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exFamily.org > chatboards > genX > archives > post #22250

Chancellor is way over his professional boundaries on this one

Posted by Anovagrrl on August 21, 2005 at 20:22:17

In Reply to: Re: Where does Chancellor get his "news"? posted by Of Course on August 21, 2005 at 00:23:49:

Chancellor is a theologian and an historian of religion. He has absolutely NO training in child welfare, risk assessment of child abuse, or the treatment of childhood abuse in adult survivors. Yet, he feels his expertise as a theologian and religious historian qualifies him to make statements about the current risk of abuse for children being raised in a high demand organization like TFI and the psychological impact of the abuse experienced by a generation of young adults raised in TFI.

Well over a year ago I wrote Chancellor an email (using my system name & credentials) and asked him how his training in theology qualified him to make statements such as "the risk of abuse for Family children is no worse than that of children growing up in the larger society." There's absolutely NOTHING in his research methodology that can support a conclusion like that, yet he felt compelled to make a public statement of risk assessment as though training in theology qualified him to do social work in child welfare. The fact that TFI has written policies in place prohibiting sexual contact between adults and minors does not mean these policies are enforced or applied uniformly and fairly.

I also noted what sort of research design would be needed to reliably assess the risk of abuse currently faced by children growing up in TFI, so it's not like Chancellor has no idea how far beyond the limitations of his study and professional expertise he chose to go with some of his pronouncements on child welfare in a high demand organization like TFI.

Chancellor never saw fit to respond to my email, even though I acknowledged the important contribution he made by documenting the abuse of children in TF during the 1970s and 1980s. He apparently only responds to gossip and innuendo on exer boards when some Family stooge yanks his chain about his reputation as an academic.

Now he has the arrogance to talk about abuse survivors embellishing and embroidering their stories. Once again I have to ask, what qualifies a Baptist theologian to make an assessment like that? Does he have so little regard for trauma research & evidence-based medicine that he feels no shame in pontificating like an arm-chair psychologist?