User:ReaderSeraphim67/sandbox

An Open Letter to Pokrov.org and to the Orthodox Christian community and the world at large:

Pokrov.org P.O. Box 170654 San Francisco, CA 94117

(This is an updated edit of a previous letter sent to Pokrov.org in 2013-2014. The updates are to reflect the current state of affairs in trying to mitigate what we believe to be a serious error on Pokrov.org’s part.) “For our war is not against men, but against principalities and powers, and spirits of wickedness in high places…” Dear Pokrov.org, and Founders Cappy Larson and Melanie Jula Sakoda, We are six Orthodox Christians who are also graduates of Father Cassian Newton’s (Dr. Miller Newton’s) treatment program. Five of us are converts to Orthodoxy through the guidance of Father Cassian and one is “cradle Orthodox” who returned to active practice of Orthodoxy through his help. One of us is a Tonsured Reader. We believe that the Pokrov website serves a laudatory purpose in that it helps protect people from abuse by priests. However, we also believe it is most important not to allow the site to be used for character assassination of innocent priests. We are deeply disturbed and pained that you have included Father Cassian in your list of abusive priests. We have known Father Cassian in various settings for over 30 years. We know him to be a good, holy, and kind priest. Through the treatment program he ran prior to his priesthood, we and hundreds of others got our lives back from drug addiction and other compulsive behavior disorders. There are a number of scandalous attacks leveled against Father Cassian on a group of websites on the Internet. One here, that is referred to in the article by Survivors, written by Wes Fager, you have included in your website under Father Cassian’s name. The group of sites are so closely interrelated that it can safely be assumed that the same few individuals have created all of these sites. The same stories and same names, may be found on any one of them. Most of the individuals involved with these websites did not complete treatment, and returned to drug-abuse. Some are those who did complete treatment, but returned to drug abuse after treatment. And, some of those involved were actually in the treatment programs long after Father Cassian had left and so, consequently, never actually had contact with him. The individuals involved with the websites, and the sites themselves, have no regard for factuality or truth. Instead, they are involved in an ideological attack on Father Cassian. These individuals are involved in active drug use and a hedonistic and irreverent lifestyle. For example, one individual bragged on the website about smoking a marijuana “blunt” (essentially a cigar loaded with marijuana and not tobacco) in the Orthodox Chapel of St. Mary Magdalen. They support legalization of drugs - including for children! These websites are tools, used in the attack on traditional and Christian values in American society. At the highest levels, behind the website is a notorious billionaire radical, George Soros, who wants to make America an “open society” - meaning a society with no laws against drug-use – as stated before, even for children! - and no laws against any sexual act, even between an adult and a child! Part of Mr. Soros’ agenda includes the legalization of drugs for everyone, hence his attack on Dr. Newton, who was one of the most articulate national voices about the disastrous effects of drug use on adolescents and their families. Included in Mr. Soros’ agenda have been attacks on: -	Ambassador and Mrs. Mel Sember, who themselves founded Straight Inc., a treatment program, and the Drug Free America Foundation -	Dr. Robert DuPont, the founding director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse -	Dr. Carlton Turner, President Ronald Reagan’s advisor on drug and alcohol abuse -	and Dr. Buddy Gleaten the founder and director of the P.R.I.D.E. conferences which educated parents about adolescent drug use and its prevention. This multi-pronged attack was aimed at compromising and silencing the most articulate voices about the teenage drug abuse problem in America. There are “giveaways” that show that the agenda of these websites is pure propaganda. The first is the use of the term “child abuse”. The STRAIGHT and KIDS programs treated adolescents and young adults, not children. Their patients were aged 12-23, with more than 98% of the patients in the 15- to 23-year-old range, and with fewer than 2% in early adolescence, (ages 12-14.) There are several more tip-offs which reveal that the forces you have been listening to for slanderous testimony against Fr Cassian are NOT supportive of Orthodoxy, of the lives and recoveries of adolescents with drug and behavior problems, and are indeed trying to tear down all that is good, pure, holy, just and true. I will point out one of the most obvious. One of the websites that is involved in the attacks bears mention. Look at the name: http://www.cannabisculture.com How can it be that a site that is dedicated to the normalization of marijuana, which is such a profoundly dangerous drug, be in line with what we are taught by the Church? Simple answer – it cannot. Ladies, you are being used and laughed at by these people. A third characteristic of these sites is actually the very small number of actual plaintiffs. We see the stories of Fred Collins, Rebecca Erlich, Channery Soto, and Antonio Carrera repeated over and over, and of course there are a few others. But KIDS and STRAIGHT treated over 5,000 people! And most of them, even those that went back to drug-use, do not have anything to say. And of course, those of us who are sober are usually very grateful to Dr. Newton / Father Cassian, for all he has done and continues to do to help us. He is no longer the director of a treatment program, but he is still a great friend and mentor to many of us. The sites speak of Dr. Newton as if he were were the sole practitioner delivering treatment to individuals. This is simply not the case. In fact, he was a clinical administrator over multiple treatment centers in various parts of the country. Each of the treatment centers had its own directors, clinical staff, consulting physicians and psychiatrists, and a large paraprofessional staff. I would like to offer you (again) the truth of this matter. First, until very recently when I sent my last letter to you, we have refrained from publicizing our reaction to this slander. This was actually Fr. Cassian’s own wish. He believed that this sort of chatter was not worth paying attention to, even though we, as his former patients and now, close friends, were often very upset over his receiving such awful treatment. His guidance had been that over time, all this would sort of fizzle out, because he is not in the practice of drug-use recovery counseling any more, and that living quietly as a priest, he would draw no attention to himself. Unfortunately, the scandalous attacks have been sustained, and re-repeated on your site as well as all these other places. This has been causing personal damage to his life. This is very serious, and may well cross into the legal arena of defamation. Here is how: - You have publicly stated and repeated hearsay. - You did not bother to contact Fr Cassian to ask him about the alleged cases. - You did not investigate the context of the treatment program in an objective manner - you fielded only complaints, without understanding the dynamics of drug-use and the psychology of the drug-using individual. - You did not check the stories against easily verifiable facts.

In essence, Pokrov.org, which ought to be a useful resource, has become a vehicle for gossip. By taking this slander to such a public level, you have caused a great deal of damage, not only to Father Cassian, but to many people who are confronted with the knowledge of both his spiritual gifts and this "background" of gossip.

There is an old saying that spreading gossip is like throwing feathers in the air. The wind takes them and blows them around, and one can never get all the feathers back. By being party to un-vetted and un-substantiated accusations, Pokrov.org has thrown feathers in the air about Father Cassian, and probably other clergy as well, and this is only hurting the clergy themselves, everyone they might be otherwise able to help, and the people that remain in pain because they feel afraid to trust anyone because of "what has been said."

This has created some very sad struggles for Father, who truly does not deserve such treatment. Now, you and I have spoken directly on the phone about this, and I was amazed and dismayed by the response I got from you. If Pokrov.org is about stopping abuse, then you might look to yourselves and see what your irresponsible handling of what really amounts to slander and gossip are actually doing. By your own statements, “Pokrov.org is a resource for survivors of abuse in the Eastern Rite churches, both Orthodox and Catholic. We are NOT affiliated with any church, nor is this site “blessed” by any hierarch. Pokrov.org is proud to be under the umbrella of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.” If you are to be a responsible member of SNAP, then you owe it to BOTH the people who have been abused by priests, and the priests who have been abused by other people, to vet everything you hear. You didn’t do that with Father, and I offered you the information, but what did you do? You referred this to Matthew Malooly, who called me from Pennsylvania and claimed to be an abuse victim of Dr. Newton / Father Cassian. I vetted him and found him to be lying, though he indeed is a very troubled guy. I checked his story directly with Father Cassian for timeline and dates and history, and the poor guy’s story was fabricated. He blamed Fr Cassian because the staff at the Boston STRAIGHT program maligned Malooly when he was trying to gain employment somewhere. The problem with this story is that Fr Cassian / Dr Newton had left the STRAIGHT organization long before the Boston treamtment facility was ever established! So there was no connection whatsoever between Dr. Newton and Matthew. His story is a complete lie.

Mr. Malooly got rageful at me and hung up the phone when I gently suggested to him that he was not matching his story with real events. When I wrote and / or called Pokrov back, the answer you gave me was “We never told him to call you…” And this is incredible, because there is no way on earth that such a person would ever think to call me, a no-account Reader in the Church almost two thousand miles away and clearly not of any possible influence to a guy in Pennsylvania. Come on, let’s be serious about that. To say you had nothing to do with that man finding my number is just asinine. We can do better than that, and I honestly would not have minded you saying “Yes, we thought you should talk to him because he has this story…” - that would be reasonable. That’s what I did, too - in good faith, I spoke with him. So, I did my homework, listened to Matt for two hours and found him to be dishonest by simply talking to Father Cassian about him and asking him about this story. Why didn't Pokrov do this? It isn't hard!

I told you guys about that and you still did not vet this information for yourselves, but hid behind an attorney’s words, as though the attorney’s word is also gold. Again, this is absurdly strange, because the very nature of Pokrov’s stated mission is to reveal truth, to protect people against priests. Would it not be true that maybe there is a need to protect priests from being slandered by people who have an agenda?

I thought you were dedicated to finding the truth in these matters! Abuse by a priest is a bad, bad, thing. I see that you have great advice for dealing with abuse problems. Like I said in the earlier part of this letter, we SUPPORT the mission of Pokrov.org, were it to be executed properly, as a Christian organization. We WANT you to do what you do, though I have some reservation personally about a couple things in the way you do it.

But if you’re going to be responsible, and supportive of the Church and all her members, you have to start vetting the complaints you get. Especially now, when no one can so much as say “homosexuality is a sin by the teaching of the Church” without getting branded a “hater.” What lawlessness! And you want to participate in a grave sin of slander and gossip of the innocent? That is what you have been doing. I have provided information before, and am doing so again, in an attempt to show you information you should have found before, and I offer you again, myself as a contact point to ask anything you want to ask. You need to. What you have done with Father Cassian is completely wrong, and in grave error, and you need to correct it. Here, then, is some more detailed information refuting allegations made on various survivor websites, and I urge you in the Lord’s Name, to read these and contact me with questions, and get this matter corrected. You will be asked about this at the Judgment, and I do not want your answer to hurt your own eternal fate. It’s that serious.

Dr. Newton holds Ph.D.’s in Medical Anthropology and Clinical Neuropsychology, and is actually an internationally recognized expert on adolescent development, problems, addiction, eating disorders, and behavioral problems. With this level of expertise on Dr. Newton’s part, it is amazing that the “Survivors’” website (and unfortunately, Pokrov.org) neglects to mention: -	His several books, including: Not My Kid which was the basis for a CBS Primetime movie of the same title, which also appeared in a Scandinavian edition published in Norway; and Adolescence:  Guiding Youth Through the Perilous Ordeal which is an introduction to adolescent development based on neurological development and has been used as a supplemental text in several medical schools. -	Dr. Newton was the keynote speaker for a six-nation Scandinavian conference on teenage drug abuse [consider using statement “drug-use”, not “abuse”]. -	He has been the keynote speaker for numerous organizations in the United States, Canada, and Europe on adolescent addiction and other compulsive behavior problems and the treatment and prevention of the same. -	The KIDS and Straight treatment programs were prominently featured on a number of television network magazine shows including NBC’s NBC Magazine, NBC’s 1986, ABC’s Late-Night America, Christian Lifestyle Magazine, Peter Jenning’s ABC special ”Drugs: a Plague upon America”, the Home Show, Hour Magazine, and others. -	A feature story on Dr. Newton and the KIDS program appeared in the New York Times Sunday Magazine. -	First Lady Nancy Reagan kicked off her “Just Say No” program at the original Straight center in Florida with Dr. and Mrs. Newton. -	The President of the United States George Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush visited the Straight program in Virginia. The scurrilous websites take these accolades out of context and claim “abuse” but the reality is far different. It should be noted that the visits from Nancy Reagan and the Bushes happened over quite a long period of time, more than long enough for any malpractice to be thoroughly vetted. But the visits happened just the same.

The attacks refer to lawsuits filed against the Straight and KIDS programs, and which tell similar stories of “abuse.” All this, even now, is part of the assault on Dr. Newton and the Semblers to discredit and silence them. The individuals who told their “stories” were recruited to sue by waving the possibility of large financial awards in front of them. The attorneys involved created allegations in the original filings that were designed to be used in the subsequent website. These allegations were never again raised in the course of depositions about the suits. The suits themselves revolved around issues of proper diagnosis and treatment. All of the suits were settled out of court between the parties with no admission of guilt. The defense in the suits was handled by the liability insurance companies with little or no decision-making by Dr. Newton or the treatment programs since the programs were closed by the time of the settlements. The websites falsely portray all of this as if guilt had been found and that Dr. Newton had been required to pay large sums of settlement money. In actuality, Dr. Newton was not mentioned in any of the settlement documents and the funds were those of the insurance company. In looking at the allegations printed by the Pokrov site (which are all simply unresearched reprints of “what they said”) – I thought it best to try to follow these allegations out historically and to provide Father Cassian’s own response to these. What follows, then, is his direct commentary on these matters, edited only for spelling and punctuation. It is a shame that no one in Pokrov has had the courage to approach Father Cassian directly and honestly to ask him about these issues, because he would have happily answered you. But instead, I believe your own emotions and biases have led you into an awful sin – that of slandering an innocent man. Here then are the facts, with many of these accounts answered directly by Dr. Newton, himself: •	Fred Collins had been a patient in the Virginia program. Collins alleged three issues: physical abuse, emotional abuse and false imprisonment meaning that as an adult in not been allowed to sign out of treatment. Dr. Newton testified with reference to the nature and policies of the STRAIGHT Programs.

The federal judge in this case, after hearing all the evidence, ruled that no physical or emotional abuse had occurred. He ruled that false imprisonment might have occurred because the program did not have adequate records dealing with requests by adults to withdraw from treatment. Actually Fred Collins had requested to leave treatment two or three times and each time as a result of counseling decided to remain in treatment. However there was no adequate paper record of this process including his decisions to remain in treatment. Dr. Newton designed a Sign-out Book documenting each stage of the sign-out procedure which was presented to the federal judge who validated the procedure. The actual situation of Fred Collins elopement from the program is very interesting. At the time he was on an advanced phase of treatment living in his own home with his own keys and driving his own car by himself to college classes three days a week and to the program four days a week. He was in no way imprisoned or controlled. However, one night a former girlfriend in the neighborhood saw him return home with newcomers and stared at him with question. Obviously embarrassed he staged a dramatic exit from his house breaking a bay window as a way of egress in spite of the fact that he could have simply walked out the front or back door, started his own car, and driven away. •	With reference to the licensure of the program by the state of New Jersey, we met with the state alcoholism treatment agency and the state drug abuse treatment agency before the KIDS program opened about possible licensure.

There was no provision in New Jersey law for licensure of outpatient drug abuse or alcoholism treatment programs, even intensive ones. We lobbied for the creation of some form of licensure or certification for our program and other similar ones.

The statement that we [KIDS] withdrew our request for licensure is a blatant and outrageous lie.

Years later, as a result of our request, the state agency created a certification process.

[KIDS was] the first and only program to apply and be certified. For several years KIDS remained the only program to be certified and continued to be so until we closed for financial reasons in November 1998.

Sometime in the late 1980s or early 1990s a new business manager told Dr. Newton and KIDS about a national accreditation organization called Association for the Accreditation of Ambulatory Health Care. We applied, went through the accreditation process, and became the first mental health and/or substance abuse program to be accredited.

KIDS went through the renewal accreditation processes and remained accredited until the day the program closed in November 1998.

•	The Channery Soto incident involving three peer counselors Carlos Lugo, Michael O’Connor, and George Clemence, is much distorted. Channery was physically attacking other patients in the program. The three peer counselors took him into a counseling room to confront him about his behavior and to secure a commitment to change from him.

As the writer of this refutation, I want to add a personal thought. I knew Channery personally. Channery was a good guy. We all liked him and wanted to help him, greatly. But when he didn't want to participate in the treatment process, he was capable of great violence. He was very strong, and was literally a person capable of causing severe injury to anyone he attacked. The counselors that attempted to get him to stop this violence were tasked with stopping him from being physically violent. This was very difficult to do. It should also be noted that the thing Channery was being violent about was that he did not want to talk about his history with drug use. That's all. Instead of being honest about what he did, he often brutally attacked people around him. Even as dangerous as he was, I was very sad when he left the program. I think all of us felt this way. - SH

He attacked them as he had been attacking patients, and they were forced to restrain him. He was not beaten or even hit. He, typically, as a druggie, invented a fictional story to justify himself and to hopefully gain money. The Secaucus Judge Emil Delvaglio [sp?] clearly did not understand what had occurred. He was subsequently fired by the City Council of Secaucus (not for this case but rather for his general ineptitude) and replaced by another judge. Later the case was dropped.

•	A single individual from the Texas regulatory agency attempted to illegally close down El Paso KIDS. He was acting in behalf of a lawyer friend in El Paso, who was sexually using minors in exchange for drugs. A Texas judge, upon hearing the case, immediately threw it out of court.

•	The whole idea and concept of the relationship of the prosecutor’s office visit and the change in name of KIDS of Bergen County to KIDS of North Jersey, and the subsequent move to Secaucus is totally distorted and in error.

It was five or six years after the prosecutor visit that the Board of Directors decided to change the name of the program. The modifier “of Bergen County” had led people to believe it was a county program only for residents of that County. Since the program actually drew patients from all over New Jersey and even out-of-state and out-of-country, the Board decided to change the modifier to “of North Jersey”, to make clear that patients and families from other areas were welcome in the program. This change and the reasoning for it were published in the community news column of the Bergen Record, at least 18 months BEFORE the program relocated to Secaucus. It is unintelligent to think that the name change was designed to cover up anything since the primary name “KIDS” remained the same.

It was at least a year after the name change that the lessors raised the rent beyond the ability of the program to pay while at the Hackensack location. Therefore, the program conducted a search for a new location, which resulted in temporary housing until a new location was found in Secaucus.

•	The website also states that in 1999 Father Cassian and Christ at the Sea Foundation sought approval to treat adolescents. This, also, is a complete fabrication and lie. No such request ever occurred. Christ at the Sea Foundation is a Pan-Orthodox Christian retreat center where individuals come to work on their spiritual lives. Father Cassian, as a priest, hears confessions and provides spiritual direction. The retreat center is not and never has been a treatment facility. This could have been discovered by yourselves with nothing more difficult than a phone call. •	Sarasota STRAIGHT was opened under James Hartz, the executive director of STRAIGHT. It remained under his direction until he resigned in a conflict with the Board of Directors. At this time Dr. Miller Newton was appointed National Clinical Director, and then he assumed responsibility for all the branches of STRAIGHT, including Sarasota. Within a week or two of his promotion, he discovered that things were not right with the Sarasota program.

Within days he terminated the director of that program, appointed an acting director from his own St. Petersburg staff, and transferred other staff members (peer counselors) out. He proceeded immediately to clean up the problems in Sarasota.

However the Department of Health and Rehabilitation Services and the states attorney of Sarasota County had already begun an investigation. The report about the problems in the Sarasota program was from the period before Dr. Newton’s responsibility for the Sarasota program. However the assistant State attorney, in dealing with Dr. Newton as a representative of Straight Inc. must have assumed that he was the responsible person from the beginning. This simply was not true. All the lawsuits related to Sarasota Straight were from the period before Dr. Newton’s responsibility for the program.

Pokrov.org is unfair and misleading to include these issues in their entry about Father Cassian (Dr. Newton).

•	With reference to Jennifer Woolston in KIDS of the Great Salt Lake (Salt Lake City, Utah), the event described had to do with desperate parents trying to save their troubled child with the help of other parents, and in no way reflected policy of the KIDS program.

KIDS of the Great Salt Lake was an independent Incorporated program with a Board of Directors which was licensed by KIDS Centers of America to use its treatment model and therefore was not under the administrative control of Dr. Miller Newton. Therefore, including this in Pokrov.org’s material is a gross misstatement.

•	Martin Brashares was in the Atlanta STRAIGHT Program and Dr. Newton had no involvement in the incident or in the lawsuit.

•	With reference to the Michael Daniels suit, the Michael Caine suit and the Jacqueline Stallings suit, by this time Dr. Newton was in a national administrative position with STRAIGHT Inc. and had no direct involvement in the issues or the cases. The same of information applies to the boy Charles, from Albuquerque, New Mexico. This was an incident in the local St. Petersburg program, which Dr. Newton himself was not even aware of until it was included in the Pokrov.org site.

•	KIDS Centers of America, which franchised the California program, closed it because it failed to comply with franchise requirements. It was taken over by STRAIGHT Inc. and was closed down by the state of California for cause.

•	The incident reported by the TV program West 57th Street is much distorted. The Bergen County prosecutor’s office visited the KIDS Program in Hackensack only once. There were only five to seven investigators from the Prosecutor’s office, not twenty. Their visit had been instigated by a social worker who was advocating for a juvenile who had eloped from the program and spun a story to keep from returning. Two Hackensack police officers who were forced to escort the prosecutor’s office investigators stood around saying “This is wrong”. Several legal-aged teenagers, stimulated by the visit, asked to leave the program. Later Larry McClure, the Bergen County Prosecutor, apologized for this visit to Hackensack City Councilman Conrad Francis, a member of KIDS’ Board of Directors, saying that he listened to the wrong person on his staff about the issue. Several of those who left the program that day died premature deaths as a result of their return to drug dependence. This was very sad. Prosecutor McClure stopped any legal action against the program.

•	Tony Michele eloped from the New Jersey program. Two peer counselors who were his childhood friends attempted to bring him back, because they were concerned about his return to drug abuse. A scuffle occurred, and the police were called, and Tony signed charges against them.

The two counselors were acting on their own without direction or authorization from the program, out of care for their friend. They were reprimanded by the director, and the reprimand was placed in their files. They were suspended from work until the legal issue was resolved.

Tony’s parents convinced him to drop the charges against his friends on the condition that they would not return him to the program (this was a commitment by his parents, not by the program.)

Incidentally, both the clinical file that KIDS possessed and the emergency room medical record, show that Tony was injured because he was scuffling with other patients. The television program that ran a story on this matter, West 57th Street, in its dying weeks attempted to do dramatic exposés to attract viewers. Its portrayal of the Michele incident was distorted and fictionalized for the sake of drama.

•	Christy Johnston, in one of the trials, under oath testified that there was no procedure for an adult age patient to withdraw from treatment. One hour later another staff member testified that there was indeed a procedure for adult age patients to withdraw from treatment, and that the Withdrawal Book documenting the steps in patient withdrawal was kept on Christy Johnston’s desk while she was a peer counselor, AND that she had responsibility for maintenance of the book. She obviously was a blatant liar and perjured herself. Her other statements about the program were also totally dishonest. Whether she was being paid or not by the attorney for her dishonest testimony, we don’t know.

•	The case of Antonio Carrera is interesting. He was admitted to the KIDS program by his mother after he had been declared an “incorrigible juvenile” by a New York Juvenile judge. The KIDS program not only treated drug-users but also adolescents with other compulsive behavior problems. Antonio was uncontrollable by his parents and school officials. In assessing his problems we discovered that he hung around with an adolescent gang whose members were drug users and minor drug dealers.

It is extremely abnormal for an adolescent to hang around with a drug using group and not participate. The effect of peer pressure is to get each adolescent to conform with the group. In Antonio’s stay in treatment we were never able to get an honest and straight story about his drug use. He would own up the use of drugs and then take it back. This went on a dozen or more times. So we were never able to get a bottom line on his problems and therefore help him come to terms with them. He exhibited with us the same defiant “you can’t get to me” attitude that he demonstrated at home and at school.

The court case tried to make an issue of him being in a drug abuse program and being treated inappropriately for drug use. The facts are that the KIDS program treated troubled adolescents and young adults for a variety of problems and Antonio was admitted to treatment for his known behavior problems. Although it usually is the case that such behavior is part of the repertoire of a drug-user, it is also occasionally happens that an adolescent is simply out of control with his or her behavior. Whether Antonio actually used drugs or not has nothing to do with what caused his parents to see that he needed help - he most certainly did! His own refusal to be honest, and his continuation of his defiant attitude, were choices we did not want him to make, but which he made, anyway. •	The various allegations of violence arose out of situations where individual patients had to be restrained in order to protect other patients whom they were attacking. The individuals in the programs had histories of violence prior to admission to treatment. Drug-using and other behaviorally troubled adolescents are very crafty. They easily invent stories to prevent their return to treatment, thereby allowing them to continue their drug-use and / or acting out. •	Allegations of false imprisonment were based on the ideology put forth by Mr. Soros and other like-minded people, that no one - including a child- or teenager’s own parents had the right to admit adolescents to treatment, or to force them to stop using drugs - in spite of the facts that they were in trouble with the law, failing at school, and in violent conflict with their parents and siblings.

We could go on disputing the out-right lies stated on the Survivors website. It is abundantly clear that the article is intended to discredit Dr. Newton, to silence him, and thereby to further the pro-legalization and pro-open society agenda. We ourselves, who were patients in the KIDS treatment program, received a lot of help to stop such dishonest living, and instead were taught to be honest and to take complete responsibility for our lives, in order to become sober and productive individuals in society. Furthermore, as we have noted, we all entered, or re-entered the life in Christ in the Holy Orthodox Christian Church and are all very dedicated to the Faith, something a dishonest person – and most notably a drug-using person – cannot possibly do. Our foundation of honesty, trust in a Power greater than ourselves, and the willingness to follow the will of God to the utmost is what propelled us into the Orthodox Church herself. We know that you, the founders of Pokrov, are yourselves dedicated to the protection of the helpless against those who would take advantage of them. Such is a good and noble, and indeed God-pleasing mission. However, in this particular case, you have been misled, and badly, into aiding and abetting a group of people who care absolutely nothing about Orthodox Christianity or any lifestyle that espouses traditional Christian, family and societal values. In having failed to properly investigate these allegations - and perhaps because we, as Father Cassian’s spiritual children, under his own guidance, have preferred the way of silence amidst persecution - an innocent and indeed, a holy man, has been severely maligned, and the Enemy of all our souls has been taking advantage of the chance to twist and distort the good works you are trying to accomplish. We know from Scripture that our Lord said that the world will hate all of us who are Christ’s followers, because the world hates the Master we follow. We also know that evil rises against those people who do great good works. We see it time and again, through history with the saints and prophets, with our Lord, Himself, and with all his Apostles, and with all followers who seek to put everything on the line for the sake of the Lord. And, we know the reason why: That if such people can be successfully neutralized, the Enemy wins. At the very center of this series of attacks, then, is not even George Soros, as regrettable as his positions on life are. But behind him is the subtle and powerful attack of the one who seeks to destroy all of us. We have detailed some – and only some – of the facts regarding Father Cassian / Dr Newton here. Our own lives – our personal recoveries from drug-use and alcoholism, and out of control behavior – were guided by Father’s counsel. He has fought for our salvation and recovery when we ourselves had no desire for either, because of his amazing Christ-like patience and love for us. We have been grieved by the slander brought against him for all the time we have known him. We also grieve for those people who are doing the slandering, because their own lives are in terrible disarray (though most of them would never admit this openly) – many of these people were our own friends, and often, dear friends. But this should serve to illustrate the strength of the attack of the Enemy, through alcoholism and all the mental and spiritual distortion it brings. One of the steps in our program of recovery says that we turned our will and lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. And you know, that the spiritual father helps discern for us what God’s will is for us. Father Cassian has been loving and unfailing to ALL the people who have ever encountered him, whether in the era of the treatment programs or now, and he has suffered with us, and for us. We simply cannot make this statement strongly enough. FATHER CASSIAN IS A GOOD, RIGHTEOUS, HOLY AND KIND PRIEST AND NOT AN ABUSER. HE DOES NOT DESERVE THIS ABUSE AND INJUSTICE.

We, the undersigned, emphatically request: •	That the blatantly false articles and their reference to the scurrilous websites be immediately removed from the name of Father Cassian on the Pokrov.org website •	That you state in the website that the listing of Father Cassian as an “abusive priest” was a grievous mistake, done without a fully impartial and objective vetting process. •	That Pokrov.org commits itself to properly vetting all other priests and hierarchs, etc. that have been named as “abusive” from little more evidence than hearsay, a.k.a. gossip. •	That you publicly, on the website, apologize to Father Cassian Newton first, and later to anyone else also damaged, for the harm done by this misrepresentation of him on Pokrov.org. By doing this you will in part correct a grievous injustice done to Father Cassian. But, more, you will raise the public estimation of Pokrov.org, and begin to set this project’s noble purpose to a true and proper use. The Beatitude concerning persecution for righteousness sake ( Matthew 5:10) certainly applies to Father Cassian, and many other priests and clergy you have wrongly named here. We, the undersigned, are certainly available for you to contact to talk to us in person about any other concerns you might still have. We DO support the stated mission of Pokrov.org, and we are available to help you in any way we can, to help correct this very serious error. Peter Day Christina Dris George Moss Irene Moss Caroline Whitrock Rdr. Seraphim Hanisch, Moscow Patriarchate.