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Chapter 2An Inconvenient Truth“The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. Instead of altering their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit their views...which can be very uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that needs altering.” Dr. WhoIn the midst of a whirlwind of accusations of adultery against Linda Shelton and Dr. Arlid Abrahamsen, one inconvenient truth stood firmly in the path of Danny Shelton's plan to separate his wife from their ministry and pave the way to privately sever himself from her through divorce: there had been no adulterous relationship between Linda and Dr. Abrahamsen. No evidence existed, because no adultery had taken place. As Dr. Abrahamsen testified in an open letter to his accusers:“...I want to clearly state that I have not committed adultery (emotional, physical, “spiritual”), and neither has Linda. The conversations we had were not unusual or inappropriate. Linda is the victim of domestic violence...”Not to be hindered by the truth, although it clearly contradicted his scenario, Danny Shelton set about to alter the facts to fit his denunciations. For this to be successful required the participation of a number of individuals willing to sacrifice truth on the alter of Danny’s desires. Coincidentally, the individuals supporting Danny and defending his actions have gained one or all of the following through their association with 3ABN: power, position, television air time, homes or on-air endorsements.
On June 4, 2004, Linda Shelton signed a separation agreement between herself and 3ABN, this effectively placed her in the position of being under a “gag order” until 2007. Now that gag order is over and it is time to break the silence by revealing the facts as they actually occurred and to observe how they have been misrepresented. I will let Dr. Abrahamsen’s words, written in an open letter in 2006, begin the chain of evidence:“My name is Dr. Arild Abrahamsen. I live in Svindal, Norway. I have been a medical doctor for more than 35 years. I am a member of the Moss SDA Church. I've been the Sabbath School Superintendent for 14 years and the head elder for 4 years, which position I am presently serving. I am the Norwegian doctor who has been slandered by Dr. Walt Thompson, chairman of the board of 3ABN, Danny Shelton, John Lomacang and others.”“Since I have observed the situation and the slander only getting worse, I feel it best to share my experience. I share my personal experience, what I have seen and heard. Much of this information has been verified by other sources, which include emails, letters and the personal experiences of others. I share my experience not to attack any individual or organization, but to bring the truth of this situation to the surface.”“I have been shocked to observe the events of the last two years. I have made no public statement until now. I had hoped things would resolve themselves.”
Sister,I think finally, the truth will come out. May I ask, did you recieve the emails and letters sent out by 3abn and Danny speaking against Linda? I am just an interested observer in this. I know niether party.
At the time of Dr. Abrahamsen’s first meeting with Linda Shelton, he was still bereaved over the recent loss of his wife, whom he lovingly cared for through an extended illness and had buried that same year. Later Danny would accuse the Doctor of murdering his own wife, so he could come and take Danny’s wife away from him. Throughout this saga, wildly ridiculous allegations, with no basis in fact, would become the foundation upon which Danny constructed his chain of evidence to provide a way to rid himself of Linda.
Dr. Abrahamsen continues with the facts concerning his first visit to 3ABN and the results of his meeting with Linda and her son, Nathan: “I visited Johann and Irmgard Thorvaldsson at 3ABN the last week of 2003. The purpose of the trip was to see them and visit the ministry, which I personally had been supporting for some time. I had never been to 3ABN previously, nor had I met the Shelton’s. During this visit I discovered from the Thorvaldsson’s that Linda Shelton’s son, Nathan, was in a dangerous state of health because of an addiction to drugs and working in coal mines. I offered to see him. This visit resulted in an invitation for Nathan to come to Norway for treatments. Nathan came to Norway around January 20, 2004 along with his [girl]friend, Dava Vice.”
Driving along Angel Lane on their way to meet Dr. Abrahamsen, at the guest apartment where Johann and Irmgard were staying, Linda turned her head to gaze upon the profile of her beloved son, although there was a smile upon her face, her eyes moistened from the emotions that were overflowing from her heart. Impulsively, she reached out and gently touched her son’s arm, startled he looked at her, “ Mom, is everything okay? You look like you are going to cry.” Shaking her head she sent a silent prayer on Nathan’s behalf, “Lord, please let this doctor be the one who can help my son, and please let Nathan be willing to be helped.” As her lips mouthed a silent, “Amen!”, they knocked on the door of the duplex apartment where they would meet the doctor from Norway.First, Linda was delighted that Nathan had agreed to meet with a doctor and secondly she was amazed at the friendship that was so quickly developing between Nathan and Dr. Abrahamsen. For Linda this was definitely an answer to prayer. So many times Nathan had refused his mother’s attempts to seek help for him from a physician or was he willing to check himself into a treatment center. Now, when her son’s condition had so obviously deteriorated, Linda was filled with hope by this first step Nathan had taken. She was willing to go anywhere in the world, to secure the treatments Nathan needed to restore his health. “Nathan is my baby”, Linda said. “I know that a parent should not favor one child over the other, but Allysa has always been the stronger of the two. At that time she knew what she wanted for her life, she had a goal and a purpose. Allysa had always been a caring person and I was not surprised when she chose to become a Physician’s Assistant, I am so proud of her. On the other hand there was my baby, Nathan, sick and hurting and it was breaking my heart.”To complicate matters even more, Danny was unwilling to become a part of Nathan’s recovery program. Although Nathan grew up in their home since he was a small child, Danny had turned his back upon Linda’s child from her first marriage. Nor was he willing to support his wife through this experience. How could any man, let alone one who was the head of a television network devoted to “mending broken people” behave so callously toward his wife of nineteen years and her child? Even if Nathan was a product of Linda’s first marriage, Linda was still Danny’s wife. How could a man who professed to be a Christian turn his back on his wife when she needed his support? Unless that man was already planning to turn her out of their home and was hoping in her hour of need she would turn to her son’s doctor for solace, giving Danny the evidence he needed to have Biblical grounds to divorce her—Nathan and his girlfriend discussed how it appeared that Danny was always “pushing” Linda toward the Doctor in the beginning and noticed in contrast how the Doctor never asked for information about Linda and concentrated on helping Nathan. Unfortunately for Danny’s scheme, there were two facts he overlooked, one, Linda was not looking for another partner, she loved Danny despite his faults and remained faithful to their marriage vows. Secondly, Dr. Abrahamsen, contrary to Danny’s misrepresentations, was not interested in stealing his wife, his only concern was in helping her ailing son.
Further insight into the dysfunctional dynamics of the Shelton family life can be ascertained from the conversations the Doctor had with Nathan at his Clinic in Norway: “I had a chance to visit with Nathan regularly. I learned from my conversations with Nathan that the roots of his drug problems were the relationships with his father and stepfather. Specifically he told me that Danny had turned his back on him. I shared this information with his mother on the phone. She told me that Danny said he had no responsibility towards Nathan since he was a product of her first marriage, so she felt she had to do what she could to help her son. There was nothing unusual in the occasional phone reports I gave Nathan's mother while he was in Norway.”
The next time Linda was to have contact with Dr. Abrahamsen in person, in addition to a few phone calls to discuss Nathan’s progress at the Norwegian clinic, was in the first week of February. Since Danny had refused Linda’s pleas for him to become personally involved in Nathan’s recovery and join her in the trip to Dr. Abrahamsen’s clinic in Norway, she was accompanied by her “best friend” of two years, Brenda Walsh. At the time, Brenda not only appeared to be an excellent choice based upon their friendship, but with her effervescent personality she would be an entertaining companion for the long transatlantic flight. What Linda did not realize is that behind her back a “special relationship” had developed between her husband and this same “best friend”. Later Danny would admit to Linda that he had a special emotional bond with Brenda. Brenda Walsh, had her own program on 3ABN, Kid’s Time, in addition to that she was involved in other programming on the network. Staying in 3ABN guest housing, without her husband, gave she and Danny both the time and privacy to develop their relationship. Later there were reports of Danny’s truck being parked all night in front of Brenda’s apartment and Danny being seen leaving before dawn. While Danny was accusing Linda of talking too long on the telephone with the Doctor and declaring it was incorrect behavior for a married woman to have with any man other than her husband, unbeknownst to Linda, Danny was spending many late night hours alone with a married woman in her apartment. If it wasn’t so tragic, it would be humorous in the ridiculousness of the absurdity of his accusations against Linda and his behavior with another married woman, Brenda. Linda knew, through their talks together, that although Brenda was a married woman, she craved the adoration of other men and sought out their attention. Earlier Brenda had a surgical procedure to enlarge her breasts and was in the habit of wearing tight clothing to emphasize her figure and appeared to enjoy the effect she had on men when she brushed up against them. Although obviously some men enjoyed Brenda’s sad attempts to receive the attention she craved, this was not always the case.
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Topic: Excerpts from an unpublished manuscript (Read 177735 times)
