Stan, you have not accused the five men of lying and I have not accused them of lying. We have not condemned nor judged, we are just in a waiting mode....until they have been truly proven guilty.

You have so much compassion for the accused. Where is your compassion for the victims of sexual assault?

This is the mindframe that makes it so difficult to come forward in the Adventist church. Victims are told to "forgive and forget", "stop complaining," "you shouldn't have been walking around the church", "why didn't you scream out?", etc, etc.

And the perps are given the benefit of the doubt and continue to abuse.

We must avoid a lynch mob mind set, for as Darlene says, this is waiting mode, not condemnation time.

(I have much sympathy for victims, I frequently see them in my profession and witness the long term effects of abuse, sexual or otherwise.)

To be honest, I probably have more compassion for the sexually abused than most people. However, that still does not make me condemn someone without them having been proven guilty.

Darlene,

Define proven guilty?

I think you know that answer to that, Maggie.

What kind of logic is that. According to the law if there is ANY doubt in a jurors mind that a person MIGHT be innocent we are to give a NOT GUILTY verdict. Your logic is that the men are guilty because 96 percent of the time the accusations are true.

The job is the church is to protect the victims as well as the accused. We are not to jump to the conclusion that the men are guilty as charged as you say simply because most charges are true. That is the most ridiculus logic I have ever heard.

By your logic if an accusation is true we automatically should throw them in prison because they are as you say "Statistically the accused individuals are beyond a reasonable doubt guilty as charged."

By that logic 4 percent of the men in prison for child abuse are innocent.

Darlene, No. I don't.

Cyberguy. There is a difference between acting legally and acting to protect and heal the innocent as concerned, involved citizens. Hopefully you can see that. I never once referred to the courts, I was referring to how we respond within the Adventist culture.

If the denomination and it's memebrs had a history of acting to protect and heal the inncoent, there would be limited legal activity

Bonnie