Special Episode: CT Reports on Itself

The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill

Christianity Today

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, True Crime

4.8 • 13K Ratings

🗓️ 29 March 2022

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As production of The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill progressed, another story was developing—inside the walls of Christianity Today. On March 15, 2022, CT released the results of an independent report from Guidepost Solutions, which outlined institutionally tolerated sexual harassment and misconduct along with failures in reporting and monitoring. To the heartbreak of many, some of the unhealthy behaviors that were being explored on this podcast were endemic at CT as well. If the story of Mars Hill is about more than a particular church, we must consider how the institutions we love and serve model similar failures. We must be willing to pursue justice and submit ourselves to the costly work of repentance and restoration. In this episode of The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, host Mike Cosper turns over the microphone to pivotal voices in the CT investigation, including whistleblower and online managing editor Andrea Palpant Dilley and CEO Tim Dalrymple. Learn how CT’s informal HR policies hurt the organization and how a “ministry as family” attitude enabled predatory behavior. Listen as well to how CT plans to move forward as they seek to respond with transparency, fairness, and accountability. Links: Timothy Dalrymple’s Editorial, “We Fell Short in Protecting Our Employees” Daniel Silliman’s Reporting, “Sexual Harassment Went Unchecked at Christianity Today” Guidepost Solutions Independent Assessment “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill” is a production of Christianity Today Executive Producer: Erik Petrik Producer, Writer, Editor, Host, and Mix Engineer: Mike Cosper Associate Producer: Joy Beth Smith Music and Sound Design: Kate Siefker Graphic Design: Bryan Todd Editorial Consultant: Kate Shellnutt Editor in Chief: Timothy Dalrymple Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	From Christianity Today, I'm Mike Cosper and you're listening to a special episode of the Rise and Fall of Marcel.
0:12.0	On March 15th, news broke at Christianity Today about another Christian organization reckoning with years of misconduct from within.
0:20.0	In this case, it was a history of sexual harassment and that the heart of the story was a system of policies and procedures and an office culture that failed to take accusations seriously, address them appropriately and discipline those responsible.
0:35.0	The organization in question was Christianity Today.
0:40.0	I first found out about this about six months ago while we were writing the midst of producing and releasing episodes of this podcast.
0:47.0	Leaders at CT let us know that an independent third party investigation was about to begin looking at issues like sexual harassment and bias inside our organization.
0:58.0	The plan from the outset was to make their findings public.
1:01.0	At the same time, our news editors were asked to consider doing independent reporting of their own.
1:06.0	They believed it was newsworthy and decided that Daniel Silliman, our news editor who's done investigative reporting into other Christian organizations in the past, like Ravi Zacharias Ministries,
1:16.0	would take the lead.
1:18.0	His work would be edited by Kate Shellnut, CT's senior news editor, and it would be published at about the same time as the third party investigations report.
1:27.0	No CT senior leaders would see it before it went live.
1:31.0	All of this was published on March 15th and in both the independent report and in Silliman's reporting, you'll find a years long history of unchecked sexual harassment inside CT.
1:42.0	In particular, Silliman's reporting found 12 firsthand accounts of sexual harassment centered on two individuals, a former advertising director named Aladdakunbo Alawoye and CT's former editor-in-chief, Mark Galley.
1:56.0	Alawoye's time at CT ended in 2017 when he was arrested for trying to pay to have sex with a minor.
2:03.0	Galley served CT for almost 30 years, including his last seven years as editor-in-chief. He retired on January 3rd, 2020.
2:13.0	According to Silliman's reporting, harassment included a variety of unwanted touching inappropriate remarks and more.
2:20.0	Some instances of harassment were reported to human resources, but didn't result in formal discipline.
2:26.0	Many others weren't reported, as victims of harassment felt that they had no reason to believe that anything would be done about the offenses.
2:34.0	The first time these issues were formally addressed came in August 2019, shortly after the arrival of CT's new president, Timothy Dowryppel.
2:42.0	According to Silliman, Galley was accused of unwanted touching of three women in three days during a gathering for CT employees who were remotely.
2:50.0	Dowryppel, who'd been unaware of the history of these complaints, confronted it only to find out there were no written reprimands or warnings given to Galley about past offenses.
	...

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