Boz Tchividjian on SGM

Boz Tchividjian on SGM May 25, 2013

Boz Tchividjian is a law professor and founder of GRACE, an initiative that responds to abuse in the Christian environment.

Last night, Together for the Gospel broke their long silence with this statement about the SGM lawsuit. They initially posted it on their Facebook Page as well, but critical comments abounded (including my own) and the post was soon removed. However, Bill Kinnon saved the thread, so all the original comments will remain viewable. (TGC added their own statement this morning, with comments disabled.)

While reading the comments on the T4G post last night, one in particular stood out to me – Boz’s:

Why is no mention made that the heart of this lawsuit is about a systematic church effort to discourage and eventually prevent the families of children who were allegedly (and repeatedly) sexually victimized by church officials from speaking out and reporting to law enforcement. This lawsuit is less about the abuse and more about an institution that took steps to protect itself and it’s reputation over the victimized souls (and bodies) of little ones. Omitting such a fundamental fact from this statement is a fundamental error.

Why no mention that CJ Mahaney was actually the Senior Pastor at one of these churches where all of this horrific abuse allegedly occurred AND that discouraged these families from bringing this matter to the God ordained civil authorities? Omitting such a fundamentally important fact from this statement is a fundamental error.

This lawsuit was dismissed for one reason and one reason only…expiration of the statute of limitation. Isn’t it tragic that the reason why this suit was dismissed – taking too long to file – was the very objective of these church leaders when they discouraged these precious souls from stepping forward.

Many of these men have not hesitated to write (or tweet) on the Penn State horrors, gays in the Boy Scouts, and Universal healthcare, but have been conspicuously quiet on this issue…just doesn’t sit right with me (and apparently a lot of others). And when they finally speak, what is omitted speaks more than what is said.

What these men don’t realize is that their silence is pushing a large group of precious souls farther and farther from the Church…and our glorious and gracious God. [sigh]

Boz Tchividjian, J.D.

Executive Director, GRACE

http://netgrace.org

These statements broke the silence…and said nothing.

Thus, the silence remains deafening.

What about you? What do you think of these statements (or non-statements)? I’d love to hear your perspective.


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