David Hayward – The Naked Pastor – shares his story at St. Stephen’s University.

Not long after Prairie Bible Institute administrators went to media in November 2011 with this:

Recently, there have been presented alleged instances of abuse by individuals connected with Prairie Bible Institute.

To the extent of our information, the incidents in question date back several decades, and the individuals purportedly involved are no longer at Prairie. Nevertheless, we feel it is appropriate to respond and to emphasize our commitment to seeking truth and transparency.

We have taken a file containing many of these allegations to the RCMP, discussed the alleged incidents with them and assured them of our full co-operation should further inquiry be necessary.

a few PBI alumni went on FB announcing The Survivor Fund Project, asking for donations. This Project announcement soliciting donations occurred around the same time PBI President Mark Maxwell laid out exactly what PBI was going to do and not going to do about PBI abuse survivors. Part one of the three-point announced plan of the administration was the use of alumni; and not long after, The ‘Healing Team’ announced themselves. Already difficult relationships between PBI and abuse survivors became more strained as this small group of alumni stumbled with transparency and basic communication. None of the alumni is licensed, this ‘team’ presents themselves as an alternative to the independent third-party chosen by PBI (with a qualified and experienced PhD).

I call The Survivor Fund Project/Healing Team, PBI’s paid friends. I have been vocal in my concern about this small group of well-meaning alumni and the unintentional harm they may cause presenting themselves as mentors, listeners and friends of abuse survivors. I have been vocal about the goals of this group,  their ties to PBI, their pr attempts and the lack of appropriate legal and professional representation for abuse survivors they wish to take to PBI for ‘reconciliation.’ There is no financial transparency in their solicitation of funds, the undermining of the independent third-party (Calgary Centre Street Church came to a public head here in this blog with a comment by team member John Kepler, a US minister and member of The Survivor Fund Project/Healing Team:

As a member of the Healing Team I am appalled by this blog and the depths to which Benediction seems to have stooped in publishing it.

First of all, the e-mail from which this information was gleaned was a private e-mail from Jim Crites to Dr. Mollering. The fact that it has been released demonstrates that Dr. Mollering is unable to retain confidential information. I wonder how much other information she has given out from people she has spoken with. Is she telling stories about confidential interviews she had? Are people’s private stories going to be publicized? If she cannot keep a private e-mail private, then she has no credibility as a counselor.

Second of all, these were never given to Dr. Mollering as the guidelines by which funds would be dispersed. These were some questions sent in response to one specific request she sent to Jim in which she was seeking some information about one particular case. Not only has she violated a confidential communicatiion, she has misrepresented the Healing Team by making this information public.

Kepler has never publicly apologized for trashing Centre Street Church and for his appalling remarks about Dr. Miriam Mollering. His contempt, preumptuousness and anger is chilling. I couldn’t care less about his criticism of me or this blog, but to cast aspirations on a qualified professional who willingly stepped up to help survivors,  and his lack of a public apology for his public comment continues to leave me wondering how safe any abuse survivor is reaching out to this team.  PBI administration would have an understandable goal of avoiding potential civil lawsuits and The Survivor Fund Project/Healing Team will remain in place to ‘befriend and mentor’ any PBI abuse survivor contemplating justice.

I doubt anyone who has followed this saga believes the withdrawal of Centre Street Church  as independent third-party is as rosy as PBI’s pr announcement paints the independent third-party departure. The fact that PBI administration did not ask Kepler for a public apology to Dr. Mollering remains as troubling as his behaviour.

I think Centre Street Church stayed professional with their withdrawal and took a high road. I doubt anyone other than the key players will ever know what went down,  I doubt I’m alone in thinking Centre Street Church stayed professional and Christ-like in a difficult situation.

The up side to Centre Street Church stepping up for survivors is buried further in the PBI announcement:

Centre Street Church has provided a summary of findings and recommendations to PBI, which the leadership team is currently reviewing. It is our intention to combine CSC’s recommendations with our own policies, and the best practices in higher education, to ensure a safe environment that is vigilant against any form of abuse. We continue to believe that the Christian community should be a safe place for all to find healing and forgiveness, as well a place where justice prevails within an environment of grace.

The ‘Healing Team’ gave BDBO a couple of interviews which can be read here.
Everything blogged about The Survivor Fund Project/Healing Team can be found here.

Seven months after Mark Maxwell announced this group, The Healing Team has  launched their own website, called Alumni Caring and Connecting, where they are seeking to provide resources and solicit stories of PBI alumni. With the launch of this website The Survivor Fund Project/Healing Team is making it clear they are the only PBI sanctioned alternative for abuse survivors. They continue to solicit ’mentors,’  ’listeners’ and ‘friends’ as well as money, and the disclaimer lays out the Team’s rules for comments and guest authors.

I have no ties to PBI, and I don’t think, nor have I ever thought that BDBO was or is the best place to disseminate information about The Survivor Fund Project/Healing Team. With a website, the alumni can do their own communicating with their rules and the decision to go online is better late than never.  I continue to believe that intentionally or unintentionally, these alumni are being used by administration to diffuse potentially difficult situations for PBI, and I believe that this team has created and fostered an unequal power relationship for PBI abuse survivors. I have a great deal of difficulty believing that untrained and unlicensed alumni are what PBI abuse survivors need or deserve.  It doesn’t matter what I think,  the Healing Team is in place with the blessing of PBI and aren’t going anywhere.  Not long after Kepler’s online outburst I received an email after  I made an inquiry about this:

Update from the Healing Team:

In our previous communication, we have stated the goals that we established when we first formed: 1) healing for survivors; 2) justice for perpetrators. Over the past weeks, we have been privileged to have a number of abuse survivors come to us for help in accomplishing one or both of these goals. It has been a great honor to be entrusted with their stories of tragedies and triumphs as we have connected with them through phone, Skype, email, and in some cases, in person in our homes. We have shared memories, hugs, and tears. A number of survivors are pursuing additional avenues of healing and we are in the process of helping them walk further in their journeys. Many other alumni have come forward to offer to be “listeners” as well, and we are truly grateful for the wonderful team of “wounded soldiers” that God is building.

This communication is deliberately vague. Can this team define justice? (PBI abuse survivors have). Since none of this team are professionals, what does healing look like to them? How many abuse survivors have availed themselves of this team and why hasn’t anyone from the team indicated the reasons these now ‘healed’ survivors aren’t speaking up and encouraging others? What does pursuing additional avenues of healing even mean? Who are these ‘many other alumni’?  To come back to the present, if the ‘many other’ even exist, why aren’t they named on the website as members of The Survivor Fund Project/Healing Team?   I don’t see ‘many other alumni’, no one has to my knowledge, and there were no new team members in April. What else has this team exaggerated?

There have been no changes to the members of the Healing Team.

The Healing Team has made the following decisions moving forward:

1. We will communicate only with known persons. While we respect your right to privacy, the Healing Team is about building personal relationships. Since you have chosen to remain anonymous, that becomes impossible for us.
2. We will provide our own communication at our discretion rather than having others attempt to speak on our behalf.  We are particularly concerned about the growing misrepresentation of facts generally, and specifically regarding our role in the lives of survivors.
3. We believe that the public “battles” have become hindrances to survivors moving toward healthy places of healing. Therefore, we will largely ignore the ongoing debates as we choose to focus on the much bigger and exciting picture of what God is doing behind the scenes in people’s lives.

Thanks.

I agree with the decision of this group to step up and start communicating on their own site btw.
The Survivor Fund Project/Healing Team finally starting a website is a mixed blessing. A none involved blog was not a good place to try to post the conflicting messages sent by this team over the past several months.  They can deal with their own misrepresentations and block anyone they chose (as the Healing Team members do with PBI abuse survivors on FB).

PBI abuse survivors have been sharing resources for a couple of years, The Healing Team offering more resources is logical, and better late than never. The Team is upfront about their ongoing request for finances, and when PBI files the next T3010 with Revenue Canada, survivors and the public will have a clearer picture of the finances the paid friends have raised.

I’m an abuse survivor. I didn’t get a good start in live and things were not healthy in my adoptive family. As a Canadian with access to appropriate health care,  when I was ready, I was able to access and receive professional help. I had some bad experiences with well-meaning church folk who, like the paid friends, thought they could step up and basically tell me what they thought I needed. I didn’t know any better. I learned quickly about power imbalances, spiritualizing, control, hidden motives etc. I have life long friends who didn’t set themselves up to save me, and who encouraged me to seek out qualified mental health professionals. I thank God often for their humbleness and common sense. I didn’t need any more know it all well meaning Christians, I needed help.

The site has a story of a courageous mom who gave a child up for adoption. She tells her story her way, and writes about the fear she had of people finding out about her decision. Sheila is a PBI alumni. She  breaks her fear of her secret, finds her child and thanks God for His plans and provision. Those of us who didn’t have happy endings openly rejoice with her.
I don’t quite see what Sheila’s journey has to do with spiritual, emotional, physical or sexual abuse at PBI,  or justice, healing and reconciliation, but that’s okay. I am glad she shared, and that her family is complete. I also don’t know what her story has to do with The Survivor Fund Project/Healing Team,  but that is her prerogative to share.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. I think The Survivor Fund Project/Healing Team is taking cues from PBI President Mark Maxwell. A troubling conversation on FB tonight at Prairie Bible Institute Open Group indicates to me that divide and conquer, control and wrong headed good intentions continues to trickle down from the top.

An administrator for a FB abuse survivor group named Wanda Janz met with PBI President Mark Maxwell for 2 hours today.  According to Wanda, Maxwell chose to trash the FB administrator of the open PBI group in their conversation. That the man heading PBI’s response to abuse survivors would blatently do this is another dreary example of PBI’s need for control and inability to clean its own house. Mark Maxwell hasn’t as yet clarified and explained himself.

I’ll end with these reminders to abuse survivors.
1. Anyone who was abused at PBI is encouraged to contact Const. Mark MacDonald of the Calgary RCMP.
2. Any PBI abuse survivor unsure of their  rights and legal options is encouraged to contact a Calgary law firm which has stepped forward to help. I’ll supply the firm contact information when I receive it asap.

By Rick Hiebert. All Rights Reserved. Used By Permission

An interesting item was just posted at The Atlantic magazine’s website.

Jonathan Merritt notes that The Moral Majority was founded 33 years ago today, and talks about his own interaction with Jerry Falwell as a potential Liberty University student wanting some more information.

He goes on to suggest that while the US church has more potical clout these days, it may have lost its way as a result of politicizing. But, I’ll just point you to what he wrote and let you consider what he has to say for yourself.

By Rick Hiebert. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission

Some brief “stop press’ type items on Faytene, if I may.

Why no full name mention on first reference, as I usually do? I’m not sure which one I should use! This past week she has started to use Faytene Kryskow-Grasseschi on her primary Facebook Wall, and at her videos page at her friend Patricia King’s XPmedia website. Facebook Wall 2 calls her “Faytene Grasseschi (Faytene Kryskow-Grasseschi)”. The Google link to her own main webpage, as I write, says “Welcome To Faytene Grasseschi (Kryskow)’s Itinerant Site”.

Last year when the former Faytene Kryskow married and adopted the professional name Faytene Grasseschi, I commended her for doing so, but noted that as she has been known for Faytene Kryskow for so long, she might want to just add “Grasseschi” to this to avoid reinventing the wheel. Don’t know for certain, but this may be why she is doing this. Just a guess.

But as I noted in the earlier post, if she starts using two or three names interchangeably, that could confuse. Perhaps deliberately, but let’s not jump to conclusions.

However, if she emulates Prince and names herself with a symbol so that you have to call her “The evangelist formerly known as Faytene”, I’m just going to throw up my hands and say “I just don’t know!”

2. If you recall the posts about The Cry Hollywood earlier this year and last, GOD TV will be airing a 2 or 2 1/2 hours highlights package of the event starting on Monday and being rebroadcast at various times through Thursday, mostly in the evenings. It will be broadcast on the United States feed and will be online on their website. The schedule is here if you are interested.

3. The Cry Toronto is set for July 28 at Massey Hall in Toronto. And you’ll need a ticket to get in, as organizers expect to fill the venue, which would be a good way to screen out people, if you were inclined that way.

4. Faytene Insert-last-name-here ( ) did have something thoughful as a Facebook status a few days ago. It reads:

Faytene Kryskow-Grasseschi
Wednesday [June 6] at 6:52pm via HootSuite ·

Activism done in the wrong spirit only empowers the very thing we are resisting. The right thing done the wrong way is the wrong thing.

A quick overview of cerebral palsy

By Rick Hiebert. All Rights Reserved. Used By Permission

There’s an update from Benny Hinn this morning about his reconciliation with his ex-wife Suzanne.

As Bene D explained in his recent post, we’ve been hearing only from Benny so far about all this. That seems to be continuing in the new release.

Benny confesses, in one paragraph, about letting his ministry work dominate to the point where he neglected his marriage. Three paragraphs are devoted to Suzanne’s addiction to prescription medications and how it led to the divorce.

He had better be confident of her forgiveness if he dwells so much on her part in all this.

And, in something that will not surprise, he adds this:

But we must have your help. The ministry has suffered financially greatly because of the struggles in our marriage. We are beginning to see an upsurge now, but we truly need a miracle to be able to do what God has called us to do.

I can say now that the ministry was on the way to total collapse, but now we are seeing a beautiful turnaround—in fact, members of my team have rejoined the ministry, including my beloved friend Jim Cernero, who is back with me leading the praise and worship in my meetings. I want you to be part of the breakthrough we are experiencing together, and that’s why Suzanne and I need you, now more than ever, to stand with us prayerfully and financially.

I wonder if Benny and Suzanne had to come to some kind of arrangement. Where years of controversy couldn’t take out Hinn, his divorce was threatening to.

Brittany Koper, granddaughter of Paul and Jan Crouch, the founders of Trinity Broadcasting System, recently did an interview with Jackie Alnor of Apostasy Alert, on Rapture Ready Radio.

Orange County Register staffer Terri Sforza has been all over this ongoing legal back and forth which went public in February.

Koper had served as chief financial officer, director of finance, corporate treasurer and director of human resources for Trinity Christian Center of Santa Ana, which does business as Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), according to the suit. Koper’s complaint is not directed against her grandparents or TBN — but against the two attorneys who handle some TNB legal work, and who once worked for Koper herself. She accuses them of professional negligence, breach of fiduciary duty and other transgressions in the suit.

Full OC Register coverage
New York Times: TBN Fight Offers Glimpse Inside Lavish TV Ministry
Ministry Watch donor alert

Not so veiled threats by Paul Crouch Sr.(grandfather) and Matthew Crouch (uncle)

There will be no justice for survivors of abuse at Prairie Bible Institute.

RCMP say that although 10 former students or staff kids from Prairie Bible Institute reported abuse to the force there are no charges being laid. Given the files were handed over to the Calgary detachment it’s interesting this announcement was made by a member of the Three Hills RCMP.
The Calgary Herald:

Three Hills RCMP Sgt. Joe Sangster said Tuesday police recently concluded their investigation and are planning on providing a public update as early as next week.

He said no charges have been laid and estimated that approximately 10 people came forward to police.

“We investigated every one of those complaints and there’s no information or no evidence to support any charges,” said Sangster.

Approximately 10 people? This is a police force which doesn’t know how many complaints were laid?  Not only was abuse reported to police, abuse was also reported directly to Prairie Bible Institute:

PBI president Mark Maxwell said the school’s own review turned up a half-dozen claims of sexual abuse.

How many claims of emotional, physical and spiritual abuse did PBI receive? Abuse was also reported to Calgary Centre Street Church,  which brought in by PBI in December as an independent 3rd party. Centre Street Church was let go by PBI in March.

In addition, the Centre Street Church in Calgary was brought in as another place for former students to bring forward complaints and they received “some” since January.

Prairie Bible Institute went to media in November after taking Facebook pages where former PBI attendees gathered to talk about the abuse they suffered while on PBI property to the Three Hills Alberta RCMP. Spiritual and emotional abuse had been talked about, as well as physical and sexual abuse at the 90-year-old institution.

Most of the allegations date back to the 1980s and 1990s, an era when entire families lived on campus and it offered schooling to children as young as kindergarten.

“They were mostly personal, family domestic complaints,” said Maxwell.

They were not forwarded to police, he said.

PBI abuse survivors were not granted the independent third-party they had requested to investigate the school milieu. A board member assigned to survivors quit and some PBI alumni harassed survivors, including a US minister who threatened to sue abuse survivors.
Alumni, under the authority of PBI set up a ‘Healing Team‘ to ‘befriend’ abuse survivors, and while denying it, I believe set a goal to bring survivors to PBI for ‘reconciliation’. To date, information is  that the Healing Team brought a U.S. survivor to PBI, which further alienated survivors seeking justice, admissions, investigation transparency and a clear policy by the school.

PBI President Mark Maxwell says,”Most of the allegations date back to the 1980s and 1990s.” Not all. As recently as 2004 PCA (the high school started by PBI) did not report the sexual assault of a student. The parents of the student went to police, the abuser was convicted and PBI paid out about 20 thousand dollars. The case of Carmen Wesley was covered by Global News. She alleged she was sexually assaulted in 2006. PBI did nothing.

There will be no justice, the Canadian criminal justice system cannot help PBI abuse survivors. The only recourse left is civil suits for the few willing to take on a culture at Prairie Bible Institute which harboured criminals , a culture where abuse of various kinds was tolerated. This goes beyond numbers of reports, beyond what was condoned in the past at what was called the Bob Jones University of the north. The culture of the school was so toxic, it is not surprising many who were abused will never come forward. Now that justice has been denied, what is left for those who stood up and did what was right by reporting? It’s likely this will be the only apology PBI abuse survivors see from the institution.

Prairie Bible Institute supposedly took information from the professionals at Centre Street Church and developed an abuse prevention policy the past few months.  The school has been in decline financially the past few years and student enrolment is down significantly.  The abuse policy is not yet public, one of the requests of PBI abuse survivors is that no student go through the neglect, cover-ups, silence and harassment they have been through. Update: A  partial draft policy (Sexual Assault and Rape) is posted at Prairie Bible Institute Open Group on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/groups/pbi.open/permalink/321599461259709/ 

While I did not hold out hope RCMP would be able to bring evidence to the Crown that would warrant charges in one or many cases, this confirmation is heartbreaking.

‘Approximately 10 reports’,  ’half-dozen claims’… these reports and claims have names. We are talking about lives. Individuals. One abused is one too many.

Update: What kind of political games are going on with the RCMP?

Three Hills RCMP Sgt. Joe Sangster said Tuesday police recently concluded their investigation and are planning on providing a public update as early as next week.

Oh? And a statement to The Calgary Herald by a secondary RCMP detachment isn’t a public update?

Why were the ‘approximately 10 people’ who reported to RCMP Calgary not informed that RCMP Three Hills was going to release this information yesterday?  Is this the kind of treatment victims are supposed to meekly accept? How hard would it have been for the investigators who handled these complaints to have fired off an email to the PBI abuse survivors who trusted they would be treated with dignity and respect?
Is there a political pissing contest between two RCMP detachments going on? Looks that way to me.
I would suggest every survivor who contacted the RCMP call up the investigator you dealt with one more time and take your power back – ask why you were not afforded the dignity of a heads up. It is one thing for the public to learn through media, it is quite another for complainants. I wouldn’t expect an honest answer, but I’d ask anyway – every one of you deserve the opportunity to ask. I don’t believe in shooting the messenger, but I do believe in asking the messenger why, what how, when a serious and important message comes at you second-hand.  You aren’t political pawns.

By Rick Hiebert. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission.

There’s an interesting cover story in the current Christianity Today.

“When Are We Going To Grow Up?” uses a historical approach to make the argument that the American church (and perhaps by extension the North American church) is increasingly catering to spritual immaturity.

If we give it a read, we can see that there are two sides to what is going on. One side sees declining standards and spiritual illiteracy while the other might be seeing that finally the church is responding to people’s real felt needs and it merely looks like immaturity.

I’m not sure where I fall on this–as I would like to think my own church is pretty mature–but it does provide something interesting to think about. So, that’s why I put the link up. Christianity Today being pretty conservative, I can understand why old-fashionedness is a virtue to them, right or wrong.

By Rick Hiebert. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission

I can’t add much to Bene D’s excellent coverage of what has been happening at the Prairie Bible Institute, but I would like to make a small point in passing.

I’ve noticed that Bene D has mentioned that the Calgary Herald has been reporting on the abuse scandal at the school. I wondered to myself, “Does Three Hills, Alberta have a newspaper, and how has the newspaper been covering this?” And what I see confirms the impression that I got when I applied to work at a small town newspaper in BC many years ago.

If you look at the Three Hills Wikipedia page, you see that it is a really small town and that the PBI is a central party of the town’s historical identitity. It’s probably one of the town’s biggest employers.

The town newspaper is the Three Hills Capital and I did a quick seach of their website. I found a story on PBI’s new Islamic studies major and four items related to the abuse scandal. There are three letters, which tend to complain about the “attacks ” on the school and a news story.

The story‘s headline states that PBI is “dealing” with the abuse problems and quotes President Mark Maxwell almost exclusively.

The penny drops when the mayor of Three Hills, at least at that time, is quoted at the end of the story:

In his comments, Three Hills Mayor Tim Shearlaw said, “I regret there is a cloud over Prairie at this time because of these allegations. It affects the school and it affects the town. We must defend Prairie and Three Hills.”

It affects the town, perhaps, but why does the city need to defend the school? What happened at the school is surely not the entire town’s responsibilty and one would hope that there were people in Three Hills who tried to do the right thing and should not have to take responsibility.

But the mayor’s comment is very honest. You know that in a town of this size where PBI must be influential that this would happen. That might explain why no “other side” appeared in this news story.

I once applied to work at a paper in a virtual one industry B.C. town. I was asked, during the interview, how I would cover a scandal at X. I replied that of course I would cover it extensively.

I didn’t get the job, for what was quoted as other reasons, and afterwards I was thinking about why. I won’t name where I applied, in case I guessed wrong and I am being unfair to my interviewers, but I came to think that a scandal at X would have to be handled with kid gloves, if at all. X would be a major advertiser, or would be able to talk to advertisers and say–if they were really unethical which I am not saying– “If you want to do business with us, you might want to think about…” Angry subscribers would cancel the paper, or spur efforts to start a more docile competing newspaper.

I can’t really blame the Three Hills paper. They have to live there, while reporters from the Calgary Herald do not.

But, I think this shows why alternative sources of getting out information–and I am thinking of what Bene D and social media have been able to do–are becoming increasingly important and useful. Shouldn’t have to be that way, one would hope, but it is.

UPDATE: Linda Fossen points out that mayor Shearlaw is not only mayor but editor/publisher of the newspaper too. Quite cozy, eh? I could argue that I work at my day job Saturdays on not much sleep…but it reinforces my point about working together.

ChristianWeek chats with Lawrence Wilkes, interim minister of the troubled Crystal Cathedral.

Wilkes first joined the staff at the Crystal Cathedral in 1991, serving as pastor in the church’s evening service for 10 years as well as being a dean at the Robert Schuller School for Preaching. He left the church in 2009, but eagerly accepted the invitation to come back as interim pastor.

“I love the people of the church,” Wilkes says. “I love them very, very much and it has deeply distressed me and hurt me to see the horrible things that have gone on here over the years. I just readily said yes because I want to do anything I can to help this congregation.”

It’s appropriate PBI respond to a partial statement made by Three Hills RCMP (the jurisdictional detachment for PBI); it is puzzling that the avenue the administration chose to release this statement targeted at a select and relatively disinterested group. The statement was released by way of The Friends of PBI – a closed alumni group on Facebook.

Hello everyone, We got a call on Tuesday from the Calgary Herald saying “they had heard from the RCMP that it would be releasing news next week that the investigation on Prairie was being closed and that no charges were being laid. The RCMP said they would be available for press interviews at that time.” We have not seen the RCMP report ourselves. We told the Calgary Herald that we plan to continue to be cooperative with the RCMP, to be available to those who want to connect with us directly, and to be as transparent as possible with all our stakeholders. We have been grateful for the help we got from Centre Street Church, both in providing an independent safe place for people to go to be heard and for the advice they have given us in improving our campus policies. We pointed out that this is a different campus than in the past primarily because it is now just a college campus. The Calgary Herald article that came out yesterday can be found at (here).

Naturally we are grateful that no charges are being laid. That does not mean we have lived perfect lives, so we still seek healing with any who feel they have been injured while in our community. This summer, we are updating our “policies and procedures for response to harassment, abuse and assault” to include best practices across the college and university industry, to include advice we have received and to include lessons we have learned over the past year. This will include campus-wide abuse-awareness training, with special emphasis at the beginning of each school year, in the fall. Feel free to forward this note to any people you think would be interested. Many thanks for standing with us as we have walked through this together.

Mark L. Maxwell

Prairie Bible Institute

The RCMP did not notify complainants or  PBI  that  the Calgary RCMP were closing down the investigation. More about the semi-statement in The Calgary Herald June 19th.

In the above PBI statement, PBI admin is staying the course set back in December, placing stakeholders first.  PBI is facing a year end financial shortfall, and the requests by PBI abuse survivors for the services of G.R.A.C.E. out of the US, was rejected. It  appears the PBI alumni group, The Survivor Fund Project/Healing Team is still sanctioned to continue soliciting alumni for funds to ‘befriend’ unknown abuse survivors. The one known survivor who solicited the services of the alumni team was featured on PBI radio March 26th. It remains difficult to know what PBI and the alumni team mean by ‘healing’, since there is no evidence PBI or it’s Survivor Fund Project has offered therapy for any abuse survivor from qualified mental health professionals, or was willing to provide therapy through Centre Street Church staff. Given how PBI has handled this issue – it’s possible no abuse survivor has or would ask for assistance from PBI.

Once again PBI abuse survivors – those who went to the RCMP, were slighted and shunned by Prairie administration with the decision to release the statement to a closed Facebook Group where many of the alumni, including most of the ‘Healing Team’, block abuse survivors.

On June 19th, RCMP Three Hills said,

Three Hills RCMP Sgt. Joe Sangster said Tuesday police recently concluded their investigation and are planning on providing a public update as early as next week.

The PBI abuse survivor spokesperson has been maligned online again since The Calgary Herald story came out. The latest follows a pattern of abusive behavior from PBI alumni toward survivors who have come forward seeking justice.

A rough draft of the policy Maxwell mentions above (policies and procedures for response to harassment, abuse and assault)  has been posted on an open Prairie Bible Institute alumni Facebook group.  Two abuse survivor spokespeople were invited through a third party to provide input. The current PBI policy is here.

Update: It’s possible the Maxwell statement was sent out to alumni by email and posted by alumni in the closed group. That begs the question – who it was sent to? If it was sent to all alumni why didn’t some receive it? If I’m wrong about the delivery, it will be corrected.

PBI abuse survivors are asking alumni to withhold donations to the school.

By Rick Hiebert. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission

Watching The Cry Hollywood on God TV recently, I had thought that it wasn’t necessary to revisit the event. But the misuse of history in the pulpit bothers me, and now that video of the event is now finally online on demand, I fear that I can point to an example of it.

The Cry Hollywood, which I blogged on during the run-up to the event was apparently a success as organizers of the event have been mentioning, both online and in subsequent sermons, how much of a permanent impact it seems to have had.

Most of the attendees and participants would have taken part on the level that you or I might have. Hollywood badly needs Christ and gathering to pray about its issues, talk about what may need to be done and encouraging those who are involved in the industry is central and essential.

I think that is what attracted Ted Baehr to the event. He is the main force behind the Movieline organization and has been trying to do good work, from a conservative Christian standpoint, for 40 years now. He seems to have a good heart and useful skills, and is worthy of respect so I want to be careful to state that up front.

But what was said should perhaps have elicited a cry of “Cut! We need a retake!”

Baehr was invited to spend a few minutes talking about the “history of Hollywood”, and as he was talking I found myself saying “hang on…” And the participants walked away from the rally acting on what I fear is a wrong understanding of what really happened in Hollywood.

You shouldn’t have to read Hollywood history for fun, as I like to do, to avoid pitfalls from the pulpit.

His remarks are in the 4th Vimeo segment of The Cry Hollywood, starting at 30:40, which you can see here.

But I will be quoting extensively in case Baehr’s remarks go pfft, as has been known to happen on the internet.

He begins by noting that Christians have always had an interest in using entertainment for God. But then a counter impulse developed, and Pope Innocent the 3rd “removed the mystery plays”. [Per Wikipedia, that pope banned clergy from acting in them, but that would be much the same thing.]

He continues on for a few minutes, and then at about 33:53 he starts talking about the movies. And, as I am a bit of a silent movie buff, that’s when I started to think to myself, “Hey wait a second…”

The earliest filmmakers were friendly to the Gospel, Baehr says. “They were making movies about faith and values. The first Passion Play [film] was made in 1897. The first nativity story was made in 1898…” he said.

Quite correct, but a reference book I have at hand says that the first hard-core porn movie was made about the same time. Tares were growing among the wheat.

Baehr continues “…and by 1915 60 per cent of the movies were being shown in churches…”

Sixty per cent of the films were being shown in churches? Are there contemporary historical references to that? Are there arguments pro and con from that time about churches being used in that way? Sixty per cent of the box office totals accruing to churches would fly in the face of any Hollywood History I have read,

The next thing that he said stopped me in my tracks. Even if the fact itself is right—which I failed to spot in Terry Ramsaye’s definitive history of early film, A Million and One Nights, which was commissioned by Edison—he is horribly misinterpreting what was supposed to have happened.

He says this:

“Edison tried to give the rights, the [Edison] patents to the motion pcture camera to the local presbytery but, Faytene, they didn’t want it. They thought it was a toy. They thought it couldn’t do any good.”

How can anyone who has been in Hollywood as long as he has be unaware of the Motion Picture Patents War?

If you’ve seen the film Nickelodeon, in which the film makers have to head for what would become Hollywood because of Thomas Edison, you might know a little of what I am talking about.

Basically, the invention of movies was very confusing because the film materials required and the technology required came into existence at about the same time. So there are several claimants to be the “inventor of movies”.

I don’t think it was Edison, myself, but he managed to get the American patent for the motion picture camera. But then something interesting happened, Similar but sufficiently different technology was invented so that Independent companies, who weren’t using Edison’s cameras.

What was Edison’s response? He tried to form a monopoly trust resting on his patents, trying to totally control movies for himself and his cronies—the Motion Picture Patents Company.

That’s why so many movies companies came out West, by the way. Far away from lawyers, and bruisers who could break your camera or your head. Nice weather and pretty close to Mexico, just in case.

The Edison trust’s main weapon was the courts. As the above Wikipedia entry notes, it didn’t go well for them. First, in 1913, the need to pay royalties on Edison patents expired. Then in 1915 a US court ruled that the Edison monopoly company was “Going far beyond what was necessary” to protect the use of patents”, giving the independent companies breathing space. This, along with other factors, led the companies involved in the trust to fold after the end of the First World War.

What does all this mean? That what Baehr said about what Edison intended to do seems barely credible.

Is there any evidence that Baehr can point to? I have my doubts, as Edison creating a monopoly and fighting like a tiger to maintain the monopoly are not the actions of someone who would be happy to give his patents away to a church. They are the actions of someone going “Mine! I want all this for myself.”

It could be possible that Edison made the alleged offer to a church after the court decisions that broke his monopoly. If that should be the case, then Edison was offering his rights because they were of no value to him.

In any case, for Baehr to say that Edison’s offer was something powerful and a great opportunity that the church frittered away is quite wrong. The twenty year patch of movie history regarding to the fight over patents, which Baehr should have a nodding knowledge of, would prove that any church would Edison’s patents would not have had the commanding, monopoly position that Baehr’s comments imply that they would have had.

I don’t think he intended to mislead his audience, but he did.

After Baehr’s remarks, in Part 5 of the video, the audience went right to prayer with the organizers praying sorrowfully that they repented for giving up the “[Edison] camera.” I found myself talking back to the computer screen: “That’s so wrong…” And I’m not an expert on Hollywood history, but Mr. Baehr is supposed to be.

What else did MR. Baehr say? Here are some highlights.

He goes on to imply that Christians dropped the ball when it comes to radio in the US too.

“I know the first radio station was done in a church in Pittsburgh by the junior pastor. And the senior pastor thought it was a toy…”

Hmm, KDKA in Pittsburgh is credited with being the world’s first commercial radio station. If we go back to the very beginnings of KDKA, Wikipedia has an entry on the person who basically started the station before it was a full-blown radio station.

Wikipedia says:

““Frank Conrad (1874 – 1941) was a radio broadcasting pioneer who worked as the Assistant Chief Engineer for the Westinghouse Electric Corporation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,. He began what are considered the first regular radio broadcasts from his Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, garage in 1916, and is responsible for the founding of the first licensed broadcast station in the world: KDKA…..At 23 he began working in the Westinghouse Testing Department, where he developed such inventions as the watt•hour meter. Conrad was awarded more than 200 patents throughout his life.”

“Conrad first became interested in radio in 1912 when, in order to settle a bet on the accuracy of a watch, Conrad built a radio in order to hear time signals from the Arlington, Virginia Naval Observatory. He then constructed, in his garage, a new transmitter, licensed in 1916 as 8XK, whose signal could be heard throughout the Pittsburgh area…..”

It’s odd that Baehr goes from an inventor to the operator of the first radio station. Is Marconi not Christian enough for his thesis?

Baehr continues:

“Television was invented by a Christian up in Idaho just be watching the mowing of the fields.”

[Although Philo Farnsworth only invented many parts of the first TVs this seems correct.]

“I don’t believe that they invented any of this” added Baehr “I believe God gave it to them to ‘take ever thought captive’ for Him, and to worship through the power of creativity and of entertainment.”

God would certainly want these things used to bless and bring people to him, but I’d like to think that he doesn’t mind sharing. Taking “every though captive” may have dominionist overtones, depending how you interpret it.

He returns to the history of movies.

“So in 1915, the movie theaters said ‘if you’re going to show movies in churches, we’re not going to let you show them in theaters…”
I think that what Baehr is getting at that the film companies were insisting that churches buy a license to show films, as happens today..

“And then you got into the Roaring 20s Robert, things got really debauched and Hedy Lamarr did 13 minutes of nudity in Ecstasy…”

Readers of Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon might agree with Baehr here. Ecstasy, however, was released overseas in 1933 and the Hays office successfully prevented it from being widely released in the United States at that time. The author of the Wikipedia piece on the film didn’t watch it with a stopwatch, so I don’t know if “13 minutes” is correct.

“I skipped one thing, when they started Hollywood as a Christian retreat. You all know that, right?”

Could be true, but Wikipedia doesn’t seem to know that either.

He then begins to talk about he cities as the positive influence of the Hays office, Joseph Breen and other influences such as the Protestant Film Office and the Catholic Legion of decency.

His nod to Christian filmmakers of the past is apt, although I would have mentioned C.O.Baptista in addition to the Palists and Cathedral Films. An interesting page at the A.V. Geeks website tells us in more detail about the history of Christian filmmaking that Baehr alludes to.

He then refers to various Hollywood personalities who were Christians. His dad, as Robert “Tex” Allen, was a Hollywood star known for westerns, as he states. Although I do wonder what Ted Baehr thinks of his dad’s role in Raiders of the Living Dead. See Ted Baehr’s dad in the US edition of Naked Evil!

The Sixties were bad for Hollywood, Baehr believes. Progressive Christians might in turn argue that the increased freedom and liberty of that era in films was a much needed thing, but what Baehr says is an article of faith with conservative American Christians, so I’ll look at what he says.

I’ll quote this at some length:

“In 1966, the Protestant Film Office shut down. You went from 100 per cent what would be family oriented—every filom could be seen by anybody. It didn’t say that you couldn’t do violence, but you justwouldn’t do violence in a way that would lead Jason [there] to go around and copy the violence. Or you couldn’t say that you couldn’t do romance, but you wouldn’t do romance in such a way that would cause susceptible youth to go off the tracks. What’s wrong with that?…It wasn’t salacious, it wasn’t pornographic. It didn’t capture your essence and turn you into somebody who wanted to become violent.”
“When the church left we went from the Sound of Music in 1966 to the first X-rated film in 1969….when the Church shut down the Protestant Film Office, within the first si=x months, the Church of Satan set up a film office in Hollywood.”

So, Baehr, for the purposes of appealing to an idyllic Hollywood past that we can all perhaps return to again and even perhaps, makes his case.

Some observations:

My progressive friends might want to point out that movies of that time might appear squeaky clean, but at the same time were racist, or sexist and such.

100 per cent of films were family friendly. Really?

This might be apocryphal, but one thing that used to be done in Hollywood, is to have the stars of the movie confront, or participate in all sorts of evil or horrible things, and then turn to the sided of good in the last reel, getting a vicarious pleasure from it all and repenting just in time. A good moral lesson, perhaps, but a crafty move by the film maker.

Baehr would be aghast to remember Christians who washed their hands of Hollywood, but they did exist. They provide an interesting point of view.

I own a 1940 book by Lester Sumrall called Worshipers of the Silver Screen, which has a much different perspective than the “wasn’t Hollywood swell” perspective that Baehr offers.

The forward is by Edith Mae Pennington, who flirted with pursuing a film career before becoming an Assemblies of God evangelist and pastor.

Whatever she experienced in 1920s Hollywood, she felt very convicted by what was happening to her. She writes in the forward: “But when I was introduced to Hollywood’s inner life, my modest sensibilities were shocked to the extreme. I was deeply horrified by the apparent immorality on every side.”

Lester Sumrall himself opens with his being told by an unnamed Hollywood employee giving him a tour: “Now you are to witness the world’s biggest sham!”

Family-friendly? Sumrall quotes unnamed people who worried that children were being exposed, by movies, to matters more suited to adults. Sumrall worried about the corrupting effect of profit-making on films and how they are made, its catering to extremes in the portrayal of people as characters which encouraged people to follow suit. Full of Christian values? Rather, Sumrall argues, “Hollywooditis” catered to the lowest common denominator.

I’m not a fan of Sumrall’s anonymous quoting, but he does cite a telling quote he found in a New Orleans newspaper by actress and writer Cornelia Otis Skinner. She reportedly said: “Hollywood is cheap and tawdry. It’s wicked. It’s a place where you have to drop your real sense of values. People in power are common and unscrupulous, and you can’t call your soul your own. In fact, the people in power are so horrible that my friends, men and women who speak my language are miserably unhappy there.”

What do I think? Well, I think that if you look from movies from Baehr’s conservative standpoint, movies generically were “better than movies are now, generically. Further, I would heartily agree that Christians have been salt and light in Hollywood and need to be encouraged to continue to do so. Baehr is right there.

But I also know that the kinds of thoughts expressed by Pennington and Sumrall were representative of the views of many Christians in the past. Rightly, or wrongly, Hollywood was viewed as uniformly a bad thing. And now we have Baehr talking about the same Hollywood of the Pennington and Sumrall eras as uniformly good and “family friendly”

Could one extreme be as bad as the other? And the audience at The Cry Hollywood—which I suspect was mostly young—would have had no idea that there was another historical point of view—which perhaps needed to be refuted. But if Baehr doesn’t reference it, as I did above, so much the better for his own argument.

In a “whaa?” moment in the midst of his conclusion, Baehr adds, “Actually The Blob is a Biblical allegory.” I may have seen too many cheesy sci-fi movies, but I think I know why!

Baehr ends his remarks with an exhortation for Christians to not turn their backs on Hollywood and, instead, seek to help and bless what God might be doing there. That is all good, all wise and all prudent.

But there are brief snippets that make me wonder if a dog whistle is in play. “We have to take the territory,” Baehr says. There is also a need to “take every thought captive.” I’d like a development of what he means by that.

I’ve been making these points in order to make this one.

Looking back over my various posts here, I’m seeing a recurring thread. Some Christians may be increasingly more likely to misuse history when they speak.
In the case of Mr. Baehr, he does this flagrantly in the example of Edison and the alleged gift of his patents to a church. If this did happen, there was no way, as history panned out that Christians could have had the whole of the movie industry and preserved it as a gift in the service of the Lord.

Had I been at The Cry Hollywood, I would have been thinking this to myself as the other people repented of not taking the gift of the [Edison] camera.

They would have been weeping over a sin that they did not commit, and historically could not have been held responsible for, because someone–who should have perhaps known better–implied that they should do so.

And that is wrong. Sermon-like remarks should carefully checked to make sure they are right before being delivered..

All the more reason to “be a Berean” when you listen. More so than ever.

By Rick Hiebert. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission

Nicole Eaton, the Conservative senator, is annoyed at the United Church’s politicking,

On As It Happens a few weeks ago, she said that the church’s social gospel stance was basically politics in disguise, which she saw as “pretty strange”.

A Montreal Gazette columnist took her to task a few days ago. And the moderator of the United Church has offered a reply in the National Post.

I would say that whatever your political leanings, churches wind up becoming political to some extent, either directly or indirectly. Indirectly, by deciding not to be open to doing something when something politically “immoral”–in their view–is staring them i the face.

Does Nicole Eaton mean what she says? If so, one would expect her to also start talking about Faytene Grasseschi and My Canada, say. After all, Faytene has worked to persuade MPs to pass legislation–Roxanne’s Law comes to mind. [Sorry, the example came to mind. ]

If church work helpful to your side is okay, then contrary work by the “other side” should be okay to try as well, even if you don’t agree with it.

But then it’s not “pretty strange” that Eaton would have a blind spot. And you know what happens when the blind leads the blind.

By Rick Hiebert. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission

Earlier this week, according to Federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, new regulations were introduced which restrict employers who are “connected to the sex trade” from bringing in women who would work as exotic dancers, escorts and massagers into the country.

“Frankly this should have been done a long time ago,” Immigration Minister Jason Kenney told the National Post on Wednesday.

“Why would we grant visas to girls that we have a strong suspicion are going to end up under the thumb of a criminal gang being exploited and trafficked? We’re not going after the women — we’re protecting them from what they might not know will happen to them when they get to Canada.”

The story notes that only “employers linked to the sex trade” would face a ban, while those employers with no record of doing anything wrong would be cleared to brinmg people in. {If it were something like this, this opens a legal can of worms, as those people wanting to bring these ladies in will be asking, “Why am I being treated as if I will commit a crime?”

Marni Soupcoff of the NatPost raises another objection. Sh reads this as a ban on every temp wokers reading these jobs and asks whether this could stand, given that these jobs are legal in Canada.

One thing is clear, aside from any merits to the idea, it will appeal to social conservatives. Aside from the moral question of what these ladies would do, the general question of “human trafficking” is something that has been raised in the House of Commons.

Tory MP Joy Smith, who was interviewed in that Radio-Canada piece on Faytene and her allies, has been raising the issue in the House of Commons for some time now, will no doubt be pleased with this initiative. A bill that she brought forth on the subject, which makes it illegal for Canadians to practice human trafficking outside of Canada, became law last week.

By Rick Hiebert. All Rights Reserved. Used By Permission.

I was surprised to learn that the Alberta town of Morinville didn’t already have a secular school system.

But not as surprised as a group of parents–who last week persuaded the Alberta government to secularize one of the four Roman Catholic schools there–had been dismayed to realize that their non-Catholic kids were being given Catholic religious training.

“I recognize this has been a challenging and emotional issue for the community, but this change is important to provide all parents the choice and voice they deserve,” Education Minister Jeff Johnson said in a news release quoted by the Edmonton Journal.

If you have a look at the Morinville page on Wikipedia, it talks about the Catholic origins of the town, which now has about 8,500 people. I am hazarding a guess, based on what I read in the Journal’s story that over the years education officials have thought it more cost effective to have the Catholics operate the now 4 schools in the town.

And then a group of parents, as reported in the story, became puzzled after learning their kids wre making the sign of the Cross and saying prayers each morning.

The parents asked if their kids could be excused and catholic school officials, they say, said that would not be possible.

As a result of the parent’s appeal to Alberta’s Education Ministry, which had to get their decision approved by cabinet, Ecole Georges P. Vanier School will be transferred to the regional, secular school board.

What I was thinking about all this myself is why the schools in the town were all Catholic. It’s perhaps a mark of how much Canada has changed over the years that I would readily think “Why hasn’t there been a non-Catholic or Non-Protestant school there before now?”

By Rick Hiebert. All Rights Reserved. Used By Permission

Despite having had problems with their former legal counsel, members of the Blood tribe in Southern Alberta have been reassured that they will be able to pursue a settlement for tribe members who went to residential schools before a deadline in September.

Canadian Press reports that Ian Pitfield, a former B.C. Supreme Court judge, made a special visit to the tribe last week.

He needed to make a visit to the tribe after a ruling by the B.C. Supreme Court in June. Justice Brenda Brown rule that the Calgary law firm of Blott and Co. could not longer represent 5,600 survivors of residential schools–including members of the Blood Tribe–due to the way that it had dealt with their clients.

As a result of the ruling, Ian Pitfield was appointed by the court to help ensure that the pending claims, which must be filed by Sept. 19th, will be dealt with fairly. He met with members of the tribe last week. Over one thousand members of the tribe have filed claims under the Residential School Settlemnent Agreement, a $5 billion class action suit.

Rick Tailfeathers, a spokesman for the tribe, told CP that Pitfield was “very responsive” to the concerns of the claimants. “The integrity of the system has to be restored,” he said.

There is an odd little item at OneNewsNow out of the US. Well, not odd considering it is OneNewsNow is a news arm of the American Family Association, designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group.

Charles McVety says he is back on tv.

A Canadian preacher is rejoicing that his television program is back on the air, but more so that free speech is being restored in his country.
Dr. Charles McVety of Word TV is president of Canada Christian College in Toronto. He tells OneNewsNow he was attacked for preaching against “the radical sex agenda of the elites” and was forced off the air in 2011. The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council first objected the preacher’s criticism of curriculum in the country’s schools that taught the existence of six genders — not just male and female. But he is now celebrating a movement of freedom, as the government has removed the anti-free speech clause of the Canada Human Rights Act.

…But with the country’s censor board still targeting preachers, McVety asserts that they are not out of the woods yet.

“So, we still have to fight this fight of being free to preach the gospel,” he accounts. “And even if it’s politically incorrect, we still must have the freedom to speak truth and to speak righteousness to a nation.”

McVety’s new program, The Canadian Times, airs Sunday nights on Vision TV.

I admire a couple of Canadians who braved the comment section under the article to explain that McVety’s description of events which got him yanked off CTS don’t match up with reality. If nothing else, he is a master of hyperbole, and OON readers swallow what was said hook, line and sinker. The only other pick up of this that I found is at Lifesite, which says the show was announced by pr, and started airing on Vision TV in June. The headline is predictable; Canadian preacher censored for ‘discrimination’ back on the air. At least Lifesite had the decency to put scare quotes around discrimination. McVety’s hyperbole is toned down a bit for Canadian consumption, but not much.

The Canadian Times, McVety’s new show, made its debut earlier this month on Vision TV. It airs every Sunday evening at 11 PM. The show sports the same look and flavor of the old show, just with a different name. McVety is as outspoken as ever.

“Freedom is making a comeback in Canada,” he said in the press release.

Oh.

In 2011 McVety formed The Canadian Religious Broadcasters Association in response to the demise of his show, Word.ca. Sounds grand, but  there doesn’t appear to be any members. If a Canadian broadcaster wants to be part of the National Religious Broadcasters (US), they don’t need a Canadian Association to do so.

The Canadian Times  website states ‘EC Publishing since 1904′. I take it this has been some sort of newsletter for McVety’s Evangelical Association. (not to be confused with the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada) but if someone who knows  Canadian evangelical fundamentalism history can pop into the comments and shed some light, feel free. The website was registered by McVety in 2007.

Vision TV is a member of The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council.  How long is McVety going to last this time before he violates  CBSC Ethical and Equitable Portrayal Codes again?

Update: From a knowledgeable friend of the blog: “EC refers to Evangelical Christian which was a publication of some substance throughout much of the 20th century.
…Charles McVety’s father, Elmer, obtained the publishing rights in about the 1950s and published EC as a magazine in connection with the Evangelical Christian bookstore, a downtown Toronto institution. Charles inherited those publishing rights and, from time to time, published the magazine.”

I have voiced my concerns about a group of Prairie Bible Institute alumni who call themselves The Healing Team.  Past posts be read by clicking the Prairie Bible Institute tag at the end of the post or using the search engine on the right.  Judging by comments under numerous posts and off-line emails, I’m not the only one who is concerned about the goals, entanglements and qualifications of this team. And now this. I believe members of this ‘team’ are well-meaning, and remain ill-equipped and ill-prepared to befriend, aid, assist or help anyone who is dealing with abuses  experienced while at PBI over the years.  What Janice Walker has to say and what she experienced heightens my disquiet.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Expressing concerns about The Healing Team did not get me labelled as a bully, but Janice Walker got slapped with that label.  A bully is a menace, someone who does not aid, assist or help.
Bully is not a label which sticks to Janice Walker and shame on any alum or Healing Team member who assisted in alienating and playing the familiar PBI us/them game. Healing is not throwing one person under your bus to ‘help’ another. No one should ever be treated like a child, have their trust violated, or correspondence shared with ‘The Healing Team’ passed around the in group on a FB page.  What did Janice do? She may have violated the  happy clappy policy of this FB group. I’m not sure.

Dear God, I wish abuse survivors could have “positive” endings to their pain and “encouraging” outcomes, but I live in the real world. Shame on all of you.

Janice voiced her concerns to others in email about her experience with The Survivor Fund Project/Healing Team and Friends of PBI and was thinking about saying more.

Janice Walker got labelled, banned from Friends of PBI,  and received a ‘cease and desist’ from one of the FB administrators when she asked what she had done wrong.
Janice Walker was a healthy, caring friend would not be manipulated, controlled or silenced.

Many PBI survivors (and apparently concerned alum) have been blocked by team members and administrators of FB pages, this has been ongoing behavior since PBI President Mark Maxwell went public in November 2011, and is unlikely to stop.  What is of deep concern is the possibility that ethical boundaries between the team and alumni on FB appear to have been violated, trust was certainly broken and disrespect is painfully evident. Janice Walker was not easily kowtowed and did what any healthy loving friend would do.

So I talked to (my friend’s)* husband as I was confused and he talked to (my friend) and I got an email from her saying she was taking direction from the healing team for her healing and that she wanted minimal contact with me.  

I’d ask Janice more about her concerns, but I can’t. She died July 8th at her home in Calgary.

PBI Abuse Survivors and a close friend of Ms. Walker have gathered some of her correspondence about The PBI Healing Team,  her estrangement from her friend, her hurt,  and what she felt she might need to do.

This is a heart-tugging and sad read. I could say more, I’m not going to. It is Janice Walkers turn to speak.

Because the correspondence is ‘insider,’ a scorecard of those Janice mentions follows.

Doug: Doug Warkentin administrator of Friends of PBI – Facebook
Priscilla: Priscilla Verts Johnson  - PBI Healing Team
Ruth Maxwell:  sister of PBI President Mark Maxwell, administrator of Friends of PBI
my friend:  Janice’s long time friend, a PBI abuse survivor who reached out to the  PBI Healing Team.

The Healing Team: Hurting or Helping?

Rick passed this along, I’m tossing it up.:^)

What a great obituary in the Salt Lake Tribune. The guy is Val Patterson 1953-2012.

 I had a lot of fun. It was an honor for me to be friends with some truly great people. I thank you. I’ve had great joy living and playing with my dog, my cats and my parrot. But, the one special thing that made my spirit whole, is my long love and friendship with my remarkable wife, my beloved Mary Jane. I loved her more than I have words to express. Every moment spent with my Mary Jane was time spent wisely. Over time, I became one with her, inseparable, happy, fulfilled. I enjoyed one good life. Traveled to every place on earth that I ever wanted to go. Had every job that I wanted to have. Learned all that I wanted to learn. Fixed everything I wanted to fix. Eaten everything I wanted to eat.

And this, you gotta love his passion and irrepressible honesty:

Now that I have gone to my reward, I have confessions and things I should now say. As it turns out, I AM the guy who stole the safe from the Motor View Drive Inn back in June, 1971. I could have left that unsaid, but I wanted to get it off my chest. Also, I really am NOT a PhD. What happened was that the day I went to pay off my college student loan at the U of U, the girl working there put my receipt into the wrong stack, and two weeks later, a PhD diploma came in the mail.

You can read Val Patterson’s obituary here.