Thursday, June 22, 2017

Why ABWE Needs to Shut Down

My husband and I have been silenced about abuse. When we lived in MN and my husband tried to get the state Baptist Fellowship to even be aware of Gordon Larson's inappropriate relationships with other women, he was ridiculed, silenced and shamed. No one would listen. Now, Gordon Larson, a former pastor of a GARBC church, is now serving a life sentence in the WI State Prison for sexually abusing his own daughter.

And we tried to warn them.

And they would not listen.

And many are not listening when it comes to ABWE. Many of us have tried and tried to ask some important questions of ABWE and its missionaries, to no avail. They simply won't answer us.

Two days ago, Kathryn Joyce published an article in the New Republic Magazine that blew ABWE's continued wrong attitude wide open again. Yet, I doubt anyone who works with ABWE will care. In this article, there are so many good quotes, but the one standing out in my mind is:


The group’s current president, Al Cockrell, responded to questions by issuing a statement. He suggested that PII’s report may include unspecified “misinterpretations or errors,” 

It did go on to say, 

but acknowledged that it contains “absolute facts” showing that “past ABWE leadership failed to act with integrity and accountability in our handling of abuse perpetrated by Don Ketcham,” and “utterly failed in our response to his victims.”


Let me tell you what's wrong with this statement. First of all, Al Cockrell makes sure to cast doubt on the victims by saying that the Pii Report "may include unspecified 'misinterpretations or errors,'" but he does not clarify what those "misinterpretations or errors" are or even could be. This leaves the reader to reach their own conclusion...this opens the door to doubt about the victims' accounts of what happened. To make an open-ended statement that in any way casts doubt on the victims, or even leaves room for doubt, is irresponsible "leadership." 

The article also states that Al Cockrell acknowledged that the report contains "absolute facts" but he does not specify what facts are absolute! Again, this leaves room for doubt.

How can ABWE think that someone who would be so careless be considered a viable leader of an organization supposedly representing the Living God? 

The fact that Al Cockrell said "past ABWE leadership failed to act with integrity and accountability in our handling of abuse perpetrated by Donn Ketcham" is easy to say because he's flinging blame behind himself to the past, not onto himself and what he has done/said and is doing now., which is casting doubt. What he's doing now is irresponsible, not showing accountability and not giving these victims their due respect. 

Casting doubt on them in any way, shape or form undoes what ABWE thinks they accomplished in their faux apologies and efforts to "make things right."

I am sickened by this latest display of dishonor by ABWE.

There is so much more I want to address from this article.

UPDATE TO THIS BLOG POST, SEPT 4, 2019:
As of today, 9.4.2019, Al Cockrell is no longer president of ABWE, Paul Davis was appointed president in 2017. Paul Davis served on the board of directors with ABWE and was part of the massive cover-up ABWE inflicted on Donn Ketcham's victims and part of the continuing culture of abuse within ABWE. 

~Tricia




7 comments:

  1. Not only should this organization shut down...the victims need to sue the ass off both the organization and the pervert doctor...take the assets gained and distribute to the victims!

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  2. Not only should this organization shut down...the victims need to sue the ass off both the organization and the pervert doctor...take the assets gained and distribute to the victims!

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    1. Instead they continue on as though nothing happened.....

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  3. While I deplore and am sickened and disgusted by what Gordon Larson did to his daughter, distorting the truth about his sentence doesn't help you make your case. He was sentenced to eighteen years, not life, in prison. His wife Nancy should also be held accountable for her complicity as she knew about the abuse when it happened and did nothing.

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    1. It wasn't a distortion, it was an honest mistake. My "case" is not the point here, the abuse is. I agree with you about Nancy. Having had many interactions with them both, I realized they had issues and wouldn't deal with them.

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  4. my wife and I confronted Gordon while living in WI. No remorse makes a person wonder about many things...Tricia, did you live in Austin MN

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  5. We lived in Austin for 7 years and my husband was senior pastor at First Baptist.....which is now, thankfully, closed. It was total Ichabod. Good on you for confronting Gordon Larson. We tried and tried to deal with him - and so many other sins while there.....and we were shut out even at the state level. They like to cover each other's sins and they do a good job there. It's where the devil lives.

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