Tommy Shelton Alleged Victim: Duane Clem
Background
How did Duane Clem find the material about Tommy Shelton that had been posted at
BlackSDA.com and
Maritime
SDA Online?
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-------- Original Message --------
| From: |
Duane Clem |
| Subject: |
Re: Glenn Dryden, Tommy Shelton, etc. |
| Date:
| Tue, 02 Jan 2007 02:06:53 +0000 |
|
...
I found them quite by accident. Truthfully, I did a Google search
on "Tommy Shelton" to see if I could find any information on
what he was currently doing, since I have not talked to him in
over a year. That led me to BlackSDA and from there I started
digging around and eventually came across both my brother's and
Glenn Dryden's names.
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Seeing his brother, Roger Clem, referred to by name and the following interchange was just too much for
Duane. He realized that he was going to have to face things he had hoped he could forever forget. He was in shock.
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-------- Original Message --------
| Subject: |
Final questions for now on Tommy Shelton allegations. |
| Date:
| Wed, 06 Dec 2006 11:48:57 -0600 |
| To: |
Danny Shelton |
| CC: |
Walt Thompson, Elder Ken Denslow |
|
...
[Roger] Clem has two brothers. In one of the two calls Tommy made to Clem in 2003 and 2004, Clem asked Tommy,
"Did the same thing happen to my brother that happened to me?"
And, according to Clem, Tommy replied,
"Which one?"
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And the following comments about his mother did not lessen his distress:
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Mr. Clem's mother was a staunch defender of Tommy, and it was
only after she died in late 2001 that he felt he could come forward.
Tommy's ordination was revoked about 1985, but his defenders
would not relent, and that portion of the congregation that sided
with him left their denomination, the Church of God, Anderson,
in consequence. Tommy remained their pastor until maybe 1990
or 1991, with a one-year absence to Kentucky, according to the
recollections of several individuals.
Since Mr. Clem says that he was abused at the age of 16, he
is placing the abuse around 1988, which would be after Tommy's
ordination was revoked for similar allegations involving perhaps
three alleged victims. In other words, according to Mr. Clem's
account and chronology, it was because so many believed Tommy
rather than the alleged victims and those who had caught him
doing his misdeeds that Mr. Clem himself became an alleged victim.
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If he had only come forward long ago, would other victims have been spared the pain he endured?
An easy question to ask, and a hard one to answer, for only one who has been a victim of
clergy abuse, only one who has been manipulated into silence, only one who has experienced the shame
that these young men felt, only that one can truly understand what it means to come forward either then
or now.
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