Rev. Sam Alexander is a friend of Marc Gafni. He does not hide where he stands. In his beautiful, personal, and in-depth 4-part article, he is taking a stand. The sub-title of the article is “Dr. Marc Gafni, My Friend, a Voice of Hope Grounded in Love.”
The article is filled with warmth and humor:
I have seen Marc close up, in the best of times and in arguably, the worst of times. I have seen a person filled with paradoxes. He is utterly absorbed and dedicated to his life mission, but at the same time he can drop in and listen to someone else at a level that can change them. I got a message from him not too long ago: “You are a great man. You have the capacity to express the love that powers all of creation. You’ve already done so in MANY, MANY, MANY, MANY, ways. (You know Marc, never use one superlative when four will do :-). God I love him.) Don’t forget that, and if you do, call me—day or night—I’ll remind you.” He sent that to me when he heard I had gotten some very, very, very, very, disappointing news. (Okay, so I may have picked up a couple of mannerisms, but at least I didn’t use all caps!?) He meant it. I’m not the only one who receives that quality of love from Marc. It’s an experience I share with virtually everyone he works with.
Yet, it also provides us with facts seen from a first-person perspective:
I was looking for some way to have these women tell their story in a safe and supportive environment, one where Marc could tell his side as well, in an equally safe and supportive environment. My hope was that it could be a healing environment, but then my faith in God’s ability to redeem an impossible situation is legendary. I’m a fool in this regard and proud of it. The three women and I agreed that, if Marc were willing, we would meet with Marc and a therapist we had agreed on, Marc’s therapist, who would be present to guide the discussion and use whatever was said the way he thought proper. They agreed to the idea in the hopes it would promote healing in Marc. Donna in particular said that she did not want to hurt Marc any more than she already had, she insisted she was seeking his healing. I wonder if you can imagine what an extraordinarily intense time this was for me. I was in the unenviable position of telling my close friend, Marc, that I was taking these women very seriously and that he needed to meet with them in his therapist’s office.
What do you suppose he said? I’ll tell you. He didn’t skip a beat. “Yes,” was his immediate response. In fact he was happy about it. He really wanted to meet with them. That said, he was also pretty sure they would bail out. Can you imagine? He told me not to be too disappointed if, when the time came, they refused to meet. At that moment he was worried about me! He said that while he prayed he would be proven wrong, he was all but certain that once they had gotten involved with Donna, the two women would not be willing to engage in serious clarification of facts and so would refuse to meet. I assured him this was not the case and set about the business of arranging the meeting.
When I called the women to set this up, each of them, in turn, bailed out. They claimed that they were convinced that Marc was too smart, that he had so much sinister power, that they wouldn’t be able to speak their truth, so there was no point. This was the claim, I found out later, that Donna had used for years to avoid being challenged. There is no other way to put this: what a load of horseshit. At that point, the fog cleared from my eyes and I understood what was going on. Here Donna Zerner, still wanting to complete the vengeful work begun in Israel, had sought out these women and stirred them to action. They had tried to co-opt me into their effort to destroy Marc, my close friend. I felt used. I was disgusted.