Alexis Coe, NYT bestselling author
- Jun 29. “Last
year, Danny called to tell me this. We’re a part of a group that included his
sister, Laura, who called & asked me to let her get through the entire story
before I responded. She proceeded to tell me the exact same story.
Today, she vaguely called DL a liar. He is not.”
Nicole Cliffe, writer, Slate columnist
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Jun 30. In response to, “What exactly was the plan the Ortbergs were following? Who came up with it, and when? In what ways did they believe the work with kids was therapeutic? Were they explicitly trying to do some form of exposure therapy?” Cliffe responded:
“To me it was indeed described by all family members as a deliberate therapeutic choice to work with children slightly older than his “preferred” demographic in order to still be around children with less personal risk/temptation. … also specify that Johnny had been doing this prior to disclosing to his family and his family then supported and reinforced this plan.”
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Jun 30. “The only other thing I would ever want to say publicly is that I feel that Johnny, if he is telling the truth and has never offended, is the least culpable member of the remaining Ortberg family. And that I encouraged him to up his treatment sessions (sessions which only started because of Danny) to multiple times a week, and repeatedly asked him to not hurt himself. I broke off all contact with the family after finding a large factual discrepancy between a statement made to me and a statement made by the same person to the investigator. I had hung onto a lot of hope that engaging would lead to cooperation and self-reflection and full disclosure to the church, and I don’t regret trying but it became clear it was a bottomless well of secrecy built around preserving a certain image. I loved and trusted all of them so deeply.”
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Jul 6. “It’s unfathomable to me that John Ortberg would claim via email that he has never considered his son a harm ‘to himself’ in addition to others. The possibility of self-harm and the underlying threat was raised in every phone call. With John, with Laura, certainly with Johnny.”
Nicole Chung, writer and editor
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Jun 30. “remember talking w/ L, trying to make the point that it is impossible for someone who is sexually attracted to children to have a healthy relationship of any kind with any child—that it can never not harm that child in some way. It was just a fundamental point of disagreement …
… I’ve never forgotten how upset they were with you both for “not coming to the table” on this + so many of your points, as if the only morality that mattered = this misguided notion of “family loyalty.” As if they’d left you any other choice than the one you made + keep making.”
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Jul 16. “When I talked w/ L last year, I told her I’d find it impossible to forgive anyone who knew of a risk to my child and unilaterally decided that risk was acceptable while leaving me in ignorance of it. She said, “that’s really hard to hear, but I hear you.”
not to make this about me in any way, but thinking about all this as a parent still infuriates me and just breaks my heart. all this to say—she was pressed on this particular point by several people, myself included, and…nothing any of us said appears to have mattered.
I specifically remember telling her this is any parent’s 3am nightmare but it’s particularly true for parents of disabled children at higher risk of abuse, and…again, am sure it made no difference”