Religion · Statewide · VT · August 19, 2026
Vermont Church Elder, Child Evangelism Leader Charged With CSAM Distribution
What Alinsky tactic is being used
One of the thirteen rules is in play here.
Rule 4
“Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.”
The story's whole weight falls on the gap between a stated standard and actual practice: a man whose role was to lead children's evangelism statewide is accused of distributing abuse material, and the prosecutor's line that his ministry work focused specifically on children is exactly the sentence that will be quoted back at churches. CEF publishes a Child Protection Policy requiring a national criminal background check and an application for all volunteers and paid workers; the obvious question anyone will now ask is whether that book of rules was applied to the state director himself. Every one of the four action items is aimed at the same seam.
Counter-Rule 4 · Radical Integrity
Close the gap between stated values and actual practice before anyone else finds it. This tactic only works where the gap is real.
Close the gap yourself, this month, before anyone else measures it. Ask your elder board for the written child protection policy, its adoption date, and the file for every current children's worker — not a reassurance that files exist — and ask your parachurch partner for the same in writing about its paid staff and directors. Where a file is missing or a screening is stale, fix it and record the date it was fixed; where the policy is silent (two-adult rule, five-year re-screening, reporting deadline), write the missing paragraph and have it minuted. The church in this story removed the man by unanimous vote and put it on the record; the equivalent for you is a paper trail you would be content to hand to a reporter or a parent.
Chapter 3 sets out the rules; Chapter 15 answers each of them in turn. This is that pairing applied to this story.
Know where you stand
The free 4-minute assessment identifies your mountain and your institution’s capture phase — so alerts like this one arrive matched to where you actually stand.
Facing this yourself? Ask. Describe what is happening and get what the book, Scripture, and the law of your state say, with the exact words to use. Your first one is free.