Reply #19: Long one but this is his personal release explaining it

[shadowknows69]

TIMOTHY R. LABOUF
1141 STATE STREET
WATERTOWN, NY 13601

August 19, 2006

For Immediate Release

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 9th at 6:30 p.m. On Thursday, August 10th the letter was mailed to Ms. Lambert. When I arrived home on the evening of Monday August 14th there was a message on my home answering machine from John 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 21st 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 21st 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 19th 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 and 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