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-------- Original Message --------
| From: |
G. Arthur Joy |
| Subject: |
Re: A 3ABN Resolution–Is There One? |
| Date: |
Sun, 12 Aug 2007 |
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3ABN Resolution—Is There One?
Gailon Arthur Joy, AUReporter
I recently received a copy of the following post and it certainly
requires a reply.
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When I read the above post by SE on another thread it struck
me that I wasn't certain what this was all about. For those
who feel that enormous abuses have occurred at 3abn, and I fall
into that camp, what will it take for us to be satisfied that
justice has been done? I was somewhat surprised to find that
I wasn't really certain what the end game was.
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The answer is a story of MicroEvolution.
The 3ABN Investigation began rather reluctantly for me. I
had accepted at face value the assertion that Linda had gone
off with some doctor to Norway and Danny was a hapless victim
of a passionate interloper. I had many requests to look at various pieces of evidence
and ignored them. Even when Danny announced his plans to remarry
in a Knoxville meeting in early 2006, and many raised the eyebrow,
I refused to take the bait.
When several of my friends from New England met with me and
expressed concern about the loss of the 3ABN signal on Skyangel,
I wondered what could be plaguing this ministry, but still refused
to investigate. I did some background on Skyangel and noted it had recently
taken on a CEO that was a lawyer and assumed some contractual
issue was in debate between the parties and would self-resolve.
I had no basis to suspect a breach of contract by 3ABN.
When they launched the Ten Commandments Twice Removed campaign
in March and April 2006, a small group of us in the College Church
embraced the project, took delivery in late April and passed
out over six thousand books in about three weeks. Rey and I even
went door to door in the spring rains some evenings after work
to get it done before Ten Commandments Weekend.
My family, aunts, uncles and cousins had always been 3ABN
supporters. Some even have appeared on 3ABN programs. Following
the Ten Commandments Weekend I found a story a week arriving
by Fax or e-mail and ignored them all. Then the ASI Meeting in Texas
seemed to break open a wellspring of information regarding a
number of issues from the remarriage of Danny and staffers, to
lucrative and undisclosed book deals, to concerns about the charismatic
leaning of some of the management at 3ABN.
It was not until about a week after ASI that Rey and I received
an unsolicited fax known as the Dryden Letter and some supporting
documents that seemed to indicate the production manager and
Pianist Extraordinaire had a serious history of under-aged male
gender relationships of a highly inappropriate nature. I immediately
checked the various state and federal sex offender websites and
found nothing. Shortly after receiving the fax, a compatriot
of many a trench war within Adventism called me and asked if
it was true I had just received a fax relating to Tommy Shelton.
I admitted I had and declared it an obvious hoax. He took real
exception to the hoax issue and said this required closer examination
and asked if I would look much more closely at the evidence before
I blindly cast it aside. I reluctantly agreed to at least follow-up
on the available leads and the rest is a history of profound
and compelling findings.
My first call was to a lady who told me that she had not believed
the story at first but felt the evidence was now overwhelming
and told a story of a thriving Ezra Church of God pastored by
Tommy Shelton for several years complete with a community church
school that even Linda Shelton's children had attended. She told
me how the allegations virtually tore the church asunder as it
separated into Pastor Shelton's supporters and an ever growing
list of victims and their supporters. She explained that the victims
had tried to file complaints but the Sheriff was a Shelton family
friend and the DA had not moved on the allegations. And she told
me that Dryden had attempted to resolve the issues but simply
found himself overwhelmed with the process and took an opportunity
to return to his home church in Dunn Loring, Va. She gave me
a contact number for Dryden's now mature son and I left a message
for him. Later that evening I received a number of calls
from victims and a victim's mother and they gave me compelling
stories of inappropriate relationships.
I was a bit bewildered and felt compelled to research these
allegations. My witness list grew past a handful to dozens
more voluntarily calling to give me their story or a story they
felt I should investigate. The file became all consuming. Every
day my work would be interrupted with callbacks from various
witnesses and every evening I spent doing more and more interviews.
I was so stunned by the variety of allegations I confided in
a group of conservative colleagues and we pondered on how to
proceed.
We had clear allegations of wrongdoing on the part of former
pastor Tommy Shelton, now the production manager that had replaced
Linda Shelton, and that Danny had pre-empted a prior board decision
in rehiring Tommy after he was removed over a decade earlier.
I had allegations that seemed to indicate that Linda was the victim
of UN-due process and a hyperactive imagination and collective
corporate paranoia at 3ABN.
I had allegations that Danny Lee Shelton had inappropriate
relationships or had made inappropriate advances with a number
of ladies, including the current spouse.
I had allegations Danny had rerouted 3ABN funds to pay Brandy
after it was determined it was best that she be relieved of her 3ABN
duties and allowed to work for Danny directly.
I had allegations of a host of inappropriate property deals,
including a thwarted effort to transfer very valuable land
and buildings across from the DLS homestead to Brandy prior to
the marriage.
I had allegations DLS had enriched himself at the expense
of 3ABN and its donors from undisclosed book royalty deals.
I had allegations that five staffers of the 3ABN Trust services
department were victims of retaliation and some had clearly been
discriminated against by 3ABN Management.
I had allegations of personal inurement by Danny Lee Shelton
and his family via the abusive use of the corporate jet, and
the use of a variety of gifts given by donors to 3ABN.
And I had a post office employee misappropriation story where
Danny avoided a postal audit with a strong bout of forgiveness
by DLS for what was assumed to be at least a quarter million
dollar claim against the US Postal System.
I continued to work my way from the outside in so that when
I spoke to Danny Lee Shelton, Tommy Shelton and Linda Shelton,
et al, I would have as clear a picture as possible of all the
allegations as I was certain I may only get one chance to interview,
based on the experience of AToday and others. At some point I
discovered the collateral investigative efforts of Robert Pickle
and we exchanged notes.
I did open a line of communication directly with Danny Lee
Shelton and continued until he refused to answer e-mails and
blocked me. His very first communication included the threat
to turn me over to his lawyers. The communications continued for
some weeks as he discovered I was undeterred by the fear of litigation.
I also opened a line of communication with 3ABN Board Chairman
Walter Thompson and found him far less forthcoming, other than
to parrot Danny's position. Many times I discovered that both Danny and Walt's information
was factually challenged or not corroborated by other witnesses. In Walt's defense, it became apparent
he was operating from the disadvantage of being a third party
to much of the actual evidence and seemed to simply follow Danny's
lead.
After I had covered every reasonable base at the time, I then
accepted the offer to speak with Linda Sue Shelton. I had pages
of questions. The interview began at 9:00 pm and went until 4:00
am EST, a full seven hours, and I can safely say she answered
every blunt question and every accusation leveled by Danny and
Walt Thompson graciously, factually and with a clear, upbeat, Christian
attitude. Seven hours of interview gave me much to compare and
I quickly discovered that what she told me was largely corroborated
by other witnesses. I also discovered she had no idea what went
on regarding 3ABN business and this was confirmed by several
staffers and 3ABN General Counsel, Nicholas Miller. She was engrossed
in programming, albeit under the watchful eye of Danny and his
minions.
Since the very first concern that was documented related to
Tommy Shelton, I sent an e-mail to 3ABN directors calling for
an investigation. There was not a single reply. Bob and I continued
to investigate the allegations and he even agreed to make a trip
to 3ABN to view the Linda Evidence and was denied at the last
moment. That was clearly the very first objective, to get the
board to take its fiduciary and oversight responsibility seriously.
Our effort clearly failed.
At some point I received a call from a Vice-President of the
General Conference whose plea was that the investigation and
reports therefrom not do harm to the cause of SDA Ministry. He
had been a witness at the May 2004 3ABN camp meeting attended
by Arild Abrahamsen and Pastor Johann Thorvaldson who had arrived
to address the Board of Directors regarding allegations of an
inappropriate telephone relationship. The Shelton posse and Danny
Lee Shelton ordered them off the property and were confrontational,
making it clear they were not welcome to return to testify before
the board on Sunday, and this after a trip of more than 4,000
miles. (So much for due process once again.) The VP gave me a
statement that clearly contradicted several assertions by Danny
Lee Shelton and led me to believe it was clear to the VP that Linda
and Arild were not guilty of any purported adultery, spiritual
or otherwise, but he had hoped the marital issues would not end
in divorce. He then promised to work toward an ecclesiastical
solution to the allegations. From this and a couple other discussions
came the concept that the church had no authority but ASI did.
ASI was asked to help to mediate the allegations. The rest is
ASI history, or infamy.
With ASI slowly and reluctantly working to establish this
first-of-its-kind ecclesiastical process to utilize Alternative
Dispute Resolution to deal with the allegations at 3ABN, we became
deeply concerned by the failure of the 3ABN Board to show an
ounce of interest in dealing with the allegations themselves.
Robert Pickle actually met with Illinois Conference President
Denslow, an ex officio board member, who later virtually dismissed
one of the allegations as foundationless after picking up the phone and
calling 3ABN to affirm or deny. Following several efforts
at discussions it became clear the board was blind to any wrongdoing,
refused to become involved directly in any investigation, but
did pawn it off to ASI in the hopes they would deal with it and
relieve them of any culpability. This was clearly a gross abrogation
of the fiduciary and oversight responsibilities of the 3ABN Board.
And this abrogation was a pattern alleged by several victims
over 3ABN's twenty-three year history. It was this refusal to
look at any allegations that led to the elimination of other
founders and even Sheltons who were concerned with maintaining a modicum
of generally acceptable accounting principles required of a public
ministry soliciting funds from Seventh-day Adventist parishioners.
This issue clearly required a closer look.
When we recognized just how pervasive the problem is at 3ABN,
just how engrained into the 3ABN culture and management, and
realized that there was simply no accountability for Danny Lee Shelton to his hand-picked directorate,
regardless of the allegation and scope of the problem, we had no choice but to conclude
that the real issue was governance. A governance that has no
accountability to the people that make it all happen day by day,
week by week, month by month and year by year is ungoverned.
It is simply autocratic with no real accountability.
A corporation has accountability to the stockholders that
put up the money to create the business. The donors are defacto
stockholders in the ministry that solicits funds from the parishioners
and we respectfully refer to them as the stockholders in the
pews. Therefore, given the breadth of the support solicited and
the source of the vast majority of the support rendered over
the years, it is my simple premise that the major issue that
must be addressed at 3ABN, and other ministries now and in the
future, is that of governance. A constituency that represented
the parishioners of the Seventh-day Adventist church that would
select the directors and officers of 3ABN would have been a significant
deterrent to many of the issues at 3ABN.
Governance with accountability to the stockholders in the
pews is a minimum requirement. It is the standard adopted by
the Seventh-day Adventist Church a hundred years ago and we so
quickly forget.
The other very clear requirement is as simple as logic. If
a ministry is allowed to solicit funds from the stockholders
in the pews, then the stockholders should know that the auditing
firm that audits the ministry should report to the stockholders.
No ministry should be allowed to solicit support from the parishioners of the Seventh-day
Adventist without submitting to an audit
by the General Conference Auditing Department. If it is mandatory
for churches, then it should be the more mandatory for ministries.
As to the frequent questions of what we demand to settle such
a case, i.e., what is the end game?:
It is not our place to demand repentance, public confession
and reformation. That is the job of the Holy Spirit. If the Spirit
calls for this then we warn against grieving that Spirit and
do believe it would be most cathartic if done properly.
If offenses have been committed that require some form of
payment for their debt to society, that is the problem of society
to render such a judgment. It is the duty of the Illinois Attorney General
to investigate complaints of abuses for non-profits in Illinois.
It is for the IRS to investigate violations of Federal
Regulations for 501(c)3's and for the IRS or a Federal Court to
determine if the 200% penalty for undisclosed personal inurement
of officers or directors needs redress. The victims need to band
together and determine just what their options are regarding
Tommy Shelton and pursue those options with vigor.
It is not our place to demand that Linda return to 3ABN. It
is not even likely that it would be possible in a properly governed
entity. And we have never set that as a goal of this investigation.
As to whether she deserves compensation for the alleged defamation
and other damages she may have incurred from this hideous lack
of due process, we leave that to some proper jurisprudence,
whether conciliation, ADR or a court of competent jurisdiction.
The simple point is it has never been our purpose to reinstate
Linda. It has been our purpose to expose the truth that she might
have a chance at pursuing her own ministry in whatever form.
We most certainly do not intend to take over the ministry.
It would be impossible and probably highly undesirable. It belongs
to the parishioners and to the parishioners it should be returned.
That is my uncompromising goal.
The most important point is that 3ABN needs a new constitution
that grants the parishioners the accountability they deserve,
that gives them the power to select directors and officers and
that requires an audit by the GC Auditing Department with a report
to the representatives of the parishioners. I sincerely believe
the core problem is governance. Resolve governance and the rest
simply falls into place. 3ABN will have a real constituency that
will support 3ABN and return it to its position of its special
mission to a seriously defective and lost world. Until this issue
has been addressed it has not earned the right to exist as a
supporting ministry of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and does
not deserve the parishioners support.
Beyond these issues, we simply report the allegations that
come our way and take liberty to editorialize as it relates to
specific issues. We are writers and reporters. We simply assert
our right and duty to report what we have discovered. It is a
right guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States
Constitution and a right we demand to exercise unimpeded by
a poorly governed ministry. Yet it is a right 3ABN seems determined to
take away as vigorously as they can despite the rule of law.
But it is a right they will regret having tampered with.
Gailon Arthur Joy
AUReporter
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