In the slow-moving saga of abuse and corruption at Tenth Presbyterian (PCA) Philadelphia, the name of former deaconess Susan Elzey often comes up following Anglican Watch’s discovery that she had sexual relations in a Lancaster, Pa., park with Senior Pastor Liam Goligher. As part of that discussion, we have received criticism from some victims’ advocates who rightly point out that sexual conduct between clergy and a parishioner is inherently abusive.
This post explores several of the issues around Susan Elzey and her conduct.
Let’s begin with what we know about the relationship between Elzey and Goligher.
Elzey was, and is, married to local businessman and realtor Guy Elzey, who many describe as “the nicest guy you’d ever meet.” But their relationship appears to struggle, with multiple sources in the Haddonfield, N.J. area (which is where Elzey lives) telling us they’ve been aware of problems for some time.
Susan Elzey’s relationship with Goligher appears to be long-standing, with Liam eventually buying a house—through Guy Elzey—to be closer to Suan.
That said, multiple sources describe Liam as seeming shy and awkward around women despite already being married. As a result, several people speculate that Elzey was the pursuer versus the pursued.
This description appears to align with descriptions of Susan’s role around Tenth, where she seems to have served as something of a hybrid welcome wagon and Queen of all She Surveyed, positioning herself as a kingmaker within the church.
So, where does that leave us?
On the one hand, we are confident that Goligher abused Elzey, as it is impossible, given the disparate perceived power between the two, for Elzey to have a consensual relationship. Again, we do not doubt that the relationship was abusive.
But once we move past that point, things quickly become nuanced. These subtleties range from Susan’s apparent aggressive pursuit of Goligher versus the more typical pattern, in which a clergyperson pursues a parishioner at a time of vulnerability, to other, more sinister issues.
For example, a review of pleadings in the civil litigation Tenth brought against whistleblower and former member Phil Snyder makes clear that Susan Elzey engaged in criminal conduct by perjuriously telling the court that Phil had threatened her.
To check Elzey’s claim, we watched the body cam footage from the time in question. We interviewed countless church members and law enforcement personnel, and not a single person confirmed Elzey’s statements made under oath.
Not one.
Thus, we can confidently say that Elzey is an unindicted criminal who committed perjury, a felony, in court. Apparently, in the Tenth Presbyterian view of faith, the ends justify the means; so as long as you’re helping the church, criminal conduct is no biggie.
It gets worse.
Soon after we announced Goligher’s and Elzey’s arrests, we received an email about the arrests from someone, almost certainly Elzey. The message came from an IP address she has used before and was geolocated to within a block of her home.
So, what did the email say? In a nutshell, it said that Phil Snyder was to blame for everything and that there were no criminal charges.
Let’s get this straight: We’re supposed to believe that Phil tied these two up at gunpoint, drove them down to Lancaster, and then insisted they have sex in a public part? And the criminal citations we located were some other Susan Elzey and Liam Goligher?
We don’t think so. And it’s even more disgraceful and un-Christian that Susan doesn’t even have the integrity to own up to her own conduct, let alone repent and make the restitution required of a Christian. In other words, Elzey is sneaky and far from courageous.
Somewhat later, we got another message, almost certainly Susan Elzey, who again sent us an email saying, “How dare you mention my kids?” To that, we respond by pointing out that her now-defunct Facebook profile includes similar references as she rhapsodizes about her role in the home, including caring for her three teens.
Supporting a busy spouse, parenting three teens, feeding everyone including the pets, clothing everyone, teaching, checking homework, instilling moral values, monitoring video games, computer games, cell phones, covering up my increasingly gray hair, dishing out vitamins, driving, driving, driving, keeping the wine rack stocked, generally managing the chaos and so much more with the help of God’s grace!
That begs four questions:
- How is Susan supporting a busy spouse by having an affair and committing perjury?
- Exactly what moral values is Susan instilling in her three teens when she’s off having adulterous relations with a married man?
- How does Susan’s perjury in a court of law comport with her description of herself?
- How does all of this tie in any way to the “help of God’s grace?”
And by the way, we’re not sure we want to know the answer to any of those questions.
Tying it all together
In a nutshell, yes, we believe that the affair between Goligher and Susan Elzey was abusive, as Goligher was at all times obligated to maintain boundaries. No explanations, exceptions, or discussions.
That said, we believe Susan was more the aggressor in this matter than Goligher.
Additionally, we are being careful to come down in a position that also reflects the fact that Elzey is, herself, an abuser. We recognize this distinction because we believe it is important not to give Susan a pass for her own criminal conduct and abuse.
What was Susan Elzey’s reason for committing a third-degree felony? Was she afraid her adulterous affair would come to light? Did she understand that, as corrupt as Tenth is, she’d never be welcome if the truth came out about her role in the corruption? Or maybe that she would no longer be the queen bee when people found out what really was going on behind the scenes?
We’ll probably never know.
Of course, as sneaky and spineless as Susan Elzey is, it’s not likely she’ll have the integrity to admit her criminal conduct, either with or without God’s grace. And we’re prepared to bet that she’s getting counseling from someone—probably someone well-known, like Dr. Diane Langberg—to make her case that she’s changed and was the true victim in all of this, even as Elzey ignores the Christian requirement of repentance and restitution to the victim of her criminal conduct.
But her defamation was part of a larger conspiracy in which Liam Goligher, George McFarland, and others engaged in felonious conduct — perjury — to shut down an inconvenient truthteller. So until they come forward, admit to their criminal conduct, and face the consequences — including making restitution to Phil Snyder, their victim, Tenth Presbyterian remains morally bankrupt.
To reiterate: George McFarland also is an unindicted felon who must face ecclesiastical discipline. And as part of true repentance, he must admit to his criminal conduct and accept the consequences. Sorry — we’re not willing to treat this as water over the dam. If McFarland’s man enough to commit perjury, he’s man enough to accept the consequences, up to and including imprisonment.
And as long as the issue of perjury at Tenth remains unresolved, we are prepared to say that Susan Elsey is both a victim of abuse and an abuser. Just because she’s been abused doesn’t give Elzey carte blanche to engage in felony criminal conduct directed at others.
Further, to be clear: Susan Elzey is a registered nurse, who works on a per diem basis in the pediatric critical care unit of Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia. That makes us very uncomfortable, as anyone who is willing to engage in perjury should NOT be in a position of trust. That means not being in health care, and not working with children.
And while we’ll cover this in greater detail in a future post, this is not the first time Session has apologized for lying to church members—and look how that turned out.
If nothing else, the other abusers identified in the GRACE report need to leave Tenth, unindicted criminal George McFarland needs to resign, and Tenth needs to pay restitution to its victims.
That’s how Christians behave.
Finally, an amusing reminder: Phil Snyder was given a copy of the GRACE report thanks to Elzey’s foolish lies. Once she told GRACE that Phil threatened her, he became entitled to a copy of the report. In other words, Susan Elzey is a liar/perjurer and a dumb-ass.
Doesn’t get much lower than that.
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