Even as the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia and Bishop Susan “No Charges, No Foul” Goff continue to insist that they will only address clergy misconduct if criminal charges are brought, my petition demanding an independent investigation and meaningful results based on that investigation continues to motor along.
As of a few minutes ago, we passed the 18,000 signatures mark, and we continue to garner signatures as we move to 20,000 signatures and beyond.
Awareness on change.org is particularly important due to the underlying demographics. With a total of more than 50 million users, the majority of whom are in the 35-44 age cohort, animal rights, human rights (including BLM and LGBTQIA+), and general social justice issues loom large for users. Thus, there is a strong alignment with the values that The Episcopal Church allegedly espouses.
As a result, the diocese’s continued defense of perjury and other misconduct by Bob Malm is fast undercutting its reputation with future generations. That is appropriate, for any church that can say with a straight face that it will only deal with criminal conduct if there are criminal charges is a church only in name. But Susan Goff and the other fat cats at Mayo House are determined to ride the TEC gravy train off into retirement, secure in their generous retirement plan, and utterly indifferent to the effect that their conduct is having on those they falsely claim to care about.
To think that when I started my petition I was hoping to get maybe 300 signatures.