Over the last two weeks 26 named individuals have received
an anonymous package in the mail. Inside was a 24 page essay. I am the subject of this composition.
The anonymous writer spends dozens of pages attacking my
truthfulness, motivations, and personal character. He claims to be a proponent of Jack Graham
and the rest of the leadership at Prestonwood Baptist Church. The letters were addressed to a variety of
people: Prestonwood leadership, SNAP leaders, TV and newspaper reporters,
bloggers, and others. He did not send me
a copy, but several of my contacts sent me theirs.
This approach is curious, because if this anonymous writer
had just sent me a copy, I could have posted it for the entire public to read
much sooner. Take a look.
Among his many ramblings, you’ll find an alarming quote on
Page 19: “I am dead serious and committed to exposing Amy Smith’s many
falsehoods and stopping her continued and relentless attacks upon Prestonwood
and Jack Graham.” The combination of
threatening language (“dead serious”, “stopping her”) and creepy anonymity meant
I had to report this to the local police.
They have taken my statement, copies of the letter and envelope, as well
as other collateral materials, and they have begun their investigation. It is a federal crime to threaten someone
using the Post Office, and the authorities assured me they take this seriously.
The writer reveals nothing new, quotes no sources, contacted
no one involved in the matter, and certainly does not reveal his identity. I have received these kinds of threats
before, and heard all of these same lies.
So why am I posting this particular mega-manifesto?
Because this man embodies several emotionally twisted
viewpoints that are shared by the leaders at Prestonwood Baptist Church, as
well as other religious institutions that marginalize the victims of child
sexual abuse. I will go through the entire
document and address his claims, false facts, personal attacks, and ignorant
views. But the overarching problem with
this man, and others like him in church leadership is this:
In twenty-four pages he uses so many negative adjectives to
describe me that I chose to stop counting. “Bogus”, “fact-free”, “obsessed”, “scurrilous”
just to name a few. But he doesn’t write a single
negative thing about confessed , convicted child rapist John Langworthy. Quite the contrary, this writer describes him
as “high-spirited, engaging, and charismatic”.
And when he finally mentions the subject of Langworthy’s five counts of
child sexual abuse, he calls them “indiscretions.”
This is at the core of the problem of religious institutions’
failure to address these crimes: men like him obviously do not see them as
despicable crimes perpetrated against the most innocent in society. These church leaders and their spokespeople
minimize the sickening behavior of these felons. This is a theme that SNAP leaders,
volunteers, and countless survivors immediately recognize, and it is shameful
that churches still ignore it. I have
spent years taking my story public because the leaders at Prestonwood continue
to guide men like this writer to attack people like me.
The writer claims that only one person was sexually abused
by John Langworthy during his tenure at Prestonwood, and that the sexual
contact began after this person’s 17th birthday. The entire twenty-four page document rests on
this single claim. Unfortunately for the
victims, the families, and this anonymous writer, this claim is entirely
false. I have communicated with three male survivors that John Langworthy molested at Prestonwood, and each of them were minors when the crimes were committed, and Langworthy was in a ministerial position of trust over them. This has been confirmed by one of the
victim’s families, as well as my own father, a deeply involved deacon, who
emailed me that one of the victims was 15 years old. One of the victims chose to speak to a Dallas
reporter, and another Prestonwood victim who assisted the Mississippi
prosecutor is listed in the court documents.
One last item before I address this writer directly. His almost endless rant is empty of facts or
sources. He never quotes anyone but me
(and often incorrectly). I can only
conclude that the writer’s “extensive research” did not include any contact
with victims, victim’s families, me, my family, or anyone else except for his
friends in Prestonwood Baptist Church leadership. And the cowardly act of remaining anonymous
means that no legitimate news source could use the material, even if they
wanted to.
Dear Coward,
[Apologies for guessing your name; you didn’t sign the
letter. As my husband often says, “anyone
who makes anonymous attacks on someone else is just a coward”]
I was recently sent several copies of your 24 page letter
regarding…well, me. I gave up after
several minutes of trying to count the number of times you wrote my name. It was harder still to count the number of
critical adjectives describing me, my views, or my friends. And although you chose to not send me a copy,
I feel compelled to share your troubling opinions with the world, and address your
false claim, twisted viewpoint, and ignorant comments.
As a disclaimer, I will not spend my time picking apart each
sentence, though it is tempting and probably necessary to do so. Aside from a handful of random facts (eg,
Prestonwood Baptist Church’s membership rolls), your entire letter is false.
Page 4
This is the first instance where you quote me as saying John
Langworthy molested “dozens” of young boys while at Prestonwood and “hundreds”
of young boys in Mississippi. I would
ask you to include a URL reference, audio file, or photocopy of me saying this,
but you would not be able to. I never
made these specific comments. It seems
you are quoting others who have expressed similar concerns on the allegations
of the cover-up of abuse at Prestonwood.
I did decide in 2010 to let people know the fact that John
Langworthy sexually molested several members of the Prestonwood youth group in
the late 1980s, a fact that turns the stomachs of most people I talk to. Especially in light of the additional fact
that for years he had been employed in teaching children in public schools as
well as leading children’s choirs in a large church in Clinton, Mississippi.
In the years since contacting Morrison Heights Baptist Church, Prestonwood Baptist Church and the Clinton School District, I have personally
communicated with three victims that were minors, underage, from John Langworthy’s Prestonwood employment, when he sexually abused them as he was in a ministerial position of trust over them. As if the testimony of
several victims was not enough, this has been confirmed by several other
sources. First, one of the victim’s
families has told me very clearly that the abuse was when their son was
underage. Second, my father was a deacon
at Prestonwood at the time, and he had intimate knowledge of Prestonwood’s
response to this crime. In fact, he
emailed me stating that several boys came forward to incriminate Langworthy in 1989. Also, he stated that he knew one of the
victims where the abuse started when the victim was 15.
The youth described by your letter has told me that he did
not come forward until several weeks after John Langworthy was fired from
Prestonwood Baptist Church and had already moved back to Mississippi.
Let me also point out that one of the victims chose to speak
to Brett Shipp at WFAA, directly emailing Brett a statement to be read on camera. Also, one of the Prestonwood victims who
helped the Mississippi prosecutor is listed in the court documents as a “child”
at the time he was molested.
Finally, Prestonwood has tacitly admitted to the fact that
John Langworthy’s victims were underage, and that a crime was involved. When asked by investigative reporter Brett
Shipp why they did not report this to the police in 1989, their response was “it was handled.” They could have answered
the question by stating they had no knowledge at the time of any minors being
involved. But they did not. Like most well-lawyered companies, they wrote
a non-answer that was accurate without confessing wrongdoing. And to this day, Jack Graham could easily
preach, speak, tweet, blog, or publicly state that he was unaware of minors
involved in the John Langworthy matter.
But he cannot make this statement.
Because it is not true.
“Even the youth’s own
mother told Smith in 2013 that her son’s relationship with Langworthy had only
been going on for a few months.”
This is not true at all.
She never told me that, and given the obvious fact that you did not
contact the victim’s mother or me, I wonder how you came to write this lie.
“The parents did not
contact the authorities either since they also knew that no crime had
occurred.”
The very nature of this crime often leaves victims and their
families with a false sense of shame, guilt and fear. It is why our society considers these child
predators to be monsters. Not only do
they physically and mentally abuse their victims at the time of the abuse, but
they infect their victims with lies that they can suffer with for a
lifetime. Many wait decades before
speaking about these crimes out loud, and some never do so.
Page 5
Your claim that announcements were made to the school-age
departments. I find your claim disturbing
that the leadership felt it appropriate to walk into a room filled with Junior
High students and tell them that a member of the staff had been fired for “sexual
indiscretions” (your words, not mine).
As a parent, I am horrified by the possibility that “sexual
indiscretions” by a minister would be discussed in front of kids.
Even if your description were true, it would have left out a
crucial message: that if anyone else in the church was harmed by this staff
member, to please report this crime to the police. Studies show that child predators rarely have
a single victim, but instead prey on several children, often at the same
time. If church officials knew of one,
they should have suspected others, and done something about it, first and
foremost by reporting it to the police for a full investigation.
Page 6
“In an attempt to further portray both Langworthy and
Prestonwood in a negative way”
John Langworthy is a convicted and registered child sex
offender, with five court-documented victims who ranged in age from 6 to 13. How in the world could I “further” portray
this monster in a negative way?
Watch John Langworthy's August 7, 2011 Statement at Morrison Heights Baptist Church in Faith & Lifestyle | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
As I mentioned earlier in my blog post, you’ve found
hundreds of ways to insult my character.
And yet you describe a confessed, convicted child predator as: “very
talented, high-spirited, engaging, and charismatic.” I may never understand what drives you to
write such words about this disgusting criminal. Is it your ignorance of how child predators
attract their prey? Is it your extremely
low intelligence? Or is it that you can
commiserate with John Langworthy’s attraction to underage boys?
You claim that my “fishing expedition” came up empty. I did choose to reach out to several men who
were in the youth group during John Langworthy’s child molesting days at
Prestonwood. Three of them told me that
they had been molested by John while at Prestonwood, and that the sexual
contact occurred when they were minors.
Pages 7-8
“her repeated claims that Jack Graham ‘let loose a monster
to molest dozens if not hundreds of young boys’…”
This is not the first example of your inability to research
and/or document. I never said or wrote
those words. Because they are not mine,
I can only speculate that these were comments made by others in response to my
story. I have shared the facts of this
matter, and those facts put your friends at Prestonwood Baptist Church in a
very negative light.
“Both the youth and the youth’s parents…had no issue with
it.”
Either through ignorance, unintelligence, or deceit, you
have the wrong view of the victims of child sexual abuse. These victims, and often their families,
suffer in silence for years and decades after the abuse. This is the rule, not the exception. Stories like Dale Hansen, R.A. Dickey, TeriHatcher and Tyler Perry are just higher profile stories that show how long it
can take for a victim of child sexual abuse to go public with the crime
committed against them. You and your
friends at Prestonwood Baptist confuse silence with consent.
Pages 9-10
“As it turns out, the Mississippi man knew Langworthy in the
early 1980s when he was a young boy and Langworthy was a college student. They were members of the same church in
Jackson and Langworthy had baby-sat on several occasions for the family.”
It was at this point of reading your letter that I started
to wonder if you were John Langworthy himself.
Once I dismissed that idea, I started to wonder if you were also a
serial child molester. You write these
two sentences so casually; your sentences almost have a down-home feeling to them. There’s one problem: that baby-sitting was how
John Langworthy got access to this “young boy” so he could perform repeated,
disgusting, and criminal acts upon him for four years. You mention briefly that this man “alleged”
that John Langworthy “inappropriately touched him.” These are light words for a heinous felony
committed by a man who confessed in court to these exact child sex crimes.
And for reasons I will never comprehend, you completely
leave out the other four victims who came forward in Mississippi. All of them suffered at John Langworthy’s
criminal appetite. Could it be that you
left out these men because one of them was abused when he was six years
old? It might make your friend John
Langworthy look bad if you pointed your readers to the court documents that
detail the criminal sex acts he performed on a six year old boy.
“…and no jail time…”
Your in depth research was either misfiring on this day, or
you are deliberately misleading your audience.
John Langworthy was sentenced to five years’ probation, but he was also
given a 50 year suspended sentence, meaning he did not serve jail time.
Apparently, in your mind, his criminal violation of these
five children is less of a crime because of the statute of limitations issues
brought up by his defense attorney. At
no point did John Langworthy mount a defense of his actions. He simply fought jail time using a
technicality.
“There appears to be no basis for Smith’s repeated claims
that Graham refused to meet with the youth or his parents…”
Except for the fact that they told me so.
And this fits with the description of Jack Graham and other
mega-church pastors. They like to tweet
pictures of themselves with sports stars, politicians, and other celebrity
speakers. But when a member of their
church that is not wealthy or influential in the community tries to visit with
them, they are handled by middle management.
“it was up to them to do so, not Smith.”
If you knew that a person committed a crime, what would you
do? It appears that you would decide
that only the victim has the responsibility to report the crime. I will assume you make these comments out of
low intelligence or pure ignorance, so let me explain why our society has public
reporting laws.
The law requires you to report your knowledge of crimes to
the police. For many crimes, such as
murder and kidnapping, the victim cannot speak for themselves. Other crimes, such as rape, child molesting,
or elder abuse, leave the victims and their families in such a state that often
they choose not to go straight to the authorities. But this does not mean that a crime was not
committed, or that a criminal is not still on the loose. And the rest of us in society want these
criminals in jail because we do not want them to commit any more crimes.
And so, Mr. Coward, it is up to each of us in a free society
to stand up for those who have been harmed, and to be concerned for those who
are in harm’s way.
Pages 11-14
“Based on my findings, Tynes had most likely met Amy Smith a
few weeks earlier when Smith was holding a SNAP protest rally on January 27 in
front of Prestonwood.”
Your findings are foolish.
To my knowledge Tynes was not at that event, and I did not meet him
there. I have never met Chris Tynes face
to face.
As for the rest of your comments on Chris Tynes, I will let
him respond to your rambling comments. I
will state that I do not, nor have I ever, administered the PBCSilentNoMore
Facebook page. And all of the quotes you
list in your letter were written by someone other than me.
Page 16
Your letter begins to address the leaders of Survivor’s Network
of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP. You
claim that you support SNAP’s mission to help those victims of child sex abuse
at the hands of religious leaders. But
there is another layer to SNAP’s mission that you vehemently oppose. We seek to end the culture that exists in
many churches to keep these crimes silent and/or handle them through
self-investigation.
Recently we were looking to attend a church. Before we visited, I found a link to their written
child protection policy. The policy concluded
by telling members to bring any knowledge of child abuse to the attention of
church leaders, where it would be thoroughly investigated, without any mention
of going to the police.
This is simply against the law. At that church, just like Prestonwood, child
abuse should be immediately reported to the police. It is up to law enforcement officials to
investigate claims of child abuse, not a deacon body or pastoral staff.
Pages 17-18
I find it shocking that you claim to know my parents. I also find it very telling that this would
be part of your letter. This has been
the most heartbreaking and difficult part of telling the truth: that my own
mother and father would choose their former church over me.
We spent the better part of a year, long after the story
broke, trying to meet with my parents face-to-face. In a series of phone calls and emails we were
either ignored or told no. My father
insists that I have to apologize to Jack Graham and Neal Jeffrey before he ever
sees me again.
You write “I know that my parents would treat me the same
way if I did what Amy has done no matter how much they love me or my children.” You have really horrible parents. Between your parents and the churches you’ve
attended, you have failed to see what true love really is.
In one of the most bittersweet moments of this traumatic
episode, I had to tell my children that their grandparents had emailed us that
they never wanted to see us again. But
it forced me to tell them outright that I would never do that to them; I would always
love them unconditionally. There is
nothing they can say or do that would ever make me reject them. In fact, as I told them, even if they pushed
me away, I would pursue them. If God, in
all his perfection, could love me in that way, it is the least I can do to love
my children unconditionally.
You urge some of your readers to reach out to my parents to
hear their side of the story; this is one of the few things we agree on. Though they still refuse to speak to me, they
are free to tell their story publicly. Moreover,
I wish you would do the same. You spent
a considerable amount of time writing your letter, but I am unaware of you ever
engaging me directly. My phone number,
email, and website are certainly easy to find.
I invite you to post comments on my blog.
But be warned. I will
ask you to answer some specific questions, and insist that you give clear
answers. My husband’s favorite is, “do
you think that adults who have sexual contact with sixteen year-olds should go
to prison?” I might ask you to explain
your theory of how a serial child predator with at least eight victims by 1989
can move to Clinton and immediately start working at a school without being
tempted to repeat his crimes? I also
might ask you if you think that the mandatory child abuse reporting laws should
be changed, or if we should enforce them?
Finally, thank you for documenting the bizarre and twisted
views that still permeate many churches.
Your letter was uninteresting, uninspiring, and stomach-turning. “Sunlight is the best disinfectant," and “the
light of truth and knowledge is our greatest tool to protect kids.”
Sincerely,
Amy Smith
