SEWARD (NE)
Lincoln Journal Star
BY Art Hovey / Lincoln Journal Star
SEWARD — There wasn’t much room to question their credentials.
Panelists at a Hope and Healing Seminar at St. John Lutheran Church on Saturday included Barb Rebentisch, who remembered curling up under her bed at Concordia University before telling a college friend she had been the victim of incest as a child.
They included Len Rotherham, who stumbled drunk into his darkened bedroom late one night to tell his wife he had been a victim of child sexual abuse 20 years earlier at school.
And they included Cathie Van Domelen, wife of Saturday’s featured speaker, Bob Van Domelen, who had to explain to their three school-age children 20 years ago that their father had been arrested for sexually abusing teenage boys.
Cathie Van Domelen recalled how she stood with her back to the kitchen sink. “And I told them their father had done some very bad things, and he would have to pay for it … but I made sure that they understood that we were blameless.”
Saturday’s seminar was part of the latest effort by Seward’s largest church to come to grips with its past.
In 2001, School Principal David Mannigel committed suicide after he was confronted with allegations that he had sexually abused students.
In 2002, St. John teacher Arlen Meyer was similarly accused.
Although neither was criminally prosecuted, a church investigation found “a consistent pattern of sexual misconduct” by Mannigel involving at least six students.
Meyer was excommunicated but then reinstated earlier this year as the church leadership and a congregation of about 2,800 struggled to resolve his membership standing.