Huckabee, Moore Co-Author Accused of Molestation

[DomWackTroll]

He wrote books for Mike Huckabee, Roy Moore, and John MacArthur. He was once a deacon at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Nashville.

buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/co-author-of-mike-huckabee-books-was-accused-of-child-molest#.ruXRzoR5Q

ETA: Wade Burleson's take on the church mess. The Gore family used to attend this church and were good friends with Austin and Catherine Davis.

wadeburleson.org/2014/05/austin-davis-covenant-presbyterian-and.html

[gustava]

yuck.

[DGayle]

I'm starting to think that a way to decrease your child's chance of being molested is to keep away from Christians who distill their identities to the sum of their religion.

[16strong]

Since Huckabee (or as I like to refer to him, Fuckabee) seems to be supporting so many child molesters lately, I have to wonder if the whole birds of a feather thing applies here.

[FloraKitty35]

How long before something comes out about Huckabee himself in this area. :whistle:

[apandaaries]

He certainly surrounds himself with shady people.

What is that quote JB likes to attribute to Grandma Mary? Something like, "show me your friends and I'll tell you who you are," perhaps?

Interesting, in a repulsive and frightening way.

[16strong]

He certainly surrounds himself with shady people.

What is that quote JB likes to attribute to Grandma Mary? Something like, "show me your friends and I'll tell you who you are," perhaps?

Interesting, in a repulsive and frightening way.

Show me your friends, and I'll show you your future. :lol:

It's actually one of the only Duggar quotes I like.

[Howl]

Good catch:

Part of a statement from John Perry:

I will also tell you that whatever private difficulties there may have been, the parties involved were reconciled and restored years ago, for which I thank God every day.

Interpretation:

We all forgave each other, and now we're singing kumbaya, if anything even ever happened. so long ago. So very, very long ago. I've moved along with my life. Besides, olly olly in come free, because god. What's wrong with you?

Is this guy a lawyer? That is the oiliest statement ever. It just slithers along.

[Toothfairy]

Keep your children away from christians y'all.

[elizasc]

No kidding

[Palimpsest]

He wrote books for Mike Huckabee, Roy Moore, and John MacArthur. He was once a deacon at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Nashville.

buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/co-author-of-mike-huckabee-books-was-accused-of-child-molest#.ruXRzoR5Q

ETA: Wade Burleson's take on the church mess. The Gore family used to attend this church and were good friends with Austin and Catherine Davis.

wadeburleson.org/2014/05/austin-davis-covenant-presbyterian-and.html

Damn, Wade is wordy. All that verbiage and rebuking the church but far more concern for Davis than the victims.

I don't think Austin and Catherine Davis come out of this at all well either. Why didn't they just walk away from Covenant Presbyterian and report the molestation to the proper authorities back in 2007? Instead they keep trying to get their membership back. :angry-banghead:

Also, as I understood it, Austin was talking to an FBI agent about the nasty church who was blocking him from joining again. Did he happen to mention the molester wandering freely around Covenant Presbyterian until 2010 to the FBI? WTF!

[DomWackTroll]

Damn, Wade is wordy. All that verbiage and rebuking the church but far more concern for Davis than the victims.

I don't think Austin and Catherine Davis come out of this at all well either. Why didn't they just walk away from Covenant Presbyterian and report the molestation to the proper authorities back in 2007? Instead they keep trying to get their membership back. :angry-banghead:

Also, as I understood it, Austin was talking to an FBI agent about the nasty church who was blocking him from joining again. Did he happen to mention the molester wandering freely around Covenant Presbyterian until 2010 to the FBI? WTF!

Yeah, maybe I'm reading too much into it, but social status seems like a big part of it to me. Especially for Catherine, who did everything but crawl over broken glass to keep that membership.

I also wonder if there was ever political tension with the Gores. Al was once considered to be a conservative Democrat, but he changed a lot over those years. It still freaks me out that he and Tipper got a divorce. There didn't seem to be any reason other than the always-reliable "We grew apart," so there's probably more to it than we know. But you ain't heard that from me 'cause I ain't one to gossip.

(But Wade Burleson is-- thanks, Wade!)

[mirele]

Yeah, I don't get all this. No church is worth that kind of nonsense. You just walk away, and make a suitable hand gesture if appropriate.

[Howl]

I finally waded (!) through the whole Wade Burleson summary of the Austin David saga and this was the crux paragraph for me. I'm assuming the molester referred to is John Perry

A Dark Secret at Covenant Presbyterian

In the summer of 2007, a youth worker at Covenant Presbyterian was told by a high school junior-to-be that she had been repeatedly sexually molested by her adopted father when she was a young girl. This youth worker reported the allegations of abuse to a pastor at Covenant Presbyterian and confirms that pastoral staff at Covenant knew of the abuse allegations in 2007. For several months the adopted father of the girl, a man who happened to be a church officer at Covenant and the owner of 'the safe house' where the pastors placed the four children of Greg Lurie in the spring of 2002 without Greg Lurie's knowledge, repeatedly denied that he had sexually molested his minor adopted daughter.

However, at some point in early 2008, around the time Austin Davis was willing 'for the sake of peace' to sign a statement that he would "never challenge ... or dissent with (Covenant Presbyterian) leadership again," the father of the girl 'confessed' to church officers his acts of child molestation. The confessed child molester was assisted by Covenant leadership to enter a sexual treatment clinic.

For those who did not "wade" through the entire post, Greg Lurie was a member of the church who was having marital difficulties and had an argument with his wife in a mall parking lot. The church leadership decided that he needed to have a cooling off period and hid his children in a "safe house", which turned out to be at the home of child molester John Perry, if I read this correctly.

[Palimpsest]

Binging this over from the Natasha Epstein thread to avoid thread highjack there:

However, the Davis' did not know about the molestation until 2012. This Buzzfeed article Co-Author Of Mike Huckabee Books Was Accused Of Child Molestation In Two Legal Cases is dated June 10, 2015.

A copy of a ruling on the appeal (June 23, 2014) of the lawsuit brought by Austin Davis against Covenant Presbyterian can be found here: tba.org/sites/default/files/davisa_06242014.pdf

The plaintiffs (Austin Davis et al.) filed an amendment to the original complaint that states

As far as I can tell, on appeal, all the allegations against Covenant Presbyterian Church were dismissed, with the exception of the Plaintiff's complaint of assault, with costs of appeal assessed against Covenant Presbyterian.

It is a huge damned mess and I am so glad this story broke, even though John Perry is acting, or his PR handlers have advised him to act, like it's ancient history and no big deal.

It really is a mess, John Perry is a monster, Presbyterian Covenant is a sick institution, but I am still very critical of the Davises.

Thanks for directing me to the ruling on the appeal. Not being a degreed legal professional I may not have interpreted it correctly. However, it seems to me that Davis threw a whole bunch of stuff against the wall and only the assault charge was affirmed. The rest was gobbledygook. Wade Burleson's defense of his buddy Austin is over the top.

I don't doubt that there was a cabal in the covenant leadership working to conceal molestation and protect the perp, but Austin Davis's motives for challenging the leadership was more self-motivated than concern for the victim(s). In my opinion. I also don't doubt that there was a rumor campaign started by the church leadership and significant harassment against the Davis family.

I waded through Wade Burleson again for the timeline and refresh my memory, so here is my issue with Davis:

2000 - he gets made Chair of the Mercy Committee (church officer)

2002 - he starts questioning whether the church is complying with their own Book of Order (Lurie case)

2005 - starts writing to the Session to complain. He is a good little Covenant signer and keeps his concerns away from the membership.

2006 - Resigns as a church officer and member because he is told the others are united against him.

2007 - (After the victim has disclosed the molestation and church leadership begins to protect Perry) Davis asks for readmission to the church in November. The Church tells him to go away: "We encourage you to pursue membership in a church whose leadership you can trust and follow." Fair enough.

2008 - In March the church also denies readmission to wife and MIL.

2008 - in May Austin stops following the rules and writes to the whole membership to complain.

Then we get this bit of hyperbole from Wade (my bolding):

At last! The church would be able to publicly address all the issues Austin Davis has sought to address for the past six years! After six long years, approximately 100 members of Covenant Presbyterian now are aware of the issues! Why was there a lack of due process for Greg Lurie and others in the church who are opposed by people of 'power and influence' within the church? What is the reason for children being taken from their fathers and placed in a church designated 'safe house' without their fathers' knowledge? Why so many marriages at Covenant Presbyterian ending in divorce after counseling with the pastoral staff? Why is Covenant Presbyterian's Session and pastoral staff not following the Book of Church Order?

I think Austin Davis is a patriarchal asshole and probably against divorce at all costs, even when it would protect the wives and children. Perhaps his insistence on following the Book of Church Order is because he thought the church was being too liberal about divorce!

Note that there is nothing there about the Perry situation. Possibly the Davises didn't know anything about it then, but I sincerely doubt they were totally unaware until 2012. They certainly hung their lawsuit on the Perry case which is how it all came out.

All the rest is merely declining action and more hyperbole from Wade. Austin Davis tries to get his side heard and refuses to go away. The church resists, calls him unstable, and probably blackens his name and makes him feel bad. It is unclear whether or not he really lost his job over all of this, but he apparently couldn't prove that in court.

I really don't have much sympathy for Austin Davis.

.

[Howl]

Your characterization of Austin Davis throwing everything against the wall to see what would stick with his lawsuit is apt and the appeals judge was all over that.

The Davis' were on the outs with the church leadership and in the process of being formally kicked out at the time the victim began talking about the abuse, so it doesn't surprise me that they didn't know.

Where they did go ballistic was when they put the pieces together and realized that the "safehouse" Greg Lurie's children were sent to was indeed John Perry's house. I can't quite put together the time line, but this MAY have been the time during which John Perry was molesting his adopted daughter. This is the reference in the lawsuit where they claim

the plaintiffs were closely associated with information and circumstances concerning vulnerable children residing at John Perry's residence and the defendant's fraudulent concealment of unlawful child sexual abuse by confessed child molester John Perry without plaintiffs actually possessing knowledge of child molestation by John Perry until 2012

Anyway, the parallels with Jen and Paul Petry/Bent Meyer at the late Mars Hill remain. They fought hard against a corrupt leadership, were kicked out and then.....

One wants to be sympathetic to (for example) Paul Petry and Bent Meyer of Mars Hill because they are presented as wonderful and godly men horribly wronged by the noxious Mark Driskoll. In reality, the Patriarchal theology they all followed was just repellent and no one addresses that. But would we be clued into Doug and his misdeeds and the evils of at least one church following Patriarchy and the family church model without Jen's Gems?

Would we be discussing John Perry without Austin Davis?

[Palimpsest]

Your characterization of Austin Davis throwing everything against the wall to see what would stick with his lawsuit is apt and the appeals judge was all over that.

The Davis' were on the outs with the church leadership and in the process of being formally kicked out at the time the victim began talking about the abuse, so it doesn't surprise me that they didn't know.

Where they did go ballistic was when they put the pieces together and realized that the "safehouse" Greg Lurie's children were sent to was indeed John Perry's house. I can't quite put together the time line, but this MAY have been the time during which John Perry was molesting his adopted daughter. This is the reference in the lawsuit where they claim

Anyway, the parallels with Jen and Paul Petry/Bent Meyer at the late Mars Hill remain. They fought hard against a corrupt leadership, were kicked out and then.....

One wants to be sympathetic to (for example) Paul Petry and Bent Meyer of Mars Hill because they are presented as wonderful and godly men horribly wronged by the noxious Mark Driskoll. In reality, the Patriarchal theology they all followed was just repellent and no one addresses that. But would we be clued into Doug and his misdeeds and the evils of at least one church following Patriarchy and the family church model without Jen's Gems?

Would we be discussing John Perry without Austin Davis?

I agree that the Lurie children were probably sent to the Perry house during the time frame in which he was molesting his daughter. It is hard to know without knowing the victim's age but that seems to fit. (A complete aside, but why do they keep repeating his "adopted" daughter? Is this some twisted logic that makes it not incest?) I'll give Austin Davis the benefit of the doubt that he was really worried about the Church shielding a child molester. However, if he had not already been at odds with the leadership would he have participated in the cover-up? Only Austin knows for sure.

Would we be talking about these people/corrupt churches without whistleblowers? I think that is what you are asking. Possibly. Whistleblowers do provide the real information though.

Here at FJ we are getting better at identifying serious Church dysfunction before whistles are blown, but even we wait for the big scandals. We are certainly not the only Fundie Watchers out there either. There are a lot of very reputable groups that specialize in rooting out gross spiritual and other abuses. Would the national media pay attention and places like Gawker carry the stories unless whistleblowers come forward and file law suits? Probably not.

I think it is always important to assess the credibility of whistleblowers to see whether they are just disgruntled nuts before jumping to conclusions. I also think there is room for skepticism when someone blows the whistle as they are ousted from a church, as in Austin Davis's case. I feel roughly the same way about Paul Petry and Bent Meyer. Patriarchal thinkers indeed. My heart doesn't exactly bleed for them. Tommy Davis and Mike Rinder (Scientology) are an even better example of this. Massive enforcers at the top of the shit pile until they were driven out by Miscavige. I am glad they are now speaking out, but I have no sympathy for them at all. Nor do I have any praise for them.

Jen was certainly noisy and provided good documentation of what Doug and BCA put her through, up to a point. Parts of her story never rang true and we have later confirmation that she exaggerated and lied about some things. I think she maligned a lot of bystanders at BCA even in her original stories. Also see the Jems Gems coverage of the Fall of Doug. It is hard to find the nuggets of truth in all that dross.

We also had independent confirmation from other sources that Doug was an ass and VF was corrupt before the fall of Doug. The Allosaur story and Doug's collusion with Scott Brown when Scott was ousted from his old church being good examples.

People like the vile Kinist Peter Kershaw (AKA TW Eston on Jems Gems) have been going after some of the people we follow for years. He has had both Phillips and RC Sproul (Ligonier Ministries) in his sights at different times. He is not a whistleblower. His information is biased and incorrect. We want credible people coming forward to expose corrupt religious organizations not scum like Peter.

I have to admit that I have a lot more respect for people like Karen Hinkley in her exposure of Village Baptist. She seems a lot more credible than most of the people mentioned above and her motives were clean. Village Baptist treated her appallingly.

Does that make sense?

[Talitha Cumi]

Yeah, maybe I'm reading too much into it, but social status seems like a big part of it to me. Especially for Catherine, who did everything but crawl over broken glass to keep that membership.

I also wonder if there was ever political tension with the Gores. Al was once considered to be a conservative Democrat, but he changed a lot over those years. It still freaks me out that he and Tipper got a divorce. There didn't seem to be any reason other than the always-reliable "We grew apart," so there's probably more to it than we know. But you ain't heard that from me 'cause I ain't one to gossip.

(But Wade Burleson is-- thanks, Wade!)

Miss Bonita!! Wow, that takes me back. :lol:

[Howl]

Does that make sense?

Yes, and very well put. I'll have to google Karen Hinkley and Village Baptist.

Julie Anne of Spiritual Sounding Board and the Dees at The Wartburg Watch also do a good job of tracking church malfeasance and current abuse issues.

[hoipolloi]

Yes, and very well put. I'll have to google Karen Hinkley and Village Baptist.

Julie Anne of Spiritual Sounding Board and the Dees at The Wartburg Watch also do a good job of tracking church malfeasance and current abuse issues.

FYI: the WW Dees are HUGE fans of Wade Burleson so it's not likely they'll see much wrong with his analysis of this situation.

[Palimpsest]

FYI: the WW Dees are HUGE fans of Wade Burleson so it's not likely they'll see much wrong with his analysis of this situation.

I'm a big fan of Julie Anne. That is true about the Dees and Burleson but the Wartburg Watch is quite reliable about many things. Mind you, even I thought Burleson made sense on the Hinkley situation. Here's the link to that thread on FJ, which has lots of useful links.

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=26139

[Howl]

Sorry, yes, I've actually been following the Karen Hinckley kiddie porn/annulment issue but not quite closely enough for the name to automatically register.

Anyway, I'd like to find information to follow that will track the fall out for John Perry. He may be independent enough that he won't end up eating cat food out of a can in a cold water flat, but he should be radioactive now that the word is out. Or not. Guys have done worse things and just left it in the dust. If he does the old 'plausibly repentant' schtick, he may pull it off. If another victim speaks up, stick a fork in him, he's done.

I just checked out his web site. He appears to be a very successful "writer, collaborator and ghostwriter".

Looking at the one picture of him that I was able to find, he is the poster child for not one but two categories: smug a**hole and sanctimonious prick.