Letter From Current Pastor Thomas Bish of Mark's Former Church Oct 19. 2012 | Comments (14)
Dear Brother xxxxxxxI am deeply grieved with the situation you are currently dealing with concerning Mark Chappell. I have only been the pastor here since 1998. As I mentioned to the other man from your church, I have had the sad duty to counsel with two of the teen girls, who are now grown and married, who were affected by the abuse. As of 5 years ago, the one lady was still cutting her arms with a razor as a result of the deeper wounds the abuse inflicted upon her. The former pastor was a close friend of Mark's father. It appears that in an effort to be kind to his friend, they decided to hush up the matter rather than deal with it properly. I am not even sure what the legal requirements were in 1989. Sadly, I inherited the mess that the former pastor left behind in his wake as he too had some issues with a secretary. Most of the people from that era are gone. As far as I can ascertain, the church in general was kept in the dark about the extent of the abuse and were told to...