Great — so, either these four young men never were abused, but simply saw an opportunity
to shake down an individual with a questionable reputation (the «where there's smoke» strategy), and Pastor Long either caved in
to the pressure, or sought an expedient
route (possibly used before)
to make the problem
go away; OR, these really are four young men who've been abused, but rather than make the pastor answer for what he did
to them in a
court of law, and spare other young men in the future the trauma they experienced, they allowed their silence
to be bought.
«It becomes pointless
to choose the arbitral
route,» says [John], «if you're simply
going to end up
going through several levels
of court re-arguing the same issues.»