RE: Daily Dose of Sultnpapper 10/07/18> Time for some updates…
FOR TSE: Ok ... just so I can get this straight. All this church boycott thingie is because the youth minister has Blondie's "confirmation paper" that she wrote -- that he hasn't returned. (Has she asked him for it?) And you think the reason he won't give it back is because that might confirm that he plagiarized a part of a sermon using her text? Does that about sum it up?
Do they publish the text of the sermons somewhere so you can compare them side by side? Otherwise, the longer he stalls, the more memories fade. I'm sure you've noted that.
(Does all this sound unbelievably petty to you?) You do realize this isn't apt to end well ... no matter how it goes from here. I'm betting if somebody (anybody!!) pushes the matter at this point that the paper will go mysteriously "missing."
So ... why isn't it a good idea for the minister to "reach out to you?" Is it because he might get an earful? (Does Mrs. Papper understand the reasoning behind all this?) Now if I were Mrs. Papper, I'd have told the minister's wife exactly what was going on and why -- and let the chips fall where they may. (Assuming I understand all this in the first place. But then, that's me. And I don't mind poking the hornet's nest.)
If they're looking for "volunteer labor," maybe they can cobble up some warm bodies to go searching for Blondie's paper.
This is better than a soap opera. (Did you hear the part about how it's not apt to end well? Just thought I'd underscore the point.)
You have it correct. She has asked for it, I have emailed him about it and the wife has asked in person. His excuse is that since the church cut out his administrative assistant (secretary) he has been swamped with things. Besides the being the youth minister he also oversees the Harvey relief teams and the food pantry.
He claims that all the papers that the confirmation kids wrote have to be scanned and put into the permanent record for each member and he just has not had time to do any of them, at least that is what he told the wife about a month ago.
I don't even care that he has used bits and pieces of her text, Blondie doesn't either. It would have been ethically right to mention it when he was using it, but she just wants to be able to read it to me and I damn sure would like for her to be able to do that.
I am pissed off at the church for some other reasons too, but this is right at the top of the list. I don't like the way the church has been running for the last several years and this group of ministers were all hired in here from over in California. I am not really impressed or do I care how things are run in California, "this is Texas so act like it", is what I will them and my wife knows it.
My wife has already found out that two of the ministers will probably be looking to move in the summer when their kids will just be graduated from high school. Neither of those are the one with Blondie's paper though. The management of the church is a wreck right now and it isn't getting any better from what the wife is telling me now that she is seeing stuff from being an employee there.
It may very well not end well. I'll just give you an example of how the management thinks.
My father in law turned 88 last month, he has been a member of that church since he married my wife's mother back over 63 years ago. His wife passed away the week after Blondie was born, so 13 years ago. He doesn't go to church regularly, it is just to hard on him physically, he has had both knees replaced and needs a hip replacement but the VA says differently, so he only goes Christmas and Easter.
Last year he got a letter from the church telling him that they had deleted him from the membership role of the church. My wife went up there and raised hell with them. She was told that the Lutheran church requires each church send X amount of money to the diocese for each member enrolled and since they weren't getting money from him in the collection plate that they needed to remove him, the church did this to about 15 people.
My wife explained his situation and that for 50 years he was in church every Sunday with his wife. The response was "we didn't know" , my wife responded with, 'so instead of being concerned for the welfare of a member and checking on them to see if they need some assistance, you just kick them out of the church?
Needless to say he has been reinstated but that is the mentality of how they are operating the place. It isn't about the people it is all about the money. My wife organized a group of women who have a list of the shut inn members and they take turns calling and visiting the older member each week just to make sure that they are doing okay and if they need any help. If my wife hadn't raised hell and then organized that they would have just been ousted.
Those are the kinds of the things that have me PO'ed with them, Blondie's paper is just the icing on the cake.