Reverend Bud Heckman, a Methodist minister, has admitted his guilt and has agreed to retire, rather than facing a church trial. It is just as well. There is no point in dragging the church down with him.
The Interfaith Conference
While I am sure that to most of his parishioners he was known as reverend, in the world of ethics, I view him as a sexual predator. At just one interfaith conference, he was accused of sexually harassing four women in addition to having sexual relations outside of his marriage. The failure to be “celibate outside of marriage” may not be a big deal in a societal context, but in terms of Heckman’s vows it is a pretty serious offense.
Bishop Gregory V. Palmer, who is, in essence, Heckman’s boss said:
“I deeply regret the harm that has been caused to any person due to an act of sexual misconduct by a pastor. There is no excuse.”
Naturally, Heckman has vehemently denied some of the charges. However, he has apparently been watched for some time.
According to the Washington Post:
“An ex-girlfriend of Heckman’s, who spoke to The Post on the condition that she be identified by the initials K.R. because she said she remains afraid of him [my italics], said that he stalked her when she tried to break off their relationship. He sent her messages, waited outside her apartment and scrawled chalk messages in front of her building.”
I wanted to share the entire quote above, because it suggests a man who is an angry abuser. In addition to “K.R.,” as that case was being settled, Laura Heckman (the reverend’s ex-wife) was divorcing Bud Heckman. She is quoted as saying that she grew frightened of her husband. Quoting directly from The Post:
“He insisted with alarming vehemence that he wouldn’t pay child support for their two children…he implied that he would kill the children rather than pay for their care.”
The patterns of Heckman’s harassment and abuse extended to women who traveled with him to interfaith conferences where he allegedly tried to force himself on them and/or exposed himself.
Power of the Pulpit
As the world has learned from accusation after accusation from the cases involving the Catholic church, there has traditionally been a wall placed around misconduct by the clergy. To the credit of the Methodist church, they are confronting these situations head-on rather than allowing them to spiral into a pattern of rather meaningless denial versus a preponderance of witnesses.
At least six women, maybe more (the Methodist church conducts these investigations behind closed doors), have come forward against Heckman. The question that looms is “why?” Why did he think he could maintain the pattern?
It was opportunity.
Heckman undoubtedly felt that as a reverend, his word was inscrutable. Who would dare go against a reverend? He may have been a predator, but he was also empowered.
His need was basic and complex. He had a need to exert his power and it was linked to sex, of course, but much deeper his relationship to his mission and his church. Perhaps he considered he was bigger than the mission and that there was a separate set of rules that applied only to him.
Did he use the bible and his teachings to justify his attitudes toward women? Perhaps. He would not have been the first sexual abuser to twist scripture into dominance and abuse.
Rationalization based on false narrative occurs with reverends as well as big-time movie producers.
It comes down to ethical behavior, of course, and an ethical sense was deeply lacking in Heckman’s mindset. It still is. How many people did he hurt by a lack of ethics? It is hard to say. What is true, is that he was not properly taught about ethics and he felt he was above the need to learn.
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