PLEASE NOTE: The original file for
      5/7 WOUNDED HEARTS: SBU "Questions" Part 1 (Section A-4)
arrived truncated and somewhat corrupted.

      For now, here is the somewhat shortened version.
This Section will be corrected and reposted shortly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
5/7 WOUNDED HEARTS: SBU "Questions" Part 1 (Section A-4)

The Southwest Baptist University (SBU)
"QUESTIONS OF THE HEART" PETITION

Part 1: The Role of the Law at a Christian University
~The Government, the Church, and the Law~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Section A: ~Southwest Baptist University and The Law~
                           
*A-4* Definition of Terms -- Predatory Harassment,
                Sexual Harassment, and Defamation
           Questions 8 (remainder of q - t), 9 and 10
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                            ~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~                        
                           >>>>WARNING<<<<
These sections
      (Part 1, Sections A-2, A-3, and A-4)  
contain references to harassment, sexual harassment
and assault, and emotionally and psychologically
abusive situations.
Therefore, these sections are NOT appropriate for
children and may be disturbing to some sensitive
adults.
Although every effort has been made to refrain
from graphic detail or description, discretion is
nonetheless advised.
                     >>>>WARNING<<<<
                           ~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Question 8 (22 parts a - v; q - t below)
8. In your opinion, would participation or complicity
in any of the following actions (described in a - u)
by SBU administrators, faculty, staff, or associates
CONSTITUTE unethical or illegal PREDATORY
HARASSMENT, SEXUAL HARASSMENT, or
DEFAMATION of a student?
       
q) The ABUSE of ADMINISTRATIVE AUTHORITY
to engage in retaliatory slander and misinformation
for the purpose of DISRUPTING a student's CHURCH
and SPIRITUAL LIFE and preventing the student's
pursuit of a career in the Christian ministry.
Yes/No

[NOTE: Several of the administrators who had
been harassing the student were deacons, Sunday
school leaders and members of a Bolivar Baptist
church, where the student was also a member.

        As their harassment became more pronounced,
the student quit attending the church services,
endeavoring to avoid further derogatory remarks
from the church leadership and members.

        In search of an alternative church fellowship,
she began to speak with the pastor of a small local
church, who claimed that he could help her rebuild
her relationship with her parents and assist in her
health problems by the "laying on of hands."

        At first, this pastor seemed to be genuinely
concerned for the student as a person, but within
a couple of months, the pastor, having been told of
the student's supposed "morality problems," began
making unmistakably crass and persistent sexual
advances.

        When the student confided to a faculty member
about this, she was told that she was "imagining
things," and then "lying."

        She was reprimanded for speaking ill of a pastor
and the authority of the church.

        The student withdrew from the church
fellowship, seeking solace in quiet study, prayer,
and reflection.

        Her lack of "church fellowship" was viewed
as visible proof of her moral decay and refusal to
submit to church authority.

        (The married pastor later admitted in sworn
court documents that during the same time that he
had made the advances to the student, he was
involved in a number of adulterous affairs.)

        Each time the student strove to make new
friends or obtain a new job, the administration's
rumors and slanderous comments were launched
against her within days.

        Each time she sought to join the fellowship
of a new church, administrators or others called or
spoke to members of the new church and accused her
of a fresh round of "suspicious" activities, and
intimated that she was not a "decent" Christian.

        In frustration, she wrote a letter notifying
the church of the "complete withdrawal from the
membership" of the church and stating that there
was no need to forward her "church letter" to
another church because she did not ever plan
to join any other "Christian organization."

        (A church letter is a letter sent by a previous
church stating that a member is in "good standing"
and qualified to join another church fellowship.)

        By this, the student hoped that, though
she could not join a church, she could at least
fellowship inconspicuously as a nameless participant
in a church without being traced and slandered by
the SBU administration.

        Within a few years, three administrators
connected with the vulgar accusations and harassment
against the student -- all deacons and leaders at
the local Baptist church -- were dismissed from SBU.

        One was dismissed for sexual misconduct and
possibly incest, one for "personal indiscretions,"
and another for participation in a scheme to send
menacing anonymous faxes to potential SBU presidential
candidates, sending falsified faxes to the media,
and providing family members and associates with
financial "allowances" and favors.

        Upon hearing this, the student sent a letter
to the new pastor at the same Baptist church asking
that her membership be restored.

        The pastor, after consulting his deacons, most
of whom were SBU employees, denied her church
membership.]

r) The ABUSE of ADMINISTRATIVE AUTHORITY by the
deliberate retaliatory PSYCHOLOGICAL and EMOTIONAL
ABUSE of a distraught SBU student by the recommendation
that the student should commit SUICIDE rather than attempt
to explain her innocence involving numerous FALSE
ACCUSATIONS that the SBU administration and others
had made against the student to her parents, friends,
professors, employers, and others.
Yes/No

[NOTE: Thoroughly distraught and emotionally
drained from her encounter with her parents and the
continual battles against the administration, the
student's despondency began to disrupt her studies.

        She was summoned by an administrator, who,
barely concealing his delight, began to bait the
student with taunts that she would not be able to
clear her name, either with her family, friends,
SBU officials, or others.

        He elaborated how this would keep influencing
her ability to advance in a professional career,
have friends, form relationships, and have a family.

        He asked if she had ever considered suicide.

        When she didn't answer him initially, he proceeded
to graphically detail some methods which students
had used to attempt suicide, describing the advantages
of each method.

        When she still remained silent, he spoke to
her in a gentle, sympathetic tone, saying, "You know
God would understand. He knows the pain, He knows
how it hurts. If you did end it, you wouldn't ever
have to explain anything to anyone again. It would
all be over."

        Sitting quietly, the student did not reply,
but his damage was clearly done.

        For the first time in her life, suicide seemed like
an option.

        Initially, it seemed like a distant alternative,
but as time progressed, and there seemed less and less
possibility of her ever regaining the favor of her
family, she drifted more swiftly towards that option.

        The student, without the anchor of her family
and church, without the love and companionship of her
friends, wandered closer towards ending her own life.

        She could not control or correct the lies and
the harassment, but she could control this.

        There was power in this ... she had a choice.

        She had no choice in what was happening to her;
there was no way to make it stop.

        Maybe the administrator was right, maybe this
was the ... only way ... to make it stop.

        In her childishness, it seemed almost like a "game."

        She perched on the end of life and played --
like she and her Colorado friends used to play on
the rim of a cliff, looking over the edge to watch the
stones tumble to the bottom, and then giggling,
scrambled back to solid ground.

        How close could she get without losing her
nerve and retreating? What was really down there at
the bottom of the ravine?

        Was the administrator right, would God understand?

        As usual, she investigated in the library.

        What happened after you die, she wondered.

            Would it really be better?
            Would there be no more pain?
            Do you really go to Heaven when you die or
             do you just die and cease to feel or to be anything?
            What is a soul?  Does a soul live forever?
            Would it hurt to die?

            There were few answers in the library.

        She discussed these thoughts with a professor,
who, recognizing the student's "game," jarred her back
from her childish fantasy.

        "You are too young to understand," her professor
had told her, "that death is permanent.  You do not get
to wake up the next morning and start over."

        Her professor described how she had nursed her
husband while he was dying of cancer. "Death is very
real," she warned, "and very permanent."

        When the student still persisted with questions,
the professor asked her one, "Is suicide moral?"

        The student did not know? Was it? If murder
was wrong and immoral, how could suicide be moral?
Suicide, the student decided, was self-murder.

        Bringing the student back to reality, the professor
closed her argument by adding that the student's family
would be devastated.

        The administrator, the professor added, would
relish notifying the student's parents of her death,
telling them that she had committed suicide because
she had "homosexual tendencies," was into drugs, or
couldn't handle the guilt of an abortion.

        "That's completely untrue and unjust!" the student
answered.

        "Exactly, that's why, even though this is unfair, you
have to stay around to prove it," her professor replied,
"otherwise he would just make up make more lies.
Suicide is not the answer."

        Though the wounds remained fresh for some time,
the student no longer considered suicide as an option.

        Though this professor and others were aware
of the administrator's conduct in these matters, he was
not reprimanded, censured, or dismissed.

        For months, the administrator's words persisted,
haunting and tempting the student.

        But when the student drew too close to the
edge, she CHOSE to look off into the distant beauty
of the mountains -- not into the bottom of the ravine.]

s) The ABUSE of ADMINISTRATIVE AUTHORITY to
engage in retaliatory slander by propagating false accusations
based on the MISINTERPRETATION of the student's studies
and STUDY NOTES by claiming that the student was not
actually engaged in research, but was involved in the
"OCCULT," Satanism, and witchcraft, and should be
denied church fellowship and the opportunity to
complete a degree program at a Christian university.
Yes/No              

[NOTE:  As a source of supplemental income, the student,
with the proud encouragement of her father -- who was
a writer and journalist -- began writing some historical
fiction.

        As her relationship with her family had
disintegrated due to the slander and harassment of
the SBU administration, the student took consolation
in her writing, believing that it would win back the
favor of her family -- especially that of her father.

        In her university study, she had particularly
enjoyed the works of Yeats, Milton, and Shakespeare
and, having begun to abandon plans for a career in
the ministry, was considering working toward a
Master's degree in English literature, specializing
in Medieval or Renaissance literature.

        Writing fiction set in this time period;
therefore, seemed to be a natural and logical step,
and she began writing a number of short stories and,
later, her first historical novel -- the tale of a
Christian magician-healer and his quest of hope and
healing during the dark days of the Black Plague.

        For the sake of historical authenticity, the
student had to recreate the atmosphere of the times
and envision the healing methods that the novel's
primary character -- the old physician -- would
have used in the era before prescription drugs,
antibiotics, sterile hospitals, and modern surgery.

        For this reason, she researched and took
extensive notes on the Medieval superstition, folklore,
religious customs and healing arts, including:

   Medieval Christian history, philosophy and prophesy
      (which included remnants of Greek, Roman, Eastern
      and pagan cultures);
   ancient chemistry and alchemy;
   ancient astronomy and astrology,
   and primitive pharmacology and herbal medicine.

        Having heard of these studies, a SBU
administrator declared to her (and others) that she
was studying the "occult" and develving into black
magic, witchcraft, and "satanic worship" and accused
her of cutting up rabbits and sacrificing them on
the alter (the barbecue pit) at the park.

        Further, he announced that her unusual
sensitivity to people's thoughts and her uncanny
ability to discern some future events (which had
been evident since childhood) were proof that she
was marked by Satan from birth and was possessed
by a "spirit of divination."

        Having probably already committed what he
believed was the unpardonable sin, the administrator
contended that she was "demonic," and was probably
already condemned.

        Her condemnation and separation from God,
he argued is what drew her to (what he termed)
these "evil," "cult" and "occult" studies.

        He concluded that such rebellious studies
angered God and were the cause of illness and
demon possession which would cause the death
of the student and her family members.]

t) The ABUSE of ADMINISTRATIVE AUTHORITY
and PASTORAL AUTHORITY to distribute (in violation
of FERPA) a CONFIDENTIAL LETTER sent to a pastor
closely associated with SBU and the circulation of
retaliatory slander based on the deliberate misinterpretation
of that letter.
Yes/No

[NOTE:  Having come from a non-denominational
background with no experience in such the theology
of the "occult," the insinuations of the administrator
concerning her studies and writing disturbed the
student.

        The student questioned several professors,
expecting that they would have a more rational
response, but her professors cited scripture and
seemed to share the administrator's opinions.

        Some authorities even noted that childhood
seizures, such as the kind student believed she
had experience at birth, were a sign of demon
possession. (see NOTE on Question 8, Section A-3,
letter p).

        Finally, she wrote a letter to a respected
Springfield, Missouri pastor associated with SBU.
In what she intended to be her first letter, she asked
for assistance in moving to Springfield -- partly to
escape the repeated onslaught of the administrator.

        In the letter, the student made passing
reference to the moral decline among the SBU staff
and students and to her own confusion and remorse
about the "occult" study she had pursued in order
to complete the historical novel.

        When the ominous response from this pastor
and others seemed to agree with the administrator,
the student burned her study notes and journals,
artwork, songs, over a score of stories, and the novel.

        She fasted and prayed, seeking a reason for
whatever in her nature, her upbringing or her family,
could have caused her to be born demon-oppressed or
possessed.

        She asked forgiveness for whatever she might
have unintentionally done that so angered God that
He would no longer hear her prayers.

        All of this seemed worthless, though, for
the day still came when a friend arrived to tell her
what the student had already known in her spirit
since she had seen him months before -- her father
was dying of cancer.

        In his last days, her father asked her to come
home and read to him from her stories and her
novel but, she no longer had anything to read him.

        Her father died shortly afterwards.

        Several years later, the student returned
to SBU to honor her father's last request to forgive
those who had wronged her and complete her degree.

        However, when a dispute arose between the
student and the administration, SBU associates --
eager to discredit the student -- obtained the
supposedly confidential letter which she had
written to the Springfield pastor several years
before.

        The letter was placed in her permanent
academic records along with a threatening and
denigrating "anonymous" letter *to* an SBU
employee that claimed that the student was a
"con-woman."

        The administration believed that the vague
and misinterpreted references in her letter were
conclusive proof that the student was involved
in occultism and demon-worship, was no longer
a Christian and; therefore, should not be afforded
the fellowship of "decent" Christians, nor permitted
to finish her degree.

        No professor or administrator came to her
defense, though some had inklings of her earlier
struggle.

        She was not given the opportunity to defend
herself.

        *The university has refused to correct her
permanent record concerning these events; therefore,
the student would like the above information to be
included in that record.]

u) The ABUSE of ADMINISTRATIVE AUTHORITY to
distribute FALSE ACCUSATIONS to a SBU instructors
and administrators, and subsequently to friends, that a
student was "promiscuous," "unstable" and "violent"
and, therefore, INELIGIBLE to pursue a CAREER
working with children.
Yes/No
       
[NOTE: Due to size restrictions, the note on this letter
is to be continued in next post ... ]

v) The ABUSE of ADMINISTRATIVE AUTHORITY
to engage in the retaliatory PSYCHOLOGICAL and
EMOTIONAL ABUSE by the demand that a senior
student must submit to FORCED COUNSELING
for FALSELY-SUPPOSED childhood abuse in order
to complete a degree at SBU.
Yes/No

[NOTE: Due to size restrictions, the note on this letter
is to be continued in next post ... ]

Questions 9 and 10 from this group -- as well as the
Notes from Question 8 letters u and v -- were truncated
and corrupted in transmission.  

This Section will be corrected and reposted shortly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Continued in ...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The SBU "QUESTIONS OF THE HEART" PETITION

Part 1: The Role of the Law at a Christian University
~The Government, the Church, and the Law~
Section A: ~Southwest Baptist University and The Law~
              Questions 1-33 (Sections A, B, and C)
                 ....................................................

6/7 WOUNDED HEARTS: SBU "Questions" Part 1 (Section B)
                                      Section B:
   ~The Government and The Law~ (Questions 11-24)
and
7/7 WOUNDED HEARTS: SBU "Questions" Part 1 (Section C)
                                      Section C:
~Ethics, The Church and the Law~ (Questions 25-33)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Proceeded by ...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2/7 WOUNDED HEARTS: Questions Part 1 (Section A)
Section A-1: ~Southwest Baptist University and The Law~
                                 (Questions 1-7)
and
3/7 WOUNDED HEARTS: Questions Part 1 (Section A-2)
*A-2* Definition of Terms -- Predatory Harassment,
Sexual Harassment, and Defamation
                                (Questions 8 a - i)
and
4/7 WOUNDED HEARTS: Questions Part 1 (Section A-3)
*A-3* Definition of Terms -- Predatory Harassment,
Sexual Harassment, and Defamation
                       (Questions 8 remainder of j - p)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~Top of Page~~    ~~Table of Contents~~    ~~Introduction ~~
                           ~~SBU Trustees and Regents~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~