re: healing place/the church st amant scandal

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Yes. I do. I’ll take the time later for more details, but I preached over there twice in the 90’s before the scandal. I spent time with the pastor and his family. The truth is a bit less scandalous than the allegations (shockingly- especially since he’s in prison for life). More later.

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That "Hosanna Church" scandal was the last gasp of the "Satanic Panic" that started in the 1980s IMO. To me, that case and the McMartin Preschool case were the bookends around that embarrassing national panic.

I guess they convinced a jury that Trey Bernard did something (and maybe Lamonica too - I can't remember). My recollection, though, was that there were all sorts of outlandish accusations made about that church, but what the evidence presented at trial was extremely scant, and difficult to separate from some contentious divorce proceedings, and that was totally at odds with the scandalous nature of the accusations.

I haven't analyzed this case as deeply as the Sandusky case, or the McMartin case, but I would just say that, though sexual abuse is all too real, it doesn't typically resemble any of those 3 cases. It's much more mundane.