Children’s Safety: New Information
UPDATE: I reached out to Rock River Church for comment or statement and received nothing in response to substantiate the claim made by the pastor below. You can read more about that here: Children’s Safety: No Confirmation from Rock River Church — Not Overcome
On June 17, 2022, I published an article about audio I had found from the 2019 Summer Conference. In the audio, Alex Dieckmann (Lead Pastor at Rock River Church in San Marcos, Texas) tells a story about a woman, who I referred to as “Jane Doe”. The most relevant piece is this:
There's a woman who hadn't confessed something for her whole life. She was molested as a child. And then what happened was, because that happened, she did the same to someone else.
Dieckmann goes on to state that Jane had been volunteering in the Kids Program. He does not indicate that she had been removed from that role or that he had reported this information to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS).
In the article, I repeatedly expressed that there were important details I didn’t know, and one of them in particular was Jane’s age when she “did the same.” In my writing, I repeatedly asked for anyone with additional details to reach out to me if they had them, and I heard from no one, despite contacting Rock River Church, Christland Church, and Joshua Church. I also contacted Kids Directors or the “general” email for each of the churches in the network and also heard nothing back. You can see the whole timeline here.
New Information
I have heard that a pastor in another Network church has now stated that Jane was a child when she did this. According to Texas DFPS, even those as young as 10 can be legally liable. However, my interpretation of what I have heard is that this pastor means that Jane was young enough for this to not be a legal offense. This is very important information.
As I said in my original post, I emphatically warned against any kind of vigilante actions toward Jane, and encouraged extending as much grace as legally allowable to her. I hope that those at Rock River Church have done that, and not turned this into any kind of hunt or occasion for gossip. I will also say that given this new information I find it incredibly problematic that Alex Dieckmann shared this story to a room full of leaders (at the Network Leadership Conference in June 2019). He does not say that he had Jane’s permission to have done so, though he may have. If he did, I still think he should have done a better job obfuscating her identity (e.g., “there’s a woman in one of the churches”) and reassuring people that their kids were not in danger (e.g., “she was a child at the time”). If that information had been present in the original audio, I would likely have never published my original story.
I do not have permission to share more details on what the pastor said or the context.
When I learned
I got the information late Saturday and wanted to get an update out quickly, so wrote most of this on Sunday. I am not sure that I was right to wait until today to post this — I was waiting for my source’s permission to share, and was unable to reach them yesterday until late last night. I had to balance the reputation of Jane and Dieckmann against the principle of maintaining the agency of my sources. I believed I’d get permission within a few hours or by this morning (which happened), so figured I would play it safer. The information is not conclusive — it’s just one pastor talking, but it is important. This was among the trickier “journalistic ethics” calls I’ve had to make.
If anyone feels that I should have shared this yesterday, I understand and I’d be happy to apologize.
What it changes
Were any laws broken?
If Jane was a young child (under 10) I suspect that this would no longer require Alex Dieckmann to report it, as I believe no crime would have been committed. (I am not a lawyer). It’s even possible that if she was older than 10 that the circumstances would not have required reporting — I do not know.
I do not know what experts would say about the safety or wisdom (or liability) involved in allowing Jane to continue to work with children (we do not know whether or not she did). Rock River Church would need to consult an expert for that.
Please recall, I reported the audio to Texas DFPS to protect children, but also because DFPS told me that I may be legally liable if I did not. That’s not something I mess around with. Mandatory reporting laws exist for a reason.
Did leaders come away with insufficient training?
This was the primary reason I shared this publicly, as you can see in the original post. It’s the one problem that I felt confident existed.
I stand by my view that Alex Dieckmann spoke in a way that may have communicated a dangerous precedent to a room full of leaders. This is particularly true given the lack of training or mention of mandated reporter laws in other documents I’ve discussed in that blog post and since then. Someone who didn’t know the full story may have thought it was Network policy to not report incidents like this.
Are childcare safety policies sufficient?
I also stand by my view that some of the network’s policies may be improved to ensure true safeguarding. The documents I reviewed at least:
Fail to mention mandated reporter laws.
Have a weaker version of a “2-volunteers at all times” rule than other churches
Have a weak version of an “inappropriate touch” rule.
These policies should be strengthened (or else I will be happy to amend this if the documents I reviewed and shared were incomplete). Again, my goal in telling this story is not to say “and therefore the network should shut down.” My goal is to protect children.
Could Jane or Sam have been helped?
I also stand by the notion that it may have been possible for Alex Dieckmann to aid Jane in getting justice for what was done to her, or help her reach out to Sam to ensure that Sam had the support that they needed. I do not know whether any of that occurred. I just wish that it had. I might classify those as more “above and beyond” type things that would not be required of Dieckmann.
To the network
I have a blog where I write about the network. A lot of people read what I write. And I’ve made corrections and edits as needed, and typically invite corrections or feedback, and this story was no exception. The blog post was live for a month, and due to the sensitivity of it, I even emailed it broadly to kids directors across the network. You did not respond. And you still have not responded to me directly - I’m having to rely on a source within one of the churches to even publish this.
It’s highly regrettable that you did not respond — many parents may have had concerns throughout that time (and may still, given that this is just one pastor’s word for what happened in another church).
You may not trust me, but I wanted to say: I would have been more than happy to publish an update or statement at any time. The fact that the first time I’m hearing this detail is from someone who heard another network pastor speak is regrettable.
Thus far I had not received any contact from you in regards to anything I have published. If you would have preferred that I ask you for comment on this or other stories, then just let me know, and I’d be happy to do so, as is consistent with the way many journalists operate (that doesn’t mean you see drafts - it just means I reach out for comment on topics I am covering). As you see here, I’m unable to vouch for the truth of what was shared by the other pastor, so I may still report things, but at least I’d be able to include anything on your side as I do it.
I care about truth — that’s all. I’m not your enemy. I’m Mirabel or Bruno in the movie Encanto. I love you all, but I’ve seen so many get harmed, and so I speak. I said in my very first letter, and have never retracted it: If you want to learn more, I’m happy to help, as hard as that would be (as said, we’d need to do this in a way that preserves my psychological safety in the conversation — most likely simply with a trained mental health expert present as an advocate for me). And if you believe I am wrong about something, I’m happy to correct, no matter how embarrassing that may be.
As always - if anyone has additional corroborating information on this, then please feel very free to reach out - I can be reached at not.overcome@outlook.com.