A Voice Unheard
The recent problems of the Free Church have also concerned the interests of her female members, particularly with respect to the well-publicised allegations of sexual assault. Some women were accused of perjury in a criminal court but none was investigated by a church court. One wrote to the Training of the Ministry Committee and her Kirk Session to clear her name but received no satisfaction. Another woman wrote to the Special Commission making known a further allegation but, like others who wrote, got no suitable response. At the Commission of Assembly a Petition from some women in our Church dealing with these matters was rejected by the Bills and Overtures Committee.
A woman who believes these things to be of great importance to the Free Church writes below, from the heart, believing that she represents many others; women who could be "increasingly frustrated by complicated procedures which nullify all their attempts to make their wishes known" (Professor Donald Macleod, West Highland Free Press, 6/9/96). They believe however that the fault lies not in the Church procedures themselves but in their manipulation. This article shows the state of affairs we are now in but sadly it represents what is all too often a voice unheard.
As a woman I write, not by choice, but out of a grave and compelling concern for the safety of women, and in the light of persistent rumour and allegation, on a matter which critically concerns women. There are several points I wish to make.
Firstly, the confidence of women in the Training of the Ministry (ToM) Committee has been seriously undermined. Women are aware that cases brought before it by five different women, some unknown to each other and two of them from outwith the Free Church, were never accorded a trial in the courts of the Church. Furthermore, the ToM Committee never gave them the minutes of their own brief interview with a sub-committee or told them of Professor Macleod's response to their allegations. For all they knew he could have denied that he had even met them. They were given no right of reply. This can only be described as astonishing.
We now know that one woman's evidence in the secular court was seriously undermined by the failure to release relevant papers to the prosecution. Another body, the Finance, Law and Advisory Committee, refused their release. What has the ToM Committee done since (I exonerate those who produced a minority report) to rectify this grievous error? What has it done to help this young woman accused of lying to the court? It has the evidence, the documents, which she believes will clear her name before the Church or rather it did have until the Assembly voted to destroy them! What confidence then can any other woman have in coming to the ToM Committee with a similar complaint?
Secondly, women in the Free Church have no confidence in the impartiality of many Free Church ministers. Indeed the Assembly this year showed us that even a father's loving appeal on behalf of his daughter, though supported by some men, could not melt the hearts of others or stir them to their manly duty to come to her defence.
Furthermore we are told that some ministers (those who have supported a full investigation of these womenıs allegations) are "hardliners", others liars, others perverters of the course of justice; still others are "hounds of death"; even the Assembly has been publicly decried as a lunatic asylum. Ought then a woman alleging sexual assault turn to men of such character? And were she to turn to others, the "progressive" ones, whoever extended help would be immediately cast in the role of a conspirator. Woe to the man who gave her a listening ear! And the woman? Like Tamar of old she would be counselled to hold her peace. Has this not been done recently in the rejection of a libel dealing with these same points? Why was it rejected? On a matter of procedure. Of some Christıs words appear true: "Ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgement, mercy and faith".
Thirdly, women in the Free Church remember that the five young women at the time of the Sheriff Court trial were called "silly women" in some Free Church circles, although some of them have higher academic qualifications than her most "eminent" professor. We are asked, contrary to reason, to accept that Free Church women were induced to commit a grave crime perjury by ministers of the gospel. And yet, though a former politician, Jonathan Aitken, was recently jailed for such an offence in relation to his own daughter, our own Church has never even investigated these ministers for similar alleged offences against the apples of Christ's eye. We are expected to accept that, contrary to reason.
Of course we know, and you know, that no such crime was in fact committed. No lies were told. No conspiracy existed. Yet we are asked to believe that somehow neither Professor Donald Macleod nor the alleged conspirators did wrong. Only the five women perhaps did wrong and they should suffer in silence. We are not so stupid. We must point out that either Professor Macleod or the other ministers must have committed a grave crime and that the women were the victims. We refuse to allow our minds to be assaulted by this profane nonsense, that neither party is guilty. Can we entrust an enquiry into any further allegations of sexual assault to such intellectual incompetency and irrationality? God has called us to a sound mind.
What more can be said? The Church courts and due process are blocked. Justice and truth are being driven from our Church. On that last great day, I fear that some will plead: "Lord, Lord, have we not preached in thy name, and in thy name sat on committees, and in thy name done outreach?" But then they will also have to ask: "When did we see thee pilloried by the press, condemned as liars, rejected and silenced by the courts of the Church?" "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my sisters, ye have done it unto me".
Any comments or questions please E-Mail me or Rev William Macleod the editor.
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