I agree, imagrandpa. The Dennis story does warrant its own thread.
I have been studying into the Dennis / Folkenberg era of the SDA church, and I am convinced that Dennis was attacked, thrown out and defamed for being too effective as a whistleblower, when it was Folkenberg with the shady business dealings. When the brethren finally figured it out, Folkenberg was removed as president of the world church but he is still in charge of "Share Him"! Unbelievable!!
Dennis wrote a book about his story called
Fatal Accounts. It is an eye-opening read, to say the least. The scariest part of his story, in my opinion, is that his legal case INCLUDING THE DEFAMATION CHARGE ultimately found protection under the First Amendment Religion Clauses.
The David Dennis story would probably merit a new thread.
In summary, he was an auditor at the GC.... the church's top auditor.
From what I have read (and now believe), he exposed many financial
misdealings that Folkenberg was involved in. I would think it would be
the job of an auditor in his position to do these things.
Long and short of story --- Folkenberg retailiated against him for
doing his job and cost the man his livelihood.
Dennis sued the church, I believe for slander or wrongful termination.
The church did NOT want the case to proceed to trial and as a result
spent many years of legal maneuvering to keep 12 jurors from hearing
the evidence and then rendering a judgment.
The church spent several millions of dollars of (tithe money) to keep
it out of the courts.
Bottom line... they wore Dennis down and he ran out of money.
I personally knew people that worked with David Dennis and they
all spoke very highly of him.
The problem in our church is that a man like Folkenberg has too much
power. Will his influence and power (to give people jobs and take
them away), he can pretty much do what he wants.
I do not remember all of the details of what the accusations were
against Folkengerg --- but it was NOT just a bunch of smoke
and mirrors..
The shame of it all is how David Dennis was treated and thrown
out like a dirty rag. Although many people in the church knew
and were very aware of the facts.... there were just not enough
of them to make a differnce. When the new president came in
after Folkenberg -- he said he would appoint a "blue ribbon
committee" to seek out the truth and right some wrongs.
Well, as it usually happens in our church... it never happened.
He figured out that there wasn't enough people pushing for
this and he could just pretend the sordid event never happened.
Sortof like Gilley now proclaiming to want to look to the future
now and forget the past about what was done to Linda.
Our church is very competent when it comes to damamge
control and keeping things away from the members. The
church has been moving in the wrong direction for a number
of years... and it makes me sad. I did not join a cult 50
years ago... but this is exactly what it's characteristics are.
It's all about control, control, control.
It starts with the local church and moves right on up !
Remember when the pastor was simply an advisor to
"nominating committees"? Not now... now they are
EXPECTED to be the chairman - rather than an observor
or consultant. This was done in 2000 and the ch.
manual was changed to facilitate this.
I did not join a cult.
Author
Topic: David Dennis and Robert Folkenberg (Read 19477 times)
