SCRIPTURE UNION, whose avowed aim is ‘to encourage people of all ages to meet God daily through the Bible and prayer’ to help them ‘grow in Christian maturity’, has been caught on the wrong foot after Twitter exploded with revelations on Sunday evening that at least two of its staffers solicited explicit photos from minor girls to whom they were sent to preach Christian virtues.
The two staffers in the middle of the controversy are Samuel Jaisundar and Reuben Clement. A third staffer named Albert (surname not known) has also been accused of calling a girl via a social media platform although there is no evidence that he did anything inappropriate. All three work in the English department of SU. Sam, as he is known, (who is the secretary of the department) and Reuben(who is a field staff) are said to be based out of Coimbatore. | Scripture Union suspends Samuel Jaisundar |
Joel Giftson, a Twitter user, set the Christian circles in India ablaze, 
when he tweeted the following message at 6:30 pm Sunday: ‘For several years there was this guy called Sam Jaisundar who was…sending inappropriate messages to girls in schools around the country asking them to video call them, meet him alone and also said he wishes to cuddle with them.’
This has been going on since 2016 and the girls are coming out in the open one by one. Till now, there hasn’t been any action taken on this ass**** from the organization till now, according to Giftson’s tweet.
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In one screenshot tweeted by him, Sam Jaisundar asks a girl on Facebook Messenger ‘One day will you give me a hug’?
In another screenshot Jaisundar tells a girl that a 4th grade girl in Hilda’s hugged him and kissed him and that he adored her.
Giftson released a screenshot of an Instagram chat Reuben Clement, Sam Jaisundar’s colleague, had with a girl in 2019 in which Reuben asks the girl about her favorite night costume, her ‘comfy wear’. In the same year, while he was on a VBS meeting in Tuticorin, Reuben chatted up with a girl on Instagram reminding her of her promise to send him a selfie. He sent another message asking her to send the photo without any makeup and in front of a mirror.
Giftson also released another screenshot in which Albert who works with Sam Jaisundar and Reuben Clement, initiated several video calls with a girl in 2014 via Facebook Messenger. However, nothing inappropriate has been found in his chat with the girl. Later, he deleted the screenshot concerning Albert from the twitter threads.
The Christian Messenger spoke to the Scripture Union. Although we could not speak to the national director, Mr. Joshua Kirubaraj, two of his colleagues responded.
Finance secretary Mr. Bharat said Mr. Kirubaraj was in a meeting over the issue and said they were contemplating taking against Sam Jaisundar.”We are immediately going to suspend him,” Bharat told The Christian Messenger.
When we asked him about Reuben Clement and Albert, he said there were only a few posts by Reuben and there were no complaints against Albert yet. However, Reuben and Albert have been called to meet the national director at the Chennai office with regard to this.
Further, there would be a committee of enquiry formed to look into the allegations against Jaisundar and if they are found to be true he would be summarily dismissed from service, a source in SU said.
Playback singer Chinmayi Sripaada, who leveled serious charges against Tamil film lyricist Vairamuthu sometime ago as part of the #MeToo campaign, also joined the issue by tweeting some screenshots and asking Joel Giftson to add them in his Twitter threads.
Samuel Jaisundar did not respond to the repeated calls, SMS and WhatsApp messages sent to his phone number.
Last updated at 11:25 pm on Oct 6, 2020.
