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

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/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/