Thread by @hlgriffin

I hadn't heard of Ray Ortlund before @The_ACNA's abuse mishandling crisis, but I can definitely say now that I totally get why the ACNA would be eager to welcome someone who thinks this way with open arms.

This rhetoric lets them adorn their callousness with pious language.

https://twitter.com/brmorris/status/1680254716410998784

Zero surprise that it was only after @The_ACNA was under public scrutiny for the ways that its leaders handle abuse allegations that Ray Ortlund severed ties with C.J. Mahaney & Sovereign Grace Churches.

brentdetwiler.com/brentdetwilerc…

@The_ACNA You know who in @The_ACNA hasn't publicly severed ties to Sovereign Grace & Mahaney? Scott Ward, part owner of Gammon & Grange, the legal counsel for Sovereign Grace during their abuse mishandling crisis.
https://t.co/NndygyZkh5brentdetwiler.com/brentdetwilerc…

@The_ACNA Having made his personal fortune & reputation in advising organizations like Sovereign Grace (the fruit of which is hardly invisible if anyone bothers to look) on how to navigate allegations of abuse mishandling, one is hardly surprised that Ward has not publicly apologized.

@The_ACNA Scott Ward was not a public face of @The_ACNA Provincial Response Team, probably because his public record of advising churches is available to anyone who can google. He was, however, highly involved behind the scenes.

https://twitter.com/hlgriffin/status/1668745165207638016?s=20

@The_ACNA One has to wonder whether his place of preeminence as the head Chancellor for @The_ACNA & his powerful position on their Executive Committee had anything to do with the Exec Comm refusing to hire @R_Denhollander when the only three experts on the PRT resigned in protest.

@The_ACNA @R_Denhollander One also has to wonder why, over a year after these resignations, the same men who guided this process are still in power with no outside investigation into the credible (assuming one accepts the testimony of women) allegations against them. acnatoo.org/acnatoo-news/p…

@The_ACNA @R_Denhollander Given his history with @R_Denhollander calling out his client, Sovereign Grace, on their abuse response, & her insistence that legal advice be subject to scrutiny when churches are accused of mishandling abuse allegations, one is not surprised that @The_ACNA Exec blocked her.

@The_ACNA @R_Denhollander I do not imagine that the consciences of men like Ward or Archbishop @FoleyBeach or @keepalanwalking are troubled by this. The rhetoric that mean victims & advocates are just so evil is readily available as a balm to their souls if any parts of their consciences remain unseared.

@The_ACNA @R_Denhollander @FoleyBeach @keepalanwalking Let's also note that the history of Gammon & Grange's guidance of the Sovereign Grace abuse mishandling crisis was long & publicly established before the ACNAtoo survivors went public.

@The_ACNA @R_Denhollander @FoleyBeach @keepalanwalking @The_ACNA either didn't bother to check on the track record of their chief Chancellor, who has influenced ACNA canons on abuse & discipline for yrs, or they knew about it & are 100% ok w/ it because they identify with men like Mahaney & orgs like Sovereign Grace against victims.

@The_ACNA @R_Denhollander @FoleyBeach @keepalanwalking And why shouldn't they, if men like Ray Ortlund are around to help them piously describe their own wounds (cherished as blessed stigmata) at being held accountable for their callous incompetence as the result of an evil "climate of victimization."

It never seems to occur to church & denominational leaders that the way that they & their comrades in other ecclesiastical bodies behave could more appropriately be described as cultures of self-pitying indulgence in victim fantasies.

Imagine that you are a sincere young man who believes in all the right doctrinal points with sufficient earnestness & has lots of energy to give to the church.

Imagine that the men around you recognize these qualities as evidence that you are Leadership Material.

Imagine that these are men who never much notice if the people in their churches are mostly comfortable, white-middle-class people who rarely much change for the better, but mostly maintain their comfort.

The Kingdom of God is at hand, & it's time to make this Bigger for Jesus!

Imagine that these men are so busy fighting Culture Wars in which energy must go to pointing out how outsiders are wrong that pastoral care in the church is relatively neglected.

Emotion stuff is fine for women & perhaps for a few men that are seen as inordinately nurturing, but really the ways that the effects of sin & being sinned against damage the soul are effectively disposed of by being sincere about right doctrine.

All this stuff about care of the soul can be deprioritized while the men in charge Conquer the World for Jesus, planting more churches, owning more libs, saying more true things publicly with great earnestness as people nod & clap & assure them they are Real Men of God.

Imagine that you do this for decades & that your entire identity is built around the sacrifices you have made for the church ("Have we not neglected wife & children in your name? Have we not overworked in your name! Have we not put off dealing with our own baggage in your name?")

Imagine that you are accustomed to your judgment in all things being treated as sufficient as long as you are sincere & have good doctrine.

There is no concern, no matter how outside the scope of your actual experience & training, that you cannot rightly navigate if you deign to direct your attention to it, even if you & everyone who trained & empowered you have neglected these areas for years.

Take, for instance, responding to abuse allegations.

Imagine that you have an endless supply of negative examples of your peers both within & outside of your denomination bombing this badly. Imagine that you are not moved to learn about this to avoid these mistakes.

Imagine having had every opportunity to hear that churches mishandling abuse destroys the faith of people inside the church & destroys the witness of the church to outsiders.

Imagine still thinking to yourself: "I've got this."

Imagine all the men around you who empowered you & were formed in the same priorities, which are reflected in the institutions that they have formed & led, all telling you that "you've got this" because you are doing what they would do.

And imagine the reassurance, in moments of doubt that even the most Reasonable & Objective & Godly & Sincere men are occasionally prone to when all those Hysterical Women are telling you in their shrill social media voices that you're making predictable & preventable mistakes...

...the reassurance offered by Reasonable Godly Attorneys who tell you what to do, which just happens to involve you not exposing your own mistakes or the mistakes of your friends & confessing them & facing actual consequences as part of repentance.

Imagine that this attorney has a history of advising churches in notorious abuse mishandling crises that is easily Googleable (imagine, for some reason, that no one in your world knows how to Google anymore because they already know everything).

Imagine a world in which you not only don't have to feel bad about how things turn out, but can assure yourself (as your embattled brethren, formed & empowered with the same priorities assure you) that you Did The Best You Could & are, in fact, a Noble Martyr of the evil victims.

Imagine that your self-image requires that you see yourself as Brave & Caring & a Protector of the women & children who are really worthy of your protection so that you designate victims who tell you you're response is adequate to shield you from attacks from critical Bad Victims

Imagine that all the men around you, who have a decades-long vested interest in your group being Not Perfect (humble tone of voice), But Doing So Much Good for the Gospel eat this up like dogs returning to their consecrated vomit after their itching ears are scratched.

Imagine what you would do if you have been empowered well beyond your actual character in positions of power, the responsibilities of which you are not competent to fulfill, & you don't even know that you need to ask for competent outside help in a high-stakes crisis.

Would someone like this have the courage to face that their response to these situations indicates deep flaws in their character that should prompt them to rethink their entire lives & maybe not stay in positions of power?

Would you rather listen to the chorus of brethren who would have to ask themselves the same questions when they assure you that you are among the Real Victims Here & that the Mean Evil Lady Lib survivors are Out to Destroy the Church?

Would you still have the capacity, after decades of sunk-cost in a LARP in which you were so sure that you had God's favor, to reckon with the possibility that what you have built will pass instruction & is, in fact, crushing people who seek shelter in it?

https://twitter.com/hlgriffin/status/1459282151250313228?s=20

Or would you, like a Very Brave Man, dismiss & demonize women & children & men (the kind you don't identify with) who are telling you things that, if you took them seriously & thought through their implications, wld entail the end of your world & exalted identity as you know it?

Imagine, in short, that you are @keepalanwalking or @FoleyBeach or Stewart Ruch or Scott Ward or @frandrewgross or all the other heroes of the faith in @The_ACNA, & that you will never run out of enablers who also need to see you & themselves as beleaguered Noble Martyrs.

@keepalanwalking @FoleyBeach @frandrewgross @The_ACNA Would you take comfort in the Great Gas Cloud of Witnesses in other denominations? Would your heart be strangely warmed at the words of Augie Boto of@SBCExecComm?

https://twitter.com/hlgriffin/status/1545796876334686214?s=20

@ElizabethOstli1 @The_ACNA (The blog article containing the Ray Ortlund tweet with the screenshot above): wthrockmorton.com/2018/02/13/sov…

*tell you that *your* response is inadequate, rather. Hmmm- usually your & you're are not homophones that are out to get me, but sometimes they are as sneaky as a manipulative bishop who is really good at pretending to be One of the Good Guys.