Get ready to laugh

Maintaining this blog is a thankless task. Unfortunately, very few understand the importance of bringing light to the darkness or holding the church to account.

And we get plenty of hate mail. Everything from “I know where your wife and kids are” (highly improbable) to “you’re an idiot and have no idea what you are talking about.” Or the ever-popular, “Good journalists don’t use anonymous sources.”

Whatever.

But every once in a while, we pull in something so over the top that we laugh. And laugh. And laugh some more.

And so it is with a recent email from someone purporting to be Bob Malm’s wife, Leslie Malm.

We’re pretty sure she doesn’t still work for Sport and Health. And we are confident that Sport and Health would disapprove of her messaging. Not to mention the nine times our editor, Eric Bonetti, has told Malm through her attorney to quit contacting him. 

Of course, we’d take her a little more seriously if she could spell. Or sounded a little less irrational and hysterical.

Does the word “crazy” come to mind?

And the whole let-go-and-let-God thing seems to be the unofficial motto of the Episcopal church. (Plus, it leads to lots of bathroom jokes. We’ll spare you.)

On a more serious note, this note underscores why we refer to him as “perjuring priest Bob Malm.” Malm shows up in court, claims folks have “stalked” and “terrorized” him and his family, and that Bonetti is a “domestic terrorist.” (Yes, that is in his court pleadings.)

That raises the question: If Malm and his family are victims of “domestic terrorism,” why are they writing to us? Why do they try to keep in touch? And who the hell cares where Bonetti lives? Or thinks the matter is one for the Malm attorneys? 

It doesn’t take long for most people to realize what the real Bob Malm is like. And his ability to project his issues onto others is amusing, like his claim that Bonetti is a “sad individual, starving for attention.” 

Of course, being married to Bob Malm is the only thing unhealthier than being Bob Malm.

Whoops, we take that back. 

Unfortunately, there is one thing unhealthier than both, and that is the toxic system that considers Bob Malm to be a priest. 

Where but the Episcopal Church could someone who has “been getting away with murder for years” like Bob Malm get a job? (That’s a quote from someone who knows Bob well.)

Or get paid $200K for his feckless work ethic?

That raises the issue: Where but the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia could a simple request that the diocese mediate a dispute between Bonetti and Malm turn into years of litigation? 

That’s what happened here.

And the church still has to come to terms with behavior at Bonetti’s former parish, Grace Episcopal, in Alexandria, Va. That behavior extends beyond Malm’s perjury and includes:

• Attorney Jeff Chiow‘s false police reports and courtroom fabrications;
• Former senior warden Lisa Medley, with her lies and obscene gestures;
• Alison Campbell, the childish and manipulative vestry and altar guild member; and
• Current rector Anne Turner. She lacks the integrity to call a spade a spade and testify in the litigation related to this matter. 

Will the toxic cesspool that is Grace Church ever get drained? Doubtful.

Until the church comes to terms with its unhealthy conduct and brings these issues into the light of day, it cannot become healthy. Bad behavior does not lead to good relationships. And these unhealthy patterns extend back more than 30 years.

Even worse, the diocese refuses to deal with these issues. That’s part of a long-standing practice under Shannon Johnston and Susan Goff of turning a blind eye to inconvenient truths. 

One of those truths is that the diocese, and Grace Episcopal Church, are organizationally narcissistic. 

And neither entity can figure out why it is dying.