Oops! They Did it Again! (Not ABWE......But...)

Again, just like ABWE (The Association of Baptist for World Evangelism, the abuse report found here), a Baptist organization,  this time a church, has violated a young girl and tried to make her apologize to the youth pastor's wife for what they call "her part" in the act of her youth pastor raping her.

Read the article here.

Sound familiar? Following the same path as ABWE, decades later, Columbia Road Baptist Church in North Olmsted, Ohio, not only turned a blind eye to a youth pastor who was exhibiting pedophile-consistent behavior, but they enabled him to do more and more. This horrific rape of this young girl could have been prevented. According to the article, the youth pastor, Brian Mitchell, started out by "constantly texting" this young girl and "complaining about his wife." When church officials found out about the texts, they "temporarily stopped," but picked up again and Mitchell's behavior escalated into full-blown rape.

I wonder if any of those "church officials" are women.

And now, church officials want that abused young girl to apologize to Mitchell's wife.

She could say, "I'm sorry your husband is a rapist."
She could say, "I'm sorry you go to a church that not only enabled a pedophile to serve as a pastor, but tries to take his victim down with him."

I have one word for Columbia Road Baptist Church in North Olmsted, Ohio: ICHABOD

Surely the glory of the Lord has departed.

The writer of the article I linked above, Stephen D. Foster, Jr., said, "Quite frankly, I think the church should be slapped with a lawsuit for not reporting Mitchell's harassment of the teen in the first place." I totally agree.

What does this have to do with ABWE? A lot. ABWE followed that same pattern and are following it to a degree even now. Yes, even now. I know people who are trying to get answers from ABWE and they have been ignored again and again. Some of us who want answers to some valid, hard questions, were told to "go to the town hall meetings in MI." Trouble is, not everyone with questions can travel. Why can't they just answer our questions? Why can they only answer questions in Michigan?

They are done. ABWE and its currently serving missionaries seem to think it's a done deal and that we should move on and support them as we always have. Huh? Uh, no. I, personally, will no longer support any missionary who serves with ABWE. They not only circled their wagons, they've shut out anyone who does not serve their purpose, and their purpose is not the gospel of Christ. Their purpose is to look out for the organization.

As for Brian Mitchell, I'm so, so glad he's in prison now, sentenced to 10 years. I will be praying for his victim(s) and her family.

It's not too late for Donn Ketcham to go to prison.

Shame on ABWE for not answering questions.

Look around your church. How many young girls are being harassed? How many have been raped by church leadership? It's more than you think.

~ICHABOD
~Tricia
PLEASE NOTE: This is NOT the Brian Mitchell, a BBC grad who is programming pastor at Spring Creek Church near Milwaukee, WI. Please do not confuse the two.

Pedophile in the Pulpit

This article in the Austin Daily Herald shows that justice has finally been served to a horrid pedophile who got away with his crimes for decades. He not only got away with them, he stood up each week in the pulpit, his congregational leaders fully aware of some of his crimes before they even brought him there. By looking the other way, they are guilty of allowing a pedophile to defile the children in their own ministry....their own children! Do they think it can't happen to them?

We knew he had issues and when some of his other sins were found out, we begged and begged the state Baptist leadership to look into him and do their own investigation. They would not. Instead, they actually accused us of "always stirring up trouble." We were not stirring up trouble; we were warning of the trouble already stirred up and worried sick about his victims. I still am worried about them.

Our warnings and pleas for independent investigations went unheard. No one would listen when we told them he had some questionable behaviors that needed investigation. Turns out, many of them already knew and didn't care! They continued to praise him and give him ministry responsibilities.

There are a few other men whom we suspect in that town. We've only had enough solid evidence to warn about one specifically and I'm happy to see that the current leadership of Grace Baptist Church, the church this pedophile was pastor of, has kept this other man out of their nursery so far.

Click here to read the entire article.

I will never be afraid to speak out about pedophiles, even if I go unheard.
I will continue to tip newspapers and get these things in print.
I will continue to warn people so that I might prevent just one more victim.

To his victims, I'm so, so sorry for what he did to you. We did try to stop him. They would not listen. We were stopping him for you. I hope you all feel some relief knowing he's in prison. I hope this gives you a sense of vindication. This is all for you, so that you know he's locked up and can't hurt anyone else, so that you no longer have to fear him in any way.

~Tricia