#17 of 54. Letter from James Coffin, Jan. 18, 2007

“To whom should a church employee turn for help when another employee has undertaken a deliberate campaign to defame and discredit him and his family and place his career in jeopardy?” —James Coffin, in a letter dated January 18, 2007.


LETTER

January 18, 2007


Pastor Halvard B. Thomsen, Chair
Liberty Editorial Board
Seventh-day Adventist Church Headquarters
12501 Old Columbia Pike
Silver Spring , MD 20904-6600

RE: More on defamatory letters circulated by Lincoln Steed

Dear Pastor Thomsen,

Thank you for your letter of December 4. I appreciate your taking time to reply, and I apologize that your time has had to be spent on a matter that should never have arisen in the first place. But, unfortunately, it has arisen. Therefore my time and energy—as well as yours—have been swept into this vortex, much as we both might wish otherwise.

You note that it’s not your intent “to intrude into such private matters or to cast judgments.” I agree wholeheartedly that private matters should be dealt with privately. However, Lincoln chose to take a private matter to the public—to a segment of the church public (how large a segment we still don’t know, because he hasn’t had the courtesy to tell us).

As I said to you in my initial letter: “I’m not asking you to heal the wounds within the Steed family. Or even to pass judgment on degrees of guilt and innocence. I’m 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” (italics not in my original letter).

I appreciate the fact that you spoke with Lincoln concerning those areas where your interests and mine intersect. Your interests relate to your position as one of the church leaders who oversees Lincoln. You recognize that you, the church and Liberty magazine can be significantly impacted by the repercussions of his actions. My interests relate to the fact that he engaged in a deliberate campaign to defame my sons, my wife and me. So while I appreciate your willingness to look out for my interests when they parallel yours, I must politely but candidly suggest that you dropped the ball when only we stood to benefit—and I speak here of my request for you to help Lincoln understand the need “to undo, to the degree possible, what has been done already.” Simply telling him not to do it again isn’t the same as exerting pressure for him to make right the wrong he has committed.

In neither of my letters did I ask you to unravel the convolutions of Lincoln’s animosity toward me. But an onlooker can make some judgments without knowing every twist and turn of a conflict. Some actions are inappropriate categorically. You don’t have to know the prior history. Some actions are wrong even if in the events leading up to them the person was completely in the right. So one doesn’t always have to start at Point A to pass some judgments.

I would think that the very flamboyance of the language Lincoln used in the letters he sent to my colleagues would give you pause as an administrator. I would think it wouldn’t be too complicated to recognize that Lincoln acted inappropriately when, without having spoken even one word to my sons about his concerns about them, he sent out letters declaring them to be guilty of a “systemic inhumanity . . . that defies all norms of Christianity and human decency.” Not to mention that he said equally damning things about my wife and me.

I ask you, Pastor Thomsen, how would you feel if a fellow church employee sent out letters—to people who were total strangers to him—describing your children in the foregoing terms (assuming you have children)? Would you not feel strongly that such action is inappropriate? Would you not feel that some form of retraction was in order? (In fact, what kind of parent would you be if you didn’t feel that way?) Would you not feel that it’s no longer a private matter when it has been taken to the public? Would you not expect church leaders, even if only superficially aware of the facts, to be willing to put pressure on the perpetrator to take steps to undo the damage caused by such a lapse in Christian/ethical behavior?

How would you recommend that I explain to my wife, my sons and my fellow employees in our church office (at least one of whom received Lincoln’s letters) that as Lincoln’s employers in a Christian organization you don’t want to become involved because it’s a “private” matter? Really? Private? When out of the blue they received defamatory letters from Lincoln? What would it take for something to become a public matter?

And where does the Golden Rule come into play? How would you want to be treated if the tables were turned? Or do you believe that Lincoln’s actions were honorable? Keep in mind, I’m not asking you to take punitive measures against Lincoln. I’m merely asking you, as a group of church leaders who oversee Lincoln’s work, and as Christian brothers, to use your influence to encourage Lincoln to take the steps that alone could help to undo the impact of his unfortunate actions, which are both illegal and unethical.

I must repeat that I have great difficulty understanding the basis on which you categorize Lincoln’s actions as a private matter. If because of a disagreement I have with you I publish and distribute a book designed to destroy your credibility as a minister, is it still a private matter? . . . If in my book I describe your behavior as “insupportably unchristian, inhuman, and improper for anyone connected with pastoral ministry,” is that a private matter? Would you expect church administrators to whom you turn for help to say, “Oh, that’s just a private matter between the two of you”? Certainly, it may have started out that way. But when an issue is deliberately taken to a broader forum, it’s no longer private—whether delivered in the form of a broadcast, a voice recording, a book, letters or direct conversations.

Let me ask: If this matter is outside your domain as a church administrator, whose domain is in it? To whom should a church employee turn for help when another employee has undertaken a deliberate campaign to defame and discredit him and his family and place his career in jeopardy? I think the Bible is pretty clear.

In bringing this matter to you, I’ve followed the procedures outlined in Matthew 18. I fully understand why you would desperately like to have it ruled outside your jurisdiction on the technicality that it’s a private matter. But it ceased to be private when Lincoln chose to take it public. Some moral obligations on leaders are inescapable, however uncomfortable they may be.

The Bible says: “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!” (1 Corinthians 6:2, 3.) If you feel you can’t put any pressure on Lincoln because you don’t know the whole story, then, as I stated in my initial letter to you, I’m certainly willing to have you probe the whole story. I have nothing whatsoever to hide. But I believe that one doesn’t need to know the whole story to recognize the impropriety of Lincoln’s actions.

I thank you for having spoken to Lincoln, “asking him not to involve the Church in these matters or by his writing to imply any connection of his personal family matters with those of Liberty magazine.” And I’m glad that he “has indicated a positive response” to your requests—as far as those requests went. Your interests have been well covered. But ours haven’t.

So I now ask you again to put pressure on Lincoln “to undo, to the degree possible, what has been done already”—in other words, for him to send a letter to all recipients of both his written and oral defamatory comments, acknowledging the impropriety of his actions. It’s neither an unreasonable nor an inappropriate request. And I look forward to confirmation from you that, in the same way you addressed the first part of my request, you have addressed this part as well.

I wish you God’s richest blessing in your ministry. And, again, I apologize that your time is being taken up by this most unfortunate matter.

Sincerely,


James Coffin

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

Copyright © 2008 James Coffin