No surprises, just endless disappointment and grief. I think your note about magical thinking perfectly encapsulates the problem with everyone still genuinely trying to help the SBC--and countless other corrupt religious orgs--do the right thing: they have endless imagination in only one direction, the one that entails the salvation of their beloved institutions. None of them are brave or curious enough to imagine a bright future where these orgs have burnt to the ground, where their power over the people has ended, and where their leaders have gone down with the ship.
Oh wow. I think you really nailed it with this sentence: "They have endless imagination in only one direction, the one that entails the salvation of their beloved institutions."
You know what gets me? What makes me see red right now? You had better believe they are laser focused on a database I guarantee their lawyers built.
The lawyers and money guys will want to know - and I guarantee they DO know - who did what to whom because they want to control their legal liability. They want to know with precision what risk their organization has assumed.
I've never been party to risk management on something so depraved and evil, but I do understand the process. Step one is understanding your exposure. That involves a database. 100pct.
So where am I going with this?
I'd be willing to bet an extremely large sum there IS a database. I'd bet an equally large sum that - barring a good Samaritan leaking it - we will never see it
Because at the end of the day, these men clearly care about their money. They love their power. They couldn't possibly care less about people in the pews.
Yes, thanks for explaining this so clearly. I think near-everything they do has something to do with protecting the institution -- protecting themselves -- against liability risks. It's not at all about the people; it's about risk management.
The question to ask is, "Can you show me your risk matrix?". That's what their database feeds, the next step in risk management.
There will be two matrices. One for victims and one for perpetrators. Two axes on each scatterplot: probability of exposure, consequence of exposure. Rated 1-5, "Unlikely to Certain" and "No problem to Catastrophic Damage." The chart will have green, yellow, and red zones. Human lives, hopes, and dreams reduced to numbers and colors. Unspeakable suffering assigned to a color. K
Pity those victims in the red zone! Pity them for they will get "attention" to move their probability of coming forward from, say a 4 or 5 to a 3 or less. Move people from red to yellow, whatever it takes. These are the ones targeted for crushing peer pressure, public shaming, discredit, anonymous "settlements" where one can sell their soul for what feels like peace.
For those who have already come forward like Ms. Brown, they leave the risk matrix and enter the "issues" matrix. Again, pity and pray for those in the red.
They will get attention.
Jesus turned over tables because men were ripping off poor pilgrims who needed to buy birds and whatnot to sacrifice. I can only imagine his anger at buying and selling silence.
"From the get-go, it appeared that the abuse reform task force was designed for failure. It was run by volunteers who were given no significant funding, no staff, and no power. So, of course, nothing would get done. That’s the nature of how the world works."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Rachael Denhollander pocket a significant amount of coin from the SBC for her part in this charade?
Disgraceful. The investigation yielded results far worse than most people expected. What should we do about it?
Nothing.
ok….
Yup. That's about the gist of it.
No surprises, just endless disappointment and grief. I think your note about magical thinking perfectly encapsulates the problem with everyone still genuinely trying to help the SBC--and countless other corrupt religious orgs--do the right thing: they have endless imagination in only one direction, the one that entails the salvation of their beloved institutions. None of them are brave or curious enough to imagine a bright future where these orgs have burnt to the ground, where their power over the people has ended, and where their leaders have gone down with the ship.
Oh wow. I think you really nailed it with this sentence: "They have endless imagination in only one direction, the one that entails the salvation of their beloved institutions."
BAM! So very true.
I'm angry, horrified, and totally unsurprised.
You know what gets me? What makes me see red right now? You had better believe they are laser focused on a database I guarantee their lawyers built.
The lawyers and money guys will want to know - and I guarantee they DO know - who did what to whom because they want to control their legal liability. They want to know with precision what risk their organization has assumed.
I've never been party to risk management on something so depraved and evil, but I do understand the process. Step one is understanding your exposure. That involves a database. 100pct.
So where am I going with this?
I'd be willing to bet an extremely large sum there IS a database. I'd bet an equally large sum that - barring a good Samaritan leaking it - we will never see it
Because at the end of the day, these men clearly care about their money. They love their power. They couldn't possibly care less about people in the pews.
What would Jesus say?
Yes, thanks for explaining this so clearly. I think near-everything they do has something to do with protecting the institution -- protecting themselves -- against liability risks. It's not at all about the people; it's about risk management.
The question to ask is, "Can you show me your risk matrix?". That's what their database feeds, the next step in risk management.
There will be two matrices. One for victims and one for perpetrators. Two axes on each scatterplot: probability of exposure, consequence of exposure. Rated 1-5, "Unlikely to Certain" and "No problem to Catastrophic Damage." The chart will have green, yellow, and red zones. Human lives, hopes, and dreams reduced to numbers and colors. Unspeakable suffering assigned to a color. K
Pity those victims in the red zone! Pity them for they will get "attention" to move their probability of coming forward from, say a 4 or 5 to a 3 or less. Move people from red to yellow, whatever it takes. These are the ones targeted for crushing peer pressure, public shaming, discredit, anonymous "settlements" where one can sell their soul for what feels like peace.
For those who have already come forward like Ms. Brown, they leave the risk matrix and enter the "issues" matrix. Again, pity and pray for those in the red.
They will get attention.
Jesus turned over tables because men were ripping off poor pilgrims who needed to buy birds and whatnot to sacrifice. I can only imagine his anger at buying and selling silence.
I don’t believe that these men actually believe in God because no one I know would want to to stand before God and explain this wretched position.
The SBC is baptized into the Religion of Whiteness, not into the Christ of Scripture. There is clearly a difference!!
"From the get-go, it appeared that the abuse reform task force was designed for failure. It was run by volunteers who were given no significant funding, no staff, and no power. So, of course, nothing would get done. That’s the nature of how the world works."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Rachael Denhollander pocket a significant amount of coin from the SBC for her part in this charade?