It's time to get our facts straight.

Sorry folks, but the post I'm about to showcase has been around way too long, and I need someone to answer for this. There are just some bandwagons I can't jump on.

Bassenco, in this case, refers to Jeri Massi, author of Schizophrenic Christianity.

Here is the original thread, located in the 'non believer' section of the FFF, which is the only place I'm allowed to post on that forum:

In defense of Bassenco.

Very few contributed to this thread, so I took the liberty of getting something off my chest:

spiffinwheeze.

Here is the post as it appears on the FFF:

I don't want to spend a lot of time writing about Bassenco, but I noticed this thread seemed a bit empty. There is a question I would like answered, though, and only one, maybe two, people are qualified to answer it.

Let me start by directing you to this blog post by spiffinwheeze.

Here is the link to his post:

http://spiffinwheeze.blogspot.com/2008/05/snit.html

Feel free to read it in its entirety, but I just want to concentrate on this excerpt:

BASSENCO once remarked to me that a certain atheist film maker who posted about her having attended Hyles-Anderson College could not get the facts straight if you nailed them in a straight row across his forehead. She did apologize for this outburst and assured me that the poor boy meant well.

She even said something like, "He writes screen plays, and that's how he thinks--like it's a screen play." She then showed me the synopsis he had written of "the facts" about her history of speaking up about abusive churches. His intention was to post the following record of her life.

In it, she had been a student at Hyles Anderson and had met Voyle Glover there: both untrue. There were all kinds of inconsistencies like this, but nothing damaging. And she was right: all the facts that he knew were neatly pieced together into a seamless garment.

End of excerpt.

Okay, I first noticed Bassenco's blog a few months before Bob Gray was arrested. She was promoting SECRET RADIO and the big question on people's minds seemed to be, "What school is she talking about?"

People couldn't resist trying to pin the fictitious college in her book on one or two particular places. I remember her denying she had attended certain colleges, but ultimately I really didn't care. I liked the book and gave it a glowing review. I don't think I knew until SCHIZOPHRENIC CHRISTIANITY that she went to BJU. Of course, she might have mentioned it on the FFF, but I don't feel like wading through pre-2006 FFF posts, or the posts from her blog, for that matter. Not really worth it.

The long and short of it is:

I never said or wrote anything implying that she went to Hyles Anderson college much less met Voyle Glover there.

Now, that last one blows me away! Like, it's not enough, according to her (through spiff) that I 'lied' about H/A, but there's the added caveat that I'm saying she met Voyle Glover there. Not true! By 'not true', I mean not true that I wrote anything stating that she went to H/A, let alone met Voyle Glover at H/A. I haven't the slightest idea where she met Voyle Glover at.

I realize Bassenco did not write spiffinwheeze post, unless spiff is a sockpuppet. So, what I would like is for her to visit spiff's blog, or simply reply to this thread, and correct what spiff is asserting to be true. I would also love to read this history that I allegedly wrote where I assert she attended Hyles Anderson and met Voyle Glover there.

If this has been a grand misunderstanding, that would be a relief. Bassenco has been one of the more vocal supporters of the victims of clergy abuse. I would hate for the waters of credibility to be muddied because of false assertions like this.

NOTE: In reposting this from the FFF to my blog, Jeri's alleged assertion that I wanted to post a 'record of her life' is also bewildering. Why would I care? The only 'record' I've ever thought about posting concerned the time line in the Bob Gray case. That was something I discussed with a former student of TCA. We never got around to doing that time line, but, honestly, why would I want to devote valuable time to posting a record of Jeri's life?

Like I said, if spiffy is not telling the truth, this is a prime moment for Jeri to get over to his blog and correct this misunderstanding. Let's hope that's all it is.