The long-expected first instalment of the planned series of interviews is finally here! Simon discusses at length the early stages of the Aetna disaster, focusing on the destructive involvement of Church Coach 54, and the enthusiastic but ignorant, partisan, misguided, and paladinesque intervention of the Church Visitors, 21 & 22. Listeners are directed to the more relevant background documentation, especially Exhibit E., Exhibit L., and Exhibit J.
Alias Key: Stan Koster=54; Keith Mannes=21.
A Christian Education: Exposing Injustice & Incompetence in the Church 
Just to be clear– toward the end of the discussion, the pastor and the interviewer both said that the Council members were unaware of the consequences of their actions. They had no idea that a forced termination of a minister would seriously damage the pastor’s career and would cause him significant personal harm. This is on the Church Visitors. Their failure to properly inform the Council must be viewed as incompetence or dereliction of duty. Your thoughts?
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Neither incompetence nor dereliction of duty is something for which one strives, though I suppose to be incompetent is preferable. On the whole, the procedure was so rushed that I’m not sure it occurred to the Church Visitors that they owed it to Aetna’s council to make sure they made an informed decision; certain men on the council knew that what they were doing was untoward, but seemed totally ignorant and blithe about the gravity and longevity of the consequences. And they weren’t in a position to know what they didn’t know. It was up to the ‘professionals’ to warn them of the implications of their decision–the burden that would not only be borne by Simon himself, but that should (and may yet come to) weigh heavily on their consciences. That should have then compelled them to slow down in the midst of the decision-making process and be sure this was wise, justified, and necessary. Of course, none of this was done, and the ‘professionals’ got behind the wheel and drove the bus off the cliff.
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Still not sure why there was such a rush to terminate the pastor. Was someone going to turn into a pumpkin at midnight, a la, Cinderella? Was there some deadline?
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Oddly enough, just in the past few minutes I was looking at documentation that provoked the question, Was this an emergency, like my friend’s sister-in-law’s C-section today? “Nurse, we gotta get this pastor OUT, STAT!”
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