In 2007 a dedicated Christian family, Dr. Scott Dobbs, his wife Machelle and their six children were subjected to the worst form of persecution by the clergy, staff and certain parishioners of Figtree Anglican Church (FAC) culminating in the senior clergy, Rod Irvine and Bruce Clarke, ‘excommunicating’ the whole family from the church they had been attending for 12 years, longer than the life of their youngest child. I have written extensively about this and published the articles here in the category ‘The Figtree Affair’.
Despite exoneration of Scott (and his family), and recommendations by the former Archbishop of Sydney Dr. Peter Jensen, the former Bishop of Wollongong Al Stewart and the present FAC Senior Minister Ian Barnett have refused to accept the Archbishop’s authority, and they have still refused to follow his directions to restore the reputation of the family and withdraw conditions on the family attending Figtree Anglican Church.
Now, Dr. Jensen’s successor as Archbishop of Sydney has been trying to put things right. He has had one interview withe Scott and Machelle, who gave him part of what is now about to be published here as the Preface and the first 6 chapters of the book The Evolution of a Lie. He is proposing to read this and arrange to meet them again.
Watch for periodic uploads of chapters and appendices of this deep analysis of highly flawed processes in two organisations, the University of Wollongong and Figtree Anglican Church, that coalesced in a false complaint to FAC by a mentally damaged woman on behalf of her adult mentally and physically damaged daughter, and the motivations of the people involved.
You may be surprised at the depths of deceit that people are prepared to go, even Christians, to manufacture the lies that formed into a major Lie that defamed not only Scott but Machelle and their whole family. Or perhaps not.
You may be surprised at the stubborn refusal of people who have heard the lie(s) first to cling onto their belief in the teeth of evidence that the Lie(s) are based entirely on fabrication. Or perhaps not.
You may be surprised at the sanctimoniousness and self-righteous judgmentalism of people within a Christian church and including some of the teaching staff of the local Anglican school The Illawarra Grammar School (TIGS) and their cruelty towards a family of adults and children whom they knew well and knew to be a loving family of vibrant Christians. Or perhaps not.
You may be surprised at the incompetence displayed by senior personnel of the diocesan organisation, staff and volunteers. Or perhaps not.
I was surprised at the lawyers involved in the case: their incompetence, unprofessional behaviour and inability to think intelligently and forensically with a healthy scepticism for any proposition for which there is no evidence, instead succumbing to ‘group think’ and failing in their duty to support justice and fair process – the director PSU Phillip Gerber, the then Chancellor of the Diocese of Sydney, Peter Grogan QC, the investigator engaged by the diocese Ken Taylor and a member of the Professional Standards Committee (PSC). But perhaps you are not.
Louise