We have now seen a letter, written apparently by John Love, the Moderator of the Council, or at least signed by him, but also signed by a number of members of the church. I am putting a link to it here.
As I see it, this communication doesn't really substantially change anything. The members of the church signing this letter don't really want to change anything. The narrative continues to be untrue, not reflective of the facts, and cold; unmindful of the supposedly warm connections that many of these people claimed to have had with us. Our names are not mentioned. We are not human to the whole list of people with names who put their signature to this strange document, just two absolutely horrible creatures that appear like apparitions in their minds eye, not worthy of naming. It is truly bizarre the lengths to which people will go in their minds to justify really crazy things when they feel something about their world is being threatened.
I understand the irrational reaction. We are just going to stay on the case of stating the truth as we know it. It is definitely the best course for us under the circumstances. If anyone wants this horrible situation to change, there are things that can be done, constructive things, but this particular response isn't at all one of them.
I'll address a few of the things John wrote. "Each time a member of our community yields to expressions of hatred, our community is weakened"....
I think the spirit of this is "Stand up to hatred!". This is a popular meme these days. If you are upset, you are hating on someone. This really blurs the truth of what is happening.
A great deal of what John has put in the letter is just an attempt to continue to attack us and to obscure the questions that arise out of what actually happened. He starts with the erroneous story about what happened, which, as the legend has grown, involves two batshit crazy people who just wouldn't stop verbally abusing people every chance they got. This is just an insane story. It hasn't anything to do with the actual facts. I know it helps justify the sense of victimization that all of these folks want to participate in. It is much harder to take responsibility for what you have done, and much easier to wallow in self pity and claims of harm. But the story is just incorrect. Not even close to true.
John wants to specifically defend Rev. Christina Kukuk in his message. He is trying to somehow relieve her of any responsibility for scapegoating us. I'll be happy to allow that all of the Council and other members of the church scapegoated us. Separating Christina from that process is ridiculous. We know what she said. We know how she behaved. We have documented all the communications. The evidence is substantial. John can use words that sound like he is self-righteously fending off a merciless attacker, but the mess that the church is in is the mess that the church created for itself. And there is no doubt about how their fearless leaders - all of them - participated. John may feel personally appalled at the idea that we would provide evidence on the site of Christina's dishonesty, but this is what happens when you are deceiving yourself. You think, "Of all the things! How could they possibly say this?!"
It would be much more helpful for everyone concerned if each person could admit that you, me, and every one of the other humans we are walking around with are all capable of terrible behavior, terrible thoughts, deviating into tyrannical controlling behavior because they are trying to protect something. It happens all the time, and it happened at the church. It is not the crime of the century. It is just that we became the villains in this saga, when we really were never the villains. We are still two people who were their friends, who served in the best way we knew how, and could see that things were not right and kept trying to say something about it.
That is what we are still doing. It's not hate, guys. You should come down off your high horse where you feel like the biggest victims in the universe and recognize that it will take better action than this to reach something like equilibrium.
Removing Christina as Pastor would be a very good thing, in our opinion. It is not the answer to the whole of the mess, but it would be a good start. It is hard to see how anything much will change without that, because everyone is so very heavily invested in defending her that no one can see straight.
But I feel the weight of John's message. I see the names of the people who have decided to sign the letter. There are, as we all know, many times in life, where large groups of people are wrong. This is just mob hysteria. This large group of people is wrong. It is not the end of the world. Things can change. But some very simple basic things need to be admitted. Even if you don't like the fact that we have been disoriented, angry, stunned, shocked, hurt, confused and not always completely and totally eloquent, you could acknowledge that we are being tarred and feathered for no actual good reason. The claims that John makes in his letter just don't add up. I don't even need to mount a big defense. The spirit of evasion and victimhood that the leadership has decided to adopt remains. They aren't victims of anything they haven't brought on by their own actions.
I'll leave it there for now. There will be more. Because it is all a lot to unpack. I understand that apparently no one has been able to come up with anything more responsible, or productive. I expect eventually that may change. The whole congregation is riding an aging, sad, faltering horse.