Damage Control, Emails Options

[Ralph]

Dear Johann: I want to join you in supporting Duane Clem , however, I think you connected his identity to 'Bystander'. I was under the impression that Mr. Clem was 'ex3abnemployee - could someone please clarify this information?

Thanks, JT

Your answer is in post http://www.blacksda.com/forums/index.php?s...st&p=172963

When a person does a reply, it drops the original quotes, thus Bystander's quote did not appear and it caused the confusion. -- Ralph

[Johann]

Dear Johann: I want to join you in supporting Duane Clem , however, I think you connected his identity to 'Bystander'. I was under the impression that Mr. Clem was 'ex3abnemployee - could someone please clarify this information?

Thanks, JT

Thank you, JT. I had merely left Duane's post as it was without deleting his references to BS. Now these are deleted.

[roxe]

Duane

Duane, i'm giving you my gg hug!!

you DA MAN


gg = groovy grandma...

[September]

Duane, I too want to commend you for coming forward. May God bless you and continue to heal your heart of your wounds.

I too was molested--by my father in law. Reading what TS has done has brought back some painful memories for me. Then, when Bystander was picking at age of consent, how old TS's victims were, I was like I was 20 when my father in law took advantage of me when my husband was not in the room. I didn't tell mother in law because I knew she'd never believe me. It wasn't until 2 years ago that two other of his victims came forward that I felt I could share what happened to me. Thank GOD she believed me and the other two and divorced him immediately.

Bystander has nit picked about age of consent ad nauseum. Well, I'm here to tell you that I was 20 years old--past the age of consent but I DID NOT CONSENT to what happened to me!! I do not care if you're 8 or 88--it doesn't matter when someone has been perpetrated upon. Why Bystander even makes that an issue is beyond me. The Good Samaratin of the Bible stopped to help the wounded man on the side of the road, who had been taken advantage of. But there were others who walked away or were BYSTANDERS and the Lord doesn't have much to say about them in any kind of positive light.

Once again Duane, I am greatful that you came forward--perhaps it will pave the way for others as well. I didn't mean to make this post about me...just wanted you to know that there are folks out there who understand--who can lift you up and help bear your burden.

Your sister in Christ.

[PrincessDrRe]

Duane Clem - You know my stance. I've been hollerin' it since I came here.

You know my feelings. I too have been in the same boat; trusting someone and then being betrayed in this ultimate fashion.

I'm glad that you could come forward and be a witness/survivor of this crime.

There's a saying that GOD don't like ugly...and I'm tellin' you - he really ain't liking it right now.

Prayers of peace goin' up for you right now..... *hugs*

[sister]

Duane Clem - You know my stance. I've been hollerin' it since I came here.

You know my feelings. I too have been in the same boat; trusting someone and then being betrayed in this ultimate fashion.

I'm glad that you could come forward and be a witness/survivor of this crime.

There's a saying that GOD don't like ugly...and I'm tellin' you - he really ain't liking it right now.

Prayers of peace goin' up for you right now..... *hugs*

Duane, too many of us have been in that same boat... God bless you, my brother, for the courage you have shown in the face of such terrible sin.

Just another sista lining up with a big hug for you.

Sister

[sonshineonme]

This is Duane Clem. I am putting you on notice right now. If you decide you're going to twist my words and create suspicion about my motives or sexual orientation, you are facing legal action against yourselves. I will NOT tolerate it at all.

I am one of the letter writers, and you have asked me NOTHING. I'm calling you out right now. What is my agenda? Furthermore, what is your real identity? You have mine, now I want yours. If you people aren't willing to discuss this with me personally, you had better stop the insinuations and accusations right now. I WILL NOT be intimidated or threatened into silence. The more of this kind of posting I see, the more it convinces me I haven't been vocal enough. You can ask Bob Pickle, I agonized over releasing my statement. Now that it's out, we have people who don't have the fortitude to identify themselves who are making statements that they cannot possibly back up, designed solely to damage the reputations of myself and others. It WILL NOT go unanswered. That's not a threat, it's a promise.

To the moderators: I'm sorry if I'm out of line, but I have suffered for years in silence, and I'm not putting up with this kind of garbage.

Duane, I am so proud of you and your courage! I admire your spirit and your fight to stand up against those that would try to discount you! God will not fail you, He will give you all the strength you could possibly need! Truth can not be buried! God will use you (and I'm sure He has already) to help others who have been down the same path you have and to be an encouragement to those that need liberation and justice! Consider yourself safe here! These people are awesome, aren't they! Keep your head high and your eyes on Jesus! Keep speaking out! It's time to shut the lions mouth!! God bless you brother!!

[Hawk]

Think about this Duane. On average, less than 10% of the victims of sexual predators ever come forward. You have spoken with Bob Pickle and you attended Ezra. Multiply what you know by ten. That is a minimum number.

[Grace]

Dear Duane,

God bless you my brother! I'm so sorry for what you went through, for all your suffering. I'm also very angry at that man, Tommy Shelton, and at all the people around him, whom I see as accomplices, for covering his crimes.

Being a mother myself, my heart bleeds for you and all the other victims. May that stop!!!

Good for you to have broken the silence. You'll be in my prayers from now on.

Your sister from France

[Green Cochoa]

Duane,

Such actions by a "man of God" are repugnant. They would have merited the death penalty in God's government in Israel. Considering the damage it causes to others, I, for one, would fully support the idea of you pressing charges. If I were you, I think I would ask him for a public, ON-AIR confession of his evil deeds (with certain criteria to ensure he didn't just gloss it over, and paint it in a different light), or I WOULD press charges, no second chances. He's had already too many of those. He's had opportunities to confess and repent, but his greatest problem right now is in not seeing that he has a problem. The Bible is clear that those who try to cover their sins will not prosper.

I know someone quite well who, as an adult, was confronted with Tommy's repulsive behavior in propositioning him. Danny's response was something like "Shhh! Just don't tell anyone!"

With that mentality, no healing will ever take place. It would be a BLESSING to all involved, including Tommy, to expose his sin and allow him the opportunity of realizing that he DOES have a problem. Unrecognized problems don't usually fix themselves.

(Then again, maybe the public confession would not be such a good idea....just press the charges--then he will have a police record and others will not so easily fall victim, since he would have to register as an offender, and be unable to get jobs with children, etc. in the future. Think of all the others this might save.)

I will pray God gives you wisdom to do the right thing. Take courage! God is always there for you.

[watchbird]

First of all, Duane, I want to join others in appreciation for your coming forward and identifying yourself in such a public manner. I know that was not easy to do, but with others, I think that it will be an important step in your own inner healing.

I just now took time to read again the full accounts of your correspondence with Pickle over this matter, that begins at http://www.save3abn.com/tommy-shelton-vict...-background.htm, and it was of interest to see how your initial reaction gradually changed in a relatively short time once you faced the things that you had kept buried all of these years.

I believe that you will find yourself going through even more changes as you come to realize that you are only one of many.... and that your obligation as a minister yourself is to warn others to the full extent of your capability, without any shred of defense of Tommy in it. Tommy MUST be brought to justice... he MUST live with the stigma that he has created... and that stigma MUST be a matter of public record so the power and authority of the civil government is on the side of protecting all of those who come in contact with him... or who might put him in contact with the type of persons he has previously stalked like the predator that he is.

Private forgiveness, and a releasing of him to God so far as salvation is concerned, is one thing, but it should never color our spoken attitudes to him in such a way as to lessen by one iota the wall that MUST be erected around this man for the protection of the innocents... whether they be young or old.

I think one of the things that was most shocking to me as I read this with increasing attention to details, was the implications that Tommy is still a minister... having received credentials from "another church group" after his original ordination was revoked. Is that correct? Or did you mean by ""It is my opinion that he needs to be out of the ministry right now..." only his role in the "ministry" of 3abn... rather than the inference I have made of what you meant by "the ministry"... that it was to be taken in the context of holding ministerial credential and being "the minister" in some church?


I have often, in the past two and a half years since I have been cognizant of the problems at 3abn, wondered why God did not step in and bring closure to the evils that we had learned about. Each time that my patience with God seems strained to the breaking point, some other evil was newly exposed. So finally I learned to assume that God was waiting until all had been revealed before He stepped in to say, "Closing time". I think you, Clem, are an important part of these revelations. I am sure God will richly reward you and give you not only wisdom to discern but courage to continue to call evil by its right name and thus be an instrument in God's hands who will help to clean up the mess that currently dominates the scene at 3abn.

And now to comment on Greenie's post....

Duane,

Such actions by a "man of God" are repugnant. They would have merited the death penalty in God's government in Israel. Considering the damage it causes to others, I, for one, would fully support the idea of you pressing charges. If I were you, I think I would ask him for a public, ON-AIR confession of his evil deeds (with certain criteria to ensure he didn't just gloss it over, and paint it in a different light), or I WOULD press charges, no second chances. He's had already too many of those. He's had opportunities to confess and repent, but his greatest problem right now is in not seeing that he has a problem. The Bible is clear that those who try to cover their sins will not prosper.

This is not the place for either/or actions, Greenie. There needs to be BOTH/AND civil prosecution... civil registration of a type that follows him WHERE EVER he might move... AND public acknowledgement of his evil ways. Not an on-air confession.... a forced confession is never a genuine one... and not only is it nobody's business, really, whether Tommy is repentant or not, but there would be no way of knowing whether a "confession" was from genuine repentance, or whether it was just one more day in the life of a TV actor. But I agree that he does need to make a written statement acknowledging the truth of the allegations against him. No frills. Just a one paragraph statment is sufficient. This needs to be read on the air... by someone who is NOT or HAS NOT BEEN a party to the cover-up and shielding of Tommy through the years. And along with that statement, there needs to be written statements of from EACH of those who HAVE publicly supported Tommy... acknowledging that their protection of him... and especially that their utilizing him in public minstry as though he were a pure man at heart was a grievous error on their part and an affront to the listeners of 3abn.

I know someone quite well who, as an adult, was confronted with Tommy's repulsive behavior in propositioning him. Danny's response was something like "Shhh! Just don't tell anyone!"

I also know someone with an experience which could be described in the same way.... we shall not indulge in speculation as to whether or not it might be the same person.... but rather it would be more appropriate to apply the "one in ten" rule to this circumstance and conclude that if we each know one, then that means there were many others who would fit the same description.

With that mentality, no healing will ever take place. It would be a BLESSING to all involved, including Tommy, to expose his sin and allow him the opportunity of realizing that he DOES have a problem. Unrecognized problems don't usually fix themselves.

(Then again, maybe the public confession would not be such a good idea....just press the charges--then he will have a police record and others will not so easily fall victim, since he would have to register as an offender, and be unable to get jobs with children, etc. in the future. Think of all the others this might save.)

Agreed.... see above.

I will pray God gives you wisdom to do the right thing. Take courage! God is always there for you.

And I will also pray that others whom Tommy has molested through the years... whether such molestation took the form of pedophilia or of pastoral abuse... will take courage from your stand and join with you.... for where many stand together they are stronger than the sum of their strength standing individually. Until now the "strength in numbers and solidarity" has been on the side of the concealers and protecters of perversity. Hopefully, as the victims find each other and band together with such support as we who hear of them can give, that ratio will change, and truth and righteousness will prevail.

[inga]

Duane, I applaud you for your courage in making what must have been an agonizing decision to come forward with your testimony. I suspect it still isn't easy, but I also suspect that it gets a bit easier with time, since evil withers in the presence of light. And exposure is light. Your testimony gives others courage to come forward, and that will, in the end, ease their burden tool

Thanks again, Brother, and may God bless you.

And I believe what "Hawk" said below is true.

The sad thing is that many abused feel it is their fault that they were abused. They feel they asked for it! I know, because I have a good friend who was abused by her Bible teacher when she was 17. She simply thought she "had an affair" with the Bible teacher. It did not occur to her that his position of authority and her vulnerability in coming from a home in which she was physically abused (not sexually) did not provide the equal footing to equate "an affair." I still remember the day I told, her "Katie, that was sexual abuse." And she looked at me with big eyes and was quiet for a long time before saying, "I guess you're right, but I never thought of it that way." (Katie is not her real name.) Many victims only feel the shame. However, when they start understanding the situation and confront it, realizing that they were abused, they can start to heal and let go of the shame. And that healing often starts with anger.

It's okay to be angry with your abuser! Only after some genuine, cathartic anger is it possible to forgive. After all, can you "forgive" someone for something he didn't do?

So thanks, again, Duane. Your testimony may help set other victims free. And we hope that it may prevent others from being abused as well.

Think about this Duane. On average, less than 10% of the victims of sexual predators ever come forward. You have spoken with Bob Pickle and you attended Ezra. Multiply what you know by ten. That is a minimum number.

[ex3ABNemployee]

Bystander, I ask you again, what is this "agenda" of mine that you speak of? Either elaborate on your statement, or I would like an apology. Otherwise, I'm afraid your credibility here will suffer greatly.

Duane Clem

[Whtz Happenin]

I think one of the things that was most shocking to me as I read this with increasing attention to details, was the implications that Tommy is still a minister... having received credentials from "another church group" after his original ordination was revoked. Is that correct? Or did you mean by ""It is my opinion that he needs to be out of the ministry right now..." only his role in the "ministry" of 3abn... rather than the inference I have made of what you meant by "the ministry"... that it was to be taken in the context of holding ministerial credential and being "the minister" in some church?

http://www.fbcoh.org/oppimag/1oct06.pdf



This does not answer the question about any additional ordination after 1985, but proves that Tommy was still preaching in October 2006. Very disturbing.

[Johann]

http://www.fbcoh.org/oppimag/1oct06.pdf

This does not answer the question about any additional ordination after 1985, but proves that Tommy was still preaching in October 2006. Very disturbing.

Welcome on board, WH!

So here we have Reverend Tommy Shelton, revivalist preacher in a Baptist church in October 2006. No wonder he was indispensable at 3ABN!!!