Parody or intimidation? The motivation of a YouTube poster or posters calling themselves Sanity’s Corner is unknown. You be the judge.
Gee, if the 4 videos which have popped up on YouTube are parody, why not stay in the theme of the season and spirit of the season and call yourself Sanity Clause?
These short videos centre around Prairie Bible Institute and former staff kids and alumni who allege abuse. (Under Canadian law I have to use the term alleged) The first video (All She wants for Christmas is a big spectacle) has two characters; Linda Fossen, a moderator of a Facebook page called We Were Prairie Bible School Kids, and Mark Maxwell, President of Prairie Bible Institute. Maxwell is in a Santa suit. Is he supposed to be a benevolent gift giver?
The next three videos also feature two characters, Linda Fossen and an unnamed lawyer discussing what a class action lawsuit. In The Legal Process Begins, the hiring of a lawyer and fees are discussed. In Part 2, the lawyer preaches the letter of the law to Linda (who is wearing horns antlers). He pontificates how the law cannot give peace. I typed in some of the lawyer characters dialogue into Google and similar phrasing came up. The character explains how the law looks at the culpability of an organization and tells the female character to listen to what the organization has to say. In Part 3 the lawyer explains the burden of proof regarding sexual abuse and moves on to corporal punishment using information available in Wikipedia. The fourth video misrepresents spiritual abuse, which can be successfully weighed in a court. The Sanity Corner lawyer character then justifies the misogynist first video:
I regret that you were offended by the first video, but I felt that it was necessary to point out how dishonest dialogue is unhelpful. I hope that we are both mature enough to understand.
Lovely bit of patronizing.
The videos are not the story of what is really being said, nor the intent of survivors. The lawyer character intersperses correct legal information in his dialogue and outlines the letter of the law. The legal information is accurate, but doesn’t go far enough.
Judges don’t care about the court of public opinion where Sanity Corner has taken a soapbox in the interests of PBI. The internet is not a courtroom.
Prairie Bible Institute has around 17 thousand alumni, some with deep pockets who no doubt would be quite prepared to see about 90 abuse survivors bankrupted in a protracted legal battle. Court may well be perceived as another place to silence the abused in preservation of the reputation of the institution. Keep them paying and paying and paying… Abuse survivors deserve to be heard, they have that right, and if they are not heard, they have the right and a responsibility to pursue legal avenues for redress and to ensure others are not harmed in the future.
The message of the Sanity Corner videos?
Go away little girl.
While the letter of the law applies any class action suit, each case is judged on more than the letter of the law. The reality in abuse cases is that while the letter of the law is considered, it is not the only precedent. In other words, court does not come to judgement on that alone. I’m clumsy in saying what I’m trying to say. The videos outline legal things, legalistically. Courts consider much more than Sanity Clause lays out.
The people who have found their voices and each other at We Were Prairie Bible School Kids are asking PBI to hire a US group called G.R.A.C.E. A deadline of December 31st has been set by the group for a decision by PBI. If PBI administration is unable to meet that request, group spokesperson Linda Fossen says a civil suit will be launched. Fossen has asked for an opportunity to address the last PBI board meeting of the year on December 14th. She has not received a response.
I want to encourage abuse survivors to speak to the RCMP. (Constable Mark MacDonald – Calgary RCMP
mark.macdonald@rcmp-grc.gc.ca 403-699-2654)
I encourage Prairie Bible Institute to come clean about their affiliation with the person, persons or organization posting YouTube videos as Sanity Corner.
Update: Sanity Corner finally put up a YouTube description: “Some on all sides shared my sense of humor and some on all sides did not.” In Sanity’s world misogynistic misrepresentation is funny. Sanity Corner also encourages survivors to go to police, which is a position to be applauded. This is key: ” I have no current relationship to the organization involved or those planning to bring forward a lawsuit.”
The video poster is an individual with a recent relationship to PBI.
Update: I received an email that a report has been filed against Sanity Corner for cyberbullying and harassment of victims. I agree that unintentionally or not, it is bullying and harassment, but I also think someone connected to PBI who does so should be exposed and refuted under free speech issues. However, that is not my call and if you are a survivor who sees these videos as bullying and harassment, you can file here.
Update: SanityCorner is no more. (Not quite. I have copies of the videos, if nothing else they may be a teaching tool for believers some day on how not to respond to people who have been abused) Sanity Corner told Linda Fossen of We Were Prairie Bible School Kids (who he trashed in his first video) that he is a PBI alumni who loves his school and got carried away. He realizes he hurt people:
Good to see some class there SanityCorner. Merry Christmas.
Are people so afraid of the truth that they will do anything to prevent it from coming to the surface?
Are people so very uncaring that they would deprive people abused by pedophiles the benefit of PROFESSIONAL help?
Failure to deal with this issue in a truly straighforward manner will only make it worse in the long run.
PBI does not appear to be getting good advice from an external communications perspective…or from a legal perspective.
My understanding is that the recidivism rate for pedophiles is upwards of 85 percent.
Why would anyone want to protect one of these monsters? Do we not care about ‘future’ victims?
The abuse survivors run a gamut of abuses, including emotional, physical and spiritual.
I think you nailed it. People are afraid.
There have been a lot of studies on why groups shelter and protect pedophiles and sexual abusers.
And your last question is haunting – Do we not care about future victims?
I guess when you don’t believe those you worked with, studied with and worshiped with, beat their kids, raped, or inflicted unbiblical concepts of God out of their need for control, a person is unable to believe there will be future victims. When you embrace an environment where you are one of the group (such as PBI) the cognitive dissonance of accepting the reality that life within the milieu isn’t rosy for everyone is too much to handle. http://netgrace.org/index.php?page_id=2
The response from many alumni is really chilling, isn’t it?
Pedophiles/child abusers are Pedophiles first, NOT Christians first. Their goal in life is to find victims. People who think otherwise are either fooling themselves or putting their own interests first.
Pedophiles will adopt any persona, any vocation, any belief system that that will bring them into contact with their victims AND shield them from being found out. They want access and will do anything to get it.
Failure to report pedophiles, keeping them on stafff, or simply dismissing them actually enables and encourages this criminal activity. Would we fail to report a bank robber or someone who beats up and robs an elderly person???
The notion that if we ask these monsters to repent, and we ask their victims to forgive, that all will be well in the world is far, far away from reality.
I believe that people who shield or protect these monsters become just as guilty as those who commit the abuse/crime because they enable to to happen-again and again, time after time. Fortunately many jurisdictions are not only taking this approach in criminal law but are also vigorously enforcing it.
Our children deserve NO LESS.
A church in my area recently had an incident involving child abuse. It was reported to the church leadership and the following actions were taken:
1. the church leadership reported the incident to the police WITHIN 24hrs of it being reported to them. It then became a criminal investigation-as it should be.
2. the church leadership announced to the congregation that there was an issue and that all members of the congregation needed to be aware of it. This was done on the first Sunday following referral to the police service
3. the church leadership aslo annouced at the same time that they had engaged independent, professional abuse counsellers who would be available to any member of the congregation.
It is interesting to see how this response compares to the PBI leadership response.
Which organization do you think acted properly and placed the victim and the entire church population first? From my perspective this contrast speaks volumes about the difference in leadership and accountability between the two groups.
3.
Good on your church jdl. Good on them. We all need to know there are Christians who don’t hesitate to take appropriate steps to protect others.
You seem to have a fair grasp of PBI – can you identify any known pedophiles connected with the institution over the years?
I’d have to go back into prior posts, but if memory serves me correctly, a Canadian Baptist organization recently let a former PBI person go, when (I believe the FB group) brought his past abuses of children on the mission field to their attention.
I have absolutely no relationship or affiliation with PBI-nor do any members of my family. I have no first hand knowledge of the situation at PBI.
But I do have children. I know what standard of conduct I would expect from any organization-secular or non secular.
I have no idea whether the past or current administration of PBI failed their students and faculty.
But based on the comments and actions of PBI leadership to date I would not be comfortable having my children attend this instituttion-whether abuse is found or not. My concern would be what if abuse was uncovered in the future?
This is an integrity issue for me. I think we need to see more integrity and openness and less posturing and CYA’ing from PBI.
SanityCorner description:
parody: (free dictionary) n A literary or artistic work that imitates the characteristic style of an author or a work for comic effect or ridicule.
satire: n
1. the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc.
2. a literary composition, in verse or prose, in which human folly and vice are held up to scorn, derision, or ridicule.
Epic fail. SanityCorner only attempted to parody We Were Prairie Bible School Kids spokesperson. Linda Fossen’s style was not imitated, real life dialogue between Mark Maxwell and PBI survivors has not been represented.
Pingback: Is It Hunting Season on Cockroaches, Yet? | Positive Persistence
Pingback: Is It Hunting Season on Cockroaches, Yet? — Positive Persistence