Dear fellow musicians,
Now, indeed, is an interesting time.
The climate is fairly sinister at the moment, and there is, quite frankly, bigger fish to fry.
A ripple in Catholic Twitter, however, affects us ever so slightly.

Right now I am discussing the disturbing information published on Twitter by a publishing company about one of their most promoted composers, one of the more prominent modern composers heard in, the more liberal Catholic churches in the West. The news broke to us today that this prominent composer had been accused of multiple cases of abuse against women. This composer writes music I have been known to show little respect for, even less acknowledge. In short, his music is music which I actively dissuade parishes from using.

I have been strongly urged, even bullied by my peers into making a statement about this man being caught up in the scandal - because I have been actively dissuading people from using his music for over a decade because I am also a composer. After all, I am a young woman, I have worked for organisations which have required me to report on such scandals and also because people, who also dislike this man's music, want this man torn down viciously.
It has surprised people that I have not shared the article against this man on mainstream social media. It has even upset them that I haven't.
Instead, I urged musicians, who may be tempted to publicise this scandal, to hold off from doing so and here's why:

THERE IS INSUFFICIENT INFORMATION
We've seen this before. An insufficient amount of information is published in an article, and the result is reactionary anger, some sort of political movement, perhaps a popular trending hashtag and a complete teardown of a person's character. Having witnessed first hand the media suppression in Victoria Australia about His Eminence Cardinal Pell, I know it is imprudent to jump on the first article one sees without further investigation. After all, in this recent case, an innocent man was convicted, and his character obliterated by the worst kind of media witchhunt I have ever witnessed in my life. Perhaps if I weren't wearing the glasses that witnessed the character assassination and injustice over the course of the more recent years, maybe I would have shared this article. I am not sure.
I'm not necessarily comparing these two situations, of course, we know Pell was acquitted, and the media frenzy was far more significant, we also had a greater share in the evidence which anybody could read and realise very quickly that the evidence didn't stack up.
But if we look at the information we have, all we know is that some women have cast accusations against this composer and we know it from an unusual source; a blog post and a tweet. Neither are qualified sources.

ANONYMITY OF ACCUSERS AND INCITING ACCUSERS
The publishing company is encouraging people to report abuse through an unusual (potentially dubious) channel a website called Into Account. This site encourages those who have faced abuse to report the abuse anonymously to be published.

Into Account will hold your story confidentially, bring it to the institution, or publicise it as you request.

This, in my humble opinion, is not the way to go about reporting abuse. My recommendation would be to see the police and go through the justice system if you have a case against someone. An anonymous complaint publicised is a very strange reason for a publishing company to pull out their support for someone. Still, it is even more bizarre for that publishing company to incite more accusations. Last I checked... the company was more specialised in the are of hymn publishing (although how specialised given the type of material they publish... eh remains up for debate) I didn't know they also worked in the are of abuse investigation.
While SNAP was able to supply further information, the information remains insufficient, however damning. They can mention punitive measures made by the diocese he was in, but this isn't information from the horse's mouth.
They want more information - we should want more information too.

I AM BIASED
I dislike his music. It would be so easy for me to cruelly cackle with glee that he will not be published by his publisher anymore. I do not support his politics, his music, and show little respect for the material of a similar lack of quality. Giving the 'up yours' to him would not only be somewhat vindictive towards him for his music but also to many of the people who have given me grief for my more traditional bent over the years. I suffer a sense of guilt that part of me would like this information to use as leverage to promote what I feel is right in the music world. This would be a grave injustice not only to the man but also to any victims to use this situation. After all... we have plenty of great music written by terrible people.

IT COULD IMPACT US
As I said before, I am a composer and I'm looking at hopefully one day being published. If all it takes is an allegation against us to end our careers for good. No proof, just an allegation. No court case, just a few blog posts of what he/she the anonymous said against us then that is a scary world. I'd much rather a career ended because one was bad at the career they pursued than because of an accusation that wasn't properly investigated and tried.

Lastly...

IT IS UNBIBLICAL
It goes without saying that gossiping, spreading slander and judging others is not my calling. Do I believe in justice for victims of abuse? Absolutely. Do I believe in tearing down people, even a guilty person, to get justice? No, I don't believe it serves justice. Do I believe people should stop playing the music of someone because they abuse another person? No. Do I have a firm view either way that this man is guilty or not? No. Let us not prematurely run with our torches a blazing going online to tear someone down. Sit on this, there will be more news to come I am sure.

To conclude, all I can say is that I am glad the company pulled the publishing of his music, not because of any crime he did or did not commit but because it's music that I deem unworthy. I am not proud of how the publishing company has handled the situation thus far. In the meantime, I can only hope that justice emerges for all involved though this may only happen in the next life.

I don't know if this is the right place to put this but I felt this was an issue in Church music today and that we are the very people who may just be tempted to make that late-night spiteful Facebook post/tweet. If admins don't like - please just pull down.

That was a long one, sorry.
Jes