Harassing Telephone Calls from a Church Member
A Story in the West Side Church Series
Harassing Telephone Calls from a Church Member
Ministry in the Portland community of Louisville, KY during the 1970s was mildly dangerous from the interaction with and fear of harm from community residents. It also involved harassing telephone calls from people crying out for help.
One day the parsonage began receiving calls from someone who would let the telephone ring two or three times, and then hang up. This was not just once per day. It was multiple times per day.
It was highly irritating. The calls took place after the parsonage had been robbed several months earlier. One thought was that someone might be checking to see if we were home.
After a few weeks of this, I decided we needed to address this situation with decisive action.
It was unnerving to my wife and me. It could be someone who intended harm. Or it could be a cry for help. I needed to discover who so I could respond.
What made the final decision was when I talked with our church secretary and our custodian. I discovered both were also getting these calls.
The secretary and I decided we would report this to the telephone company and see if they would tap our phone lines. They did and assigned our case to an investigator.
I Discovered Who
A week later the calls stopped. The investigator called and said they found out who it was and had disconnected their telephone.
They would not tell me who unless we were willing to press charges against the person. I asked some questions and received partial information.
The church secretary also asked some questions and got additional information. When I discovered what she learned and added to it what I had learned, I knew who it was. But I did not tell the secretary my discovery.
I called the inspector back and told him I had pieced together the information and knew it was the wife of one of my key church leaders. This couple lived about a 20-minute drive from the church.
Whenever he would leave home to go to work or to come to the church for a meeting, the calls would start.
I was aware of some life challenges faced by his wife and had some understanding of her cry for help.
This church leader operated an installation and repair service from his home. His personal telephone was also his business number. This happened more than 15 years before mobile telephones. He could not operate without a telephone.
I Made a Deal
I shared all of this with the inspector. Told him this situation gave me the opportunity and leverage to intervene in a situation where there was an ongoing dysfunction. I needed to act with compassionate pastoral care.
The inspector and I agree that I would get this couple counseling assistance. If I could verify to him ongoing counseling was taking place, the company would install a telephone in the man’s workshop behind the house.
I Engaged With the Husband
The next day when the husband came to the church for a meeting, I talked with him. I told him I knew his telephone had been taken out of his house and why.
I also told him I had a plan to get a telephone reinstalled on his property if he would agree to the plan.
He acknowledged everything and agreed to the plan. I made a referral to a counseling service for he and his wife.
The husband and the counselor agreed that the counselor could let me know if the sessions were ongoing and making progress. Not the substance of the sessions, but that needed help was taking place.
The counseling sessions began. They were regularly scheduled. I checked in with the counselor. He confirmed the regularity of the sessions, and that progress was happening.
I called the inspector. The telephone was reinstalled, but this time in the workshop.
All settled? Not quite.
Within two weeks the calls started again one evening when the husband left to come to the church for a meeting. My wife called me at the church and said it was the same pattern. More than a dozen calls had been made within the 20 minutes the husband was driving to the church.
I told the husband. He promised me the calls would never happen again. They never did.