See the link below to the original article, which has some facts and quotations which might give pause.
Some examples:
The pastor claims he helped the girl go to Colorado because her mother requested it.
The pastor reported the allegation of rape to the police, and the girl stayed in the area for several weeks after the incident, but the police do not seem to have taken much interest in the case at the time (perhaps this was one of the reasons why her mother wanted her safe in another state).
The girl had previously suffered domestic abuse, both violence and molestation.
The girl had a close (non-sexual) relationship with her attacker and his family for over a year before the first incident.
Even now, at 28, she made the following statement:
"He said if I didn't forgive him and give him forgiveness, then I would get bitter," she said. "It's just kind of how things at the church go. The woman is blamed for everything."
This shows that, even now, even though she is mouthing the words, she doesn't understand that forgiving others - being primarily for one's own benefit - does not place blame on the person being asked to forgive. Quite to the contrary, it recognizes that the blame falls on the person being forgiven.
It is, of course, not politically correct to state the obvious, but this was a pretty mixed-up girl from a mixed-up family, a fact which was probably known to church members - though, considering how mixed-up this church was as well, perhaps not.
So, what happens when the girl who everyone knows is kind of loopy and has a history of making accusations of sexual abuse, latches on to a respected member of the church and - a year later - accuses him of rape?
Well, most people would have their doubts. They might believe that something went on - especially if a pregnancy proves that she was having sex with someone, and she was spending most of her time at this man's house. Furthermore, she claimed that after being raped once by this man, she later let him into her house when he visited. Victims of crime sometimes behave in ways that are counterintuitive and quite confusing, but it is not surprising that the church members might have doubted that a rape had occurred.
Of course, the church and the pastor did some stupid things. Really stupid. It is one thing to tell a victim that they should seek to forgive, because it is important to move on and put the past behind them. It is quite another thing to force a child to confront the person who tormented them in order to forgive them in person.
The whole confession-to-the-congregation thing was also ill-advised.
Still, having known some small churches, filled with well-meaning but stupid people, I'm not terribly surprised. Still, I don't assume malice or even negligence. As is said in discussions of Ethics, "Ought implies Can." Incompetence? Certainly.
Of course, given that this girl grew up, became an adult, went to college, and probably has surrounded herself with friends who repeatedly tell her "but of course it was rape! it is always rape if one party is 15!" - well, we can also consider that she may have embellished her memories over the years. I know a number of women who have done that, who enjoyed quite conventionally happy childhoods but have been convinced in their "wymyn's studies" courses that they actually spent their childhood as miserable victims of the "patriarchy". Memory is much more malleable than most realize - it doesn't work like a video camera. A few people manage to keep their memories pretty much straight, most are generally right but with lots of errors, and a few - well one guy I know sometimes believes stories that he read in comic books are a part of his own personal history. When that guy tells me the latest way he was victimized, I don't believe him. I believe he believes it to be the truth, but that's a little different. His stories shouldn't stand up in court - even the true ones.
On the other hand, there is a real possibility that almost everything this woman says is true - that the church members were incredibly ignorant, the pastor self-serving, and both malicious. I'd wager that her story is, at the very least, exaggerated, but it could be largely true.
But how could we ever tell?
Such is the complexity of the world.