In this episode of Perverted Justice, Shielagh Clark revisits the tension between truth and image that defined her litigation against Hyde Park Baptist Church. While the church and attorneys treated the case as a tug-of-war over money, (which is the language the law speaks) Shielagh emphasizes that for her, litigation was always about truth—forcing hidden realities into the light so the past could be redeemed.

The episode explores the complexities of the church’s insurance coverage. Shielagh explains how abuse claims spanned multiple policies, why her attorneys considered a bad-faith claim against Church Mutual, and how the revelation that the church had indeed offered the full $300,000 policy limit from the start reshaped the legal strategy. She shares the stress of resisting settlement pressure, including a hospitalization for anxiety, and reflects candidly on her fleeting hope of leveraging a trial judgment to transform the church property into a space of healing for survivors.

From there, the discussion widens to the moral responsibility of church leadership. Shielagh draws on her own experience as a business owner navigating insurance litigation and her study of the epistemic condition in moral philosophy. She explains how concepts of foreseeability in law align with Christian ethics, highlighting the failure of Hyde Park’s board to fulfill their duty of care. She contrasts their immediate decision in 2005 to protect the abuser with severance pay while punishing her with expulsion—an act of twisted moral clarity that revealed a bad theology.

The episode blends personal memories—helping raise the steeple as a child, later imagining its removal as an act of poetic justice—with theological reflection. Shielagh critiques the church’s posture as one that turned a symbol of faith into a gesture of contempt toward “the least of these.” She reminds listeners that both law and faith demand responsibility where ignorance is willful or avoidable, and that Hyde Park’s leaders had every opportunity to know and act differently.

Ultimately, Episode 20 underscores the contrast between legal maneuvering for money and the deeper call to radical honesty, compassion, and accountability.