I had heard about these folks before....

[StormyOne]

Just happened to run across their site.... Anyone else heard of this group?


C.E.A.S.E. has been created by victims/survivors of sexual, physical and spiritual abuse committed by employees and volunteers of the world-wide Seventh-day Adventist Church (see disclaimer (http://www.advocateweb.org/cease/disclaimer.htm)). Devoted to educating church leadership about the prevalence of these abuses within the denomination, we want to bring about changes to church policy in order to protect others from the devastation we experienced.
Through networking with other victims/survivors, we can be more effective agents for change within the denomination. Through learning that our stories are not isolated, WE can become less isolated emotionally which will have an exponential impact on our individual healing processes.

http://www.advocateweb.org/cease/Default.htm

[HoneyDew]

Never heard of them. Give me a few hours to do some stuff and then I will respond to what I have researched.

[HoneyDew]

But why use the Seventh-day Adventist name though? If the organization does not fall under the umbrella of the GC, why incorporate the name? Abuse is abuse, no matter from where.

This is not my full "answer" I was just curious about that use of the name.

What's their agenda?

[catlover]

Unfortunately, abuse is not confined to one denomination or belief.

[SassySDA]

Unfortunately, abuse is not confined to one denomination or belief.

Absolutely right, catlover. It's everywhere. :sigh:

[StormyOne]

Stormy-my heart goes out to you. I have witnessed the character of your posts both in this forum and in the "Christian Discussions" site for several months now. And I must say that you must be the most miserable person I have ever seen. Do you spend all day and all night searching the web for SDA bashing sites? That is all I have ever seen you post. Nothing EVER positive about life in general or the SDA church in particular have I seen you post. Your poor heart must be so heavy with remorse and sadness that you feel the only way to relieve it is to share it with others. I do hope that someday you find that peace that Jesus has promised. Keep praying and searching--it's there.

Blessings, Honor
As I told Palehorse, I will tell you. You don't know me, nor I you, I respect you as a child of God but we are not friends. Given the other things you have said to me or about me both privately or publicly, our interaction should be limited if at all. You have chosen in other venues to ignore my posts, perhaps that course of action should be continued. If you are that concerned about my state of being, pray for me... otherwise you can keep your comments to yourself, I did not solicit them, nor are they invited...... May God continue to bless you...

[SassySDA]

Stormy-my heart goes out to you. I have witnessed the character of your posts both in this forum and in the "Christian Discussions" site for several months now. And I must say that you must be the most miserable person I have ever seen. Do you spend all day and all night searching the web for SDA bashing sites? That is all I have ever seen you post. Nothing EVER positive about life in general or the SDA church in particular have I seen you post. Your poor heart must be so heavy with remorse and sadness that you feel the only way to relieve it is to share it with others. I do hope that someday you find that peace that Jesus has promised. Keep praying and searching--it's there.

Blessings, Honor

I have to say I agree with you honor, and when I read this post, it was the first thing that came to MY mind, how bad I felt for him. Now, you know this is going to be met with a not very nice post, or it may even be reported, I don't know. But I don't mean this in any kind of insincere or "mean" manner.

I went to the site, and of course, I'm upset and sorry that this advocacy was even necessary. But unfortunately this kind of abuse goes on every day, in all organizations worldwide. From the workplace, to school, to church, to a house in your neighborhood, this is going on. It saddens me greatly.

Our church, unfortunately is not immune. I would rather it be out where all can read about it and what is being done about it, then hidden like the catholic church attempted to do.

[Seraph1m]

Excuse you both. No comments were made by the bro. regarding the site which is about victims assistance. He asked if anyone has heard about the group. There is nothing negative about that. To bring up prior experiences you may have with him anywhere else seems most unforgiving and an attempt to sow discord. Whatever your purpose is for making such comments about the bro, please do not insist on sharing such negative attitudes with the rest of us...Thank You :)

[awesumtenor]

I have to say I agree with you honor, and when I read this post, it was the first thing that came to MY mind, how bad I felt for him. Now, you know this is going to be met with a not very nice post, or it may even be reported, I don't know. But I don't mean this in any kind of insincere or "mean" manner.

I went to the site, and of course, I'm upset and sorry that this advocacy was even necessary. But unfortunately this kind of abuse goes on every day, in all organizations worldwide. From the workplace, to school, to church, to a house in your neighborhood, this is going on. It saddens me greatly.

Our church, unfortunately is not immune. I would rather it be out where all can read about it and what is being done about it, then hidden like the catholic church attempted to do.

If you would truly prefer it be 'out in the open' how then can you take issue with StormyOne's post? All he did was point out that the issue existed in this church as it does in others; all he did was put the issue 'out in the open' in this forum. For all you know there could be someone who needed to know of such an advocacy group lurking here.

The person you are agreeing with doesn't know him from a can of paint, and as such is not in a position to truthfully speak on how 'miserable' he must be. It's a topic for discussion; an issue that affects the church in the here and now...and nothing more. If you and she are not in a position to objectively deal with the warts the church has, leave those topics for those of us who are accustomed to meat rather than milk.

In His service,
Mr. J

[SassySDA]

If you would truly prefer it be 'out in the open' how then can you take issue with StormyOne's post? All he did was point out that the issue existed in this church as it does in others; all he did was put the issue 'out in the open' in this forum. For all you know there could be someone who needed to know of such an advocacy group lurking here.

The person you are agreeing with doesn't know him from a can of paint, and as such is not in a position to truthfully speak on how 'miserable' he must be. It's a topic for discussion; an issue that affects the church in the here and now...and nothing more. If you and she are not in a position to objectively deal with the warts the church has, leave those topics for those of us who are accustomed to meat rather than milk.

In His service,
Mr. J

In his service,

I didn't take issue with this post, and never said I did. You assumed I did.

It's his posts overall that sadden me. I'm still looking for one positive thing, just one positive post.

No, that post doesn't upset me at all. It would take more than that to shock me, after 11 years in corrections, working with sex offenders to boot, it would definitely take more than that to shock me.

Nothing is immune to this kind of abuse.

[Seraph1m]

Getting back to the point, thank you for the information. I am sure it will be beneficial for those of us who have been victims or know others in need of support. :)

Just happened to run across their site.... Anyone else heard of this group?


[font=Arial]

[BondGirl]

Just because someone sees the SDA church for everything that is going on within - they have to have a negative life?

I'm SDA - I sure am. However, I also know that our church is made up of good and bad. There is nothing wrong with proclaiming the "good" from the rooftops - but even the disciples of JESUS called out the bad when it was seen.

Some SDA's have been sexually assaulted within the church (as we are not any different from any other religion). These orgnaizations exist for those of other religions. Why shouldn't someone of the SDA church give access to others of the same faith information concerning an organization that might possibly be of assistance to them or others they know?

WHY DO WE AS SDA'S HAVE PROBLEMS UNDERSTANDING/ACCEPTING/SEEING THAT WE AS A RELIGION ARE NOT BEYOND REPROACH?

[StormyOne]

wow... this thread took an interesting twist...

[tall73]

There has been greater interest in passing "best practices" rules in churches and in doing background checks on volunteers who work with children.

We still get way more resistance to this than I would expect, with members feeling that folks will be insulted.

I don't find it insulting when they do a background check on me. And as parent I definitely want them to, thought it won't solve every problem.

A pastor friend of mine had his child molested in a church outing. It certainly does happen, and precautions are a good thing.

[StormyOne]

There has been greater interest in passing "best practices" rules in churches and in doing background checks on volunteers who work with children.

We still get way more resistance to this than I would expect, with members feeling that folks will be insulted.

I don't find it insulting when they do a background check on me. And as parent I definitely want them to, thought it won't solve every problem.

A pastor friend of mine had his child molested in a church outing. It certainly does happen, and precautions are a good thing.
its this issue that makes me leery of boarding academies now... even though I attended one, I cannot see myself ever sending my kids to one... seems like the life of a child is so hard in so many different ways...

[NightEternal]

Originally Posted by honorthesabbath
Stormy-my heart goes out to you. I have witnessed the character of your posts both in this forum and in the "Christian Discussions" site for several months now. And I must say that you must be the most miserable person I have ever seen. Do you spend all day and all night searching the web for SDA bashing sites? That is all I have ever seen you post. Nothing EVER positive about life in general or the SDA church in particular have I seen you post. Your poor heart must be so heavy with remorse and sadness that you feel the only way to relieve it is to share it with others. I do hope that someday you find that peace that Jesus has promised. Keep praying and searching--it's there.

Blessings, Honor

You know, it's posts like this one that make me glad we have our own subfora away from this sort of nonsense. Honestly! Yes, let's just bury our heads in the sand and pretend there are only good things about the SDA church. We don't want to hear anything about the negatives. God forbid the nice, shiny, white rock is turned over to reveal the squirming maggots underneath.

Maybe if we pretend hard enough, they won't actually exist.

Rah, Rah, Rah, gimme an S, gimme a D, gimme an A....

Gimme a break is more like it.

[StormyOne]

Originally Posted by honorthesabbath
Stormy-my heart goes out to you. I have witnessed the character of your posts both in this forum and in the "Christian Discussions" site for several months now. And I must say that you must be the most miserable person I have ever seen. Do you spend all day and all night searching the web for SDA bashing sites? That is all I have ever seen you post. Nothing EVER positive about life in general or the SDA church in particular have I seen you post. Your poor heart must be so heavy with remorse and sadness that you feel the only way to relieve it is to share it with others. I do hope that someday you find that peace that Jesus has promised. Keep praying and searching--it's there.

Blessings, Honor

You know, it's posts like this one that make me glad we have our own subfora away from this sort of nonsense. Honestly! Yes, let's just bury our heads in the sand and pretend there are only good things about the SDA church. We don't want to hear anything about the negatives. God forbid the nice, shiny, white rock is turned over to reveal the squirming maggots underneath.

Maybe if we pretend hard enough, they won't actually exist.

Rah, Rah, Rah, gimme an S, gimme a D, gimme an A....

Gimme a break is more like it.
well as I said, and as you can see if you search the archives, I became the villian of the forum, the devil who wanted to bring the church down, etc, etc.... and before I arrived it was a friend of mine who they did the same way, no correction they treated him worse...

[DrStupid_Ben]

Figures in Aus tell us that something like 1 in 4 people suffer some type of abuse, mostly sexual. They also show that these figures are consistent in religious groups such as the SDA church.

The church is becoming more conscious of sexual abuse, and some conferences in Aus are doing background checks. However, one of the areas that is still being neglected in all this is the home. We can't do background checks on families. It makes me sad that some of this abuse is possibly because of a misinterpretation of the family structure. Some men use the idea of male-headship as a liscence to act in all sorts of dispicable ways. This is one of those issues that I wish I remember in my prayers, but unfortunately it is something that we try to forget about.

[BondGirl]

Originally Posted by honorthesabbath
Stormy-my heart goes out to you. I have witnessed the character of your posts both in this forum and in the "Christian Discussions" site for several months now. And I must say that you must be the most miserable person I have ever seen. Do you spend all day and all night searching the web for SDA bashing sites? That is all I have ever seen you post. Nothing EVER positive about life in general or the SDA church in particular have I seen you post. Your poor heart must be so heavy with remorse and sadness that you feel the only way to relieve it is to share it with others. I do hope that someday you find that peace that Jesus has promised. Keep praying and searching--it's there.

Blessings, Honor

You know, it's posts like this one that make me glad we have our own subfora away from this sort of nonsense. Honestly! Yes, let's just bury our heads in the sand and pretend there are only good things about the SDA church. We don't want to hear anything about the negatives. God forbid the nice, shiny, white rock is turned over to reveal the squirming maggots underneath.

Maybe if we pretend hard enough, they won't actually exist.

Rah, Rah, Rah, gimme an S, gimme a D, gimme an A....

Gimme a break is more like it.
Dead on pernt!

You got it solid!

[BondGirl]

...There's also the problem that we also don't acknowledge sexual abuse "laws" within our church structure. It actually is not listed as a "cause of action" with rules of how this should be handled within our church. Trust me. I researched. I tried looking in the church manual. I even had a pastor try to "find" some bylaws for me.

They don't exist.

[JonMiller]

The SDA church doesn't like admiting that there is evil within it. Just like other churchs (catholic/etc).

It upsets me greatly. There is background checks for some of the working with children stuff at my church.

JM

[woobadooba]

The SDA church doesn't like admiting that there is evil within it. Just like other churchs (catholic/etc).

It upsets me greatly. There is background checks for some of the working with children stuff at my church.

JM

Admitting that the church is not without fault is not the same as parading its faults before others.

One does not have to make a show of his sins to admit to being sinful. Then again, who would say the church is full of sin?

We know that there are bad seeds within it; but that doesn't make it altogether bad or guilty for the fruit that these seeds produce.

[JonMiller]

We have to be open about the bad, otherwise it sits within, rotting and destroying.

Much much more so then someone wearing jewelry, or even drinking alcohol, both of which are actively censured in the SDA church.

JM