I mentioned when I wrote this that I was disappointed Doug Phillips and Vision Forum had not responded to the allegations that had been brought forth by numerous people. In the interest of being fair, I did want to provide a link to a statement they released recently in which they (sort of) address the situations.

I have only three things to say about this because, again, I’m not getting drawn into this controversy on my blog.

1. The only way you can find this statement is if you have a direct link to it. It is not possible to go to the Vision Forum site and navigate to this statement. When I told David that they had put up a response, he went to the site to find it and read it. It is impossible to do so. You have to have the URL or a link. While I can put myself in their shoes and understand why they would do it that way, as someone who is concerned about the seriousness of the allegations and related matters I find it very troubling that they are not being forthcoming in addressing these issues but are burying the statement in a generally inaccessible part of their website.

2. Anyone who has even a basic knowledge of Vision Forum products and relationships knows that Matt and Jennie Chancey are “loosely associated” with VF. I have no problem with that. They are free to associate with anyone they choose. What I find hard to believe is that Doug Phillips and Vision Forum would call the special website Matt Chancey put up an “Independent Investigative Report”. Independent? How is it “independent” to have someone associated with the ministry doing the investigating? Again, if they want Matt Chancey to do investigating, fine. But please at least be honest about the fact that he is hardly an independent and disinterested party.

3. Hardly anyone has blogged about this whole controversy. I’ve got my thoughts about why that is, but I’m not going there. However, thanks to Kim I discovered that Barbara Curtis at MommyLife has written an extensive post about this situation. Barbara and her husband have suffered through spiritual abuse so she has much helpful insight to offer. Her post is long, but a helpful read whether you are interested in the VF controversy or not. No one is immune from ending up in a similar situation.

Updated to add that Barbara has added a Part 2 that is also excellent.