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[Artiste]

Gregory has shared with us in a different thread the statements of Elder Dan Jackson, President of the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists, regarding keeping our institutions safe from child abuse.  This was in connection with ARM -- Adventist Risk Management.

From Elder Jackson:

All teachers in Adventist schools across North America, and every volunteer involved in activities with children, must be screened for criminal conduct that would prevent them from working with minors.
 
“The Adventist Church in North America is committed to preventing these incidents from occurring. We have zero tolerance with persons who commit these criminal acts,” says Dan Jackson, president of the Adventist Church in North America. “The church and our partner ARM are committed to making our churches and schools safe for children."

I understand that 3ABN is neither a school, a church nor an SDA owned entity, but it would seem that Elder Jackson would want to be more circumspect in appearing to endorse Danny Shelton and 3ABN by speaking at one of their Friday night functions as well as appearing at a New York camp meeting with them. 

After all, not only is 3ABN being sued for the cover-up of pedophile Tommy Shelton, brother of Danny Shelton, but it also has been alleged that Danny Shelton himself has indulged in underage sexual misconduct.

[Bob Pickle]

Back on BlackSDA there were folks posting about that kind of thing. At the time I thought it was a bit over the top. Had to produce a bit of that old stuff for the current litigation since 3ABN had given it to me.

[Artiste]

I take it that you are referring to material you took to the deposition?

[Bob Pickle]

No. It was responsive to Alex's subpoena, not 3ABN's.

[Artiste]

Gregory has shared with us in a different thread the statements of Elder Dan Jackson, President of the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists, regarding keeping our institutions safe from child abuse.  This was in connection with ARM -- Adventist Risk Management.

From Elder Jackson:

All teachers in Adventist schools across North America, and every volunteer involved in activities with children, must be screened for criminal conduct that would prevent them from working with minors.
 
“The Adventist Church in North America is committed to preventing these incidents from occurring. We have zero tolerance with persons who commit these criminal acts,” says Dan Jackson, president of the Adventist Church in North America. “The church and our partner ARM are committed to making our churches and schools safe for children."

I understand that 3ABN is neither a school, a church nor an SDA owned entity, but it would seem that Elder Jackson would want to be more circumspect in appearing to endorse Danny Shelton and 3ABN by speaking at one of their Friday night functions as well as appearing at a New York camp meeting with them. 

After all, not only is 3ABN being sued for the cover-up of pedophile Tommy Shelton, brother of Danny Shelton, but it also has been alleged that Danny Shelton himself has indulged in underage sexual misconduct.

Isn't it logical to assume that 3ABN should be held to standards of child safety as well as SDA churches and schools?

Remember that we were informed earlier, by Gregory, I think, that the church was maintaining close connections with 3ABN because that's the way the church functions (this was in connection with the thread on Ken Denslow regarding his position with 3ABN as conference president of Illinois).

[Bob Pickle]

Plus, remember in late 2006, there was an official academy campus on the premises of 3ABN. There still is a church school as far as I know. If a conference camp meeting is held there, then that would be yet another opportunity for the church to incur liability if a known (or should have been known) predator is on the loose.

[Artiste]

So does that mean that church liability (and ARM) could possibly become involved through the 3ABN-connected SDA school?

[Bob Pickle]

So does that mean that church liability (and ARM) could possibly become involved through the 3ABN-connected SDA school?

Hypothetically, if Tommy molested a student from one of those schools, then yes, that could involve the church in liability. When we first pointed this out in 2006, I remember Gregory stating that this was very serious.

[Gregory]

SDA Liability for the actions of TS:  This is serious, but not a slam dunk.

The denomination has worked very hard to shield itself from liability of independent organizations, such as 3-ABN and from our hospital system.

In any litigation the attorney seeking damages will likely go after the so-called "deep pockets," which in the case of litigation involving 3-ABN is the SDA denomination.  That attorney will seek to establish liability.  The denomination will seek to estblish that it did not have liability. 

This is not a slam dunk.  I am uncertain as to potential results, especially since the issue has not yet been raised in a court of law.  I do not believe that the Odenthan case establishes any kind of precedence for what I see as to be likely venues for 3-ABN cases.  Yet, the Odenthal case does give us a clue as to how judges can think and rule.  In the  Odenthal case the court clearly established some potential minimal grounds for liability of a denominational organization, allthough it did sever some from the case.  NOTE:  As the Odenthal case was settled prior to going to trial on the issues as established by the court, there was no ruling on those issues.  The bottom line was that no one wanted to risk going to trial as the outcome couldnot be predicted with any kind of certainty.


 

[Bob Pickle]

My point has been that there really is no way that the IL Conf. could say it didn't know or couldn't have known that there was a pedophile near the church school and academy campus. And on September 1, 2006, based on what Pastor John Lomacang said, no one had informed him of that. At least, when I explained to him about Dryden's 2003 letter about Tommy, he said he didn't know anything about that.

So Mollie was on the conference committee, and Elder Denslow was on the 3ABN Board, and the IL Conf. had been alerted in 1991 to Tommy's pedophilia, and Dryden had alerted the 3ABN Board in 2003, and NO ONE had bothered to inform the local pastor that there was a pedophile in the vicinity.

And someone out there thinks that there is a chance that the IL Conf. would not be held liable if a student at the church school or academy ended up molested by Tommy?

I wonder ... Tommy used piano lessons to prey upon boys. Any students at the academy or church school ever given piano lessons by Tommy?

[Artiste]

My point has been that there really is no way that the IL Conf. could say it didn't know or couldn't have known that there was a pedophile near the church school and academy campus. And on September 1, 2006, based on what Pastor John Lomacang said, no one had informed him of that. At least, when I explained to him about Dryden's 2003 letter about Tommy, he said he didn't know anything about that.

So Mollie was on the conference committee, and Elder Denslow was on the 3ABN Board, and the IL Conf. had been alerted in 1991 to Tommy's pedophilia, and Dryden had alerted the 3ABN Board in 2003, and NO ONE had bothered to inform the local pastor that there was a pedophile in the vicinity.

And someone out there thinks that there is a chance that the IL Conf. would not be held liable if a student at the church school or academy ended up molested by Tommy?

I wonder ... Tommy used piano lessons to prey upon boys. Any students at the academy or church school ever given piano lessons by Tommy?

That is one reason why I was wondering if Ken Denslow's move from President of the Illinois Conference to assistant to Dan Jackson at the GC had any significance.

[Daryl Fawcett]

Just reading this thread now and wondering if there is any further information regarding this?

[Artiste]

I see that there is an update last month from Adventist Risk Management reported on Adventist News Network titled "Adventist Risk Management’s anti-abuse message now a global movement".

After talking about how important children are, the following was stated:

Now, ARM officials want to spur a groundswell of advocacy to further ensure that Adventist Churches, camps and clubs shelter children from abuse and misconduct.

I wonder if 3ABN's current legal difficulties had anything to do with the expanding emphasis on prevention of child abuse in the SDA church.

[Artiste]

Plus, remember in late 2006, there was an official academy campus on the premises of 3ABN. There still is a church school as far as I know. If a conference camp meeting is held there, then that would be yet another opportunity for the church to incur liability if a known (or should have been known) predator is on the loose.

3ABN still has a church school?

If Danny Shelton has had similar problems as his brother Tommy (only with the opposite sex), would it be optimal if he had no dealings with the church school?

I see that 3ABN has a children's network, the SonBeam Channel, which is only on the internet.  Will the current litigation of 3ABN have any effect on that?