Away on vacation, I came home to a pile of mail, one of which had no return address, and my own name and address typed on a piece of paper that had been cut and pasted to the envelope. I opened it. My heart sunk.

The letter had to do with this sexual offender and one church’s handling of the situation. It was a letter “proving” that the church did everything right (although from my limited perspective…I don’t know a lot about this case…it seems like the fact that the abuser wasn’t reported is a problem.)

I glanced at the contents and threw the letter away. I simply did not want it in my house. I could not stomach justifications for inaction. And to be honest, the whole thing just creeped me out.

In my work with sexual abuse victims, I am used to undergoing attack in subtle and not so subtle ways, but this one made me nervous. Whoever sent this knew my home address. What is strange is that I haven’t written about this case, or publicly commented on it here. I have been angry at institutions that have chosen to prefer the perpetrator over the predator and have written about that here. I also applaud Boz Tchividjian’s brave work in this area.

So yesterday, I received another letter. I kept it as evidence. (Anyone know if I have any recourse?)

The whole thing makes me angry, and this is why: Only cowards send anonymous letters in the mail. If this person feels so strongly about the rightness of the situation, why not dialog here? Why not address me in a public setting? To send “evidence” to my home address is underhanded and bordering on harassment.

If you wrote it, my request is this: show yourself and share your views in public. And by all means, STOP sending me anonymous diatribes.