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.
Demand justice for the other victims of Mark Rivera.
Talk to your clergy.
Talk to your bishop.
Organize your church to do the same. Put pressure on the hierarchy.
Ask about @The_ACNA
procedures for caring for victims of sexual abuse & responding to abuse investigations.
Most institutional corruption isn't about wicked people actively seeking to do evil.
It's about nice people who were overconfident in their judgment, made foolish choices, & covered for each other b/c they all knew they meant well.
Don't let them evade accountability.
The people that messed this up are not cartoon villains. They are lovely people who love Jesus. You would like them. I would like them.
That's not enough.
Injustice is perpetuated when we are sentimental about people's good intentions.
Bishops don't get a "but I meant well" pass. If you can't DO well in handling sexual abuse allegations in 2021, you are not ready to be bishop.
We have resources. We have the ability to learn from past failures. These situations are difficult, but they aren't THAT difficult.
@StewartRuch was offered ample guidance & feedback by @ladyjessicahaze & her team. She has documentation. He ignored her.
He was probably surrounded by well-intentioned people who love him & knew that he was under a lot of stress & meant well.
It's not enough. He's a bishop.
Bishops get to become bishops because other bishops & leaders recognize their fitness. They identify with them. They like them. They understand the pressure they are under & empathize when one of their own takes it off the rails. "There but for the grace of God go I," etc.
No one likes to hold someone that they like- who they know is not malicious- who they know meant well, with whom they relate to & identify & empathize accountable.
That's how institutions stay weak & vulnerable so that truly wicked predators can have a nice playground.
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Lots of you are looking for ways to help. After we launch the website, I'm going to need to pass the ball to some teammates so I can finish my master's thesis.
We are going to need people to help implement social media outreach, especially on Facebook. Who wants to help?
Also, thank you for taking up tasks so @ladyjessicahaze & her amazing support team don't have to do extra work. If you've read her survivor advocacy threads, you know that Joanna & her team are great at documenting things.
Y'all, I've been working on transcribing the email screenshots from @ladyjessicahaze 's July 3rd 🧵 for ACNAtoo.org 's launch & I'm more tired than @StewartRuch 's performative lament at failing the survivors of abuse in @MidwestAnglican.
Anyone want to help me out?
I just got to this tweet & need to transcribe the screenshots for it and all the Tweets w/ text screenshots after it.
If you want to help, 1. transcribe. 2. DM me the transcription with the relevant tweet 3. retweet the tweet you transcribed in the comments of this thread and let others know it's done so we don't duplicate labor.
@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...
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.