RCMP investigate abuse claims at Alberta Bible college

[longsuffering]

The RCMP are investigating allegations of abuse dating back several decades at a central Alberta Bible college.

Mounties in Three Hills began looking into the allegations this week after administrators at Prairie Bible Institute directed the RCMP to rumours swirling on the Internet and after a complaint was filed.

Catherine Darnell, 56, started the Facebook group in September for alumni of the college, located northeast of Calgary. Darnell says that as a child she suffered sexual, physical and emotional abuse from staff at the non-denominational Protestant school, which for many years was known for its strictness and insularity.

"(I started the group) to open up dialogue regarding abuse and hopefully to get people to come forward if they've been impacted," said Darnell, who now lives outside Fergus, Ont. She says her abusers are now dead.

Linda Fossen, a Prairie alumnus who has written about being abused by her father - who also was a student at the school - says she has heard from more than 80 victims, mostly staff kids who were sexually abused.

This week, Fossen, who lives in Florida, filed a complaint about the abuse with Three Hills RCMP.

RCMP investigate abuse claims

[drewboy12]

Religion.....

[4X4]

Originally Posted by drewboy12

Religion.....

The only section of society that ever has sexual abuse.

[Traditional_Ale]

Originally Posted by 4X4

The only section of society that ever has sexual abuse.

How do you get a nun pregnant?
.
.
.
.
.
Dress her as an alter boy.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by 4X4

The only section of society that ever has sexual abuse.

Well, that and college football teams.

[You Need a Thneed]

Second time this year that a headline saying "Alberta Bible College" to mean a Bible college in Alberta, but it wasn't referring to the college actually called "Alberta Bible College" which is on Northmount Drive in NW Calgary.

As to the allegations, horrible if true.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

Well, that and college football teams.

And boy scouts.

[Hack&Lube]

I remember back in highschool, I had a friend who was a Korean immigrant and his parents thought he was getting into too much trouble (going across the street to play pool at lunch, on no!) so they pulled him out of our school and sent him to Three Hills Prarie Bible School for the last year of highschool. Poor guy.

[Calgaryborn]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

I remember back in highschool, I had a friend who was a Korean immigrant and his parents thought he was getting into too much trouble (going across the street to play pool at lunch, on no!) so they pulled him out of our school and sent him to Three Hills Prarie Bible School for the last year of highschool. Poor guy.

Well hopefully this crime hasn't been ongoing for that long. The one who has come forward is probably talking about events that happened 35 years ago. I guess we will find out as time goes on.

[drewboy12]

Originally Posted by 4X4

The only section of society that ever has sexual abuse.

Is the Pope Catholic and making the world safe for pedophiles?

[redforever]

[QUOTE=FlamesAddiction;3392972]And boy scouts.[/QUOTE

Schools, family, whatever.

Sexual predators present themselves in every facet of society.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by drewboy12

Is the Pope Catholic and making the world safe for pedophiles?

Not that you probably care, but this Bible College isn't associated with the Catholic Church. Here is a list of affiliated churches:

Bethel Evangelical Missionary Church

Bethel Fellowship Church
Manor Gospel Church
Mount Olive Evangelical Free Church
Prairie Tabernacle Congregation
St. Barnabas Anglican Church
Victory Church of Three Hills

Originally Posted by redforever

Schools, family, whatever.

Sexual predators present themselves in every facet of society.

Of course... even hockey teams. It's too bad it happens everywhere, I just get irked when people try to pretend it is strictly a religious problem. Both religious and secular organizations have tried to cover up stuff like this in the past.

[HotHotHeat]

Originally Posted by 4X4

The only section of society that ever has sexual abuse.

No, just the only section where it's more or less openly accepted.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

No, just the only section where it's more or less openly accepted.

How is it openly accepted?

[afc wimbledon]

[QUOTE=redforever;3393091]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

And boy scouts.[/QUOTE

Schools, family, whatever.

Sexual predators present themselves in every facet of society.

While this is true they do tend to gravitate to cultures where questioning authority is frowned upon and repression of sexuality is a central tenent of the philosophy.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by Dion

How is it openly accepted?

To be frank it was in the Catholic church over the last 50 or 60 years that we are aware of, and it has only been the massive financial losses and revulsion that has made any difference, within the church itself there doesnt appear to be any real understanding of the evil they continue to shelter.

It is also quite clear that the same kind of abuses and cover ups have gone on in hundreds of protestant churchs as well.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

To be frank it was in the Catholic church over the last 50 or 60 years that we are aware of, and it has only been the massive financial losses and revulsion that has made any difference, within the church itself there doesnt appear to be any real understanding of the evil they continue to shelter.

It is also quite clear that the same kind of abuses and cover ups have gone on in hundreds of protestant churchs as well.

Yes, I know about the past and how it was covered up. It's my understanding that type of abuse is not openly accepted today.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

To be frank it was in the Catholic church over the last 50 or 60 years that we are aware of, and it has only been the massive financial losses and revulsion that has made any difference, within the church itself there doesnt appear to be any real understanding of the evil they continue to shelter.

It is also quite clear that the same kind of abuses and cover ups have gone on in hundreds of protestant churchs as well.

Don't confuse cover ups with it being "openly accepted". The vast majority of the people in these various organizations had nothing to do with the cover ups and don't support them.

[afc wimbledon]

This sort of answers both of you at once so,

When you have the massive level of child abuse in an organization that the Catholic Church has had, in every country, at every level it is openly accepted within the organization, and in fact as the stories a have been revealed certain facts continuely present themselves, when child abusers were revealed the church just moved them to other diocese in thousands of cases, this is an organizational acceptance of abuse.
I agree that they knew it was wrong and unacceptable to outsiders, but within the church it was not punished or censured in any way.

This attitude persists today with the church routinely refusing to co operate with civil authorities attempting to investigate abuse, the only thing that appears to have dawned on church authorities is that they lose alot of money if they allow abusers to continue so they now tend to still hide abusers (shipping them off to other countries) but they do tend to keep them away from further children.

[Dion]

What surprised them was the admonishment from the church's insurance company. And it wasn't the church's lapses in responding to the abuse a half-decade ago that bothered the insurer — it was the church's plan to admit those lapses and apologize to the victims.

The insurance company's position was clear: On March 23, a lawyer hired by the company, GuideOne Insurance, sent a warning to church officials: "Do not make any statements, orally, in writing or in any manner, to acknowledge, admit to or apologize for anything that may be evidence of or interpreted as (a suggestion that) the actions of Vienna Presbyterian Church … caused or contributed to any damages arising from the intentional acts/abuse/misconduct" by the youth director.

But in a letter sent to congregants the next day, the church's governing board, known as a Session, took a different course.

"Members of Staff and of Session are profoundly sorry that VPC's response after the abuse was discovered was not always helpful to those entrusted to our care," the letter said.

Common religious tenets of atonement — admitting mistakes, accepting responsibility, apologizing — often run counter to the legal tenets of avoiding self-incrimination and preserving all avenues of defense against potential lawsuits.

"This sort of conflict is happening all the time," says Jack McCalmon, a lawyer whose company, the McCalmon Group, is hired by insurers to help churches set up abuse-prevention programs.

"The church is in the business of forgiveness, of being forthright and open and truthful, but that often creates liability in a world that's adversarial, in the judicial world," McCalmon says.

Meanwhile, he adds, insurers are in the business of limiting liability. "So, the insurance company has a contract with the church that says, 'If we're going to put our assets on the line, we want you to perform in a way that protects our assets and interests.'"

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religio...insurers_n.htm