http://michaelnewnham.com/Death Threats Alleged for Philippine Whistle Blowers
In the Philippines, child abuse, including the rape of a minor, is a bailable offense.
This morning, thanks to the efforts (and cash) of Tom Randall and his World Harvest Ministries two accused child abusers are out on bail.
The exact nature of the charges against them is unknown at this writing, other than they are related to child abuse issues.
Randall is back in the U.S. soaking up the adulation of his fans, receiving standing ovations from three services at Christ Community Chapel.
Meanwhile, in the Philippines, people who have been thought to be whistleblowers have received death threats.
Joe Mauk reported this on Feb 7th;
“Yesterday the principal of the school on the Sankey compound received death threats. She is moving to a safe area today. This morning the teacher, who first informed my daughter of the reports she heard from two of the girls, received a death threat also. We will do our best to aid in her protection. In the meantime high end attorneys arranged by Tom Randall and World Harvest Ministries are trying their best to get the perpetrators released on bail. People have been blaming the problems on a third world country’s propensity towards corruption. Yes but they have it backwards. It is not the ones reporting abuse who have money or influence. There was a network of deceit built up over years around the orphanage operation. I myself was clueless until four months ago, it was so well disguised. Employment is a treasured possession here and many will go along with all kinds of anomalies to keep their employment secure. Even so, there was an exodus of long-term staff from the orphanage in the last three years, some of whom admitted privately they just could not do it any more. Local officials, military, police and social services live on very limited budgets and a few favors, financial and otherwise, sprinkled around have a great effect and can turn aside the view of the ones supposed to be monitoring your activity. By God’s enablement my daughter and her teacher friend who is now being threatened were able to reach the highest levels of law enforcement on these types of cases. This is being handled by them quite professionally but high dollar lawyers do make things more complicated.”
Since then, others who were believed to be part of the ‘conspiracy” have privately reported death threats to me as well and some have gone into hiding.
The narrative on this story is being carefully controlled by Randall and his supporters, the foremost being Joe Coffey of Christ Community Church.
Questions or even prayer requests for the victims expressed on the “Free Tom Randall” Facebook page are deleted and the posters blocked.
The narrative is familiar…there is no problem, there was no abuse, and anyone questioning those assertions has evil motives and is an enemy of the faith.
The people claiming abuse are emotionally and spiritually unstable and have been manipulated by evil doers.
The accused are great servants of God and He will avenge them against the accusers.
Bloggers and the media…well, the devout already know about those devils.
Now facts are hard to come by in this case, but here is one undeniable fact I will testify to.
Not one of the people I’ve corresponded with has expressed anything other than a deep admiration and love for Tom Randall.
There is disappointment over what appears to be misplaced loyalty and an unwillingness to look at all the evidence, but no one has questioned either his character or his work to me.
Let me speak clearly…the fact that this story is following the pattern of every other ecclesiastical cover up of abuse we’ve covered, does not necessarily mean that the same thing is happening in this situation.
It means that because of the lack of transparency and open dialog that questions and doubts remain unanswered and the name and reputation of Chris and his church are again sullied.
No one wants to see innocent people accused or God forbid, convicted.
We should want to show the world that when these issues arise that the church is the first to investigate them openly and honestly in the fear and reverence of God.
We should place the welfare of children over the self interest of institutions and leaders as Christ Himself instructed us.
To do anything less than these two things is to deny the faith we seek to spread and the One whose name we carry.