New Republic Picks Up Donn Ketcham Story
Scandals and large organizations: Consider
Secular:
- Samsung - failure to independently test cell phone batteries
- VW - the Diesel-Emissions Scandal
- GM - the ignition switch scandal
- Takata - exploding air bag scandal
- Wells Fargo - the fake accounts scandal
Christian:
- New Tribes
- EBM
- ABWE
Speaking to the W/F scandal (as a retiree with 22 years / my wife as a retiree with 25 years):
- Controls and training were in place
- We had annual ethics training classes
- Greed and sinful people evaded and obstructed
In the case of:
- VW - deceit was involved
- EBM - lack of proper controls & audit
I know many of the ABWE principles. I suggest they tried to protect the organization’s reputation by handling in-house
That case was well documented in the GRACE REPORT. Names and everything. Per the Grace report and the victim that fine Baptist Mission has kept that fine young man Overseas. So cut the boloney.
FYI, the GRACE report did not name any names of alleged perpetrators or victims. It named only a handful of people employed by BJU at the highest levels. And I don’t believe it was a Baptist mission, was it? (This I don’t know for sure, but I think it wasn’t.)
Thanks, Joe. I didn’t see any thing by the victim. The GRACE report says he was back on campus to represent the mission.
No baloney intended Joeb. I am truly unaware of this incident.
[Joeb]I had *no* knowledge of this case. I wanted to know the agency and the name because I find that to be inexcusable to not pull him off the field. I fully intended to call the agency and ask them why they were enabling an abuser to not be returned to the states to face a court for his actions.To the two of you. That case was well documented in the GRACE REPORT. Names and everything. Per the Grace report and the victim that fine Baptist Mission has kept that fine young man Overseas. So cut the boloney.
There is no question here and nothing created. Aaron and Crystal I just cited the Source
Just like churches still holding the Bill Gothard daddy daughter ring banquets. What idiot Pastor would still do anything remotely connected to Bill Gothard unless they still honored Bill Gothard’s Godly teachings and that he is a Godly man.
Aaron having such attitudes places one squarely with all the people at ABWE that covered for the sexual predators. No wonder non believers think so low of us Even they see that a Circus Chimp could figure it out Why can’t we
So Aaron question for you considering the ring banquets sexual implications why would any Godly Pastor keep doing such a thing so connected to Gothard.
I am failing to see what exactly in my initial comment incited this kind of response from you.
Looking at the couple of references to “Aaron,” I’m guessing that’s me, but I have no idea what you’re getting at.
Beyond pointing out what ABWE’s policy says, and how policies generally work in organizations, I don’t have much to say on the topic. Unless I’m a stakeholder or decision-maker in some way, I don’t follow scandals, so… I have not read up on any of these particular stories.
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.
” I don’t follow scandals, so… I have not read up on any of these particular stories.”
It’s not just that. SharperIron isn’t the police and shouldn’t be treated as a law enforcement agency. It’s also not the National Registry of Sex Offenders and shouldn’t be treated as such.
If you have an issue with someone - anyone - that you think is culpable for sexual abuse (or any kind of abuse for that matter), call the police and file a report with them. After you do that, call the Missions Agency / School / Etc and let them know. Don’t bring it to SI for dissemination. The members of SI aren’t cops, don’t have jurisdiction if there is crime, and frankly, I don’t think Aaron or the rest of the administrative team want to get involved in that.
"Our task today is to tell people — who no longer know what sin is...no longer see themselves as sinners, and no longer have room for these categories — that Christ died for sins of which they do not think they’re guilty." - David Wells
If you have an issue with someone - anyone - that you think is culpable for sexual abuse (or any kind of abuse for that matter), call the police and file a report with them.
If you don’t have first hand knowledge … waste of time!
Sorry - I wasn’t clear. Yes, I’m assuming the person has firsthand knowledge. Other than that, push the person who has firsthand knowledge to report it themselves.
"Our task today is to tell people — who no longer know what sin is...no longer see themselves as sinners, and no longer have room for these categories — that Christ died for sins of which they do not think they’re guilty." - David Wells
Only primary evidence—eyewitness or circumstantial—is admissible in a criminal or civil trial. However, hearsay or other second hand evidence can be, if given in a non-anonymous way with some evidence that it could be true, sufficient to grant a warrant.
(for example, if I see a string of men coming into a home and leaving 15-20 minutes later at odd hours, that can be reason to start a drug or vice investigation)
I’m not quite sure what Joe is getting at, but I do believe that in the Grace report about BJU, there was evidence that some sins were overlooked because of the perpetrator’s involvement in ministries. I don’t believe it was just one. Regarding Liberty, the football player was Jesse Matthew, who was expelled for sexual assault at LIberty in 2002, but not prosecuted. He went on to commit at least one more sexual assault in 2003, and then at least two murders.
If you want to know why you ought to get a report in, think of those grieving families. If you want to know why ABWE needs to change their culture, think, again, of grieving families. To be blunt, if I were running things at ABWE, I’d contract with an external auditor and require reports to be kept at the mission site, with the external auditor, and with ABWE, and each year, those reports would be checked and audited. Moreover, the full contact information would be in the policy.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
Looking again at the data, the existence of 7000 (or whatever) files in their “dirty files” indicates that their system was working at least partially—it had enough data to end Donn Ketcham’s career. The problem was that clear signs of non-repentance were not acted on, and offenses that clearly should have sent him home with a complaint to the AMA and physician certifying agencies were simply filed. Hence my comments above that it’s not enough that ABWE have a “best in class” policy; they need a policy that specifically prioritizes addressing the failures they’ve had. Any auditor will tell you the same about any ISO or other governing policies—you’ve got to address the weaknesses you’ve got.
And if the dirty files had 7000 entries in the last 40 years or so, the cost of having an outside agency audit is the cost of reviewing a few hundred documents—it would be a few thousand dollars in legal fees if they really are changing their culture, and of course if they aren’t, probably ten times as much—but far less than the cost of another Donn Ketcham issue.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
I’ve got to admit I’d wondered whether the marriage had survived all this. Regarding what would have happened if she’d left him, keep in mind that ABWE leaders had already decided to look past repeated adultery. I don’t know that it’s a gimme that they’d have acted with divorce, other than perhaps to blame the wife for being the bad one who “wouldn’t accept genuine repentance”. Yes, I’m being very cynical here.
I don’t even know that she would believe she could divorce him, Joe. One of your “favorite ministry leaders”, Bill Gothard, is said to have taught that a woman cannot under any circumstances divorce her husband because Matthew 5 and related passages speak of the man divorcing his wife—Gothard’s really close to orthodox Judiasm if I understand this (and Judiasm) correctly. So I would not be surprised if she didn’t even see it as a possibility.
(I believe that in some cases, it is almost a duty to divorce an unfaithful spouse—in the case of severe, repeated adultery and such, cases like this or the Clintons—but to be fair to Mrs. Ketchum, I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t see it that way)
And a civil suit? I’m guessing one is coming up, and a pound of flesh will be taken from both the Ketchums and ABWE—I wouldn’t be surprised if all 7000 of those dirty files were in their hands already, and 40 years of ignoring sex crimes will leave a mark. It might even make everything we’ve been discussing here moot, if you catch my drift.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
I think that it would be best to leave any discussions about Kitty and what she knew / didn’t know or whatever out of this. The story is embarrassing and shameful enough without pulling the various wives and families and what they knew or didn’t know into it. There’s no need to pile on.
"Our task today is to tell people — who no longer know what sin is...no longer see themselves as sinners, and no longer have room for these categories — that Christ died for sins of which they do not think they’re guilty." - David Wells
[Jay]I think that it would be best to leave any discussions about Kitty and what she knew / didn’t know or whatever out of this. The story is embarrassing and shameful enough without pulling the various wives and families and what they knew or didn’t know into it. There’s no need to pile on.
Jay, point well taken, but if we can assume that she knew any significant portion of her husband’s crimes and sins—and certainly she did when they came back to the States, and she probably had a good idea as early as the 1970s—it illustrates the strength of the culture we fundagelicals may often have regarding this kind of thing, and the kind of culture change we ought to try to achieve.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
Discussion