photo by Giulio Bernardi

My inbox has been flooded for the past while with various stories of scandals, crimes, and strange occurrences. Here’s a quick rundown on the latest scandals going on in Fundyland.

Bob Jones University has called a halt to the GRACE sexual abuse investigation that was just weeks away from releasing its findings. Stephen Jones wrote a rambling letter that cited among other reasons that he doesn’t have time because he’s completely booked up with trying not to be president anymore. BJU’s public statement, on the other hand, makes it pretty clear that what is as stake here is the content of the report itself which the University would really like to see stuffed into the same closet that holds all of their other skeletons.

Bill Gothard has also had troubles with the release of a new wave of testimony and allegations. Gothard’s correspondence with Recovering Grace is a fascinating study in the Confrontation Initiation diversion tactic. There is no more awful sight than seeing an abuser trying to use Scripture verses as a shield.

Meanwhile, over at West Coast Baptist College former staff member Jeremy Whitman shoots from his car and murders Erik Peter Ungerman at a stoplight. Whitman then commits suicide. The details of what motivated this shooting are too complex to completely unravel here but they include the story of an illicit affair that ended Jeremy’s career at WCBC and separated him from his family. What is clear, however, is that immediately after the shooting West Coast Baptist College attempted to at the same time claim that Jeremy was not an important figure at WCBC (insisting that he wasn’t on pastoral staff) but still wrote him a glowing eulogy. And then wrote him a second one a couple days later. No such remembrance of the man who Jeremy murdered or the family that Jeremy left is anywhere to be found.

Finally, Jack Schaap is still in jail. (Just in case anybody was wondering).