Phase One of Jack Kilcrease -
Dr. Jack Kilcrease has left a new comment on your post "Kansas City Bishop Is First To Be Charged Criminal...":
"ELCA paid $40 million for covering up the abusive past of a man they were too happy to ordain."
As a conservative Lutheran, I of course do not believe that we should cast stones at any one. In that you make a good point.
But, seriously, I mean, where do you get this stuff? Do you have any actual evidence of this? I personally don't care much for the ELCA, but this claim about the 40 million dollars doesn't sound very credible to me. I will totally believe it if you can come up with evidence.
Your response: Blah, blah, blah. You miss spelled (sic) a word. Blah, blah, you're secretly a Catholic. Blah, blah, UOJ is universalism. Blah.
No need for a response then.
Here is a lengthy response to Jack Kilcrease.
It included the entire article from Saltzmann, a well known ELCA writer and editor.
Phase Two of Jack Kilcrease -
Jack Kilcrease had to keep it up. Why should he concede anything?
Dr. Jack Kilcrease said...
Where's the 40 million? I see that they sued for 300 million, but I don't see anything about paying out 40 million. Again, people sue for all sorts of absurd amounts, but paying out is another issue. That was what my question was about.
BTW, I enjoyed my titles. I sent it to my parents and my wife, and they got a big kick out it. It reminds me of that movie "A Knight's Tale" where the Geoffrey Chaucer character has all these amusing titles he gives to Heath Ledger's character when he announces him "The protector of Grecian virginity!" "trained by the ELCA and working for the Anti-Christ, it's Jack Kilcrease!!!"
Jack's approach--which always includes his title "Dr"--is simply to mock the facts, perhaps to cast doubts on everything published on this blog. He has tender toes about UOJ, his history with ELCA, and his velcro-like affinity for another lazy mocker, Paul McCain.
Unfortunately for Kilcrease and McCain, their puerile responses only emphasize the truth. I do not make statements of fact unless they are supported with evidence, a habit they have not yet acquired. I said $40 million because I knew the story well and linked it at one time. I do not have the time to do Jack's homework for him, especially since he claims two doctorates in his marriage.
So far, all the UOJ advocates encountered on this blog are allergic to the facts. So I will post more of the hideous details that Jack scoffed at twice. I never said Kilcrease was secretly a Catholic. His own profile at a Catholic school says he teaches for them. He is a Catholic employee, which is quite an accomplishment for someone whose father graduated from the Sausage Factory in Mequon.
Matt Curry
The Associated Press
WICHITA FALLS - Lutheran Bishop Kevin S. Kanouse apologized Friday to victims of a former minister convicted of molesting boys, a day after his synod was hit with a nearly $37 million verdict in a sexual abuse lawsuit.
Gerald Patrick Thomas Jr. is serving 397 years in prison; the abuse was at the center of Thursday's multimillion-dollar verdict.
"We do express our regrets. We pledge to make sure people like Gerry Thomas never serve a church again," said Kanouse, who heads the Dallas-based Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod.
Jurors sided with nine alleged sex abuse victims who sued the synod, part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, claiming a former bishop and his assistant ignored warnings about Thomas.
Earlier settlements involved the award of another $32 million. Church officials say the combined payout will be less than $69 million due to a complicated system of credits.
Kanouse insisted church officials did not know Thomas preyed on children.
"No one in the church knew he was a predator of children until he was arrested. Were there clues? Absolutely," he said.
The bishop maintained the synod already has a system in place for preventing ministers like Thomas from entering church service.
The verdict in the court case came a day before the synod began an annual three-day assembly in Wichita Falls.
Kanouse denied that going to court instead of settling was an act of defiance toward the victims.
"The bottom line is our insurance company thought it was worth taking it to trial," he said. "It was an act of trying to tell our story and see what the jury had to say. Well, the jury said we were liable and awarded against us."
LONGVIEW (AP) — A former Lutheran minister accused of sex crimes involving boys has been arrested on a new charge.
Gerald Patrick Thomas Jr., the 40-year-old former minister of Marshall's Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, was held Friday night by Marshall police on a Harrison County District Court warrant for aggravated sexual assault, according to jail records.
Thomas had been free on bond for three separate state charges of sex crimes. He was awaiting sentencing on a federal charge of possession of child pornography, said Marshall lawyer Don Stokes.
The former pastor had admitted in federal court in Tyler that he allowed two teen-age boys to photograph themselves engaging in sex acts at his home.
A civil lawsuit filed earlier this year claimed that Thomas molested eight boys over several years and that his actions should have been halted by church leaders. The lawsuit also named the Chicago-based Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and several other church-related organizations as defendants.
Thomas resigned from the denomination's clergy roster about a year ago. He now lives with his sister in Ocala, Fla.
MARSHALL (AP) — A judge approved and sealed a settlement Monday involving the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and 14 alleged sex abuse victims who claim church officials ignored warnings about an errant minister who was later convicted of molesting boys.
Several church agencies also were included in the deal, which Harrison County District Judge Bonnie Leggat sealed pending the outcome of a civil trial against the remaining defendant — the denomination's Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod. Testimony is scheduled to start today.
The case of former Lutheran pastor Gerald Patrick Thomas Jr., who was sentenced last year to 397 years in state prison for sexually assaulting boys in this East Texas town, has drawn parallels from victims' advocates to some of the worst cases in the Roman Catholic abuse crisis.
Details of the pact will become public after the trial is over, he said.
Jennifer Ainsworth, attorney for the 5 million-member ELCA, said the denomination was pleased.
"We believe it's in the best interests of the ELCA and the kids," Ainsworth said. "We believe ELCA took responsibility for any involvement in this and the kids will be taken care of."
The victims and their families accused Lutheran officials of ignoring questionable behavior by Thomas. Private, internal memos detailed allegations against Thomas before his assignment to Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Marshall in 1997.
Church officials, meanwhile, have repeatedly denied negligence.
Under the settlement, all money paid out will be put into trust funds for the victims; it won't be controlled by parents or guardians, attorneys said.
A jury of eight men and four women was selected last week before the settlement was confirmed.
Parents and guardians of most victims appeared before the judge to confirm they were satisfied with the settlement terms. In questioning of the victims' relatives Monday, the plaintiffs' lead attorney, Edward Hohn, characterized the settling defendants as "peripheral" and called the synod the "target" defendant in the case.
While allegedly aware of Thomas' "boundary issues" in seminary, the local synod did not share details of Thomas' background with the Marshall congregation later that year, court documents say. Court papers also claim that the church official in charge of pastor assignments at the time had himself been arrested twice for indecent exposure.
Thomas, 41, was charged in 2001 after a teenager found nude images of friends on the pastor's computer and tried to blackmail him.
Convicted on federal child pornography charges, Thomas is serving five years at the U.S. Penitentiary in Beaumont. His state sentence will start after that.
***
Originally, I said -
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Steven
Goodrich has left a new comment on your post "
Always
Glad To Answer Jack Kilcrease, Son of WELS ...":
After doing some
more research, here's the breakdown of who paid what.
Prior to the civil
trial in April, several defendants settled with the plaintiffs: Good Shepherd
($750,000); the ELCA church wide organization ($8 million); the Michigan
candidacy committee that approved Thomas for ordination ($1.2 million); and
Trinity Seminary ($22 million).
Nine of the 14 plaintiffs continued their
suit against the Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod; its former bishop,
Mark Herbener; and his assistant, Earl Eliason. On April 22, the jury awarded
$36.8 million to the plaintiffs, assigning liability for the abuse at 35 percent
for Eliason, 23 percent for Thomas, 20 percent for Herbener, 20 percent for
Trinity, and 2 percent for the candidacy committee. The ELCA wasn't assigned a
percentage of liability. The percentage allocation confused defendants and their
lawyers since Trinity had already settled and was no longer involved in the
case.
Here is a link to the story in the Lutheran, but you need a
subscription to read the entire
thing.
http://www.thelutheran.org/article/article.cfm?article_id=2390
Steven
Goodrich has left a new comment on your post "
Always
Glad To Answer Jack Kilcrease, Son of WELS ...":
Here's you a link,
Jack.
http://amarillo.com/stories/042404/tex_regretact.shtml
