"We have acknowledged that people in leadership positions made decisions that were unwise and unacceptable."

A search of our records found other incidents. Each is being reinvestigated and handled in accordance with currently acceptable legal practices, including the notification of authorities and supporting churches. We are continuing our intense efforts to strengthen our child safety policy, protocols, training, and use of independent investigators.

Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.

ABWE has modeled how these things need to be handled. Instead of being defensive, they invited a respected 3rd party organization, G.R.A.C.E., to investigate, and they respected their findings. This is a model for how other organizations need to handle such things instead of the “circle the wagons” type of defensiveness that has typified fundamentalism over the last 2 years on this topic.

Yes, someone held their toes to the fire. And it’s obvious the victims aren’t fully satisfied with the reports. I hope ABWE will persevere with the victims and continue to listen to and respond to their concerns. But so far it’s a much better response than what I’ve seen after other circumstances talked about on SI.