Yesterday I covered the majority of the systematic and sustained psychological abuse over a 20 year period committed by my local leaders David Bonham and his side-kicks, against me, together with the MCF (Melbourne Christian Fellowship) presbytery because senior presbytery member Laurie Holland, knew what was going on.
Today, I’ll describe our realization tha twe’d been had and the cover-ups and lies by the perpetrators, including the MCF and BCF (Brisbane Christian Fellowship) presbyteries.
By 2006, David Bonham and MCF had made me unemployable in three ways. They destroyed my academic career, banned me from changing jobs while I was young enough to suit industry, and banned me from starting multiple timely tech startups, delaying me seven full years. We lost large amounts of money.
From 2007-2016 I spent a full decade unemployed for about a third of the time and otherwise in poorly paid or very temporary jobs, none of which built to anything until the last position:
- Kitchen hand
- Gardner
- Brickies laborer
- Epidemiologist
- Systems engineer
- Data scientist (co-foundner)
That was after topping all of my classes and being a Project Leader at CSIRO and a Group Leader at University of Melbourne, on the executive of the Australian Society for Biophysics for most of a decade, frequent invited speaker at scientific conferences and publishing 25 peer-reviewed papers.
But with 15 years of active ANTI-stewarding of my career by David Bonham.
The last position finally seemed to be (and was) the beginning of the end of a decade of searching to rebuild my career and confidence, and was a Data Science position in a Seek.com funded startup company I was a minor co-founder of.
It means that MCF destroyed a total of 20 years of my life from age 30 to 49. Not to mention an earlier five years of my life where I was restricted by a lesser degree of insanity, 1988-1992.
It all came out at a counselling meeting at MCF HQ in Wonga Park with Gary Worth and Matt Bellingham. Gary was wondering why our finances were in such a mess.
I explained, well actually it’s MCF’s fault.
I had never verbalized it. I told him the whole story.
It was the first time I had ever told the story because we were not allowed to talk about what our elder was ‘doing to us’. That was murmuring.
He appeared surprised and very slightly compassionate.
But then immediately went on the defensive when I started accusing the church and its teachings.
We’ve never taught anything wrong.
If it’s not sexual abuse there’s nothing we can do.
Gary Worth 2016
I wanted him to get the eldership together with me and the perpetrators. But no can do. There would be no trying to figure out what happened.
We can’t do he said/she said.
Gary Worth 2016
Why not Gary?
I confronted the perpetrators.
David Bonham said he’s sorry he didn’t get everything right but wouldn’t admit to anything specific. His wife just calls what we went through ‘my lot’. But Rhonda, it’s ‘my lot’ caused by your husband.
Laurie Holland wouldn’t answer my emails.
The two apprentice elders at least were prepared to discuss details.
Steve Anderson admitted it was all wrong what they had done. ANd expressed they were just following the leader. But wouldn’t take any responsibility and tried to squirm out of things I quoted him as saying: ‘Did I really say that?’ Of course you did and worse Steve!
Steve Holland admitted everything. But wouldn’t take any blame for ‘my lot’. And said he would do it again! I challenged him by saying what if we told his daughter she couldn’t do a DipEd after her BSc and see if she could impute her way to a teaching position. Silence. It was the same situation that they had put me through twenty years earlier.
Finally Steve Holland’s wife admitted it was terrible the way we had been treated. But that was as far as they went.
Continued tomorrow.
Open Letter to Melbourne Christian Fellowship (MCF) 