@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?
@scotmcknight@BpToddHunter@The_ACNA@C4SO Also as a layperson, I don't get why ACNA as a denomination hasn't developed uniform standards & training. It's not realistic to me that every diocese will have leaders with the wisdom & expertise to figure this out well with the fairly minimal guidance that ACNA seems to offer
@scotmcknight@BpToddHunter@The_ACNA@C4SO It seems like @StewartRuch was incapable of even clicking on the links that @ladyjessicahaze sent him about victim-centered, trauma-informed care or incorporating her detailed requests & descriptions in his search for a 3rd party investigative org.
@scotmcknight@BpToddHunter@The_ACNA@C4SO@StewartRuch@ladyjessicahaze I'm never going to understand that level of doofusness. How good of an advocate does a survivor have to be for a bishop to listen? Does Jesus have to descend from the clouds with Leanne Payne at his side before it dawns on him that maybe being trauma-informed is a good idea?
@scotmcknight@BpToddHunter@The_ACNA@C4SO@StewartRuch@ladyjessicahaze It's also not the best idea that dioceses with no guidelines on handling abuse allegations other than the bare legal minimum of, "report to the authorities" should be left to figure this out on their own when one a prominent lay leader and friend is accused of abuse.
@scotmcknight@BpToddHunter@The_ACNA@C4SO@StewartRuch@ladyjessicahaze How could their judgment not be skewed if an insider is accused? That sort of disclosure totally messes with peoples' sense of reality. Even really sharp people will probably make stupid decisions in that scenario if left to figure it out on their own.
@scotmcknight@BpToddHunter@The_ACNA@C4SO@StewartRuch@ladyjessicahaze You can't wait until an accusation is made to develop policies and procedures about how to respond to an accusation beyond filing an initial report. There are already traumatized victims & there families involved that are going to be understandably retraumatized at any misstep.
@scotmcknight@BpToddHunter@The_ACNA@C4SO@StewartRuch@ladyjessicahaze What's the point of being in a denomination if the denominational leadership isn't providing higher standards on these issues? No evang. denom wld be this slack on right doctrine. Why are they this sloppy in defining parameters for right practice in high stakes areas?
@scotmcknight@BpToddHunter@The_ACNA@C4SO Just off the top of my head, I'm guessing that substantial whistleblower protection in any diocese is going to be difficult to promise or execute. Anyone that someone needs to report about has a good chance of being too enmeshed in the web of power to avoid conflicts of interest
@scotmcknight@BpToddHunter@The_ACNA@C4SO If I were a potential whistleblower, I would want to report to a reputable third party org that the denomination keeps on retainer. Something like a @netgrace_org if they offered that sort of service.
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.
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.
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.
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.