Feathers in the Wind

 

In their defense video about the abuse allegations covered by the Texas Observer and WFAA, Homestead talks about the story of St. Philip Neri's penance given to someone for gossiping: 

The story is told of St. Philip Neri (1515–1595) that he gave a most unusual penance to a novice who was guilty of spreading malicious gossip. He told him to take a feather pillow to the top of a church tower on a blustery day and there release all the feathers to the wind. Then he was to come down from the tower, collect all the feathers dispersed over the far countryside, and put them back into the pillow. Of course the poor novice couldn’t do it, and that was precisely Philip’s point about the great evil of tale bearing. Slander and calumny have a way of spreading to the four winds and, once released, can never be completely recalled. Even when accusations are firmly nailed as false, the reputations of those falsely accused bear a lingering taint. “Oh yes,” it is vaguely said, “wasn’t he once accused of . . . ”

Homestead's Non-Disparagement Agreement

Homestead Heritage took umbrage at The Texas Observer's and WFAA's usage of their Resolutions on the Limits of the Use of the Authority of External Compulsion by claiming that the "document never refers to crime at all and only forbids lawsuits between church members." To be honest, I think the news organizations could have directed their focus a little better. Though the document clearly states that "religion" is not "an agent, or the proper province, of the corporate State and its investigative, police and judicial services" (i.e., the criminal justice system), from a spiritual abuse perspective, the fact any organization claiming the title of church would ask its members -- not its employees -- to sign a non-disparagement agreement should draw scrutiny. 

Founder of Homestead Heritage Dead at 77

 

(Photo source)

Blair Adams, the founder of the group that eventually became Homestead Heritage, died on Tuesday, July 27, 2021, at the age of 77.