

“The only way (Schaap) could have been working 100-hour weeks during the time period investigated by the government is if he’s counting the many hours he dedicated to grooming and sexually abusing the victim,” Koster says in the filing.

She defends the government’s agreement to recommend a 10-year sentence for Schaap, noting he agreed to plead guilty even before he was charged.

The victim dropped her request for restitution as her doctors still cannot estimate how much help she will need to recover from the crime. Defendants convicted in such crimes are legally required to pay their victims’ medical fees through restitution.

Schapp is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday morning.

Unto the Least of These…..Part One

Posted on July 22, 2012 by chucklestravels

Mack Ford Shoots when sex abuse mentioned

“Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

Mechille Searles is the last known New Bethany Survivor to leave us – and she did so far too soon.

As a small group of New Bethany survivors went to lay a wreath outside New Bethany’s gate in remembrance of Mechille (and others who passed away too soon), Maxine Ford, Mack and Thelma Ford’s daughter, came out to the gate. They had police-type dogs and proceeded to verbally harass these brave, grieving survivors. Maxine, apparently in such a hurry to join this “defense team”, even forgot to put on a bra. We can only imagine they were not at all pleased with this display of compassion and intended to make sure these ladies didn’t get the opportunity to talk too much about the abuse they all suffered at New Bethany.

As if the verbal assault and presence of the “guard dogs” wasn’t enough, Mack Ford landed an exclamation point on his position by firing three shots. In the video linked below, you can listen for the shots right after the subject of “sexual abuse” is mentioned. It would appear Mack Ford was neither amused nor grieved at what was being said by the survivors.

[WUBujt2-zyU]

Chuckles spoke on the phone with Simone Jones shortly after Ms. Jones returned home after her trip to Arcadia, Louisiana. Ms. Jones related that the plans were to remember their friend in a dignified way and then leave. Their intent was never to rant or protest. None of these ladies where trying to be hero’s nor do any of them wish to be called a hero. They merely felt that Mechille Searles (and others) deserved to be recognized for what they endured and what that lead to in their lives.

This is one of the hardest posts we have tried to write. It has been written, tweaked, deleted completely, re-written – all over and over. Mere words just cannot express or explain the horrors that surround Michelle’s story and those of so many like her. We have received 1000’s of pages of legal documents regarding New Bethany and Mack Ford, including legal depositions from Mack and Thelma Ford. Affidavit after affidavit given by former New Bethany residents tell of physical and sexual abuse while at that horrible place. Frankly, I’m growing sick of people talking about Jerry Sandusky when Mack Ford still sits in his compound.

This is a big case. Mack Ford admitted (in his own deposition) that he got the “burden” to start the girls home while on a mission furlough from Australia. His account tells how he met two “blonde-headed” 12 year-old little girls who were “pregnant by their own daddy.” He tells of how he got the “burden” to help little girls like these who were in deep trouble. Missing from the record is Ford saying when/how he or the pastor he worked with at the beginning ever reported their “daddy” to the authorities. Ford’s own words still make my blood run cold. He saw a huge issue, true, but rather than move to protect the girls, he launched his own “empire” working outside the laws designed to protect and punish in these cases. Do girls in that situation need spiritual guidance? Absolutely! But “daddies” like that need to punished to the fullest extent of the law.

Mack Ford’s deposition goes downhill from that point (if you can believe it). When he isn’t claiming “selective amnesia” it just heartbreaking to realize what Mack Ford has done and never been punished for. Reading through all the legal documents, we cannot for the life of us understand why Mack Ford isn’t rotting in prison? And it brings up other questions still unanswered:

Bienville County Sheriff Department what’s the deal?
Bienville County District Attorney WHY didn’t you prosecute?
Federal Bureau of Investigation why didn’t you follow-up when it was reported that Mack Ford raped girls across state lines?

Mack Ford is far more prolific than Jerry Sandusky.
Numerous newspaper reports from Louisiana and Waterboro, South Carolina tell of Ford-owned New Bethany homes. Olin King ran the one in Waterboro, SC. King was arrested and convicted of crimes against children.

And Ford’s “legacy” spread …
After Olin King’s arrest for beating boys, locking a 9 year old boy in a dark cell wearing only underwear, providing only a dirty blanket for “warmth,” treating them like dogs (Literally forming a chain gang by using dog leashes snapped through the boys belt loops) at the New Bethany boys home of Waterboro SC Olin King moved to North Carolina where King opened Second Chance Ranch. Olin King’s son, Doug King married one of his bosses daughters. Penny (Ford) King sent a series of unsolicited emails to a New Bethany survivor who didn’t even make the memorial trip to New Bethany. Penny’s messages, among other things, dammed the recipient to hell.

The attorney of record for King and New Bethany was at the time Bob Jones University board member. Which brings up an interesting (if not completely maddening side question) …
Why does Bob Jones University’s name keep popping up on the wrong side of these cases?

At the Memorial the survivors planned to remember all the survivors of New Bethany that have passed away:

Doug Gilmore (Note that Mack Ford claimed he had adopted Doug in his deposition. Doug Gilmore wasn’t legally adopted by Mack and Thelma, making Ford’s claim perjury. Doug Gilmore was found dead days before the Mother Jones article was released)
Angela Williams
Theresa Trahan
Joann Coltrain
Michael (Guy) Richardson
Mechille Evans Searles

Mechille Evans Searles Memorial Wreath

The Marital Rape Fantasies of Doug Wilson

Posted on July 22, 2012 by chucklestravels

On July 17, 2012 on Gospel Coalition Jared Wilson posted an excerpt from Doug Wilson’s Fidelity: What It Means To Be a One Woman Man.

Both posts have now been deleted from the Gospel Coalitions active website, in the (likely) event they were to also disappear from Google Cache, (current links below)

The Polluted Waters of 50 Shades of Grey, Etc

and

Shades of Outrage

The Editorial Board of Chucklestravels voted to make sure the posts didn’t disappear down the memory hole. Both posts are quoted in entirety.

First here’s Jared Wilson’s post he called, “The Polluted Waters of 50 Shades of Gray, Etc.”

Doug Wilson

“This passage from Douglas Wilson’s book Fidelity: What it Means to be a One-Woman Man was written 13 years ago, but I found it especially relevant in the wake of the success of 50 Shades of Grey and other modern celebrations of perverted sexual authority/submission. It is found in the chapter in the book on Rape, and Wilson argues that this sort of sexual pathology is a perverted version of good, God-honoring, and body-protecting authority and submission between husbands and wives.”

“A final aspect of rape that should be briefly mentioned is perhaps closer to home. Because we have forgotten the biblical concepts of true authority and submission, or more accurately, have rebelled against them, we have created a climate in which caricatures of authority and submission intrude upon our lives with violence.”"When we quarrel with the way the world is, we find that the world has ways of getting back at us. In other words, however we try, the sexual act cannot be made into an egalitarian pleasuring party. A man penetrates, conquers, colonizes, plants. A woman receives, surrenders, accepts. This is of course offensive to all egalitarians, and so our culture has rebelled against the concept of authority and submission in marriage. This means that we have sought to suppress the concepts of authority and submission as they relate to the marriage bed.”

“But we cannot make gravity disappear just because we dislike it, and in the same way we find that our banished authority and submission comes back to us in pathological forms. This is what lies behind sexual “bondage and submission games,” along with very common rape fantasies. Men dream of being rapists, and women find themselves wistfully reading novels in which someone ravishes the “soon to be made willing” heroine. Those who deny they have any need for water at all will soon find themselves lusting after polluted water, but water nonetheless.”

“True authority and true submission are therefore an erotic necessity. When authority is honored according to the word of God it serves and protects — and gives enormous pleasure. When it is denied, the result is not “no authority,” but an authority which devours.”

– Douglas Wilson, Fidelity: What it Means to be a One-Woman Man(Moscow, Idaho: Canon Press, 1999), 86-87.

Jason Wilson

Jared Wilson and Doug Wilson, wounded their brothers and sisters, and when people expressed their hurt Doug Wilson belittled them and told them to ‘retake their ESL class’.

Jared stepped in it further when he posted his non-pology, Shades of Outrage.

What if you published a post that was for sexuality that serves and protects and against “rape fantasy” erotica/role-playing and lots of people found it horrifying and sickening?

This is what I’ve been trying to wrap my mind and heart around since posting this excerpt from Douglas Wilson’s book Fidelity last Friday. The comment thread exploded with horrified readers, some of them more nuanced in their outrage than others, but most claiming to find in the excerpt an admonition opposite of its meaning. Meaning, where I had read a treatise against self-gratification and the perversion of authority/submission into force and violence and kinky sex, others were reading it as a treatise for such things. Obviously I find that odd.

Now that some more high profile bloggers are squaring their sights on the post, sending more readers over to peruse it, I suppose a follow-up is in order. In the comment thread there, I explained and clarified umpteen times, and Douglas Wilson himself pitched in, but it appears to be to no avail. We cannot make people see what they are committed not to see. Indeed, I suspect much of the outrage was stewing toward Wilson and The Gospel Coalition already, and I just unwittingly provided the first opportunity to vent it.

If I could summarize the excerpt — as I have already — I would do it this way:
The Bible lays out complementary roles for men and women in covenant contexts, in which men are meant to be the heads of the household and the church and women are meant to be their helpers. Because of the fall, this authority/submission design has become perverted. It has even become perverted in the arena of sexuality when authority/submission becomes about violent rape and even “rape fantasies” as found in role playing by kinky husbands and wives or in popular pornography for women.

That is why I was tying it into 50 Shades of Grey’s popularity. I thought it a deft point; perhaps what we see in this sort of BDSM fantasy garbage is a perverted overreaction to God’s good design of authority and submission.

That’s how I read the excerpt, and thanks to Douglas Wilson’s clarifications, I am content that I am reading it correctly. Here is what the excerpt is NOT saying:
Forcing a woman against her will is okay. (Indeed, it’s saying the opposite.)
Sex is just about a man’s “getting his.”
Sex is about a man dominating (or otherwise taking advantage) of a woman.

Those things are not in the excerpt but have to be read into it against all context. I found many of the commenters’ ability to ignore the final paragraph of the piece, where Wilson says marital sexuality “serves and protects” and does not “devour,” quite telling.

The phrase that most critics seemed to hone in on was this one:

“A man penetrates, conquers, colonizes, plants. A woman receives, surrenders, accepts.”Unable to connect these descriptions to “serve and protect” or the surrounding context against force/manipulation/kink, many decontextualized them and maintained it doesn’t matter what was meant, only what was said, and therefore what was thought to be said was assumed to be meant. Douglas Wilson attempted some clarification and re-assertion in a comment:

“Penetrates.” Is anyone maintaining that this is not a feature of intercourse? “Plants.” Is the biblical concept of seed misogynistic? “Conquer.” Her neck is like the tower of David, and her necklace is like a thousand bucklers. “Colonize.” A garden locked is my sister, my bride. C’mon, people, work with me here.Only a person with a poetic ear like three feet of tin foil would maintain that penetrates can only be used of a Nazi invasion of Belgium, or that plants means that a man must treat his woman like dirt, or that conquering can only be done by ravaging Huns, and that colonization can only occur in a Haitian cane break.

What I was talking about occurs within the bounds of a man and a woman who love and respect one another, mirroring the relationship of Christ and the Church. Anyone who believes that my writing disrespects women either has not read enough of my writing on the subject to say anything whatever about it or, if they still have that view after reading enough pages, they really need to retake their ESL class. A third option — the one I think pertains here — they could surrender the a priori notion that I must be crammed into their mental caricature of a conservative complementarian.

Here’s a question for critics of the piece: You want these words not to mean a forceful, degrading domination of women, yes? And here is Wilson saying he does not mean them in that way. So why not accept that? Or, instead of insisting they mean the opposite of what he says he meant by them, why not just call him a liar? That’s a quicker line to draw.

In the final analysis, I come back to my original analysis, which is that Douglas Wilson’s view of women is that they are to be cherished and protected and served humbly by men, even men in authority over them. This is the kind of authority the Bible prescribes, the kind that edifies and helps wives to flourish, not wither. That is my view of complementarian relationships in the home and the church, as well. I am a proponent of marriages that mutually edify, marital sex that is mutually submissive, and Christian relationships in general that “serve and protect” rather than “devour.” If someone keeps finding that sickening, horrifying, deplorable . . . well, I’ll just keep finding that bewildering.

I appreciated this comment from Bekah M and I’ll give her the last word on my site:

This entire conversation exposes what has become a serious issue for a vast majority of our society; there is a general inability/unwillingness to read beyond the most popular and/or polarizing definition of a word. Readers tend to be lazy; we want things spelled out for us so that little critical thinking is required.I would hope that your explanation of your choice of words would clarify enough to avoid Christians drawing sides and declaring war over a post with which we all claim to agree. From my understanding, all Jared was observing is that “50 Shades of Grey” is a prime example of how godly sexuality is twisted into dominance and aggression and that your observation in “Fidelity” is that rape (like all sin) is a twisting of God’s design.

Praying people will ask for an explanation and clarification as opposed to offering an attack based on the assumption that we’re all working with the same definitions and connotations. Your words are challenging and controversial to be sure, but the reaction to them here is surprising to me.

It was surprising to me too.

No doubt there are more comments to be made. The comments on this post are closed, but my email inbox is open. Feel free to send your continued thoughts and concerns to jared AT gospeldrivenchurch DOT com . I will be grateful for the sharpening.”

Rachel Held Evans has done a beautiful job of unpacking why this is vile, overt misogyny that does not even bother to hide behind standard complementarian words.

Grace at Are Women Human? points out, Wilson’s apologia for both rape and slavery is linked by his vision of a society in which white men benevolently rule over everyone else. White male domination is thus at the heart of Wilson’s belief system. This is not, I hardly need to stress, an orthodox view of Christianity – although some people who think like Wilson use the cross too, usually burning crosses.

The Gospel Coalition has removed both posts, but unfortunately for them, both posts are still available in Google Cache.

Forgetting the Here and Now

Posted on March 28, 2012 by chucklestravels

Easter weekend, April 5th, 6th, and 7th Bob Jones University’s Living Gallery production is scheduled to take place.

Here’s the quote from the webpage:

You’re invited to attend the fifteenth annual Living Gallery. This year’s new drama, “Somewhere Forever,” follows the story of three lives touched by the Gospel: A man facing life as a widower at age 30. An abuse victim unable to find peace. A 20-something who wants to break away from his past. When conversations in a local coffee shop turn to matters of life and death, failure and hope, Tyler, Lizzie and Chris must decide what to do with the claims of Christ and His Resurrection. How will each respond to the fact that they will all live somewhere forever?

“An abuse victim unable to find peace?”

BJU, how about dealing with helping those who have been abused find justice? How about Bob Jones III live up to what he said in this chapel message Bob Jones III answered.

Sexual molestation–it will not be swept under the rug, it never has been. It’s not the way we operate. It’s always reported to the authorities…Nobody would be kept on the Board or on the faculty who did things like that, who swept things under the rug.

Please open your eyes and ears that God created. Look and listen to the 100′s of survivors pain with stories very similar to a anonymous survivor quoted at the end of this post. Just one who went to Jim Berg for help. Jim Berg who teaches others how to counsel those who have been abused in a video series. Churches buy this series.

Here’s how one church advertised Jim Bergs video course,

Bob Jones University offers the Biblical Counseling series to help pastors and Christian workers deal with the problems confronting Christians. Many feel unprepared and inadequate to deal with the problems of life that they face and that are faced by those to whom they minister. Consequently, the “cure of souls,” which used to be the domain of the pastor, has increasingly been delegated to “professional” counselors, psychologists, and psychiatrists. BJU’s Biblical Counseling series consists of six video courses designed to help prepare the Christian worker to handle such problems as anger, depression, addiction, immorality, child abuse, and many more.

I’ve watched this video. He spends a lot of time, talking about how many he has counseled. The homes they came from–missionary homes, pastors homes, christian school teachers homes, even deacons homes from his own church–but he never once teaches these people how to walk through someone with reporting abuse to law enforcement. Not ONE time, while teaching this series does Berg ever mention reporting. NOT ONCE.

Now for that one survivors statement. This is what Berg’s counseling did.

I just cannot keep silent. I am one of those “abuse victims” who “cannot find peace”, but the greatest part of my struggle is that when I went to BJU for help, they covered up the crime, shamed me and rewarded a sexual predator. I have now heard this story from so many others that it makes me physically ill. From all that I have seen and heard, BJU does not condemn rape. They do not condemn the rapists. They condemn only the victims. There are faculty members there who tell rape victims that it is their own fault, not the fault of the rapist. No matter the age of the victim or the circumstances, they state that it is solely due to the victim’s status as someone who is impure and their impurity “caused” the assault. The rapist bears no responsibility. He is to be forgiven. From BJU’s perspective, that means that the perpetrator should face no consequences – no legal consequences, no publicity, no shame. They can continue in their roles as teachers, pastors, etc. They are free to find more victims. The victims, on the other hand, have to endure BJU’s “counseling” which consists of forcing the victim to repeatedly recall every detail of the assault again and again while the “counselor” points out areas where the victim should have done something differently, in other words, they must carry the blame for any abuse endured. The victim is repeatedly shamed and humiliated. This is all done in God’s name, ensuring the victim will never see God as a possible source of hope, comfort, or refuge. As more and more find they aren’t alone and begin sharing their stories, it is shocking to find that our experiences seem almost common. How many are there of us? How many more were sexually assaulted because our abusers’ crimes were covered up? How many victims are there who know that someone could have helped, but refused to do so? Why is this?? BJU, if you read any of this, can you PLEASE explain why you didn’t help? HOW can you hear the pleas of victims begging for help and turn your back on them? How could you hear them beg you to help younger siblings and just ignore it? Is your heart that hard? that cold? that filled with hatred that you truly have no room for compassion? You have absolutely no right to put on a drama about abuse. You have turned your back on the abused. Your kindness has been reserved for the rapists and sex offenders. How can you now pretend that you care? You have dealt with us as if you enjoyed our shame.

Lest you assume this is written out of anger, bitterness or hatred, let me assure you that it is not. I do not hate you, but the hurt from the decisions you made is intense. No matter how hard I try, I just cannot comprehend why you turned your back on so many. I want it to end to spare future students from hurt, but I also want an explanation. Why? Is it disgust because we are no longer “pure”? Do you see us as damaged, defiled and worthless now so it just doesn’t matter how much further we are hurt?

You Know Someone. Everybody Does….

Posted on March 17, 2012 by chucklestravels

Conservative statistics say that one in four girls and one in six boys will be sexually abused by their eighteenth birthday.

Think about how many that is tomorrow as you attend church. Look around to your friends, acquaintances, and others. The next time you must go to the grocery store, or a sporting event or concert, take a moment and look around. This statistic means that, unless you’re a hermit, every 30-50 people you come into contact with daily is a survivor.

I know it’s hard to believe that. However, CP Traveler and others on the Editorial Board will attest that most of the survivors who reach out to us, reach out privately and admit they were either shot down years ago, and have never spoken of it again, or very likely have never told a soul, but are suffering inside.

Remember, no matter whether you believe in God or you don’t we all know someone who is a victim of a sexual crime as children/teens.

It’s time that churches recognize the problem isn’t out there, both victims and perpetrators are sitting right there in the pew.

The following commentary by Dale Hansen has been out there for awhile. It is a commentary that was about Jerry Sandusky crimes. In light of recent events, we should all be reminded once again. Survivors of a sexual crime are the only survivors we don’t talk about. May I add, most of us don’t want to even know about?

It has been more than a month now since the sex scandal at Penn State stunned the Happy Valley and changed the lives of so many forever.

Former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky has said he’s innocent of the charges he faces for sexually abusing so many young kids, but he stood silently by while the Penn State president, the athletic director and the legendary coach Joe Paterno lost their jobs in disgrace.

Is that really the action of an innocent man?

But then, they stood silently by while being told that Sandusky was abusing the children he says he was trying to help.

Nobody’s innocent here, and those kids have lost their innocence forever because nobody talks about the abuse of a child.

The victim of a sexual crime is the only victim we don’t talk about, and maybe it’s time we do.

The Congresswoman from Arizona, Gabby Giffords, the victim of a gunman’s bullet to the head, became a TV show.

She was reduced to a shell of her former self. She couldn’t walk and she couldn’t talk. And when she eventually could, she thought her chair was a spoon.

And we saw it all because she was a victim and now a survivor, and we shine a light for all to see.

But the victims of sexual abuse? They stay hidden in the darkness, a reminder of the shame so many of them feel… and nobody should.

Sexual abuse of our children is the cancer that lives and walks among us, but a cancer survivor wears their ribbon proudly and we all stand to cheer as they walk by in their annual parade.

But who stands to cheer for the victim of a sexual assault? And much like cancer, we all know a victim.

It might be a child in your family… a cousin or a brother… the kid on the corner… a kid in your class.

We all know somebody. You might not think you do, but I know you do.

Because you all know me.

I was 10 years old in my little Iowa town. It really was the Mayberry of the Midwest. Everybody knew everybody (at least we thought we did).

A 16-year-old boy said, ‘Let’s ride our bikes to the ball field at the edge of town,’ but there was nobody there. He then started what Sandusky would describe as “horsing around” until he threw me to the ground and pulled at my pants.

I can still take you to the spot on the ball field where it happened. I know exactly where it was.

But then it was only 53 years ago.

He had my pants below my knees before he decided to let me go, and I don’t know why. My screams couldn’t have been heard. There was nobody there.

Maybe he was afraid of my dad, because in my hometown, everybody was.

But I never told my dad.

I never told anybody.

And too many times in the last month, I’ve had to ask myself how many little boys didn’t get away? How many lives did that monster ruin because I didn’t tell.

If he had stolen my bike… the glove on the handlebar… the dollar in my pocket… or simply punched me in the face and blackened an eye.. I would have told everybody.

Instead, I told nobody.

Because even then I knew no one talks about the sexual abuse of a child.

And maybe it’s time we do.

No one knows who actually said it, but we need to remember it now: The only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing.

The good men at Penn State University didn’t, and the innocence of a child was lost forever.

Talk to your children, and — more importantly — make sure that your children aren’t afraid to talk to you.

The innocence of a child is worth fighting for. The innocence of a child is worth the job of a coach. The innocence of a child is worth talking about.

That’s why I choose to talk about it tonight.

And it’s why at this time of year, every year, I want the Oak Ridge Boys to remind us all: “Thank God for Kids.”

More Proof that BJU STILL Doesn’t Get It!

Posted on January 5, 2012 by chucklestravels

Now that the Christmas Season holidays are past the next major Christian Holiday is Easter. Easter; the reason for which Christ was born, and lived, died and rose again, is celebrated.

Those of you who are familiar with Bob Jones University know that at Easter for many years now the University does a program called “Living Gallery” in which the works of art come to life.

One may be wondering what this years production will be.

According to the brochure pictured above:

“The years new drama “Somewhere Forever” follows the story of three lives touched by the Gospel: A man facing life as a widower at age 30. An abuse victim unable to let go of her anger. A 20 something who wants to break away from his past.

When a conversation in a local coffee shop turns to matters of life and death, failure and hope, Tyler, Lizzie and Chris must decide what to do with the claims of Christ and His Resurrection. How will each respond to the fact the all will live somewhere forever?”

This brochure was actually mailed out immediately prior to the Do Right BJU protest. While I don’t know what the script of this production is, I do know what the script for those who give counseling at BJU has been for the last 30 plus years. Have the rape victim repent of any anger and bitterness s/he may have toward God. But it doesn’t stop there. They are even to ask their abuser forgiveness for anger against a man who molested or raped them. Then everything is supposed to be fine. You can hear it here starting around 17:55 through 21:15.

Weeping softly.

BJU you still really don’t get it, do you?

Sick Puppy: Tommy Gene Daniels

Posted on December 20, 2011 by chucklestravels

Tommy Gene Daniels is the latest to be added to this blogs growing list of Sick Puppies.

Tommy Gene Daniels as of this writing is still listed as the pastor on the website of the First Baptist Church of Rio Linda, Sacramento County, California.

On December 8, 2011 Pastor Tommy Gene Daniels was convicted by a jury of his peers of 11 counts of 12 charges associated with molesting girls five different girls, as young as five years old in his home.

Pastor Tommy Gene Daniels was arrested December 9, 2010 by Citrus Heights police. He was originally charged with six felony counts of child molestation and held on 6 million dollar bail.

On January 1, 2011 the church issued the following statement:

“Until such time as the courts prove Pastor Tom Daniels guilty, we have an obligation to support him and his family.”

This statement also went on to say that accusations such as to what Pastor Daniels was facing needed to be tried in the court and not the media. This statement did not mention one word of prayer or Christian concern for the potential victims.

By the time his trial began, Daniels was charged with a total of 12 counts as mentioned above.

Brenda Daniels had lost her daycare license in 2003 due to substandard care, violations of California state regulations, misappropriation of funds. According to state records, the Daniels foster care license was revoked in 2005, when foster care employees reported Tommy Daniels threatened them with a gun during an attempt to remove a boy placed in their home. After these incidents occurred, Pastor Tommy Daniels and his wife Brenda Daniels ran a daycare/respite care in their home for adoptive children. Children who suffered from Reactive Attachment Disorder.

It was these children, troubled children who had suffered much, whom Tommy Daniels with his 400 pound, 6 foot frame chose to prey upon.

The four girls Tommy Daniels was convicted of molesting all had something else in common. All four girls shared the same therapist, a certain Mell La Valley. La Valley was the one who placed the girls in the Daniels home. La Valley was told by Brenda Daniels about the allegations by one of the girls, she along with Mrs. Daniels dismissed the allegation as lies. Neither La Valley nor Brenda Daniels reported the allegation to police as required under California Mandatory Reporting Statutes.

It is clear the therapist, Mell La Valley has some severe boundary issues. I hope her license is revoked, and perhaps she is brought up on failure to report charges. Mrs. Daniels too.

As far as Tommy Daniels goes. Gladly it is quite likely he won’t be filling a pulpit or providing daycare or respite care for vulnerable children ever again. His sentencing is scheduled for January 13, 2012. He faces 15 years to life on each count. Daniels could be sentenced to 165 years in prison.

After Daniels was found guilty, his defense attorney said the following as part of his statement,

”…[He]took it like a man.”

I can just hear his cell mate saying the same thing after Daniels is taught some prison justice.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It appears that Tommy Daniels may have molested a 2 1/2 year old girl back in 1988. There wasn’t enough evidence back then, and when the above allegations came out the statute of limitations had already expired. Here’s a statement from a woman claiming to be the mother of that child.

Tom he molested my daughter in 1988. I then immediately called them to report what he had done to my daughter back in 1988….my daughter was not 3 years old….I took her to the doctor, the only evidence was vaginal redness. She told me, “Tom did this.” He put his finger inside of her….she was too young and not enough evidence… then [I heard] again with the first police reported one not occurring until July 5th of 2005…By the 5-year-old daycare girl…Keeping in mind that the respite girls with problem behaviors didn’t come forward with the exception of one of them telling Brenda what Tom did to her…It is no surprise to me now why Brenda seemed to shrug off YET again. I then immediately called them again to report what he had done to my daughter back in 1988..The amount of years between my daughters molestation by Tom and these girls was passed for my daughter. It begs of two questions….How many more victims are out there…? and how long did he go in between molestation’s? He needs to be kept away from children period.

Anyone who is interested in getting Mell LaValley’s therapy license revoked can email the Board of Behavioral Sciences, the licensing board for Marriage and Family Therapists (MFT), etc. If enough people contact the Board, they will have to do something.
Executive Director of Board of Behavioral Sciences is Kim Madsen. She the person to inundate with emails about Mell LaValley. Please join me in requesting the revocation of Mell La Valley’s license.

The email address is:
BBS.EnforcementUnit@dca.ca.gov

What’s the Matter with a Little Levity?

Posted on December 10, 2011 by chucklestravels

C.P. Traveler likes a good joke as much as the next person (assuming the next person isn’t a humorless drone or an android) … in fact, I’ve been known to cut up more than a little and have received my fair share of reprimands for doing so. But even a “class clown” knows there are some times where making light of things just isn’t “Doing the Right Thing” …

The Editorial Board has obtained an audio copy of the December 9th BJU faculty meeting, or at least a damning 3 minutes of it. It’s posted on a YouTube channel, but I’m sure many of you have already heard it. If not and you don’t have the 3 minutes to spare, let me summarize … Marshall Franklin laughs at the Do Right supporters, completely misses the intent beyond the Phelps dismissal, and then openly mocks the wearing of colors as an action of solidarity.

In response to this, one outraged mother of a student sent Mr. Franklin the following (cited with permission, name is changed to retain confidentiality):

Sir,

I am grieved by your words in the faculty meeting on Friday regarding the Do Right Facebook group. You made negative remarks about the school alumni in connection with this Facebook page. Those remarks were directed at me as well, since I have affiliated myself with that group. As an alumnus, I was a student years ago that spoke to school administration regarding being an abuse victim. This was not reported to the authorities. I did not get the help or support I needed. BJU, as an institute of Christian learning and leadership, failed me as a fellow believer.

I am deeply grieved that you would so lightly set aside this Facebook group, and label negatively people you do not even know. They are a group of people genuinely concerned for people such as myself who need adults and leaders to stand up for them, not brush them aside.

The school would be wise to listen to what they are asking-simply that you as leaders of ‘the bastion of faith’ show some decency and true caring for abuse victims, that you review your reporting policy to reflect that you set a shining example to others and the future leaders you train in how to properly handle reported abuse. Because in my case it was sadly mishandled.

To make fun of us, and to continue to disregard those within your care, is even more grievous to the God you supposedly serve. Each of us will stand before God one day, accountable for our choices in life. What will you say to Him about the choice you make to a humble request that you, as a university leader, show you truly care for abuse victims by choosing to have your abuse reporting policy reviewed by an outside independent source?

As Christians we are called by God to hold ourselves accountable to the authorities of our country. We do not stand above the law, but are accountable to it. (I Peter 2:13-17) BJU, in professing excellence in all things, must then do nothing less than learn the proper process and have mandatory reporting in place for those that need the protection they deserve.

Thank you,

“Ima Parent”

You see, this parent gets it. She’s expecting a university to help a young adult sent there to grow and expand horizons. She’s calling them out for their arrogance (and being far more polite than Chuckles or I would have been). She’s not taking abuse lightly because of what she has seen and known herself. But would anybody like to wager on the nature of Franklin’s response? I promise you we’ll post it if and when it is provided to us.

The bottom line, friends, is that BJU is scared. Marshall Franklin is using levity to detract attention from what will happen on Monday. And I’m still willing to bet that the safety net so many of us have offered will need to be used by students who stand firm against the arrogance and don’t get to finish the semester (worth of the actual credits not withstanding). That, as I see it, is no laughing matter.

C.P. Traveler

Note-Correction 12/11/2011 @9:40pm: Chuck Travels received a note from “Ima Parent.” She is not a parent of a student. The account she refers to is about how she herself was counseled when she told Dean of Student Jim Berg about being sexually abused. She is one more person that has come forward to claim that the crime of sex abuse was not reported by Jim Berg to the police. Instead he read Leviticus to her. Her desire is to see BJU change so that others are not counseled in the same way, and that abuse is reported to authorities.

Bob Jones Ignores and Deletes Questions

Posted on November 2, 2011 by chucklestravels

There were many alumni and others who questioned the appointment of Charles “Chuck” Phelps to Bob Jones University’s Cooperating Board on the Official Bob Jones University Facebook Page.

Bob Jones University Official Facebook Page Logo

More than 24 hours have gone by without answers to the questions.

Bob Jones couldn’t bring itself to answer any questions about this, but instead it appears that these questions. and comments are being deleted from the official Bob Jones University facebook page.

Chuckles has expected this would be their action.

Never fear. Chuckles is here.

Chuckles saved them all.

Message to Bob Jones University! Just because you refuse to answer questions don’t make the questions go away.
You all, it seems you would have learned that not answering and deleting questions just proves the following illustration of a snowball rolling down hill. What is occurring once again, Bob, is like the snowball rolling downhill, the more you ignore it, or put more snow in its way, causes it to pick up speed. Other snowflakes who were not interested before take notice and then begin asking questions and wondering why nothing is being done. The same is true when you all make a deflection statement, then other snowflakes wonder what you are hiding, and more catch on. Just a word of advice. Learn from your previous mistakes when you have done this in the past, don’t repeat the same old same old.

Now for those deleted comments and questions.

I see a red sky dawning!

Woman Sue’s Former Pastors Church for Sexual Assault

Posted on October 21, 2011 by chucklestravels

On May 19, 2011 a woman told police that Matthew Jarrell had sexually assaulted her in his truck after offering her a ride home. She told police she had escaped after the man’s truck got stuck in the mud on a secluded road. Police respond, finding a man and truck fitting the description the woman had given. At first, the man, Pastor Matthew Jarrell denied any sexual involvement with the woman, but then confessed. He was arrested, indicted. While in jail, he died of an apparent suicide.

It was soon revealed, Pastor Matt Jarrell had a pending court date in his home state of Texas. Jarrell was awaiting trial for sexually assaulting another woman in San Antonio, Texas in 2007. He had convictions for solicitation and gun charges in 2003 from Baltimore, Maryland.

According to news reports, the woman Jarrell allegedly raped and sodomized in West Virginia is suing Jarrell’s former church for failing to perform a background check on their pastor Matthew Jarrell.

According to kwtx.com

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (October 17, 2011)–A woman who says she was raped by a Texas clergyman in West Virginia is now suing his church, claiming that church elders should have known their pastor had a criminal background.

The Charleston Gazette reported that the lawsuit names Open Door Baptist Church in Mesquite, where Matthew Jarrell was head pastor.

He was accused in May of sexually assaulting the woman, was arrested, and then days later was found hanging in his jail cell.

The lawsuit says that Jarrell had been awaiting trial on rape charges in San Antonio and that he also had had other brushes with the law, including an arrest in Baltimore for attempting to pick up a prostitute.

The woman, who is suing the church for damages, is identified in court papers only by her initials.

Members of Jarrell’s former church have claimed that they were not notified that Pastor Jarrell was arrested in San Antonio for a sex crime in 2007. Jarrell took the seniors from Mesquite Baptist Academy, the small Christian Day School, operated by the church to San Antonio for their senior class trip. Current and former members allege that the assistant pastor , Rik Parcell, knew of the 2007 sexual assault in San Antonio. Rik Parcell went to San Antonio to be with the students and told former members , the parents and the congregation were led to believe that their pastor Matt Jarrell was in the hospital suffering from “gall stones,” instead of his actual location, jail, for sexually assaulting a woman.

Indeed. It will be interesting to see the outcome of this case.

chucklestravels

Tag Archives: Rape