A Voice in The Wilderness

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When we go through extended pain, we will often have to preach about things we don't resonate with at the time.
— Haddon Robinson

Denver Seminary was hit with three lawsuits in the late 1980s. In one case, a former student had sexually molested a boy, and the family sued the seminary. Two others involved a former professor who had gotten inappropriately involved with a counselee.

For one of the cases, I had to give a deposition. I had no idea what to expect, but I wasn't worried because neither I nor the seminary had done anything improper. With our lawyer at my side, I walked into the room where the deposition would take place, where we met four lawyers from the prosecution.

The questioning began, and I quickly came to a frightening realization. The four lawyers across the table were ruthless, and my lawyer was out of his depth. They were wolves, and he was a lamb. This was the first time he had handled such a case, and he had not prepared me for what happens at a deposition.

Only later did I learn the legal strategy behind such depositions. The prosecution knows that even if you are innocent, law suits can bring financial ruin. Insurance companies are wary of juries, and they stand to pay out $100,000 even if you win your case. So they're often willing to settle out of court even if you're innocent.

All the action, then, takes place in the depositions. That's where the prosecution tries to strike you with fear and make you settle out of court.

In my case, they did a good job of it. My deposition lasted two days. The first day prosecution lawyers grilled me for nine hours with question after question, doing everything they could to cast my answers into a negative light, twisting my motives, questioning my integrity.

Since then ...

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