February 15, 2024
Dear Kent, Rob, Harold & Sally,
This is the hardest and the easiest letter we have ever written. This paradox has been a constant presence of heart and mind these last 11 months. We have loved you each and that will never change. We cannot abide by nor condone the continued immorality, deceit and coverup. Words have meaning. Actions reveal hearts. Our love for Jesus has not waxed cold as some have speculated. Everything written here is before God as our witness and is accurate to the best of our knowledge. We humbly welcome any correction to the contrary.
We apologize in advance if anyone takes offense as none is intended. Our confidence is in Jesus only and we will continue to have fellowship with likeminded hearts. Last night there were 5 kids in our meeting who are trusting we adults to keep them safe physically and spiritually. I realized sitting there that we have made no progress in zero tolerance against Child Sex Abuse Perpetrators including those that have enabled, facilitated, and allowed CSA. When is it never right to stand for the abused and broken hearted?
This morning Scott Rauscher issued an “apology letter” for accessing immoral website content. Protecting child sexual abusers is his greater sin. This afternoon, three sisters the Bozeman field wrote letter in response. The first paragraph is below:
Dear Bozeman Friends… We are deeply disappointed as our own trust has been broken yet again. In our own words to him, “we will trust you until we can’t”. Unfortunately, this shock has made that time come, and we are sorry for all as we experience this sense of betrayal from another brother that has fallen…
With appreciation for each, Tammy Heidi and Alexis
The ugly truth of what has been revealed these last 11 months is stranger than fiction. This paradox has cast a pall over our fellowship. Why does the ministry continue kick against the pricks and pretend that “everything has been handled”? When we first heard about Dean B’s duplicitous lifestyle, we thought he was just one “hotspot” of isolated worker abuse. We have since discovered that there are many “Dean B hotspots” in our fellowship around the world.
These illicit “hot spots” have merged into the great conflagration lapping at our heels. Being in the spotlight for standing up for truth and decency is very uncomfortable but necessary. We admit to being blissfully ignorant for the last several decades. The bright light that has illuminated a number immoral and criminal abuses, including the deceit of coverup, over the past 11 months makes us complicit if we do nothing. We need to be honest with our children and neighbors about the evil in our fellowship. We could choose to be willfully blind by ignoring what God already knows. We could say this doesn’t affect us personally. We could say this doesn’t affect our family. However, in honesty and integrity we have prayed that God help us to hear the cries of the discarded survivors who have been left in the ditch for “the sake of the kingdom”.
We love Jesus the lamb in John 1. We hear Jesus the lion in John 2. In John 4, His answer to the woman by the well: “woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the father”. “God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth”. Meetings do not define our salvation. We’ve always loved our Sunday morning meeting and everyone who has met with us. Over the last several months the doctrine of exclusivity has created a division that has escalated and now some in our meeting have chosen to meet elsewhere. Nan and I have been true to everything we’ve been trusted with. We received the workers mail & phone calls long before email & text. Workers came & went freely because they were family to us. We loved our privilege.
Exclusivity is the ministry’s Achilles heel. The early workers first came to California in 1903 without companions and without the doctrine of exclusivity. Joseph Kerr and William Irvine adopted the Living Witness Doctrine in 1907. In the first years, there were no friends, no open homes, no Sunday or Wednesday meetings, and no conventions.
Some say it takes peace to give peace and so they do nothing. Doesn’t that seem a bit selfish when victim/survivors relive their abuse daily? Our human pride and sense of comfort would like to go back to our state of blissful ignorance. However, the betrayal of trust can only be repaired by honesty. Below is an excerpt of a letter written by a senior worker to a criminal abuser. This is the root of the problem:
if we do not report, we can be prosecuted for failure to report a sexual crime; you can understand that we love our people very much and don’t want to report their misdeeds to the authorities, so the way we have usually complied with the laws by asking an offender to see a professional counselor
A great searchlight has revealed some ugly & toxic abuses. In early June, Richard D said he heard in the twilight hours of morning “Richard, I gave you Dean Bruer and Mark Huddle, now clean it up”. We were promised transparency. The hint of transparency has turned to opacity. Action and inactions speak louder than words. The only “clean up” has been forced by the friends in the face of vigorous push back. Why? Several things have brought us to this tipping point where we can no longer support this ministry or continue in the facade of fellowship.
- A visit last week with a middle-aged worker on the California staff whose heart is crushed.
- A visit with a survivor who has endured verbal and spiritual abuse for 30 years. Her abuser is still in meetings. Workers and friends have slandered her.
- A visit with a family we’ve known for years where I poured out my heart only to be shunned and maligned to others.
- A 2.5 hour visit with Harold H where his only answer to every question was “Well, Jack and Nan, I just don’t know,” except to disparage a sister worker on the California staff. Thanks for the follow-up apology.
- A 2.5 hour visit with Sally kindly listening but unwilling to answer questions except to disagree with Kent on scriptural understandings of divorce & remarriage. Silence is a loud answer.
- 3 Phone visits with Kent not willing to engage in any meaningful way except to blame the sharp East/West dichotomy of DRM (Divorce & Remarriage) doctrine on eastern overseers who have been perpetrators. I would have preferred a scriptural answer. Yes, Kent we are all sinners, but not all of us are criminals.
- Understanding that the FBI has initiated a worldwide investigation on criminal activities within our church which includes North America, Vietnam and India at a minimum. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have started investigations in Canada. Similar governmental investigations have started in Ireland, the UK, Europe, Africa and Australia
- There has been worldwide news reporting on criminal and immoral abuses within our church viewed by millions. Some have calculated that we have more abuse per capita than the Catholic Church.
- Our neighbors and professional associates are beginning to connect us to this CSA and cover up. A business associate recently said, “Jack I’m sorry for all the CSA going on in your church”. This man has a professing brother, and knows we have meeting in our home. I will gladly ‘suffer’ for righteousness sake. It’s another thing entirely to be associated with a church whose fragrance to the community is felonious abuse and cover up.
These 11 months have stripped away any conceits of selfishness and exclusivity and we must cling to Jesus only. We are simply and plainly declaring our stand for truth, honesty & integrity. We don’t want to add nor take away from Jesus: The Way, The Truth, The Life. Our parents taught us to be honest in all things. Our love for Christ has only deepened. In Jesus alone we trust. It is clear that for our spiritual welfare we must give up our meeting after 40 years and step aside from fellowship as we have known it for almost 70 years.
With Love & Honesty,
Jack & Nan (Ball) Paddon
Newcastle, California
February 15, 2024
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HISTORICAL NOTE: The first worker to preach in California was my grandfather, Irvine Weir, who came from Ireland through Ellis Island, USA with George Walker and William Irvine on September 14, 1903. George Walker went south and William Irvine apparently went back to Ireland within a few months. My Grandfather, Irvine Weir, went west by train with whistle stops in Springfield, MA; Buffalo, NY; and Chicago, IL to preach the Gospel on street corners and maybe to earn a little money for food. He arrived in Los Angles around late November and met Walter Slater in December of 1903 who was preaching on the street corners of Pasadena. Walter Slater and Irvine Weir continued preaching, perhaps together and/or independently.
At this time, there were no friends, no open homes, no Sunday or Wednesday meetings, and no conventions until 1906. In the fall of 1904, Irvine Weir was preaching in Long Beach when Clyde and Grace Brownlee heard him; they immediately went preaching as a married couple.
In February of 1905, after Willie Jamieson professed in a mission of William Irvine in Scotland, he went directly to California alone. In the fall of 1905, Irvine Weir, Walter Slater and Willie Jamieson had a 3-day mission in San Luis Obispo where the Waites professed. Sometime after the 1906 Paso Robles convention, open homes and Sunday meetings were established in California. The first time I know that my Grandpa Irvine Weir had a companion was in the 1909 Aptos, CA mission where Grandma Blair professed.
In 1907, Joseph Kerr introduced William Irvine to the then popular Living Witness Doctrine (aka LWD) theory that Henry Drummond presented in his book Natural Law in the Spiritual World, published in 1884. Irvine adopted the LWD and it became an essential core belief in the church. When applied to the workers’ gospel, in order to attain salvation, it was essential that one profess through a worker who had professed through a worker. The obstacle of the founder, William Irvine, having professed through Presbyterian Rev. John McNeill (not a worker) was solved by Irvine declaring himself to be the Alpha worker. This notion of exclusivity is not scriptural and has caused many excommunications over the last 120+ years.
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Very interesting history lesson here about exclusivity and the Living Witness Doctrine (LWD). Neither are from the word of God (the Bible) and are entirely made up to keep people in the cult. Because with exclusivity and hearing the LWD only from a worker everyone is doomed to hell otherwise. How pathetic to manipulate people to the core, to threaten their very salvation UNLESS that person abides by what a worker says! And the workers all professed, going back, through William Irvine, who professed through NOBODY!
That is a perfect storm for abuse.
“We could say this doesn’t affect us personally. We could say this doesn’t affect our family. However, in honesty and integrity we have prayed that God help us to hear the cries of the discarded survivors who have been left in the ditch for “the sake of the kingdom”.”
“The sake of the kingdom” is another exclusivity term. Like the “Kingdom of Christ” only consist of people who “professed” through a worker. Professed through a worker that could have raped children, a worker that “follows porn”, a worker that will not turn in a sexual molester to the authorities, a worker that keeps a young women from getting baptized because she wore jeans?
This is a cult and it’s not of Christ. This is ideas made up of man to manipulate man. Christ will win. These evil practices will lose. There are many great Christian people who love and live for Christ. There are many great Christian churches, despite what the LWD preaches, and those churches are open to all that seek Christ. I am thankful every day that I found an incredible church that has given me so much. My life is now so deep and rich. You deserve the same.
I left this fellowship in June 2023 with deep feelings of betrayal. I was told to “stay in the ship and the storm will pass.” But I didn’t want to stay in the sinking ship. I didn’t see Jesus Christ in the sinking ship. I saw Him in the storm, and I bailed to be with Him. I have found a wonderful small church that is very Christ centered.
I was a third generation truther. I was never comfortable, even as a young child, with the idea of exclusivity. I pray that others will open their eyes, minds, and hearts to the real TRUTH, as it is in JESUS ONLY.
Thank you Jack and Nan for sharing your letter. It is not only interesting and historical, but fascinating, insightful and encouraging as well. You write that, “This is the hardest and the easiest letter we have ever written”. I truly appreciate your sentiment and honesty. I am from a similar historical lineage, but mine is linked to Eastern Canada and the upper Midwest. I also have recently shared my story though Wings For Truth. Growing up I was told, ” people think we are Coonyites, but we’re not “. I didn’t know what we” were “, but I did know we were right and everyone else was wrong and going to hell.
You helped explain to me why I had that mindset of us, being the only people being able to obtain salvation. You gave a history lesson and wrote, ” In 1907, Joseph Kerr introduced William Irvine to the then popular Living Witness Doctrine (aka LWD) theory that Henry Drummond presented in his book Natural Law in the Spiritual World, published in 1884. Irvine adopted the LWD and it became an essential core belief in the church. When applied to the workers’ gospel, in order to attain salvation, it was essential that one profess through a worker who had professed through a worker”. You then wrote EVERYONE professed through a worker, except for William Irvine. You were passed on much more information from your relatives about the groups beginnings than I was, even though my mom would have known the information you now have provided. It makes the circle complete.
I, like you, am a senior citizen. And I, like you, had to make the hardest yet easiest decision I could ever make. Like you said, “It is clear that for our spiritual welfare we must give up our meeting after 40 years and step aside from fellowship as we have known it for almost 70 years”. For me, it was for over 50 years. The Lord has in store for us, the best is yet to come. Praise God. Always, praise God. Jack and Nan, thanks again for your well written letter. It is truly appreciated.
Jack and Jan: What a tragic letter from your heart. You have no hope for any change. What is the future for the five children you so love and are so concerned about their safety and future well being. BUT the most wrenching of all is you have spent your life and your heart for seventy years thinking you and yours were secure and safe in the arms of the one only true way “fellowship” and NOW Know for the sake of the little ones you must turn aside for their safety. God Bless your heart and future.
Reality is YOU are responsible for your own salvation. This makes you responsible to know God’s Word. What is “truth” ? Someone gave a definition for ‘truth’. = God’s written Word. Also they gave a definition for ‘Faith’. = Taking God at his Word. This puts ALL the responsibility for our salvation on our own shoulders. Yes, we too, realized we had to pull-up our own boot-straps and thankfully were introduced to ’Through the Bible with Les Feldick’. It is not a religion, or a church; it is just : A Study verse by verse of every chapter and Book that God has preserve for our learning. What a reverent way to learn!
It was a shock to us to learn Romans 15:4 For whatsoever things were written “afore time” were written for our learning.(When is “aforetime”? Bible scholars say Paul wrote this sometime in the ’50’ AD. What was written before that? The Old Testament and the 4 Gospels which were all written to God’s Chosen Nation of Israel to Give all Jews the ‘Gospel’ = Good News of God’s promises and covenants of THEIR “Perfect Kingdom of Heaven on Perfect” EARTH for God’s chosen people, Israel.). Jesus himself explained to whom and why he was sent in Math. 15:24
This idea is referred to in Paul’s letter to 2 Timothy 3:16 -:17. (Ephesians 3:1-:9, Paul explains what Gospel was given to Paul and is 1 Corinthians 15:1-4) THAT the man of God may be ‘complete’, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Paul’s letters are the NOW for our understanding and ‘Doctrine”. Not for the Jews and their Kingdom: but NOW all mankind. As Paul continues to explain in Romans 15:13 Now the God of HOPE fill you with ….. :14 – :17. :16 that I should be the minister to the Gentiles ….
Romans 3:21 -:27 Explains What is NOW! Have you ever understood this as “Gospel=Good News” since which is after God turned from the Nation of Israel. What are great learning and Joy to understand God’s will and purpose for each individual and soul.
What is Faith? Taking God at his Word! It is a beautiful journey. We now begrudge those 70 lost years. Ephesians 2:8 – :9 For by “grace” are you saved Through Faith: and that NOT of yourselves: “”It is the Grace of God””.
Jack and Jan; it breaks our heart as you worry about your responsibility to our little ones, and to know and realize you cannot do anything to protect them. Then to also have your deep faith destroyed and cast into the unknown future, because of those who serve only themselves and will destroy any who are in their way..
Kent, Rob, Harold & Sally, please take note. Also, every overseer, please take note what is said here. These words are not casually being spoken and these words echo the thoughts of many people:
“We cannot abide by nor condone the continued immorality, deceit and coverup. Words have meaning. Actions reveal hearts”.
Previously, on Wings For Truth
(AUGUST 18, 2023 BY WINGSFORTRUTH2, Concerning Decision Despite Opposition), it was stated,
“Recently a private (secret) meeting was held in the Sacramento area. The Sunday morning elders for the 11 meetings were invited (no wives, no union elders or Wednesday night elders) by Rob Newman and Richard Denherder to discuss a known and personally admitted CSA perpetrators readmission into fellowship meeting.
They were told that while this man has admitted to (some) of his abuse, that a 4 hour phone assessment was done, and he had passed (assessed as no longer a risk).
So he is now able (according to the CA/AZ policy) to be readmitted to attend meetings (including those with children).
Rob and Richard took a vote of the 11 elders as to who would be willing to have this known and confessed perpetrator in their Sunday meeting.
4 elders voted NO.
2 elders said that they wanted to asked their meetings.
5 elders voted Yes”.
After a 4 hour PHONE assessment was done, and the sexual molester, Gilbert Smith, had passed and assessed as no longer a risk! While this decision was later reversed, it speaks volumes as to what Mr. and Mrs. Padden spoke of when they said, “We cannot abide by nor condone the continued immorality, deceit and coverup”.
Good for you Mr. and Mrs. Paddon, you both have my utmost respect and admiration. May God bless you. Thank you both for the courage to share your letter.
@Respet and Admiration – your post also shows the lack of respect that Richard DenHerder and Rob Newman have for women. Only the men (Elders), because they wouldn’t have the same empathy for the children that Gilber had violated. The two of them wanted to rule with an iron fist (lacking the scripture), instead of with love, grace, and truth like we see in Jesus. Richard still hasn’t taken Jim Chafee out of the ministry, but he KNOWS beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’s an abuser!! We do NOT need men like this leading in any capacity!!
Henoffour, most of your post are point on. This one lacks explanation and also seems to be very off the mark when you said, “@Respet and Admiration – your post also shows the lack of respect that Richard DenHerder and Rob Newman have for women”. For the record, I highly respect women. I have a very strong, beautiful wife, three incredible adult daughters that are all accomplished, and even a female English lab dog and a female Maine Coon cat. Not much around me but women, and I do respect them. I also respect you and your character. You are obviously a strong woman. I sincerely apologize if, by my quoting others, somehow came across as having lack of respect for women. I feel women, in most cases, are much more honorable than men. Richard and Rob are at a level no real man would want to sink to and by you saying anyone would be in the same category as those two? Well, that just hurts. Hurts bad.
I am SO sorry, I didn’t mean YOU had disrespect for women, but rather Richard and Rob/Kent have for women. Thank you for having the courage to set me straight. Some times I get to typing so fast (and trying to keep up with two little ones) that I get ahead of myself and type things that either don’t make any sense or sound like they shouldn’t. So, again, I am sorry!
Thank you for the clarification! I don’t know them so have no idea what their position is. Only mine.
Sally, and her nephew Joey for what he has done in Az. should both go away. Sally won’t let her companion even enter the conversations that have been in her fields the last couple of years. Shame on you. And Joey the choices you have made in Az are despicable.
Link to FBI investigation website:
https://www.fbi.gov/how-we-can-help-you/victim-services/seeking-victim-information/seeking-victim-information-in-2×2-investigation
See https://wingsfortruth.info/2024/02/21/fbi-seeking-victim-information-in-2×2-investigation/
Thank you for your courage and encouragement. I understand from personal experience that these decisions are not easy but they are necessary. Love and care to you both from one of your many true friends
It’s tragic that Sally is still drinking and pouring out the poison of divorce and remarriage doctrine. Definitely not the spirit of Jesus. No matter how they try to paint the picture they are not like Jesus. In fact they are more like modern day Scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees.
Are people watching? Are people reading and interpreting the words being written on the walls? The subway walls and tenement halls? Are people thinking, or are we all just happy to let other’s words that may have been somewhat applicable to past days keep our minds in a fog?
In my previous life, I used the word deceit to explain what I saw was the tainting of truth. But over the last 21 months, I have begun to use the word the prophet in the book of revelation uses, and that word is guile. Means the same, but now the word guile has more meaning to me because I see the ending of guile. Or if you will, hypocrisy.
Does anyone have the courage to search their own life, to see if there is any of this guile within? Living in some sense a lie? What is living a lie other than hiding from others what God sees in us? Is this not the foolish virgin? Is ‘truth’ and ‘real’ not synonymous? Is ‘light’ not a reflection of what is true and real? We always heard and were encouraged to let our light shine. Did we think this light was going to be making everything look right on the outside making people think this light was coming from within? Did any light really come forth that the Master could see if we hid and covered up the reality of our truth?
Are people reflecting on the condition of this church we all loved and at the same time looking at where a light is beginning to bounce from one direction and another? Are people discerning the words just spoken? Are their brain biases hearing only one message that suits their personal point of view and religious agenda and encouraged by man’s institutions of religious thought to embrace? Are people thinking the religious right are finally going to have their day in court? The religious ‘right’, of whom the twobytwo’s held supremacy? But is the supreme court of the twobytwos, stacked against the victims, going to have much punch like they had in the past? Has the supreme court of the twobytwos only been engaged in past days when the lower courts could not deal with the guile and it floated upwards? Will the lower courts maybe start dealing now with a strong hand and start stopping guile in its tracks and let it go no further to the supreme court?
Listen to the words. Chew on the words. Meditate on the words. Not my words, but someone’s word. The words of ‘today is a new day’. Do we discount the words as bluster? Do we think the church organizations in all their glory days will rise again? Are we searching the words and detecting a shift? No doubt, anyone that is awake sees a shift. But how are you interpreting the shift? Do we think it is the same words repeated since 1999, or 2004, or 2016 or 2020 or 2023? Do people in this church think the party will resume again after the dust settles? Are we listening to the words from on high and interpreting them with some help from the Holy Spirit? Are people seeing there are two meanings in the message? There are one of two ways we can be a helper to the Messiah. Which one of two do we individually want to be? Do we want to be one that tries to beef up Babylon? Or do we want to be one that sees Babylon for what it is? But there is a third way. It says in prophecy God will put it into the heart of certain individuals to kick the rider off. The rider that has had a most delicate and delicious ride, arrayed in splendor. The whole Christian world is determining in their mind what the anti-Christ is. Kinda wondering when and how it will be revealed. They say this person or that is or will be the anti-Christ. For sure for sure. Is the anti-Christ not just the antithesis of what Jesus stood for while he was on the earth? And no doubt commands the same message from the Comforter that he said he would send? And that I believe He did send. Did Jesus not tell the disciples of John to go back and tell John “The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them”.
So in the rejection of the victims by the sundry church organization’s supreme court of justices, where the lower courts really had no say in the matter prior, might the earth be getting turned on its axis and the sundial in religious enterprise get turned upside down? Could there be something in the message that this truly is a new day? But might the messenger and the speech writers in their intent maybe not see fully where their thrust is really heading? Might a surprise or two be in the works? There certainly are expectations in the world. But the great expectations are falling into two camps of thought. The ones feeling a need to beef up their own standing will likely be disappointed. The ones willing for pain in an attempt to make the whole whole again will be comforted.
Friends and workers, from the high to the low, stand up. Start searching the mind of Christ. And to the victims, this might be your day. You are getting help from odd places. And to the ones wanting to keep the victims as victims outside your fold? This just might be your day in finding out what being a victim on the outside feels like. A victim of your own devising. Time to get real. We are all ugly to a certain degree. Why do we have such strong faith and absolute belief to believe we need to cover it up and in our fear and human reasoning think we need to appear as pretty virgins in spiritually sexy wedding garments? There seems to be a significant fork in the road. Or should I say, a fork of significance. Interesting parallels are happening in the world, but the two ways from the fork?….very divergent.