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In Reply to: Re: jimmy boy posted by Monger on August 26, 2005 at 01:32:17:
1) The majority of OVERT sexual abuse is in the past. However, Chancellor has seen fit to claim that there is no COVERT sexual abuse of children happening in TFI. There is nothing in his research methodology that will support that claim.
2) Not understanding the difference between OVERT abuse--as in "The Devil Hates Sex so lets include our children in the love-fest," and COVERT abuse--as in, "We don't do this or preach it, but we also don't take the kids' complaints about Uncle Creepo and his Roman hands very seriously"--is a major problem for someone who speaks to the media as an expert on child abuse in closed religious communities. All risk factors and anecdoctal evidence I've seen suggest the strong possibility of covert abuse occurring in TFI, primariliy because complaints are not reported to law enforcement or child welfare authorities. TFI is no different than the Roman Catholic Church, the Jehovah Witnesses, and fundamentalist Mormans regarding risk of covert child sexual abuse by people in positions of authority.
I've stated my position consistently on exactly what's good about Chancellor's work and what the limitations are. I've cranked up the noise because he is in no position to lecture Jules about credibility. It is at best lousy, unethical ethnographic research to discuss an former member's story--as he does in Life in the Family with regard to Ed Priebe and Abigail Berry--without 1) attributing the source of the information about those individuals, and 2) contacting the individuals whose stories he documents for verification of facts.
When James Chancellor decides to say anything about historical or current events involving former members or persons raised in the group, he needs to base his "expert opinion" on first-hand information obtained from people in those two groups. That means he needs to be very circumspect about what he says "on the record" about Rick Rodriguez or anyone raised in the group who has subsequently left, because he is not an expert regarding that group of people.
