Wow, so, listen to this.
November 20th, 2008 | 1,190 wordcountSo I read a horrible story over at Matt Oxleys blog. The post I read this about was called “A friend in need”. Check it out for yourself. I typically trust Matt Oxley because I’ve known him for a few years, so if he’s vouching for the guy in the story I’m about to tell you all then, to me, it’s at least worth looking into rather than just dismissing.
So look into it I did, and on Matt Oxley’s request, I’m making a post about it on my blog.
Anyone who wants to make a post about it on THEIR blog, feel free to.
Now onto the story.
It involves a guy named Dan Silverman (that’s his blog) who was a devout Christian with his wife and kids for quite some time. Then he lost his faith in Christianity, as is his right to do.
The next day after Dan Silverman’s de-conversion, what did his wife do? She didn’t do what a supposedly good Christian person should do and be understanding, while gently trying to nudge their spouse back into it or pray for them. No. What she did was take their children into the basement for a “Bible study”.
When Dan Silverman asked one of his children what they were studying in the basement, the child replied, AND I QUOTE, “Mom was teaching that you are an anti-Christ and under a delusion.”
“Daddy is now an anti-Christ, sweetie.” Can you imagine? That’s traumatizing for children to hear. Who KNOWS what’s going on in the heads of those children now. Fear of their father or worse.
But the story gets WORSE. Dan Silverman’s wife and THE PASTOR OF THE CHURCH THAT DAN SILVERMAN USED TO GO TO AND THAT HIS WIFE GOES TO are both ruining his life.
Dan Silverman was accused of doing something horrible to one of his daughters, and the pastor of the church is backing his crazy wife.
Good job to Dan Silverman’s wife and his ex-pastor for FURTHER pushing him away from the faith they both want him to stay in. If their God exists, he would be so proud, am I right?
Please note that that’s sarcasm.
Here is a link to the church website by the way, also known as Heritage Baptist Church in Vinton, Virginia.
Does anyone else see this mans wife and the pastor as cult-like? Does anyone else see this as small minded?
For those that say “we don’t know this guy and we don’t know if he did anything to his daughter or not” - you make a point. We don’t know this man. HOWEVER.. isn’t it crazy and ONE BIG COINCIDENCE that AFTER he decided he wasn’t Christian anymore his wife claims that he did something to their daughter?
Anyway, I left him a comment on his blog post “Can’t Divorce? Brainwash the Kids!”. It’s labeled that because HIS WIFE won’t divorce HIM because it’s against her religion. So instead she’s going to do everything in her power to keep him away from her and the kids, without an actual divorce.
Here is the comment, along with Dan Silverman’s response:
“Cetta said…
Wow I am so sorry to hear about this. I saw this on Matts Post “A Friend In Need” http://ragingrev.com/2008/11/18/a-friend-in-need/.
I’m not Christian but I was at one point, and I’ll be honest I’ve never heard of this happening except inside tight nit cults and stuff like that. Like Mormonism (not just the FLDS but the main stream church) and Scientology…
This is really scary. Is it true that the pastor of the church is also involved in this?
This is really the sickest thing I’ve ever heard and totally going against the Christian code of ethics. These so called Christians should be ashamed of themselves.”
Dan Silverman’s response was…:
“Freedom_of_Mind said…
Hello Cetta and thanks for leaving your comment. Yes, the pastor of this church was involved in this. You can read the other posts on this BLOG (particularly the link to My Story on the left) to find out more (if you have not already).”
This story goes a lot deeper than what was said here, apparently. Check out his blog and his story for more details.
Also, this mans story made the local news: News7 Exclusive: Former Vinton church leader says he’s not a child molester (I ask an important question at the bottom of this article).
“November 20, 2008
News7 Exclusive: Former Vinton church leader says he’s not a child molester
News7 was the first to break the story of the arrests of two Heritage Baptist Church leaders.
Former Deacon Dean Stone is charged with 24 counts of crimes involving children. A former associate pastor of the same church, Dan Silverman, is charged with aggravated sexual battery of a child.
Investigators say none of the crimes occurred at the church. After our story aired, Silverman contacted News7. He agreed to talk, speaking exclusively with News7’s Susan Bahorich.
Dan Silverman is charged with touching a 12-year-old. It’s an accusation he says is ruining his life and family.
“I’m am innocent of the crime I’m accused of,” said Silverman.
For the last 17 years, Silverman devoted his life to God. He worked as a church elder, missionary and most recently as associate pastor at Heritage Baptist Church in Vinton.
While at Heritage Baptist, Silverman says he started questioning his faith. He says after he confided in his wife, the trouble began.
“Wednesday night I spoke to my wife. Monday at about 12:30, detectives were at my door,” said Silverman.
The 42-year-old was eventually jailed, accused of molesting a 12-year-old. He says while behind bars, the pastor of Heritage Baptist Church, Bob Barton, came to see him and told him to confess.
“If I confessed things would go more smoothly for me. I was so broken, I would have jumped off a bridge if he told me,” said Silverman.
Silverman says it was part of Pastor Barton’s pattern of manipulation. He thinks Barton’s ultimate goal was to separate him from the congregation and his family.
News7 sat down with Pastor Barton last week. Barton denied being involved in the Silverman investigation. He refutes accusations he asked church members to change their stories.
“Have you tinkered with the investigation in anyway, shape or form?”, asked News7’s Susan Bahorich.
“No Susan, really have to admit I was taken back when you asked. I don’t know of anyone who has been asked to recant anything,” said Barton.
Since our first story, many viewers have emailed or called us with a variety of concerns about the church.
Pastor Barton admits in recent months, church membership has dropped from almost 200 members to less than a hundred. Barton blames the news of the two arrests to drop.
PREVIOUS STORY:
November 12, 2008
Two members of a Vinton church charged with molesting children”
The link at the end of that article is another news article made previously this month about Dan Silverman’s story.
Now for my question…
What does someone supposedly molesting their daughter have to do with half the congregation leaving a church? Unless those people saw something else going on that they didn’t like…
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Thank you so much for posting this! I truly appreciate it! You have done a wonderful writeup about the horrors that are going on in my life at the moment. Again, thank you!
Hey you double posted the comment.
I deleted one of them (I moderate all comments like you do).
It’s no problem. I was happy to help and get it out there.
Wow.. I’m going to go read his blog right now. I can’t believe this. I’m Christian, you know that.. but it’s people like that who embarrass us and make us all look like freaks and weirdos.
That’s what my friend Danny said too. He’s Christian and he said people like this give Christianity a bad name.
The whole world’s going crazy. I’m sure this isn’t the first time something like this has happened. People become too absorbed in their religious ideology and forget about reality. Honestly, I feel most bad for his children. It definitely sucks for him that his wife is a psycho, but it’s gotta be even worse for the kids.
Remember that conversation we had about environmental influences changing people? Well, this is definitely that instance. It’s hard to say where those kids will end up. Either devote crazy Christians, or completely detached from the religion.
I honestly don’t understand how people become so absorbed in religion… I was raised Catholic, and it never stuck hahah. Then again, it wasn’t forced down my throat.
I hope it blows up in her face and the kids become detached from their religion. She’ll only have herself to blame. Hope she goes nuts.
She already is nuts.
But it probably will force the kids away from religion.
My fear is that my children will become mentally harmed by all of this. Because of the accusation and the protective order my wife placed against me, I have not been able to see or talk to any of my children since September 8th. This means they have had over two months of continued brainwashing. If my wife was willing to tell my children that I was an anti-Christ and deluded while I was still in the house, what is she telling them now that I cannot even speak to them?
Even if I am found not guilty by the court, I still have to go through a battle with Social Services. As it is right now, they will only allow me supervised visits with my kids and they have not even set up the first one yet. I have talked to them and they keep telling me things like, “next week” and “it takes time”.
That’s a very real fear. Your wife and ex pastor are playing a dangerous game because CHILDREN are involved. Don’t they think of the kids?
They are totally going against their own religion by doing this. So much so that your wife might as well divorce you since she isn’t following her own religion to begin with.
Here’s hoping they see your comment about the kids on this blog and wake up.
Don’t they think of the kids? Yes! And that is the problem. Let’s look at it from this perspective (and I know this could be the case because I lived in this kind of an environment): If you believe that the eternal destination of each person on planet earth depends on their honest acceptance of Jesus as their savior and, in your own house, you have someone living there that does not believe that, then could you not come to the conclusion that this person presents a danger to the children? Does not the unbeliever offer the children a chance to reject Christ rather than to accept him?
With this in mind, my wife is behaving as any mother that desires to protect her children. In fact, from her perspective, she is willing to suffer now, in this life, that she and her children will have the prospect of a glorious afterlife.
If you believed, with all your heart, that heaven was real, that Christ was the only way and that this way was achieved through absolute faith, then would you not do all you could to give your own children a chance to have this faith? Would you not oppose any that would try to steal that chance away?
For those of us that do not believe like this, then we see her actions as irrational and crazy, even harmful to the children. But, from her perspective, she is a warrior doing all she can to guarantee a chance for the eternal survival of her children.
There are many within the fundamental circles in which I traveled that are most likely looking upon my wife as a hero of the faith.
I understand that whole rationale. But lying, as your wife and ex pastor are doing, is blatantly against their own God and their own religion. She’s a hero of the faith? If she was she would have kept her family together, would have prayed for you, gently tried to nudge you back into it, etc. There are PLENTY of people who are wholeheartedly Christian with kids who are Christian and a spouse who is not. I’ve read tons of articles about wives and husbands asking what should they do for their unbelieving spouse, the answer always being to pray for them, to try to discuss with them, etc. But never ever this.
Thou shall not bear false witness, right?
There is also nothing in the Bible that commands believers to NOT be married to unbelievers as far as I know. So doing what she is … there is no purpose for it.
She should have used this as an opportunity to show her kids that the world is a big place, and there is going to be unbelievers out there as well, and you can still be close to them too. If her parents weren’t Christian, would she cut them off?
Your parents apparently aren’t Christian. Did you cut them off? Did you not let your kids around them? Or did you and tell your kids that even though they don’t believe in Christ it’s okay to love them anyway?
You said on your blog:
What does someone supposedly molesting their daughter have to do with half the congregation leaving a church? Unless those people saw something else going on that they didn’t like…
I think this is a great point! If people left, they had to have had a reason. If I was the reason, then I was in jail at the time and no threat to anyone (if I was ever a threat). So why did they leave? According to some that I have talked to, they left because they felt that the pastor was a manipulator and that the church was heading toward behaving like a cult. My incarceration may have caused people to re-evaluate why they were there, but ultimately they left for other reasons.
The pastor is definitely a manipulator, that’s for sure. Just because you’re Christian doesn’t mean you have to follow everyone with a clerical collar around their neck. Part of being a Christian is to know the wolves in sheep’s clothing, right?
Usually churches stick together too. Remember that one story of the pastor that was a child molester a while or so ago? The whole church stuck by him until the end because they BELIEVED in him. Turns out he was guilty though.
My point? If they’re not believing in the pastor of the church — the leader of the church — or sticking by the man, then something right there tells me something big time is wrong.