See the post that lists all the developments in the Bill Hybels situation that has been updated through July 24, 2019.
List of articles from allegations to resignation of Bill Hybels and its aftermath
See the post that lists all the developments in the Bill Hybels situation that has been updated through July 24, 2019.
List of articles from allegations to resignation of Bill Hybels and its aftermath
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3 responses to “List of articles from allegations to resignation of Bill Hybels and its aftermath”
Jim Bedell has written this article here:
https://drj1952.wordpress.com/2018/07/11/the-elders-of-willow-creek-community-church-should-resign/
Dr Jim Bedell, Chicago area pscyhologist and long time Willow Creek Member, has written a number of posts about the situation on his blog https://drj1952.wordpress.com/
Also Rob Speight, long time Willow Creek Insider, has now written a few posts about the situation on his blog https://robsp82.com/
A friend of a friend asked for a brief summary of the whole situation, and I directed them to your bibliography, and they asked could I do a briefer summary than that, so I wrote the following, which may be useful to some people:
1. A little over 4 years ago, a group of former Willow Creek Pastors and victims of Bill Hybels’ sexual predation approached the elders at Willow Creek Church and the board at Willow Creek Association demanding an independent investigation.
2. The Willow Creek Association refused to carry out their own investigation, and 3 of their board members resigned.
3. Willow Creek Church’s elders did a series of internal investigations plus 1 fake external investigation, and determined that there was zero truth to any of the victims’ claims.
4. The little group that first approached the elders continued to press them, over 4 years, to do a truly independent investigation. They continued to refuse.
5. Finally, the little group decided enough was enough and went to the media. On March 23 this year, first in the multiple Pulitzer Prize winning Chicago Tribune, and immediately thereafter in Christianity Today (the biggest Christian magazine in the US), stories came out with allegations against founding and senior pastor Bill Hybels of sexual assault and/or sexual harassment of 9 different women.
6. The Church immediately reacted by having a gigantic town hall style meeting in which they put Bill Hybels on stage and allowed him to call all his victims liars, and laid out their evidence for why all the victims were liars.
7. This didn’t go down very well with some people. What has followed has been 4 months of increasing public pressure on both Willow Creek Community Church and Willow Creek Association, and ever so gradual walk-back of their original statements from the Willow Creek Elders, but still zero independent investigation.