Sex, Religion, and Justice

One of my pet peeves is the treatment of men charged with sex crimes. Political correctness has reversed the general rule that one is innocent until proven guilty. If a man is charged with a sex crime, he is named and derided in the press. The assumption is that he is guilty until proven innocent. Meanwhile, the person making the accusation is sheltered from all scrutiny. Taken to the extreme, the result is the Duke University Lacrosse team fiasco. The rape allegations nearly destroyed these young men’s lives, even though the charges were proven to be completely fabricated by a whacko accuser. Another example is the McMartin Pre-School case where an entire family was accused of sexual abuse of minors in their charge, which turned out to be a case of fabricated, mass hysteria.

The former pastor of my church, Dale Giffin, has been charged with 6 counts of “rape” which supposedly occurred 15 years ago. The news media has flown into feeding frenzy mode, with repeated statements made by the assistant prosecutor and Lutheran Synod officials that there were “other incidents” involving other women, and that the complaining victim also experienced “rape” when she was a minor, but the statute of limitations on that crime had passed. To date, The Vindicator has not named the accuser, nor have the names of the other supposed victims been made public, or the nature of their allegations. The blogs on the Vindicator website have run the gambit from ridiculous to just plain over the top.

Zion Lutheran Church has been a stalwart member of the Youngstown faith community, much of it due to the efforts of Pastor Giffin. It has a strong and active congregation with an extremely capable lay leadership and support ministry staff. This has been very painful to many members of the church. But we are a feisty bunch, and will weather the storm. Contrary to the comments I have read in the Vindicator blog about the nature of our church council and ELCA, the Lutheran Synod to which Zion belongs, we are proudly moving forward under very difficult circumstances. Zion is a source of many good works from many good people, directed at various community ministries through which our entire area benefits.

As for Pastor Giffin, he has been an outstanding minister with a fine record of service over his 30 years at Zion. His accomplishments are many, at the church, in various educational forums, in the community, and in the Synod. His talents have made Zion Lutheran Church one of the largest congregations in northeast Ohio.

I don’t know who has made these accusations. Not one shred of proof has been examined by anyone outside of the prosecutor’s office and a grand jury, which would indict a ham sandwich. How do we know that the accuser doesn't have some stability problems, or issues as to his method of running the church, or a whole set of other issues that may be driven by some sort of an agenda? In my law practice, I have seen all sorts of people accuse all sorts of other people of some pretty horrific stuff…made up stuff. As for innuendo about other alleged “victims”, those types of comments are inappropriate coming from the prosecutor’s office, and unbelievable from any other source, including the ELCA Bishop, unless the alleged victims are willing to step forward themselves publicly.

All men, including Pastor Giffin, who find themselves in these types of unfortunate circumstances, should be given the presumption of innocence by the media and the public. Protections for the alleged victim come at a price of basic fairness for the accused. Even if this turns out to be a complete fabrication, the reputation of a fine man will be ruined. Even those young men at Duke University…notwithstanding the obvious lies from the accuser…will be looked at with a jaundice eye for years to come. After all, there must be some truth to it or they wouldn’t have been charged in the first place!!

And of course, there is always the possibility that any sexual intercourse, if it occurred at all, was consensual…given the “position of authority” theory the prosecuting attorney is operating under to somehow reach six “rape” allegations. There is no allegation that he used any physical force against anyone. In which case, minimally what you have is a “he said, she said” situation. Worst case, you have is a minister who got caught cheating on his wife with a parishioner. That is certainly something he shouldn’t have been doing…but rape? Give me a break.

If he is guilty of the charges, there obviously should be consequences. But it is the prosecutor’s job to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt. Until that time, I will stick with the presumption of innocence until the prosecutor shows me otherwise, and give Pastor Giffin a very strong benefit of the doubt.