#14 of 54. Letter from James Coffin, Nov. 30, 2006

“While in the employ of the General Conference we will . . . uphold, in word and conduct, the teachings and principles held and advanced by the Seventh-day Adventist Church.” —Statement of Ethical Foundations for the General Conference and Its Employees.


LETTER

November 30, 2006


Halvard B. Thomsen, Chairman, Editorial Board, Liberty
Eugene Hsu, Consulting Editor, Liberty
Jan Paulsen, Consulting Editor, Liberty
Don Schneider, Consulting Editor, Liberty
John Graz, Consulting Editor, Liberty
Robert Kyte, Office of General Counsel

General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
12501 Old Columbia Pike
Silver Spring, MD 20904-6600

RE: Update on defamatory letters circulated by Lincoln Steed

Gentlemen:

On October 5, 2006, I wrote to you concerning defamatory communications that my brother-in-law, Lincoln Steed, has spread to church employees, both in writing and orally, concerning my sons, my wife and me. As a courtesy, I sent Lincoln a copy of my letter to you so he would know firsthand exactly what I had said. As I noted in my letter to you, I am “merely asking that, in a spirit of Christian brotherhood, you use your influence and relationship to Lincoln to bring a halt to what’s going on. I’m asking that you seek to help him understand the impropriety of what he’s doing and urge him to cease such actions, to not re-engage in them and to undo, to the degree possible, what has been done already.”

I fully appreciate how busy your schedules are, and I deeply regret encroaching on your time with a request that should be totally unnecessary. Sadly, it isn’t. Since I haven’t heard from any of you, I’m assuming that at this point time pressures have still prevented your addressing the issue. Thus I’m passing on an update that I trust will help to put the matter into even clearer focus when you do address it.

1. The copy I sent to Lincoln of my letter to you of October 5 was returned, unopened and in a Liberty envelope, as have been other letters Leonie and I have sent to him.

2. I’m assuming that Lincoln subsequently heard via the grapevine about my letter to you—because on October 16 he sent a letter overnight via FedEx to Leonie at home and to me at the church. In his letter (it was the same letter to both of us) he alluded to the involvement of the “brethren.” The tone and style of his letter suggested that it was written primarily for the consumption of people other than us. So I’m assuming that each of you have already received a copy, though Lincoln didn’t indicate such. (Because of his modus operandi, we have no idea who has been sent what letters or told what information. Therefore, I’m enclosing a copy of his overnight letter just to be sure that you receive it.)

3. I mentioned in my letter to you of October 5 that I had requested an attorney to send “a sensitively worded cease-and-desist letter to Lincoln.” It was sent certified mail, and Lincoln refused to accept the letter, sending it back to the attorney unopened.

4. Lincoln contends in his letter of October 16 that his reason for circulating to other church employees his initial letter to me was that he “had hoped to impress on [Leonie and me] the need to reconcile with Mom before she dies.” I would make three observations:

(A) Lincoln said nothing about reconciliation being his reason for writing, either in his letter to me or in his cover letter to the other recipients (I sent you copies with my letter of October 5).

(B) The tone of his letters certainly isn’t what I would expect of letters designed to bring about reconciliation and healing.

(C) More telling, however, at the time of his father’s death, Lincoln clearly stated in the hearing of family members and his parents’ pastor that he was going to circulate letters “to make Jim’s life miserable.” He likewise stated in the presence of listeners that he wished he knew more people in Florida to whom to write so he could create even greater difficulty for me. The spin Lincoln is now trying to put on his actions doesn’t comport with his earlier, openly stated objectives. I fully understand why he would now want to distance himself from his actions. But to do so, he has to ignore or deny his own words.

5. For more than 20 years, Lincoln has accused me–to whomever he chooses–of having done something I didn’t do. And he persists in this despite both verbal and written explanations of what actually happened. As a result of his ongoing accusations, I repeatedly have had to set the record straight when I’ve interacted with employees at the church’s publishing houses or headquarters. But up to this point the slander has been done in conversations with people with whom he has been interacting already.

Following his father’s death, he raised his attack to a new level, circulating material to people who were total strangers to him. For more than twenty years I’ve essentially turned a blind eye to his false accusations. But when he writes to people who might some day consider my children for employment, declaring my sons to be guilty of “a systemic inhumanity . . . that defies all norms of Christianity and human decency”–without ever having even once spoken to my sons about his concerns–he has more than crossed the line. What he does to me is one thing. What he does to my wife and sons is quite another. His campaign of defamation must stop. I will no longer take it passively as I’ve done for years.

The fact that Lincoln and I represent the same family unquestionably adds to the magnitude of this tragedy. And it also can skew the perceptions of onlookers. But our family relationship shouldn’t be allowed to cloud the real issue. The real issue is that a General Conference/North American Division employee has undertaken a deliberate campaign to defame another church employee and his family before an audience of other church employees. And I’m appealing to you, as Christian leaders, to take the steps necessary to ensure that the defamer clearly understands that such behavior is unacceptable (now or ever), and to impress upon him that, to the degree possible, what has been done must be undone. Further, as the defamed, I deserve to be notified that a clear message to that effect has been delivered to the defamer. Lincoln is free to think about my wife, my sons and me as he chooses. But it’s reasonable for those in authority to ask an employee not to use the broader venue of the church to engage in defamation.

As I said in my letter to you of October 5, “Although I have no interest in airing dirty family linen, I’m more than willing to answer any questions raised in your minds because of Lincoln’s portrayals of me—be they past, present or future. I’m a player in a saga that’s about as sad as I can imagine. But I have nothing to hide.” Unfortunately, I must urge you not to take at face value Lincoln’s spin-doctoring. . . .

I look forward to hearing from you, and I thank you in anticipation for your help.Sincerely,


James Coffin
[Address provided]
Cell phone: ______________

Copies:
Mike Cauley, President, Florida Conference
Lincoln E. Steed

Enclosures:
Lincoln Steed letter

[Your comments can be sent to me via email at justicedenied.jamescoffin@gmail.com. My time availability may limit how much I can engage in personal dialogue with any who comment. Comments sent to me will be posted at my discretion. All comments become the property of James Coffin and may be posted on this blog or used in other media forms, in full or in part.]

Copyright © 2008 James Coffin