What is abundantly evident from this thread is that @StewartRuch needs to resign. He can't even plead that he is a sincere guy with good intentions that just got in over his head & didn't know what he was doing. He had abundant opportunities to adopt best practices.
@StewartRuch & those who love him & respect him may be able to assure themselves that he was just trying to do the best he cld in an awful & complex situation. Nice, sincere people can be arrogant & in love with their own judgment for no good reason. They can even become bishops.
Men who are this unteachable should not be bishops in @The_ACNA , no matter how upstanding & sincere & well-intentioned they & their friends understand these men to be.
In 2021, do we lack awareness of church sex abuse scandals? Do we lack access to means of researching best practices? Is it impossible to learn from the mistakes of others? @StewartRuch, you have bombed this. For the love of God & the victims that you have abandoned, resign.
Tell yourself if you like that your lawyers & the investigative team whose incompetence you were warned about gave you bad advice & that your instincts told you to do more for the victims & listen to them. You didn't listen & it's time to resign.
@StewartRuch , if ever someone was given grace & access to wisdom to do this thing right, it was you. You may be a nice guy, but that's not enough. Your mishandling of sexual abuse allegations demonstrates that you are not competent for your office as bishop.
@StewartRuch - you didn't mean for it to go this way, but it has because of choices you made as bishop. It was preventable. You were warned. You were given good guidance. You refused to listen and made terrible choice after terrible choice. TIME. TO. RESIGN.
@The_ACNA & @ArchbishopFoley - This situation says some very bad things about ACNA's protocols for handling sexual abuse allegations. Also, it says bad things about your standards of competency & wisdom that you expect from bishops. What are you going to do to make it right?
@ArchbishopFoley -I find it hard to believe that you weren't in the loop or consulted about how @StewartRuch was handling this crisis. I hope you are explaining to him & the leaders at @ChurchRez why they need to resign.
@ArchbishopFoley - I hope you are also asking yourself some questions about how this happened under your watch & what sort of standards you need to hold your fellow bishops to when sexual abuse allegations arise in @The_ACNA .
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@scotmcknight@BpToddHunter@The_ACNA@C4SO Probably not. I haven't looked at details of any policies, but this is literally the ONLY diocese in ACNA that expresses ANY sort of concern for whistleblower protection on their website.
@scotmcknight@BpToddHunter@The_ACNA@C4SO I am guessing that as I look through the documents, I will not find ANY diocese that has policies on how to conduct investigations in ways that are victim-centered & trauma informed. This hasn't been thought through.
@scotmcknight@BpToddHunter@The_ACNA@C4SO As a lay person, it's not clear to me how diocesan policies on abuse prevention & response are developed. Presumably, @The_ACNA has some minimum standards a diocese must meet, yes?
Spending my day compiling a list of ACNA resources by diocese posted on diocesan websites on abuse prevention and response policies. Shout out to Diocese of Churches for the Sake of Others for featuring an easy-to-find page, clear reporting procedures, & whistleblower protection.
@C4SO 's website is definitely the best so far in terms of making it easy for victims to report and in including other forms of abuse as areas of concern other than child sexual abuse. Well done. Other @The_ACNA - take notes.
This points to a broader institutional pronlem in which @The_ACNA either lacks protocols & standards that conform to readily available best practices for responding to sexual abuse allegations...
Most of your fellow parishioners do not know about the mishandling of sexual abuse allegations in @MidwestAnglican by @StewartRuch under the nat'l leadership of @ArchbishopFoley.
White evangelical denoms are self-destructing while their leaders & members demonstrate a near complete lack of self-awareness about the damage the past six years has done to their witness not only outside the church, but in their own families.
Policing & denigrating celibate gay people who are already weary is not helping. People who saw respected leaders stay silent about racism & the dangers of Trumpism, Christian Nationalism & conspiracy theories are now wondering what else their elders got wrong.
Many among the younger Gen Xer, Millennials, & Gen Z are already wary of traditional Christian sexual ethics because the fruit of purity culture has been so abysmal, the misogyny & homophobia evil, & and the helpful support & training for chastity nearly non-existent.
Mediocre men that exhibit horrific errors in judgement shouldn't get to distribute Stay-in-the-Hierarchy-for-Free passes to one another just because they recognize each other's good intentions & doctrine. They will only continue to hold each other to the same low standards.
Here is how I think these things happen: every sexual predator who becomes a member of the clergy is able to do so because he has learned that denominations are willing to bestow authority on nice, well-intentioned men that appear sincere and profess good doctrine.
Sincerity isn't hard to fake. Most people who become clergy are legitimately sincere & seek ordination b/c they love Jesus & want to help people.