| Author | Message | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 10465 Registered: 12-2003  |
Richard found this news story this morning. It caught my attention in a special way because the school mentioned in the story—Pleasant Hill Junior Academy—is the first place I taught after graduating from college. It's yet another story about a teacher who was physically abusive to a student—but instead of being fired, he was transferred to another SDA school. The offenses were repeated, and now the facts are emerging that not only was this teacher physically abusive but sexually abusive as well. One of the lawyers for the defendant says he's noticed there seems to be a tendency for the Adventist church to refuse to deal decisively with abusive teachers and authority figures and to simply move these offenders from one venue to another. He is suggesting it might be necessary for him not only to deal with the offending teachers but to file charges against the church for refusing to deal with this teacher. You can read the story here: http://www.foxreno.com/news/21177471/detail.html This would be simply an interesting story if it weren't just one more in a long line of similar offenses within Adventism. This is just not an isolated problem; this sort of thing is far more common in Adventism than most people realize or admit. Colleen | ||
| Bb Registered user Username: Bb Post Number: 573 Registered: 7-2004 |
In one academy there was a young married teacher who came to teach. He was immediately ordained as either an elder or deacon. He carried on an affair with one of the students, and just like you said, Colleen, he was transferred with no repercussion. My niece was friends with the girl who was his victim. In order to keep things quiet, they are allowing sex offenders to move about in the sda system. Sick! | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 7557 Registered: 3-2004  |
I pray many people will call in to the police and attorneys to report what the %^&$ did to them. Adventists have gotten away with this far to long. Diana L | ||
| Bskillet Registered user Username: Bskillet Post Number: 601 Registered: 8-2008 |
The Catholic church did the same thing for a while with its pedophile priests. Both SDA's and Catholics believe their heirarchy is God's chosen institution. As long as you think your organizational system is God's chosen system or institution, then you will not be able to be honest with yourself or others about problems within it. Your identity depends on the continued power of the system. This can also be a problem with any of us if we fail to differentiate the church from the building/institution/traditions that house her. | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 7560 Registered: 3-2004 |
Bskillet, I thought of that when I wrote my post last night but was to tired to mention about the Catholics. Thanks for mentioning it. Diana | ||
| Doc Registered user Username: Doc Post Number: 428 Registered: 2-2003  |
This sort of thing happens when the gospel is replaced by man-made ideas. Not that I am blaming any individuals, but the gospel has power to transform lives (Romans 1: 16-17), compared with religion, which does not (2Tim 3: 1-5). Jesus inside us, the real gospel, transforms us from the inside out. All the law can do is acuse us, that we have miserably failed. Praise God for the real gospel! Adrian | ||
| Freedom55 Registered user Username: Freedom55 Post Number: 29 Registered: 3-2008 |
It would be a mistake to think this kind of thing only happens in the Adventist or Catholic churches. It can happen to any organization or group. Pedophiles target religious groups and cloak themselves in a religious guise. For this reason we all need to be vigilant. The sin of the Adventist church is cover up and denial. | ||
| Jorgfe Registered user Username: Jorgfe Post Number: 1513 Registered: 11-2005 |
This sort of problem is endemic within Adventism. Many of of remember how Claudia Burrow came to Pastor Morris Vendon for "spiritual counseling" because the Seventh-day Adventist Church promotes him as a leader in this area. Little did she know the kind of "counseling" that she would receive -- complete with Pastor Morris Vendon's hidden video camera. She was so humiliated by this "experience" that she finally came out with a book exposing Pastor Morris Vendon as a sex pervert masquerading as a very spiritual leading SDA evangelist. Claudia Burrow's book is called "Unrighteousness Uncovered". She described very intimate physical details of Pastor Morris Vendon's anatomy that no one would know without his agreeing to expose himself in this manner. As the victim of Pastor Morris Vendon's sexual fantasies, Claudia Burrow plead with SDA conference officials to verify her story. Instead the conference officials attempted to silence her, and moved Morris Vendon on to a different job. You can read the details at: http://93.152.172.97/dataup/SDABG.UNION/SDA.defence.arhiv/SDA%20defence/Book%20the%20new%20order/thetruthabout_mv.htm The details of "Chapter 8 -- His Recreational Vehicle" are so graphic that I am not going to repeat them here. The question is, "If this is not true the why has the conference moved Morris Vendon on, and refused to dialog with Claudia"? And that is just the tip of the iceberg. Claudia provides so much detail, included requesting that Pastor Morris Vendon submit to a doctor's examination to verify certain physical characteristics of his anatomy. http://93.152.172.97/dataup/SDABG.UNION/SDA.defence.arhiv/SDA%20defence/Book%20the%20new%20order/thetruthabout_mvbook2.htm http://religiouscounterfeits.netfirms.com/MV/thetruthabout_mv.htm http://religiouscounterfeits.netfirms.com/MV/thetruthabout_mvbook2.htm And the Seventh-day Adventist Church, instead of dealing with these issues, just continues to rake in more profit from his books and do spin control. They, in essence, wear down the victim, who just wants to get on with their life. Morris Venden was not forthcoming, and refused to submit to a lie detector test and has been most unwilling to be open and above board about the matter. On the contrary his accuser has submitted to seven lie detector tests by a polygraph examiner with experience in administering polygraph examination to over 14,000, and absolutely passed all her tests. Collin Standish talks about this in his book "The Perils of Timesetting", See page 301 for an excerpt: http://books.google.com/books?id=i3cxKI4bkewC&pg=PA301 Gilbert Jorgensen | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 7565 Registered: 3-2004 |
The very sad thing about this all, within Catholocism and Adventism, is that both churches chose not to deal with the perpetrators and just moved then and did not listen to the victims. I am glad that the people in both churches have spoken up. Diana L | ||
| Dennis Registered user Username: Dennis Post Number: 1811 Registered: 4-2000  |
Having lived in an Adventist mecca here in Lincoln, Nebraska for 36 years, I never cease to be amazed and annoyed at the many sex scandals they have in this community. By the way, Morris Venden was our senior pastor when Sylvia and I were still members of the College View SDA Church. Some of the sexual abnormalities that I witnessed at Sheyenne River Academy (now relocated as Dakota Adventist Academy) in the early 1960s were likewise most stunning. In fact, the details are so lewd and perverted that I cannot describe it publicly. They have only 43 students at DAA (a boarding academy) this year. Most of these students are likely denominational employee's kids (PKs). Moreover, there is no way that a public school can be any worse than an SDA school. It is simply impossible in the area of Christian ethics. Dennis Fischer | ||
| Stevendi Registered user Username: Stevendi Post Number: 436 Registered: 10-2006 |
Campion Academy - same problem and more than once. Solution? Relocate. Also, Enterprise Academy, again more than once. Relocation to Florida both times. | ||
| Skeeter Registered user Username: Skeeter Post Number: 382 Registered: 12-2007 |
This is all very sad. You hear so much about this kind of abuse in public schools.... but to hear of it happening in church schools (of ANY denomination) is just really, really bad. I wonder how many other "christian" run schools of other denominations have this same problem. | ||
| Jeremy Registered user Username: Jeremy Post Number: 3041 Registered: 10-2004  |
Skeeter, Yes it happens in public schools, but the administrators of those schools actually care about the law and the well-being of their students and usually report everything to the authorities. That's how we hear about it. In Adventism, everything is just swept under the rug, and they try to keep it hidden. They simply relocate the offenders to another state, so that they can harm even more victims! This is the epitome of evil. This has happened multiple times at Thunderbird Adventist Academy here in Arizona. I wonder how many of us could tell multiple stories that we personally knew about. It seems to be extremely widespread in Adventism. It's time they were held accountable for it! Jeremy | ||
| Seekinglight Registered user Username: Seekinglight Post Number: 436 Registered: 3-2009 |
Ugh, I'd been an SDA for all of my 30+ years of life and had never heard of the issues with Venden. And from reading the victim lady's account, she seems to be stuck on EGW and saying that Venden's problems were a result of his liberal, grace-based theology. This is the same argument that I got from my liberal/progressive SDA friends. "If you preach too much grace, then people will excuse their evil behaviors!" I do not blame people for struggling with a sexual addiction. However, I'm disappointed when they excuse it rather than confess it. I'm angry at the system that denies, excuses, and covers it. Yuck, yuck, yuck! This reminds me of a very mean teacher that I had in the one-room (grades 1-8) SDA elementary school that I attended as a child. The teacher was verbally abusive and spoke to us only in the third person. He lost his temper and threw things. He called us "stupid" and "incapable of learning anything". When students made mistakes, he laughed and taunted them in front of the whole class. One girl in 1st or 2nd grade couldn't pronounce the word "cerebral palsy" in her reading book, so he accused her of having cerebral palsy. He wouldn't let us go to the bathroom when we needed to. One time, my younger sister forgot to wipe her feet properly when coming into the classroom from outside after recess. He forced her to walk outdoors and come in again, this time wiping her feet properly. The rest of us were seated at our desks watching her. She came inside and was so scared that she shuffled briefly and sat down. He bellowed that he didn't want a dance, he wanted her to wipe her feet!! Tears were forming in her eyes as she bravely tried again. It wasn't good enough that time either, so he made her do it again & again. I don't remember how many times this happened, but I remember being so angry I wanted to kill or severely hurt that man. And then I felt terrible guilt for feeling that way (I was about 13 yrs. old at the time). For many years, I had a recurring dream that when he was abusive to one of the younger students or one of my sisters that I would stand up to that man and tell him to quit bullying us and to leave our school forever. For many years I was so disappointed that I hadn't had the courage to "tell him off" for real. I was too much of a "good girl" and didn't want to bring shame on my family by behaving poorly at school. My father was the pastor at that time and he and the church board didn't do anything about it for two years (a lifetime when you're a kid). During those two years, I had lost my appetite, and cried each day before heading off to school. My folks knew what was going on, but they wanted to support the teacher. To this day, they don't understand why I won't "get over" the whole situation. They have not apologized to me and still think they handled the situation appropriately. They felt sorry for the man b/c apparently he begged the board not to fire him because he had a wife and child to suppport. Anyway, the way the situation was "handled" was the church board finally met and decided to send him to another SDA school in the same state. Years later, we heard that he had hit a child and lost his teaching license. It was an unconfirmed rumor, but I do not doubt he was capable of it. Around that time, his wife divorced him (they had at least one child). I can't help but wonder that if he had been confronted about his behavior at an earlier point in time, perhaps it could have brought him to the end of his resources and made him see his need for help. As it was, I see an evil system that failed both him and his family and the children he victimized. I'm quite weary of cover-ups. Jesus was so right when He said in John 3 (I think) that His people do not fear the light. However, those in darkness do fear it b/c the light exposes them for who they really are. | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 7568 Registered: 3-2004 |
I took my son out of SDA school because the teacher did not like me and took it out on my son. She would not let him bring his part in the Christmas program home to learn it and practice at home. In front of the whole class she took the part away from him. He felt awful. I took him out because he did not need/deserve to be treated like that. When I took him out all my SDA friends told me "Remember what Sister White said,.......". I told them that I did not care because no one treated my son like she did. Two years later those parents took their kids out. They told me they wished they had done it when I did. She came from another school. I do not why, but now I am sure she had problems at another school and they passed her on because of that. I am glad and was glad then I had removed him. Diana L | ||
| Jorgfe Registered user Username: Jorgfe Post Number: 1514 Registered: 11-2005 |
Another fiasco that some may remember is the "Rebok Foundation". I know that Dennis will know all about it from the Carolina Conference. Dennis -- Bill and Janice Moore were some of our best friends at the time. Our kids played together. You probably know the details of how they almost lost the house because of a greedy senior pastor, who was then reassigned to write an upcoming Adult Sabbath School Lesson after people in his congregation lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations. I still have all the details documented. People who trusted this pastor were wiped out of their life savings. You no doubt remember the name Syd Sweat. And there were many more. And the pastor, who was reinvesting their money in a risky commodities market got off scot-free. That is just plain wrong!!! | ||
| Jorgfe Registered user Username: Jorgfe Post Number: 1515 Registered: 11-2005 |
Sorry. They were NOT donations. They were supposedly interest-bearing loans at an exceptional rate of interest to support the "Lord's work" -- to actually assist the pastor in posturing so he could run for the North Carolina Senate. And then there was the expensive club house in Kemur Country Club. You no doubt know the details. | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 10472 Registered: 12-2003 |
Seekinglight, I totally understand your ongoing outrage at what happened. You are right, of course. There is a peculiar rationalizing that happens when people work in "the system". It's as if reality is redefined--much like their theology is redefined. Decisions are not based on the good of the constituents; they are based on protecting their reputation. Colleen | ||
| Hec Registered user Username: Hec Post Number: 603 Registered: 3-2009 |
It is important to note here that not all the people who work on the system are "in". In every conference and/or church there is always a small group who is the "in" group. Those get to do whatever they please. The "out" group is always pick upon and they need to thread softly or they would be really "out". That happens in school, hospitals, and other church affiliated institutions as well. Hec | ||
| Ardyj Registered user Username: Ardyj Post Number: 105 Registered: 8-2006  |
Jeremy said above: "I wonder how many of us could tell multiple stories that we personally knew about." I strongly suspect that every one of use are able to recount several stories of physical and/or sexual abuse and financial schemes bilking innocent folks of thousands of dollars and their self respect. It was also stated elsewhere in the above posts that this happens everywhere, but the real problem is that the perpetrators are just "recycled" within the system. How sad is that! Colleen you are absolutely correct with the statement the decisions are based on the protection of their reputation. Sounds like "The Big Coverup belief" There is sadness on my part when looking back,I knew of these things going on and remained silent at the time. Guess I was using the protection thing also. We did take our oldest out of church school not because of physical abuse but because of the total inadequacy of the teacher at that time! Ardyj |
