WINGS Note: John has a cousin with the same name. Please don’t confuse the two different people.
In April 2023, Rob Newman, Overseer of CA/AZ/NV/HI, advised that John was asked to step aside from the ministry as workers had received several credible allegations of unacceptable sexual behavior, including a complaint of inappropriate touching of a minor, which has been reported to the authorities. See https://wingsfortruth.info/2023/04/25/letter-by-rob-newman-overseer-of-california-re-removal-of-john-vandenberg-from-the-work-april-2023/
Further information was posted at https://wingsfortruth.info/2023/05/18/john-vandenberg-clarification/
A note recently issued to California staff (March 8, 2024) says:
Rob requested to notify you that we received the sad, shocking news that our friend and brother John VanDenBerg died today in a construction accident by Puget Sound in Washington state.
He and Kent Kingman had been working in a house that Kingman’s purchased, and 2.00PM PST today part of the roof collapsed. One of their sons who was there (fortunately not underneath when it came down) lifted the beam off his Dad, but John was gone.
Life-Flight transported Kent to a Seattle hospital. His wife Donna said that Kent was really banged up and that he was going to be okay.
No funeral details at this time.
Since August 2023, there have been rumors that that John Vandenberg was “cleared by the FBI” prior to his passing or that others have been “cleared by the FBI” after a visit with the FBI. This is not correct as the FBI does not “Clear” anyone. Their job is to determine if there is sufficient information to prosecute. If there is, that is passed on to relevant legal authorities to try the case in court. The court system determines guilt or innocence. Even lack of a guilty verdict does not mean the person didn’t do the deed, it may mean there simply wasn’t sufficient evidence presented to meet the legal bar for the guilty verdict.
The rumor may have started because John (and two other alleged perpetrators) was subject to a short evaluation by an unknown professional, and deemed “low-risk”, according to church leadership in California – Rob Newman, Richard DenHerder, and Harold Hilton.
This situation is explained clearly in a recent letter to CA/AZ/NV/HI workers:
Dear CA/AZ/NV/HI workers,
I am writing with a concern regarding some misinformation that is making the rounds, for at least a second time. I am writing to help you all to understand the full impact of these statements, so that you may be better informed if you choose to reshare incorrect information. This is in regards to John VanDenBerg being declared innocent, by various professionals per the various rumors. I understand you’ve now been made aware that this declaration of innocence simply isn’t correct; there’s no possible way for this to be done outside of our justice system (and certainly not by the executive branch of our government, such as the FBI). The original rumor I heard was several months ago and apparently originated from John’s engagement in a recidivism risk assessment process with a forensic psychiatrist. This relates to the controversial practice Rob has sometimes used, hiring a forensic psychiatrist to evaluate the risk of future harm by putting someone with accusations or convictions back into meetings. Forensic psychiatrists are normally used after the court proceedings have concluded guilt, and the forensic psychiatrist’s evaluation is used as a sentencing duration recommendation. If John went through this evaluation and was deemed ‘low risk’ (something he had shared with others some months back), the evaluation itself first presumed his guilt on the accusations used in the risk evaluation. So I’m still at a loss as to how any declaration of innocence has this source, but this seems to be the origin of John’s exoneration claims both recently and in the past.
I wonder if you’ve considered what John being innocent would mean, the ‘good news’ as it was referenced. If John is innocent, it means all his accusers are guilty of malicious slander. While John’s accusers may be currently faceless to you, they are not faceless to Rob. Some of the accusers are also not faceless to me. As a result, I know they include people currently in fellowship and in homes you’ve stayed in, perhaps even recently. They include elders’ wives you’ve been in fellowship with. If John is truly innocent, these same people are all vicious liars. Would this be a better conclusion on the matter? Would it be better that one former worker’s innocence comes at the cost of many of the friends’ guilt? I find the idea that so many of the friends would be malicious liars also chilling – there is no ‘good news’ scenario here.
The people I know brought their accusations to Rob out of concern for the children in the fellowship, and because Rob solicited this information. They do not want to be known publicly out of shame for what happened to them (even though they bear no fault), and out of fear of being vilified by those who cannot fathom believing John was capable of harming children. And this would happen regardless, as there are people today who still can’t believe Ruben Mata’s guilt. By propagating a declaration of John’s innocence, the trust these survivors put in Rob (and by implication the ministry as a whole) has been betrayed. Their words have now been tried and found false per this rumor, the horror of their childhood experience declared a fantasy. This misinformation can have serious consequences for these survivors, including triggering migraines, vomiting, depression, and even suicidal ideation. These words can have severe consequences for all survivors who hear them, not just those alleged to be victims of John.
The sad reality is that there will be no definitive arbitration of truth on these matters. Most accusations will never see their day in our imperfect court system. Therefore, our community will live in perpetuity with one of two terrible truths being reality; that these accusations mean either we live amongst malicious liars or among predators of children — or both. In most (probably all) cases, we will never know the full truth. So we have no choice but to move forward without truly knowing guilt or innocence. The best we can do is to operate in a way that gives full consideration and care to the possibility of truth existing on both sides of these accusations.
Thank you for your consideration of these concerns, and for your help in preventing further propagation of harmful messages to the many survivors among us.
With appreciation,
Steve Paddon
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Thank you, Steve, for highlighting this reality, and thank you for caring about its impact on survivors and their families and friends! ________________________________
Are the dates correct? It appears as though John was asked to leave the work after he died!?
Fixed. Thanks.
To be clear: NO ONE anywhere, nor wrongdoing, nor FBI visits to overseers…have been CLEARED of ANYTHING, in ANY state. If your Overseer is telling you otherwords, it’s just more lies. The FBI is in the process of FACT/INFORMATION collecting, or having people answer questions so if they LIE to the agents those charges can also be added to their warrants (no, they won’t be giving a heads up during a visit to warn of an impending warrant nor to coming charges). None of this can be done overnight. So, patience is much appreciated. This has been going on for decades, the FBI is good at their job, and we know they want to “get it right”, but they have no magic wand. Every allegation has to be investigated, every statement has to be investigated as to it’s truthfulness, and so on. If you are hearing rosy messages/letters from your overseer, they are being dishonest with you too. I am hearing that some overseers are telling people “all is well”, “it’s over”, “it’s being taken care of, and we have no worries here in our state”, “the FBI is “happy with what we’re doing in our state”, and other baloney…The overseers have not been given any clearance of ANY kind!
@henoffour. Thank you for your efforts to help. I do find it strange that you have become the spokesman for the FBI. I am surprised that from what you are saying that you know what and how they are progressing? But they aren’t letting anyone else know. You are the only one that I have heard talking about their progress. I have only heard, not directly so some would call it a rumor that one person who was interviewed said that they told him it would be unwise for anyone to set up a fund to support the victims, because the FBI would look at it as a slush fund to keep the victims quiet, and if they did any investigation of an allegation on their own the FBI would view it as interference. Hopefully that doesn’t apply to some who are strongly pushing this issue. I am all for the investigation to proceed but I don’t expect any results very soon. Sorry you feel you know of so many that might lie to the FBI, I can’t say I know any that a feel would not be fully truthful. Time will tell.
@Amen – So far, every single overseer has been dishonest with those of us who are working hard to take care of the victims and do the scriptural thing…by removing every predator from our midst. These evil hearted predators chose our faith because there is such amazing opportunity for them to abuse without consequence, there’s no formal training, there’s been no watchman (one’s who can’t be swayed by a friend/buddy) to ‘toe the line’ if people get out of control or choose to abuse, we somehow got this twirked idea that the victim and everyone else HAD to forgive them (without consequences), so they could go on abusing where every they got sent to next. These strangers stay in our homes, we camp with them at convention time, we allow them to feel they have authority over us in ways that there’s no scripture to back. The ministry isn’t scriptural (as the way it currently stands). Our “Bible Studies” aren’t - they are Chapter or subject meetings instead of Studies. I’m guessing when those were instituted these didn’t want us digging too deeply into what the Bible actually says, in case we figured out just how wrong everything was. Actual Bible Studies would help us all to learn in a fuller measure what each chapter truly holds for mankind.
The “FBI cleared” rumor started with worker Jon W, he has since sent an apology to his fellow workers saying he misspoke. Not sure why telling the truth is so difficult…..
Is Jon W. mentioned here the Jonathan Wright who sent an email to “our staff” about the cancellation of the funeral?
That letter only went to his fellow workers and didn’t get passed to all the people the lie spread to. The lies keep compounding and the damage to families and friends continues. People are still standing on that lie and still spreading it. On top of it, JW’s letter blames it on some nameless source friend (sure ok) and guesses the therapist released private info (sure ok).
here’s his BS letter that got sent no where:
Dear Fellow Workers,
Something I told someone has been spread widely and greatly exaggerated within just a few hours. I apologize that I said what I did without confirming it first.
What I said was what I had heard from a friend, not FBI told John VanDenBerg that that he should be I think what the friend told me was “his criminal investigator”, not FBI. So that detail was my fault too.) Since that report got out, it has taken on many distorted forms.
It turns out it must have been John’s counselor who told him the above, which, I’ve been told since, bears no weight at all in court.
I’m sorry, I should have looked into it before saying anything. When you hear something good about someone, you want to share it. (I am not on FB or IG or any of those social media platforms.)
I’m also sorry for any distress this has caused for any. It was without guile, and with no ill will.
Thanks for helping douse the flames.
Your fellow worker,
Jon
Anyone who would like to spare the school that John’s funeral is to be held at (they were unaware that he was a pedophile), and ask that they move the funeral off of school grounds…to not have a conflict of interest. There’s likely going to be rapists and pedophiles attending that funeral too…ON SCHOOL Grounds (if they have already been charged, then it will be a felony for them to even enter the parking lot)! The school district is Santa Clara Unified School District Phone: (408) 423-2000
Prayers answered. Service cancelled.
Indeed. I am so thankful. Thank you for sharing that with us!!
Thank you Henoffour for your service in providing us the information you did to cancel the funeral service at a school: “Anyone who would like to spare the school that John’s funeral is to be held at (they were unaware that he was a pedophile), and ask that they move the funeral off of school grounds… There’s likely going to be rapists and pedophiles attending that funeral too…ON SCHOOL Grounds…The school district is Santa Clara Unified School District Phone: (408) 423-2000”.
The question everyone should be asking is WHY did they need the capacity of a school for a pedophiles funeral? It baffles the mind that anyone would want to attend such an event. it’s the same as going to a meeting where an overseer is at that supports sexual molesters and gives them access to commit more crimes.
Why don’t people stop patronizing these evil men? It really makes the whole group to look like a cult when a religious organization holds evil so high. Could someone explain why this is? My mind can’t comprehend it, unless this truly is a cult and man is esteemed above all else. Even a pedophile.
@what is it- you ask a good question about why so many would choose to go to John’s funeral. I believe the reason is most humans form an opinion of another person based on their interaction and relationship with that person. For most of the people we have known, that is our reality. We usually know little of their actions, relationships with others unless they are in our circle of friends. Whether John led a duplicate life or not my understanding is he was a very kind, cheerful, outgoing personable individual with most people . A large majority of these people who had a good relationship with John have never heard anything about him that would change their view of him. So yes they would gladly go to the funeral of their friend.
I find it very sad that there was no obituary for John….I knew him and his family when he was a small boy, and it would’ve been a comfort for me to respond to the memories of him. And I find it sadder still that there is a huge lack of forgiveness in people’s hearts. If we do not forgive, we can not be forgiven. That is a sad sad sad state we will find ourselves in when we stand before the the righteous judge and he says to us ‘Not forgiven’. God understands our sorrows, and hurts, and gives us time to heal and opportunity to forgive. Don’t let bitterness engulf our lives until it’s TOO late.
@Hope, what would forgiveness look like in this case? This is a genuine question.
You cannot help a person like Hope who sounds like a scared ‘truther’ like my sister. The truth is, predators and even psychopaths use CHARM to push open the doors that they need to open to get to their prize. For predators, it’s children. For psychopaths, it could be anyone or anything that gives them what they want; power, revenge, etc. I had a friend whose grandmother lived next door to a famous serial killer back in the 1980’s. My friend’s grandmother loved this guy. He helped her, visited with her, etc. But that was just the manipulative side of his mental illness. That was the bright side but the dark side was very, very dark and evil indeed.