As #CaringWell Ends The Wondering Eagle is Calling for an Independent Investigation into McLean Bible. Regarding Scott Woods, Why Did David Platt’s Church Cover-up an Alleged Predator Who Groomed Teenagers for Planned Sexual Abuse?

As the Caring Well conference comes to a close in Dallas, Texas The Wondering Eagle obtains more information about how McLean Bible badly mishandled an alleged predator in The Rock Ministries. The information obtained deals with who knew about the situation and how it was kept from the staff at the church. This blog would like McLean Bible to be subjected to an independent, secular, and comprehensive investigation about not only the Scott Woods incident but their policies and procedures on sexual crimes.

“The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy should be the weapon of openness.”

Niels Bohr

“For Southern Baptists to have a future, we must confront our failure to own our own sins,” he said. He later added: “The question before us is not what will be the future of Southern Baptists because of abuse; the question is, will there be a future for Southern Baptists at all if we don’t get this right.”

Philip Bettencourt at the Religious News Service 

Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal.

Isaiah 26:4 NIV 

There is more information about the Scott Woods situation at McLean Bible. Scott Woods was an adult volunteer in the Rock Ministries who groomed several teenagers for planned sexual abuse when they turned 18. 

 

#CaringWell Takes Place

The Southern Baptist Convention held their #CaringWell Conference in Dallas, Texas. The event was organized by the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission who on the second and third days they allowed victims of sexual abuse to speak. Rachael Denhollander discussed being abused at age 7 inside a church. Boz Tchividjian spoke about the issues in regards to the autonomous nature of the Southern Baptists. “A system that claims to have little authority against abusive churches and pastors I think would undoubtedly find such authority if an SBC church ordained a woman or a gay man,” he said. Some believed that the event was more talk than substance and that it lacked legitimacy. If you would like to read more you can do so in the following articles. 

1. Religious News Service, “At Caring Well conference, SBC leaders hear criticism of abuse response.” 
2. Baptist Press, “‘Caring Well’: Sex abuse ‘a Gospel issue,’ Greear says.”
3. Baptist News Global, “Caring well? Expert berates Southern Baptists for ignoring sexual abuse.” 
4. Houston Chronicle, “Abuse survivors urge Southern Baptists to listen, then act.” 

 

The Wondering Eagle Obtains More Information About the Scott Woods Situation

This blog broke the story about Scott Woods. Scott Woods was an adult male volunteer in his mid 30’s who groomed teenagers inside the Rock Ministry for planned sexual abuse when they turned 18. You can read about it in, “How David Platt Never Learned From the Mark Aderholt Situation. The Disturbing Story of how McLean Bible Mishandled Scott Woods, an Alleged Predator in The Rock Ministries.” One of the questions that must be asked about the situation is who knew about Scott Woods? According to recent information obtained it appears those who knew about what happened in The Rock Ministries included the Rock staff, senior leadership of McLean Bible and security. It is not known at this time if other campuses knew about Scott Woods. Scott actually was involved in the Tysons and allegedly attended Loudoun as well. While it can be assumed that The Rock staff at other campuses knew this blog would like to get that information verified. But it can also be said that staff at McLean Bible at Tysons didn’t know what happened in the Rock. The information was tightly controlled. Staff that left McLean thought that Scott Woods had an affair and that is why he left. They don’t know that he allegedly groomed teenagers for planned sexual abuse. 

 

The Wondering Eagle is Calling for an Independent Investigation into McLean Bible 

The more I dig into the Scott Woods situation the more troubling it becomes. This blog is paying attention to David Platt and if he says anything about Caring Well. If he does speak about sexual abuse and continues to stay silent on what happened under his own roof at McLean Bible that will just confirm how the Southern Baptist Convention does not take sexual abuse seriously. This blog is especially interested in the elder board of McLean Bible and what they know and how they reacted. What did Elder Larry Cooper know? This blog knows for a fact that Larry Cooper lied at a town hall about McLean Bible joining the Southern Baptists. You can read about that in, “According to Christianity Today McLean Bible Joined the Southern Baptist Convention in 2016; If True Why did Elder Larry Cooper Lie Before the September 21, 2017 Town Hall Meeting?” 

This blog is most disturbed by how this situation was handled. McLean Bible put people at risk both within the church and within the community. By not going immediately to Fairfax Police McLean Bible in my view contributed to the statue of limitations expiring. McLean Bible should have been transparent about this situation from he very beginning and they have not. This blog understands that sexual abuse will happen in society, the key is how does an organization respond to it? And in this area McLean Bible failed. 

This blog is calling for an independent investigation of McLean Bible. Due to how McLean Bible covered up the Scott Woods situation this blog would like an outside, secular third party that has no ties to the church to investigate this situation. A report needs to be generated and it needs to be sent to all staff and those who are members and attenders. That is what will put an end to situations like this. By not properly addressing this McLean Bible also wounded and hurt family and those who trusted their children to their care. Going forward David Platt’s new book and talk about sex crimes in Nepal is pointless if David Platt is going to tolerate alleged sex crimes within his own church that he claims to pastor.