Some Thoughts on Foucault and Matthew 18:15-20 (William B. Evans)

William B. Evans takes a look at an important text in the Gospel according to Matthew in an insightful post titled Some Thoughts on Foucault and Matthew 18:15-20. This is important exegesis in the contemporary history of the laestadian movement, where pastoral care within the community has been instituted on these very verses.

(Via Reformation21 Blog.)

Mika

LEARNING TO LIVE FREE: Minnesota Laestadian Sex Abuse Case

Apparently -- and indeed unfortunately -- laestadian abuse cases are not confined to Finland. Learning to Live Freereports of a case in the OALC in Minnesota:

Minnesota Laestadian Sex Abuse Case: "Apparently sex abuse is still happening in Laestadian circles in the United States as well, as attested to in this article regarding a case that hit the news last July involving a volunteer at the Old Apostolic Lutheran Church on Rowland Road in Minnetonka, Minnesota."

AFAIK the Finnish press has thus far failed to notice this case. Päivi Räsänen keeping the religion beat busy I suppose.

Mika

Laestadian Abuse -- Story Continues

The leading national broadsheet Helsingin Sanomat ran a story on the 29th of September reporting that an influential member of the SRK has been in custody since July on child abuse charges. Helsinki Times ran a similar report in English. Allegations of abuse were picked up by the media in the spring, but shows little signs of quieting down after the summer.

According to Kaleva the head of SRK Olavi Voittonen dissociated the accused from all of the Central Committee's activities. He also made the argument that among the laestadians there are no more paedophiles than in the rest of the society, and the current furor against the movement has been raised by the media. Voittonen firmly denies hushing down the scandal and emphasises that child abuse is not an internal matter, but all cases should be reported to the police.

The odds are this piece of news will not be going away in the short term.

Mika

Postings about women and the abuse scandal

Like in several other religious movements women's role in Laestadianism is often considered marginal. Some of the most popular points of discussion outside the movement highlight this fact and ask questions such as whether or not Laestadian women have control over their bodies.

A new topic hotly debated in the Finnish press and the blogosphere is child abuse. The Pod.fi (orig in eng) web page published last week a post according to which women's stronger role in the church would not only have prevented child abuse, but also made the handling of the problem more 'efficient'.

Pekka Asikainen's blog post on the other hand brought up Conservative Laestadianism and asked whether the wisdom of women has been forgot in the movement and whether women's stronger role would have prevented abuse. Asikainen's has aroused more general discussion about women's role in the Suomi24-forum.

According to article in Omat polut the Conservative Laestadians have been in center of attention in this abuse scandal. The article states that patriarchal and closed structure of the movement has made the problem worse and is degrading the status of Laestadian women and children.

-Mari

Pedophilia?

The laestadian community in Finland is currently in the midst of a pedophile scandal. A prominent Pietarsaari preacher of the Word of Peace-community allegedly abused more than ten of his grandchildren in the 1970s and 80s. The accused has since passed away and the blame is now laid on the parents, who not only tolerated the abuse of their children but helped to cover it up for decades.

RIL News -- a bilingual Finnish news aggregator advocating a Christian worldview -- is monitoring the story here. Helsingin Sanomat is also following up (in Finnish) by reporting on the fallout of the scandal in Pietarsaari: children turning against their parents and local politicians reporting each other to the police.

What the media is making out of this case is the Roman Catholic sex abuses writ small.

Mika