Me and the "Mississippi Sissy"

Yeah.

"...go naked with him." Alarm bells! May God bless and heal Sessums.

Relax, it's not. I know what the mechanics of salvation are. I guess I was more interested in how we men evaluate the legacy of a man like this. God knows the state of his soul, and how sincere his repentance was, if indeed he did repent. What I'm saying is that if I were God, I would find it hard to forgive this man. Thank God I'm not God.

"How is it to be weighed against the serious evil he did in Kevin's life? Is there ever enough good that a man can do to compensate for killing a child's soul like that? Are there other boys that he preyed on, trading on his reputation as a respected servant of the Lord to pry them away from their parents, and into his bed?"

Rod,

To answer your question--no. Only true remorse and God's mercy can ever salvage this man.

Perhaps this is just the "wanna be" lawyer and prosecutor intern talking, but I really scrutinize high profile religious figures, and it sounds like his sexual deviancy was probably caught up and tainted his motivations for being a minister and indeed his entire view of life.

I think individuals who pawn themselves off to be highly charismatic (in the generic sense) leaders and who develop a sort of cult following sometimes are hiding something (Fr. Maciel comes to mind). To be clear, I think that pastors/priests should be respected as spiritual leaders and I can certainly trust them more than your average person. Nonetheless, a healthy dose of skepticism and common sense should be used when sizing people up, including religious leaders. For a moment, take a person out of the context of a someone in your particular faith community and out of the leadership position--ask yourself, is there something off about this individual? If this is done (by parents and bishops/elders)--I think that a lot of abuse can be prevented. Any grown man who wants to go on a trip with a young boy (and I realize this was a more innocent time) should register about a 10 on your wierd s*(% o meter.

Kate Marie, I love me some Lyle Lovett. So yes, you got it.

I agree with you on Ivan K. Let me say why.

When I was in fourth grade, a new kid moved into our town. He was hyperactive. He talked funny (he was a YANKEE!). He was hard to like. I made it my business to gang up on him with the other boys in my class and to make his life miserable. When my dad found out what I'd been up to, he chastised me harshly. Made me apologize to the kid. Made me cry. He did the right thing.

I've wondered from time to time over the years whatever happened to that kid, Johnny. His family moved away after that year. Does he even remember how I treated him? How did it affect him?

Another story: I once dated a woman for only about six weeks. It wasn't working out, and I broke up with her. She was devastated, and because I was unnerved by the depth of her emotion, I tried to do the stupid guy thing, and put her down to my friends. Word got back to her. I found out later that she was terribly hurt by me. I couldn't work up the courage to apologize to her before I moved, and then she moved. I don't know where she is. I heard she got married a while back. I think about her every now and then, and feel ashamed of my casual cruelty.

These are small things compared to something like molestation. But I have no way of knowing how big was the damage of my cruelty in the lives of these other people. I may require far more mercy from God than I can even fathom. It sounds crazy, but if I am to be forgiven, I have to be able to count on a God who can forgive even Hitler, if he repented.

To be clear, I think that pastors/priests should be respected as spiritual leaders and I can certainly trust them more than your average person.

Why? Can you trust them more than your average person?

Ivan Karamazov..."if my ticket of admission to paradise is accepting that people like Dr. Gallman will be forgiven by God and embraced by his victims, I must respectfully return my ticket."

Wow. I've never read Karamazov, but I don't think I've seen anything so terrible in my life. Every man is a sinner; Karamazov would desire to destroy hope itself with a wholesale rejection of everything Jesus stands for: forgive us our sins, as we fogive those who trespass against us. Karamozov would condemn us all to hell.

I much prefer St. Faustina: All of the sins that have ever been or ever will be committed are no more than a grain of sand in the ocean of God's mercy.

"To be clear, I think that pastors/priests should be respected as spiritual leaders and I can certainly trust them more than your average person."

And that is why it is all the more egregious when that particular trust of that respected person ends up as betrayal.

Maybe it is too late to write in this thread, but...
I would like to second my namesake Marie that B.Karamazovs is one of the greatest novels ever written.
M_David, please, don't put off reading it, it is very very interesting!
Just read several chapters and you see. Don't start from great Inquisitor. Better to start from Book VI-The russian Monk. Or book X- 'The boys' + chapte3 3 from the Epilogue, it goes well as separate stories. (warning: don't read it to children, it will make them weep for the boy)

As for the Legend about the Great Inquisitor, imho it is better to read it together with 2 previous chapters ('Brothers make friends' and 'Rebellion')(Larissa Volokhonsky seems to be a trustworthy translator of russian classics, don't know about the others)

Andrew Gallman was my pastor in Meridian, MS when I was in high school. He gave me much personal encouragement in my faith and was a pivotal influence in my journey towards Christ. He mentored a handful of youths in my church who went on to become ordained ministers. I could name them... they still serve productively. There was never a hint of impropiety in Dr. Gallman's conduct towards me or any of the men above. I attended Dr. Gallman's funeral. When the presiding minister asked anyone to stand who had entered the ministry because of Andrew Gallman's influence, an unbelievable number rose throughout the huge sanctuary.

You are right. Dr. Gallman is dead and cannot defend himself against the popular trend of pinning one's personal perversion on a religious leader and therefore on the Church. Dr. Gallman cannot defend himself from lies, but those whose lives he touched can and should.

I am heartbroken for both Kevin, because he was victimized; and I am heartbroken for Dr. Gallman, who obviously repressed his homosexual orientation because of the day and age, as well as conservative religious paradigm, in which he grew up and lived. This situation is also an indictment upon religious belief systems which, like the medieval Catholic Church, refuse to believe the world is flat even in the light of incontestable scientific proof.

I have to say that upon reading Kevin's writings over the past two years, I have had mixed feelings in seeing the need to have specifically exposed Dr. Gallman, seeing that his children are still living and that they are decent Christian leaders. Perhaps this is a case of TMI. Why should the Gallman family be hurt and harrassed by public information about a situation they could not control, especially in the light of Dr. Gallman's posthumous status?

I know for a fact that many, many people were spiritually edified, transformed and physically healed under Andrew Gallman's ministry. I also know that he had an enormous love for God and was a Southern gentleman who was genteel and charming. It is my understanding that Dr. Gallman lost his father at an early age and was raised by his mother. Who is to say that he himself was not victimized sexually by older men in his early formative years. We all know today that children who are violated very frequently grow up to commit the same abuses that they have suffered. It is a devastating thing.

It is certain that Dr. Gallman, similar to individuals like evangelical leader, Ted Haggard and even prominent political leaders such as the former governor of New Jersey, find themselves in enormous inner conflict with a secret sexual orientation that, if it were known, would destroy their personal and professional lives. THIS DOES NOT EXCUSE or endorse their acting out their personal demons in illicit and twisted ways. It is also not necessarily an indicator that Dr. Gallman was a homosexual, but that he was a sexual offender, which is different.

This is nothing isolated. Look at the past decade and the heinous exposure of priest abuse in the Roman Catholic Church! Forced celebacy (which is not even remotely Biblical) has resulted in the aberrations which have only in the last decade been made public. To emasculate or, in a truer sense, mutilate a person's sexuality in order for that person to serve a higher cause, in this case, Christ, indicates a perversion of truth which unfortunately, the Roman Catholic Church will deny until the cows come home.

Kevin Sessums has been a victim, and has a journey of recovery and healing to complete that hopefully will help others with similar stories. As long as Kevin does not fixate on his bitterness and anger but will move on to forgiveness and healing, he will be a whole human being. It would be useless for him to have exposed Andrew Gallman in this way if Mr. Sessums does not bring redemption to others.