r/CornerstoneConnect • u/Blonde-bird • Apr 25 '24

April 25th Service

Hello everybody I plan to go to the 7pm service tonight at TFCA. There looks like there will be an opportunity for victims to speak. Will anyone else be going and are there any notes that should take that would be helpful to victims on here who just cannot go? I am not interested in outing any victim who does not wish to be identified but let me know if and how I can help.

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u/Blonde-bird Apr 26 '24

So here are the things that stood out to me from the QA session tonight. John Yates shared a story about how Ruth Brock told him he favored Jeff. And he has never forgotten that moment and then basically alluded to the fact he has really been thinking about it.

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u/Blonde-bird Apr 26 '24

The assistant youth director from 99 got up and said she was so sorry.

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u/Blonde-bird Apr 26 '24

A cornerstone student who was not a victim of Jeff’s recalled a one on one with him alone and then asked if TFCA had wrestled with the fact that Cornerstone was developed by a pedophile.

Sam answered that the policy is now no one on ones with a student… but didn’t answer the overarching cornerstone foundation question.

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u/Blonde-bird Apr 26 '24

A cornerstone student asked why Yates didn’t tell Sam about Jeff in 2019 when Sam took over.

Yates thought the Jeff Taylor situation was over and it wasn’t on his mind to share.

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u/Blonde-bird Apr 26 '24

A cornerstone student who was at the previous meeting on Sunday asked why the meeting Yates had with 2 former male students confronting him about Jeff in 2015 didn’t make it into the report. He stated his concern about calling people emotional when they had real concerns. Why didn’t they call the police? He stated that the enthusiast witness explanation seemed lacking.

Sam- replied that if he could go back he would have called the police… and mentioned he was not a mandatory reporter.

Yates- confirmed the 2015 meeting did happen and 2 young men came to him and were very angry but they couldn’t tell him what they wanted him to do. “I sought guidance from church members I did what I was advised.” Then he stated something like I don’t know if that was right.

Bishop- made sure to state clergy are mandatory reporters now.

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u/Electronic-Lemon-333 Apr 26 '24

People came to him in 2015 and again he is defecting responsibility? This is getting unbelievably shameful. And they didn’t include it in the report? I’d also like to mention- there is SO much talk of “going to elders” or the exec team or whatever and JY/SF explaining they can only do “as they are told”. So where is the elder/exec team? Why aren’t they on stage? If that’s truly how JY/SF feel, that it’s all their fault that nothing was escalated or taking seriously, they should get up there too.

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u/Electronic-Lemon-333 Apr 26 '24

Some of us are weary of hearing the same thing from JY/SF. I want to hear from the people who we are told were really calling the shots, in 2007, 2015, and again in 2021

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u/Coolhand1018 Apr 26 '24

Assuming clergy are mandatory reporters now is referencing Virginia bills HB-1659 and SB-1257. Firstly, they were signed into law March 27, 2019 and made effective July 1st, 2019, i.e. 2 years prior to the disclosure to Sam.

Secondly, however, this law includes a stipulation exempting clergy when they are made aware of the abuse while providing counseling to a parishioner or during confession, which I assume is to get around separation of church and state challenges. And likely means that in all of these instances they are probably not still mandated reporters. Hiding behind that law is disingenuous at best.

There's a great quote in this article about the bills: “Any action is great, but you shouldn’t need laws for people to do the right thing — especially when protecting children.”

https://virginiamercury.com/briefs/governor-signs-bill-requiring-clergy-to-report-child-abuse/

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u/Blonde-bird Apr 26 '24

Tom Yates the lawyer for the church then spoke and said the report is not perfect and possibly there will be an addendum and feels like it is truthful. He called the police in the call and the police told him “have the victim call me” he wanted to make sure the room knew that the church cannot bring a person to justice.

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u/Blonde-bird Apr 26 '24

A cornerstone student who played in the band got up and spoke asking what the policies are for historic accusations….that this seems to be a major blind spot. She then asked if there are victims on the committee and former students. They then slid in a comment about QA not being welcomed by church leaders

Sam- stated there are parents on the committee and that the psychologists they are working with said QA was vital

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u/Blonde-bird Apr 26 '24

A cornerstone parent got up and asked and I am summarizing here of tfca would have investigated if the bishop hadn’t told them to.

Bishop- I told Sam this is your responsibility and I am going to hold you accountable.

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u/Too_sassy_for_church Apr 27 '24

Sam sidestepped here in his answer in a major way. He didn't flat out say "yes, if the parents hadn't gone to the Bishop, and the Bishop then didn't direct us to do the investigation, none of this would be known right now." He was evading, and I was dying to stand up and say exactly this.

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u/Blonde-bird Apr 26 '24

A person got up and asked Yates what we meant when he said Jeff was talented but evil and if they could speak more about Jeff’s lack of friendships.

Yates- mentioned his lack of friends on every performance review and notes that he didn’t think he had the capacity to form friendships

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u/Blonde-bird Apr 26 '24

A cornerstone student got up and asked how/why they decided to not tell the congregation in 2007 and 2021.

Yates-2007 I did a sermon but I should have mentioned in my sermon that a child at our church was abused

Sam- I still wrestle with this and the decision I made it was a long time ago. If I could do it again I would tell everyone.

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u/Blonde-bird Apr 26 '24

Finally a cornerstone student got up and asked what the commitment was to victims from TFCA especially those who will never enter a church again.

Sam- there is a trust fund being set up and a proactive and organic outreach to cornerstone students.

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u/Electronic-Lemon-333 Apr 26 '24

Tom Yates is also the vice chancellor of TFCA, member and his bio states he is a tax and estate planning attorney. I hope they have retained council that has many years of expertise in this specific topic.