by Eric Wuestewald
Bob Bennett, the head of a $17 million San Francisco family services agency, is under investigation over revelations that his personal blog features graphic images, discussions of the female anatomy, and the totally insane assertion that Christ fathered himself by inseminating his own mother.
The incident started when Bennett, who is the president and CEO of the Felton Institute Family Services Agency of San Francisco, sent out an email asking his board and staff to look at his personal blog while he was out on vacation. Naturally, one of these employees then...looked at his blog.
According to KPIX 5, Bennett's site contained comparisons between "human and animal sex lives," "x-rated photos and discussions of female body parts," and the theory that "Christ actually inseminated his mother and is his own father."
Matier & Ross report that some of the controversial postings further included an entry about Jesus being the perfect example of an Oedipal complex, photos comparing vaginas to lips, and a post about demonic nuns.
One staff member saw these postings and anonymously sent printouts to the City Hall representatives officials responsible for funding the agency.
Also, officials are currently treating the investigating as a 'whistleblower' investigation, although one city department head called the posts "more weird than pornographic."
Felton Institute board Chairman Paul Adams also chimed in, saying that while the blog has “no direct relationship to the agency, as a board we take seriously ... any and all inquiries that arise regarding our staff or services, and are actively assessing the concerns presented by this anonymous letter.”
The blog, culicarius.com, has since been taken down, but Bennett does try to explain himself on a cached entry from August 19:
I hardly know what to sayIf you’ve been following this blog, particularly the part WHERE I WAS ON A CATHOLIC PILGRIMAGE TRAIL, you will notice that most of the posts are gone.
When I started the Camino Santiago, I let a small group of people-whom I trusted and who had asked to read the blog-know that I would be blogging about that experience. Apparently one of those people is not someone I should have trusted, since he/she has written to the newspapers in an effort to harm the organization of which I am CEO (and which is never mentioned in this blog).
These are my private opinions, unrelated to my work. There has not been a word in this blog that is sexist, racist, or homophobic. I have written extensively about my own spiritual beliefs.
I wrote two posts several years ago about the changes in human sexual dimorphism in the past three million years of evolution. My point was that human men and women had become less dimorphic in terms of intelligence and stature but more dimorphic in terms of secondary sexual characteristics. The illustrations for those posts are now being sent around in fax form (so that people can’t read the accompanying text) to make me look like a pornographer.
I stand by all the posts in this blog and would not change a word (except to improve the writing) if only myself were under attack, but I have taken down these posts until I figure out the risk they pose to my organization, a human service organization that many people depend on.
So far, there has been no other statement from Bennett.
The Felton Institute has been around since 1889, making it the "oldest nonsectarian, nonprofit social service provider" in the city. The organization dedicates itself to providing family services, preschool programs, and mental health serivces to low-income families, children, and people with disabilities. Last year, the agency received $8.8 million in funding from the city.
Some officials are now demanding that Bennett step down from the prominent organization, with Mayor Ed Lee's office stating “We take this seriously, and our departments that provide funding to this organization are working with the city attorney to address the next steps.”
This report has been updated since publication, with additional details from the SF Chronicle.
