To the TNE Community, Deconstruction Community, and Public,

It is with heavy hearts that we, Cherri Rodriguez and Adele Mulford have made the difficult decision to come forward to share the findings of an independent investigation by GRACE into The New Evangelicals’ leader, Tim Whitaker, as well as the organization’s board of directors, and the resulting impact the experience has had on our lives.

Having worked closely with TNE for over two years, we played a pivotal role in building the strategic foundation behind the scenes, drawing on over 40 years of combined expertise in nonprofit and marketing sectors. Our dedication to TNE’s mission makes it even harder to come forward with this difficult truth. It was an incredible honor to work with TNE, and play a role in the important work within the deconstruction movement, so it was hard to see the integrity of the work unravel before us. It’s easy to overlook red flags. As time passed, we didn’t recognize that TNE was beginning to repeat the same harmful patterns we saw within evangelical spaces: elevating a single personality, looking away from toxic behavior, inadequate organizational governance, and the enabling of misogyny.

We ask for your consideration, kindness, and support as you read our statement. It is intended to provide a helpful summary of the GRACE report, and critical context to its content, determinations, and recommendations, ensuring transparency and accountability on behalf of the victim, witnesses, and community. We invite you to read the evidence for yourself and take good-faith action to protect the integrity of the deconstruction movement.

We care greatly for the TNE community and understand the weight of this information and the impact it may have on you. We stand with the community as it reckons with the painful realization that yet another religious organization and its leaders have failed to live up to their own standards—a reality we have been slowly processing and grieving over the last 10 months.

For those of you who follow the work of TNE, you’ll know that Tim frequently talks about the importance of transparency, accountability, and non-dehumanization within the organization and his work. Yet, he has failed to embody these characteristics throughout this experience, and chose to withhold the existence of this investigation and its findings from you—the TNE community. 

He continues to dodge accountability for his abusive behavior and has dehumanized us by repeatedly misrepresenting the facts to investigators about the character of his victim in this case, and the series of events for which his abusive behavior was the sole catalyst.

The behavioral and professional misconduct on behalf of Tim Whitaker and The New Evangelicals board is comprehensively documented in the 94 pages of the GRACE investigation report, which you can view in its entirety HERE. 

This report details countless “trust-busters,” including: 

• A frightening, dangerous incident of rage-fueled driving by Tim

• Ongoing patterns of abusive and controlling behavior, as well as double standards by Tim

• Lack of genuine remorse from Tim

• Victim-blaming, and trauma-shaming by Tim, the TNE board, and the mediator

• TNE board's unwillingness and inability to hold Tim accountable in a timely, unbiased, and transparent manner

• Tim’s efforts to manipulate the outcomes of this investigation, including attempting to discredit our motive, recollection, and credibility as witnesses

We’d like to note that we repeatedly attempted to encourage transparent accountability, giving Tim and the TNE board several opportunities over the span of many weeks to address our concerns privately, prior to our request for an independent investigation. However, our concerns were minimized and dismissed, making it clear that our wellbeing—and that of others—was not a priority for the leadership at TNE.

The experience has created harm.

The aftermath of these events has created direct harm to us, our families, our livelihoods, and other members of the TNE community who gave testimony throughout the investigation. Tim and the Board of Directors’ failure to address these behaviors in a timely and appropriate manner has left lasting consequences on all those affected by it, and harms the integrity of the larger work of the deconstruction community and its representatives. 

This harm has been compounded because of TNE’s stated mantra of “building a better way forward” as well as their claim to “advocate for accountability” and “embody change for the better,” as well as their history of calling out similar behavior and demanding accountability—particularly from white male leaders, like Tim—while failing to hold themselves to their own standards internally.

Additionally, we feel it is crucial to highlight the significant breach of trust in TNE’s financial practices. The organization’s promise of financial transparency has been disregarded, as it continues to fundraise without disclosing the ongoing investigation or the associated costs related to it. This lack of transparency undermines the trust of TNE’s donors and community members, further compounding the harm caused.

The pain that has been inflicted here is not just personal—it represents an institutional failure that reverberates through the entire TNE community, particularly among those who have already experienced trauma at the hands of the evangelical church and who sought refuge for the harm they've caused.

We would like to note that, to date, we have not received any communication from TNE regarding the outcome of the investigation. GRACE recommended that TNE reach out to us to collaborate on releasing the report to the TNE community and public, but since receiving the final report on March 4th 2025, they remain silent, leaving the burden of releasing the report to fall on us.

The amount of emotional, mental, and physical labor we have put forth to bring this information to light has been incalculable, leaving us exhausted, isolated, and in disbelief. We believe there truly can be a “better way forward” for those who’ve left the evangelical church. We know that the TNE community has been promised that, and expects that. 

Below, we’ll summarize the grievance we brought to the TNE board and GRACE investigators, and GRACE’s findings and recommendations for TNE. A link to the full 94 page report can be found HERE.

GRACE’s final investigative report includes the following findings and comments pertaining to Tim Whitaker: Full findings can be found starting on page 63 of the report.

• GRACE finds that two separate behaviors constitute behavioral misconduct on the part of Tim: (1) the rage-driving incident with the victim, and (2) the involvement of Tim in the handling of the victim and supporting witness’s grievances and resignations.

• The investigators noted that “concerning patterns of behavior from [Tim], as described by multiple witnesses and observed in interviews with GRACE investigators, contributed to the] credibility determination and to the two specific findings of misconduct.”

• The investigators determined that the victim had “no discernable motive to lie about the events or her interactions with [Tim]. In fact, given the impact on her relationships, career, and finances, it was in her best interest to dismiss and/or downplay the events, which she indeed did for a period of time.”

• The investigators determined that “[Tim’s] interactions with board members about the allegations, his arrangement of the mediation, and his involvement in attempting to manage the organization’s response to the grievance and resignations that were based on allegations against him were each improper.”

• The report includes instances of Tim lying, exaggerating, and misrepresenting the character of his victim in this case in order to downplay his culpability, including:

• Weaponizing the victim’s past trauma, and conflating it with her reaction and concern for his abusive, retaliatory behavior.

• Blaming the victim’s for her lateness without acknowledging his culpability and ongoing patterns of delaying or derailing organizational meetings and work.

• Falsely claiming that the victim had a pattern of “violating his boundaries by calling him late in the evening and staying on the phone longer than when he indicated needing to end the call” when he consistently initiated communication with the victim and other witnesses after-hours and on weekends.

• Falsely claiming that the victim “courted him heavily” when, in fact, he and the board were eager to acquire her services, and publicly expressed their reliance and appreciation of her expertise. 

• Lying about factual details such as the victim staying at his house in the past during a working trip. 

• Note: Tim admitted to the investigators that he “can exaggerate” but claimed he “tries to be as factual as possible and not lie.” The report describes much of the above as “inaccurate or inconsistent information” and “downplaying” from Tim. The report notes that these misrepresentations indicate “awareness and intent.”

• Accusing the victim and supporting witness multiple times of a bad-faith intention to quickly “go public” with their initial grievance, despite the victim and witness stressing a desire for thoughtful mediation, organizational reform, leadership accountability, sincere apologies and repair from Tim, and new policies to prevent further harm to anyone associated with TNE in the future.

• Gaslighting his victim in this case with berating phone calls involving comments like, “Why are you bringing this up now?”, “I feel like you’re blindsiding me”, “Are you going to go public?”, and “I will need to bring the board into this,” “You wasted hours of my time” and refusing to acknowledge power dynamics or conflicts of interest. All of these conversations fit the classic DARVO model, and felt threatening, demeaning, and accusatory to the victim.

• Withdrawing a “soft” apology during mediation (which he had previously given to the victim at the behest of a board member) and backpedaling his actions.

• Selecting a personal and professional acquaintance of his to serve as mediator, and then misrepresenting the nature and frequency of his relationship with the mediator to the victim, multiple board members, and the investigators. Even more troubling, he released a podcast episode featuring the mediator the same day as the mediation without the victim’s knowledge, which further intimidated the victim.

• Expressing his desire to the board that the victim and supporting witness should be isolated from the TNE Community, including removal from the Facebook group, saying he felt “very strongly” about this, stating it was “a recipe for disaster” to allow them to stay. (Note: we ultimately removed ourselves from the Facebook Group shortly after resigning in an effort to lessen further exposure to the harm we were experiencing)

• Retaliation toward the reporting victim in the form of withholding communication, removing work, demoting assignments to menial tasks, reputational damage, and loss of a referred projects within the deconstruction community.

• Spending money to pay the monthly contracted retainer to the victim while simultaneously refusing to engage in necessary work and communications with the victim she was being paid to do.

• Personally removing the victim and supporting witness from access to all TNE work platforms, preventing them from ensuring a smooth transition of work before the date agreed upon by the board, and then misrepresenting that action to a board member and investigators. A board member later said Tim was “misremembering” that conversation.

• A pattern of impatient and demeaning tone toward the reporting victim and witness.

• Reportedly expressing “irritation” and pushback when he was notified by a board member about the launch of an independent investigation into this matter, implying that the situation was conflated and “has strayed from the original situation”

• A pattern of controlling, manipulative behavior surrounding the board response to the grievances, preventing independent, unbiased action on their part.

• At one point, Tim ordered the board to have no further contact with the victim or supporting witness saying, “Given how big this situation has become and how far it's strayed from the original situation, I think it's best that we all refrain from engaging with them directly,” resulting in further isolation for the victim and witnesses.

• Misleading the TNE community with ongoing claims of board accountability when, in fact the GRACE report indicates that Tim often operated as “the final decisionmaker” and noted the board’s “failure to implement consistent and objective accountability.” 

• Using inconsistent methods of research, investigation, and reporting of community concerns of others, while not employing the same standards with a grievance involving himself.

We would also like to note the following concerns that were reported to investigators, but not included in the final report: 

• Tim’s inability to de-center himself as the lead content generator and figurehead of TNE despite his agreement to amplify additional voices and fundraising for that expressed purpose.

• The timing of TNE releases were seemingly coordinated to fall on or near important mediation or investigation milestones, including the release of a podcast episode with the mediator on the same day as the mediation, asking for the creation and posting of a reel claiming “healthy working relationships” with the victim on TNE’s Instagram account the day after his rage-driving incident, starting a public individual account for Tim at the launch of the GRACE investigation, the announcement of the Tim & April Show, and the launch of the Tim & April Show. Not only is this poor management of organizational optics, the specific nature of this coordination reinforces ongoing power dynamics and perpetuates a sense of helplessness for the victim and witnesses.

• Misleading donors and failing to live up to TNE’s claims of financial transparency for the organization by withholding quarterly financial reports for Sept-Dec 2024, and Jan-March 2025 from its website, which would have disclosed the substantial expense TNE incurred for this investigation with GRACE. This information was not included in the investigation because it was just discovered on March 12th. See screenshot of currently disclosed funds on TNE website HERE.

• Tim’s refusal to take advice he didn't like from the victim, supporting witness, and an additional witness, (each of whom are experienced career nonprofit professionals who served in paid and volunteer roles on the TNE team) that would've created greater accountability, stronger content, clearer strategy, and additional structure for the organization, including suggesting that he simply substitute “I” words for “we” words when referring to the work of the organization.

• Tim’s irritation at community feedback regarding a prior incident of backlash from TNE’s Facebook group members involving Tony Jones, and stating in a 2023 board retreat gathering his desire to pull back from supporting the TNE community pillar of work to focus more on creating content. 

• Note: We would like to note that we do not agree with the GRACE investigation’s assessment that Tim is “well-intentioned” in his handling of any of this situation and communicated this information to investigators during the embargo period when the victim had the chance to review the findings and offer feedback on February 11th. Our disagreement with their assessment is based on Tim’s misrepresentations and demeanor that continually reinforced a mindset of defiance, frustration, and intentional manipulation around attempts to create accountability, not only in this situation, but in his overall leadership of the organization. 

Also included in the investigative report are statements by a mediator, Dr. Laura Anderson, who we’ve decided to name for her involvement and professional mishandling of mediation.

Dr. Laura’s handling of the mediation, including trauma-shaming of the victim during and after the mediation, participation in a same-day podcast with TNE, lack of response to victim’s concerns regarding neutrality, and  attempt to solicit partnership with NetGRACE immediately after testifying in the investigation caused additional harm to the victim in this case. Taking into consideration that she is a known public figure with a large social media platform that speaks to the deconstruction community and claims a trauma-informed approach, we feel it’s important to surface the investigation findings. 

GRACE’s final investigative report includes the following comments on her involvement, which can be found in body text and footnotes on pages 60 and 61 of the full report:

• The report states that Dr. Laura “made determinations about what [she] believed to be the source of [the victim’s] strong reactions, although [Dr. Laura] was not [the victim’s] therapist, had never met her prior to the mediation, had never discussed her prior traumatic experiences, and the mediation was not in a therapeutic context.” The report emphasizes that “Prior trauma does not necessarily color one’s perceptions of future events.”

• The report states that Dr. Laura “emailed [the investigators] noting the likely “overlap in the types of cases you work on with the types of clients we see” and suggesting “future collaboration or professional connection (e.g. referrals)” between [Dr. Laura’s] organization and GRACE.” The report further states that, “[Dr. Laura’s] failure to recognize the potential conflict of interest in her suggestion so quickly after being interviewed as a witness and a theoretical independent mediator on a case for which GRACE was performing an active investigation further underscores an underappreciation of actual or perceived conflicts of interest and their potential impact on independence in evaluating and handling interpersonal dynamics.”

• Dr. Laura informed the victim at the beginning of the mediation about her “ground rules”, which were that Tim and the victim would not speak to the supporting witness about the situation, that it would stay with the few board members who already knew, and it was not going to be “talked about publicly in any sort of way,” which attempted to further isolate the victim from any support she was receiving. 

• Based on advice from experienced mediators and therapists, the victim took time to share concerns and feedback with Dr. Laura regarding conflict of interest, as well as other concerns in the mediation. Dr. Laura’s response was terse, saying “thank you for your feedback,” without further effort to address. 

We would also like to note the following concerns that were expressed to investigators but not ultimately included in the report:

• Dr. Laura was biased toward Tim in the mediation, and verbally cornered the victim during mediation by pressuring her to unilaterally fix the concerns. When the victim expressed discomfort and a desire for a collaborative approach, Dr. Laura told the victim she “wasn’t doing [herself] or anyone else favors” if she didn’t know how to fix the situation, which felt belittling, invalidating, and threatening to the victim.

GRACE’s final investigative report includes the following findings and comments pertaining to the TNE Board of Directors: Full findings can be found starting on page 63 of the report.

• “Failure to have policies and procedures in place to guide actions and decisions in day-to-day functioning of TNE, and especially in the face of allegations against a leader within TNE.”

• “Failure to diversify the board to reduce the potential for unhealthy dynamics and promote independent oversight.”

• “Failure to implement consistent and objective accountability of [Tim].”

• “Interactions with Tim (with respect to the allegations against him) in ways that compromised their independence.”

• “Failure to appreciate a power imbalance between [Tim] and the victim”

• “Allowing [Tim] to manage the mediation process relative to allegations against him and failure to appreciate potential conflicts of interest.”

• “One witness told GRACE that the witness had asked the board to get Tim executive training for some time prior to the incident,” in order to address ongoing strategy, management, and accountability concerns. 

• An apology was given by a board member to a supporting witness, whereas the victim herself did not receive a similar apology, even when the supporting witness directly asked the board member to issue one.

• The board exchanged text messages about the victim and supporting witness behind the scenes, saying the victim and witness were just “enmeshed and trauma bonding,” an improper use of both of those terms, and belittling the seriousness of the allegations and impact to both the victim and supporting witness, which included loss of sleep, severe emotional distress, dedicated therapy sessions for support, loss of income, reputational harm, loss of community, feelings of shame and fear, and countless hours working through the fallout and necessary responses to ensure accountability.

We would also like to note the following concerns about the board that were not included in the report:

• Lack of board empathy and support, including one board member expressing frustration and “disappointment” in the victim and supporting witness's resignations, saying they were “Taking [their] ball and going home,” downplaying the seriousness of the allegations, expressing disbelief, and belittling the victim and witness and their felt impact.

• After experiencing verbal abuse from Tim on the phone, the victim sought help and protection from board members, who either didn’t respond, or said they were too busy to handle the situation, isolating the victim and failing to protect her from further harm. 

• Lack of communication with the reporting victim regarding the investigation’s existence, timing, methods, findings, and the coordination of its release.

• Note: We do not agree with GRACE investigation’s assessment that the board was open or transparent in this process. That was not our experience throughout this experience, leading up to their lack of communication to this day. 

Below is a summary of some of the recommendations from GRACE to TNE for moving forward with the victim and witnesses: (A full list of recommendations can be found on pages 85-91 of the full report.)

• Name and own the harm to the victim and each individual harmed by their response to the allegations.

• Identify the steps needed for change, make amends, and accept consequences.

• Apologize to the victim, supporting witness, and anyone else harmed by their response to the allegations.

• The provision of care, support, and funding to assist the victim in her healing from the harm caused by the misconduct discussed in this report.

• Note: To date, none of these recommendations have been followed. 

• Tim and the TNE Board have been aware of the findings and recommendations since February 11th. 

• The final report was issued March 4th, with a minor correction made on March 6th. The victim and witnesses have not received any communication from the board in that amount of time; not even a “let’s talk soon.”

We also wanted to note the tangible impact and harm this experience has had on our lives and support systems, which include:

• Severe emotional distress on the victim and witnesses, causing physical illness, panic attacks, PTSD symptoms, chronic pain, lack of sleep, exhaustion, lack of social engagement with family, friends, and loved ones, and hindrance to work effectively during prolonged abuse.

• Harm and emotional distress caused to victim and witness spouses, partners, and family as they support us through the allegations, investigation, and current release of findings.

• Isolation from the TNE community.

• Feelings of fear, shame, anxiety, and deep sadness regarding: Potentially being seen as trouble makers, impact on the vulnerable members of the TNE community, impact on content creators who’ve tied their platforms to TNE, potential disbelief of our story and impact, having to re-prove the finding and outcome, further retaliation and victim-blaming, additional isolation, interrupting important work within the deconstruction community, potentially further discrediting the deconstruction movement among its critics and skeptics.

• Financial stress over the loss of substantial income from our paid work with TNE.

• Reputational harm to our professional and social lives.

• Time, money, and emotional energy building this release, it’s collateral, and the necessary therapeutic mental and physical support to ensure a healthy outcome for all.

In light of TNE’s lack of interest in following these recommendations, we would like the public's help in demanding the following actions:

• Tim Whitaker to be removed as TNE’s Executive Director and deplatformed by the organization for a meaningful period of time, subject to the standards he has expressed for other abusive Christian leaders.

• A restructuring of its Board Of Directors to include:

• Diverse members with prior board experience and expertise at both large and small nonprofits.

• Members who are not part of the TNE community and/or do not have a history as friends, followers, or fans of Tim and TNE on social media.

• At least one member who is an unbiased trauma-informed expert, especially because TNE’s work is aimed at people who’ve often experienced religious trauma and abuse.

• The creation of equitable policies and procedures that protect future volunteers, contractors, employees, and vendors from similar experiences with TNE.

• Immediate action to remedy the grievances, findings of the report, and tangible support to the victim and witnesses.

• Release of the report on TNE platforms and directly to their donors, as well as a public statement of apology to the victim, witnesses, and community.

• Build and release a comprehensive plan to correct and rebuild TNE.

Thank you for reading this far – it’s a lot to take in. We would like to thank the additional witnesses in this case for their testimony. We’d also like to thank our families, close friends, and therapists for their support throughout this 10 month process.

We would like to thank GRACE investigators and their support team for their compassion, care, integrity, and professionalism throughout the investigation. And most of all we would like to thank the beloved TNE community in advance for standing with us to demand accountability for Tim Whitaker and the TNE board. 

With Compassion and Sincerity, 

Cherri Rodriguez & Adele Mulford