Public Statement Regarding Allegations Against Troth Elder
Diana Paxson has been accused of serious ethical failings. Both public and private statements were made by Paxson that brought her conduct and judgement into question.
As a result, Diana Paxson is suspended from all leadership positions, including clergy and Eldership as the Board investigates removing Diana’s titles of Clergy and Elder and revoking her membership in the organization.
Barring new evidence, we expect to conclude our deliberations by Saturday, May 11, and will make our final decision then.
Our failure to act in an expedient and transparent manner has let down our membership, as we did not properly address a serious complaint about someone in the leadership’s ethical and moral judgment.
People have come to The Troth to heal. As an organization, and as practitioners of Inclusive Heathenry, we must give people a safe place to heal. If people must worry that they are in yet another place where they will be dismissed to protect the powerful and influential, then we are not a safe place.
Proposed Correction Actions
Moving forward, the following changes will be made:
- The Whistleblower Policy will be revisited and revised to respond faster and more decisively in the future while still protecting any individual who brings issues to light. This will include bringing any complaints directly to the board that involve information that could endanger a minor or vulnerable person or ethics violations.
- All clergy, stewards, children/youth volunteers, and volunteers in leadership positions will undergo background checks, abuse prevention, and boundary awareness training. In addition, all clergy will be required to complete documented ethics courses and documentation of their local area’s mandated reporter training.
- We have already contacted Safe Gatherings, a risk management organization that does training and background checks, to see the best way to move forward on a technical and training level.
- A committee will be formed with both members and board members to evaluate how we can prevent issues like this in the future.
Timeline of Events
- 2/24/24: Clergy candidate reports the concern about Diana Paxson’s conduct and some of her statements to the Arbiter, as per our whistleblower policy. Our current, but soon to be reviewed and revised Whistle blower policy is: The Compliance Officer will work with the complainant to investigate the complaint and present the evidence and desired outcome to the Member Advocate/Arbitrator. The Arbitrator will be the final adjudicator on the issue.
- 04/20/24: After investigation, the Board is informed of the Arbiter’s determination that in response to this complaint, Diana would retire her positions as Clergy Coordinator and as Editor of Idunna.
- 05/11/24: The Board of Directors meets to deliberate on the question of whether or not to revoke Diana Paxson’s remaining titles and/or membership in The Troth.
Why was this kept confidential?
We followed our whistle blower policy and kept confidential throughout the process as the policy currently in our by-laws states:
Violations or suspected violations may be submitted on a confidential basis by the complainant. Reports of violations or suspected violations will be kept confidential to the extent possible, consistent with the need to conduct an adequate investigation.
This confidentiality is there to protect both parties until a resolution can be reached. This is there so that whistleblowers can feel confident that when they come forward, they will face no retaliation, and that the accused person can have a fair investigation. We abided by that policy. But this policy failed to address the larger question of whether such statements about child abuse were acceptable in a Troth officer.
Conclusion:
We apologize to all of you for our handling of this. We can do better than this, and we will do better than this. The Troth can and will do everything in our power to ensure this does not happen again