Update: Things go from bad to worse with perjuring Episcopal priest Ben Day
Earlier, we covered the allegations of perjury, DUI, and violations of pastoral boundaries involving Kennesaw, Ga. Episcopal priest and former political candidate Ben Day. Today’s post provides an update on the worsening issues involving Day’s conduct.
Since our previous posts, Anglican Watch has heard from multiple sources about ongoing issues with Day’s behavior, which they consistently describe as “narcissistic” and “sociopathic.”
Specific issues:
Specific issues ran the gamut and include:
- Questionable finances. Indeed, Day continues to push for a higher salary (now reportedly in excess of $90,000 annually, plus indirects), even though his parish is struggling to make ends meet. Meanwhile, we have uncovered evidence of inappropriate expenditures by Day, in which he appears to have used church funds for personal purposes.
- Bullying behavior. Multiple sources tell us that Day is increasingly hostile and belligerent towards anyone who might question his conduct. Additionally, he engages in shunning and other violations of pastoral boundaries when someone does something he doesn’t like.
- Narcissistic/sociopathic manipulation. These hardly come as a surprise, given Day’s previous alleged perjury against former parishioner Art Blackburn. That said, we have identified multiple situations in which Day has flown into the classic “narcissistic rage” when challenged, then tried to gaslight his victim into concluding it was all their fault. In many instances, Day’s subsequent recounting of events has involved lying about the underlying situation.
- Violations of church polity. Under the Episcopal canons, the parish vestry is in charge of the church’s temporal affairs. Yet Day appears bent on treating Christ Church as his personal playground, where he gets to make all the decisions, often for his own benefit. To be clear: The vestry must recognize its fiduciary obligation to the church and its members and exercise meaningful oversight of all parish assets. This is not happening.
- Conflicts of interest. Day and his wife recently began plans to move back into the rectory, necessitating massive expenditures. As part of this transition, he pushed hard for an “Amazing Grace” capital campaign, which included renovations to a pavilion on the property. The resulting contract appears to have been sole-sourced to a parishioner and, even worse, to be an open-ended arrangement. In other words, projected costs do not seem to align with the scope of work. The inherent conflict of interest in this contract, combined with the open-ended nature of the work and the lack of meaningful oversight, poses an existential risk to the parish.
- Dishonesty. Issues with Day and his questionable veracity are well-documented and range from questions about his residency for purposes of running for local political office to his courtroom perjury involving his wife’s former boyfriend. That said, these issues appear, unsurprisingly, to be getting worse over time, rather than better.
What needs to happen
Our review of the church’s finances suggests that the parish is already under financial stress. It is therefore incumbent on the vestry to:
- Get training on its fiduciary role, including what that means in practice.
- Formally request support from the Diocese in working through governance issues. If this is not forthcoming — and we are not impressed with the Diocese and its conduct to date on these issues — the vestry needs to insist.
- If Day interferes with this process, the vestry needs to be very clear that it will, if necessary, request a dissolution of its pastoral relationship with Day. As things stand, the situation is untenable, and the longer the vestry delays, the more difficult it will be to resolve.
- The vestry must also address an issue concerning the welfare of children. Specifically, we have previously documented that Day appears to be violating a court order that prohibits him from consuming alcohol, resulting in his driving under the influence. In doing so, he appears to have children in the car, which is a per se violation of the court order. The last thing anyone needs is another Bishop Heather Cook DUI debacle. Thus, the vestry needs to have a very direct conversation with Rob Wright, centered around the question, “How can we know that Day is remaining sober?” If it does not get a clear answer to this question, it is time to cut Day loose. To be clear: Silence is complicity. If the vestry does not act and someone dies, it is morally culpable.
Our view
On a larger level, we believe it is clear that Day is not suited to the ministry. There is no excuse for someone who bullies his parishioners, allegedly misuses church funds, runs roughshod over the church vestry, and more.
Thus, from our perspective, there are two ways to deal with Day:
- The usual Episcopal way, which is to kick the can down the road, fritter away at the edges of the myriad issues arising from his role as clergy, and watch the church suffer from his misconduct.
- The better way, which is to recognize that Day is a priest in name only and to give him the heave-ho.
Will anyone do the latter? We doubt it, as the Episcopal Church is notoriously spineless. That said, it needs to happen.