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PRESS RELEASE
City
Councilman Rev. Timothy LaBouf
1141 State St.
Watertown, N.Y. 13601
For Immediate Release
August 19, 2006
Ladies and gentlemen,
Over the
course of the last several years as a Watertown City Councilmember I have had
the distinct honor to speak with many of you about a variety of different
issues. As a Councilmember I have been dedicated to listening to you and your
points of view so that I could make decisions that would be in your best
interests and bring about the best possible results for this community that we
all love. I believe that together we have accomplished some great things
and I firmly believe that our best days still lie ahead. I remain humbled and
honored by the great trust that you have placed in me. It is a trust that I
take very seriously and it is a trust that I do not want to jeopardize.
For the last
several days I have remained silent about the decision that our board at the
First Baptist Church made, which I work for and in concert with, to relieve a
member of our church from teaching an adult class and the rational behind that
decision. I know that my silence has been a source of frustration to some of
you and many of you must have been thinking, “Why isn’t he speaking?”
Others of you probably thought, “He has never been shy in front of the
cameras before, why now?” I would have probably thought the same things
if I were in your shoes so I’d like to explain the best I can to you the
reasons for my initial silence.
The meeting
in which our Board made this decision took place on the evening of Wednesday,
August 9 at 6:30 p.m. On Thursday, August 10 the
letter was mailed to Ms. Lambert. When I arrived home on the evening of Monday
August 14 there was a message on my home answering machine from
John W. Moore of Newswatch50 requesting that I call him at home or on his
cell phone. I thought it was a bit late to phone him at home so my intention
was to call him the following day. My initial thought was that he was calling
in regard to a City issue.
Well, the following morning, Tuesday, August 15th I
was saddened to learn via the Newswatch50 website that once again a
private church matter was made public by Ms. Lambert. The media inquiries as
you can imagine became increasing more intense by the hour and our board felt
that it important to call a special meeting to formulate a public response.
Many of you know what it is like trying to get people’s schedules to
coordinate for meetings and so the board decided that Friday evening at 7:00
p.m. would provide the greatest opportunity for Board members to attend.
As
frustrating as the waiting has been I felt it appropriate to first confer with
our Board before making a public comment out of respect to them and their
positions and to obtain guidance from them in regard to commenting on this
issue to ensure that I would not create additional confusion and pain in our
community.
I think we can all agree that there has been enough of that. I
want you to know that waiting to comment this long has been extremely difficult
for me also. I know that you can appreciate that and I am grateful for
your understanding. Our special Board meeting took place tonight, Friday August
19, 2006 at 7:00 p.m. at which time the Board prepared a statement for the
public that I am confident will be made available to you.
At this point I
am now prepared to be transparent with you about this issue and how it relates
to my role at the First Baptist Church and on the Watertown City Council.
First let me
address this issue in regard to how it applies to my role at First Baptist
Church and some of the history that led up to the Board’s decision. As most
of you are aware when I arrived at First Baptist Church the congregation was
dwindling and the church was headed for eventual closure. In a short period of
time we began to see tremendous growth in the church which made me and many
others feel thankful and blessed. In a short period of time classrooms
that did not have children in them for a number of years were filling up with
children, other parts of the building that had not been used in years were now
needing to be utilized as a result of our growth. New members began stepping up
willing to serve on boards and in various areas within the church. Changes
began to be made to maximize our growth and meet the needs of the growing
congregation.
The majority of our membership was genuinely excited about
the growth and new hope for the future of the church, however, as you recall
there were some who were unhappy with new members joining the church, changes
that were being made and my performance in general as pastor. As a result
a small group decided to forgo the mechanisms that we have in place for dealing
with conflicts or disagreements within the church and elected to hire a local
attorney and aired their grievances in a letter to the Watertown Daily Times.
The Board
passed a resolution on May 21, 2006 reprimanding those individuals
and their actions, encouraged them to avail themselves to our in house
mechanisms for expressing concerns and complaints rather than utilizing the
local media and acknowledged many of their actions as detrimental to the health
and vitality of the church. Since the May 21 resolution the
Board has been aware that several of those individuals continued to engage in
activities the Board viewed as detrimental to the church family.
As
stated in the Board’s August 19 press release the reasons for
this most recent decision was, “multifaceted and the scriptural rules
concerning women teaching men in a church setting was only a small aspect of
that decision. Christian courtesy motivates us to refrain from making any
public accusations against her.”
We had
originally intended to include the various multifaceted reasons for the
dismissal in our corresponds however after legal review it was recommended that
we refrain from including issues that could be construed as slander and stick
with “spiritual issues” that govern a church, which the courts have
historically stayed out of. With threats of lawsuits in the past we
wanted to try hard to not go down that road again. I am sure you can
understand why we would desire to exercise caution.
As Pastor of the First
Baptist Church I take very seriously my responsibilities to watch over the
congregation and I also take very seriously proclaiming scripture as the truth
and applicable for all situations of life and containing the blueprints for how
we should structure our church corporately. I believe based on the
consistent teaching of scripture that there are qualifications for both men and
women teaching spiritual matters within the church. These qualifications
do not mean that one is superior or more important than another it only means
that God has a special plan for each of us in accomplishing His work within the
church setting.
I believe that as a Pastor I will ultimately stand before
God and give an account of how I proclaimed and enforced His word within the
church setting especially. Now I am fully aware that not everyone
ascribes to my view of the scriptures but I would never vilify them for having
a different religious view and I would hope that if you do hold a different
view that you would extend to me the same courtesy.
I want you to know that my
desire is to not hurt anyone or to belittle anyone but only to ensure that the
scripture is upheld in our church and not compromised. Now having said all of
this I am heartbroken that this situation has created pain in the lives of many
in our community and I am truly sorry for that. I also think that it is
unfortunate that this situation within our church came to a head the way that
it did and that we were not able to work through it more effectively within our
church and that it became a public debate. I am also sorry for that however I
will remain prayerful that the various discussions will lead to spiritual
growth for many.
Many have
drawn conclusions as to how this issue applies to my role as a Watertown City
Councilmember. My belief is that the qualifications for both men and
women teaching spiritual matters in a church setting end at the church door,
period. Now let me explain my position of the role of women in society
especially because that is where many of the discussions have centered and some
false accusations have been made that need correction. I believe that a
woman can perform any job and fulfill any responsibility that she desires to.
Growing up I was primarily educated by the Sisters of Saint Joseph and I like
to believe that they did a really good job; at least they did the best they
could with the pupil in me they had to work with. I have fond memories of their
instructions and they have my genuine and enduring gratitude.
As you are
aware we have a female city manager, Mary Corriveau. Each year the
council is required to complete a comprehensive review of the City Manager’s
performance and if you will recall typically it has been I who has given her
some of the highest accolades. If I felt any other way than believing that
women can perform any job and fulfill any responsibility that they desire to
certainly those views would have been reflected in my review.
I believe
the Mary Corriveau is one of the best City Managers that we have had and I am
thankful for her hard work and dedication to our community. In addition
to Mary Corriveau we have a number of female employees that serve in various
capacities in our city. I can tell you that they are good, dedicated
employees who put in long hours to the benefit of the City of Watertown and I
am grateful for their service.
I have a
number of female acquaintances and friends that work in our business community,
in the military and in other professional situations that I have always treated
with respect and with the utmost regards. I have supported many of them
in their professional endeavors and will continue to conduct myself in the same
manner.
In my heart
I know that each of you know me and that I have continually proven to you over
the years that we have been together that I treat both men and woman as equals
and that I work hard to be fair with all to the best of my ability and try to
conduct my affairs with character and integrity.
For those of
you who have given me the benefit of the doubt and have stood by me I am truly
grateful for your support and friendship. For those of you who have had doubts
I certainly understand and I sincerely hope that this correspondence has
clarified things for you and if further clarification is needed please don’t
hesitate to contact me and I would be happy to give further explanation.
This has
certainly been a learning experience for me and from the bottom of my heart I
thank you for your understanding and continued trust as we move forward
together to accomplish positive goals for our community.
Very truly yours,
Timothy R. LaBouf
Official: First Baptist Church
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