BREAKING NEWS: Bishop Susan Goff Defends Clergy Perjury in Court

Friends,

Just when I thought things couldn’t sink any lower, Bishop Susan Goff and the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia proved me wrong.

Earlier today, I received a copy of their demurrer (a legal filing seeking dismissal of my case) in my lawsuit against my former church, the bishop and the diocese. In it, they claim that I have not alleged facts sufficient to support a claim of abuse of process.

Come again?

Bob Malm lies repeatedly in the proceedings, including committing perjury, in writing, while advised by a church attorney. And throughout the proceedings, time after time Bob Malm makes clear that what he really wants is to force me to be silent.

If that’s not abuse of process, what is?

And why on earth would any church with a claim to ethical integrity try to defend a priest who commits perjury? Doing so all but guarantees that anyone who takes these issues seriously is going to avoid The Episcopal Church. If you can’t even trust your priest not to commit perjury, who can you trust? Would you really want to discuss personal matters with a priest who lies under oath and tries to drag a dying woman into court?

Nor is Grace Episcopal any better. In fact, the parish named part of the building after Bob Malm. And yet in conversations with a parishioner this weekend, she tried to tell me that I should let it go. After all, Bob Malm’s gone.

The Episcopal Church truly is morally bankrupt when it is willing to go to court to defend a perjuring priest.

And for the record, yes, I understand that this claim would be defamation were it not true. Sadly enough, it is true, and readily provable.

Small wonder that The Episcopal Church is lurching towards collapse, with recent statistics showing that there will be no Sunday attendance in just 30 years. 

Read the church’s entire pleading here.