Removing my Pre-Clergy essays

Today I made a decision to "hide" my Pre-Clergy essay assignment rough drafts from this website. 

I made this decision because when I started writing these essays, over a year ago, I had a lot of different opinions about the late founder of ADF, Isaac Bonewits. My opinions have thus changed and I need to re-write many of those assignments to reflect my virtues and feelings on this man. That said, I don't want those essays out there without disclaimers on this person (or omitting him all together) and I would like to change focus in many areas. 

Long story short, I believe the survivors that name Issac as a pedophile. I believe strongly in listening and believing the voices of those who have came forward and shared their traumatic stories. I believe the survivors completely and have denounced this man as an Ancestor of Tradition in my practice. The Fellowship of ADF has also denounced him; he is no longer welcome at our fire.

The ADF Mother Grove made a statement about the entire thing that I would like to link HERE 

​I won't lie, my confidence in ADF was shook to the very core and I wasn't sure if I wanted to be part of an Fellowship that was started by such a person. It took quite a while of listening to progressive clergy voices about why they were staying, while also listening to clergy voices as they left ADF all together for me to decide where I stood. 

I am thankful for the statement from the Mother Grove and I am glad they addressed the issue without sweeping it under the rug and/or keeping it hush. I have a lot of opinions on why I am staying and they are much more complicated than I want this post to get but I have chosen to continue with ADF. I have chosen to continue working on becoming Clergy and I am committed to doing the work. 

But doing the work means that I need to think critically about what I am putting out there into the world and my essays, as currently written, glorify a man who I don't want to glorify. It means I am starting over and although it is hard, it is necessary. This has been a very valuable lesson in "not putting people on pedestals" to me. 

I would also like to link the formal statement from Columbia Grove (the grove I am part of) on the matter as I feel we handled it the best way we could as well. That statement is linked HERE.

I will start re-posting the essays as I re-write them. :)
​(And some don't need to change at all!)

Thank you for understanding. 

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