“The church’s reputation matters, sure. The academy’s reputation matters, sure. Those things are secondary right now,” Gilbert added. “All that matters is making sure that absolutely every student entrusted to our care…is safe and protected and can be here and learn about Christ and grow as a human being, grow in their faith, without fear of anything like this happening.”
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Gilbert also affirmed “the courage and bravery of anyone involved in reporting this, as well as any victim or victims who sat through an interview and gave information.”
“We have to affirm that. Why? Because that’s difficult,” said Gilbert. “Can you imagine a young, young person having to sit in an interview like that with law enforcement?” Gilbert added that while “we don’t want to spin things positive here at all…we can thank God that because of the bravery of those who reported, this situation stopped where it is right now.”
Gilbert reminded church members that every adult in the state of Texas is a mandatory reporter, urging, “If you see something, say something…even suspicion, not just allegation, not just accusation, but suspicion.”
Pastor Ryan Gilbert Addresses Sunday Comments
Addressing the remarks he gave from the pulpit on Sunday, Gilbert said, “There might have been some confusion when I said what I said about basically what I just told you. I just want to be really clear about what gossip is and isn’t. Gossip does not include reporting suspicion or reporting something you see. That is not gossip.”
“Let me be very clear. I didn’t hear that from our church. I know online, a lot of people are misunderstanding or misconstruing what was said,” Gilbert continued. “So I just want to be clear with you all that you know, what we mean by ‘don’t gossip’ is do not speculate, especially about those who potentially made the report, which is supposed to be anonymous anyway, or obviously victims, potential victims.”
“Do not speculate. Do not gossip about them. Again, gossip does not include reporting suspicion, ever. So I just want to make that very clear. I don’t think any of you misconstrued that, at least not that I know,” he added. “I just want to make that clear.”
Gilbert asked the congregation to pray for everyone at the church and school who has been affected, including Strawn’s family. He said, “They are members of this church. In many ways, they are victims just as much as anyone else. We want to affirm them, we want to welcome them, we want to love them. And we are doing that.”
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Gilbert ended the video by urging anyone with information about the case to report it to church or school leadership or directly to law enforcement.
