The Miller Spotlight

  “Any story sounds true until someone tells the other side and sets the record straight.” (Proverbs 18: 17) For the past three months, I’ve become increasingly aware that my soul cannot rest until I’ve completed this personal message to those who occupy the pews of your congregation. My intent is to set the record straight, going far beyond the parts of your church story which you may have heard already—either from online reports, the lengthy letter from your pastor a few weeks ago, or from hearsay. This letter will serve to tell “the rest of the story,” as Paul Harvey often declared on the radio for many years. Though I’ve never met any of you personally, I've come across hundreds of churches in similar situations as yours is right now . My name is known in certain Southern Baptist circles and far beyond due to the work I’ve done for over thirty years upon discovering the complex issues of collusion with abuse in the faith community -- a widespread, systemic problem I first...

 If you are a regular reader of Wartburg Watch, you likely saw the  letter  that SBC survivor Jules Woodson sent to her former pastor, who remains at Stonebridge Church more than twenty years after Jules was sexually assaulted by her youth pastor, Andy Savage, in 1998.  To this day, Bradley has not answered this important letter. That's why I decided I would answer it in his place, in a way he might have if he and members at Stonebridge had taken the Convention-wide  Caring Well Challenge :  October 25, 2019 Dear Jules, It's taken far too long for me to find the courage to answer your important letter, which I now see as an amazing gift. Thank you very much. My delay I can only explain by telling you of the change of heart that has come to me in the past few months--partly because of your courage. Yet there's so much more to tell. I want you to know that I am sincerely sorry for what I put you and your family through in the aftermath of Andy assaulting you,...