Adventist Pastor Speaks For Le's Family

[Dr. Shane]

Annie Le's Family Back Home With Daughter's Body, And Grim Questions

Quote:

"The family truly appreciated the professionalism and compassion by the law enforcement community through this entire ordeal," Smith said.

He said Le's family asks everyone "to continue to pray for Annie and respect the family privacy at this time."

Smith, the pastor of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in New Haven, had no connection to the family. He said a church member from California called and asked if he would assist the family when they got to the city.

Smith became the face of the family, speaking to a horde of media cameras Tuesday night and trying to shield them from the media glare. Smith said Le's family is very private and that they found the media attention overwhelming.

UPDATE: New Haven Adventist Pastor Helps Families Directly Affected by Yale Student's Murder

Quote:

This morning, while reading the New York Times on the Annie Le murder investigation, I saw the following:

Dennis Smith, the pastor of the New Haven Seventh-Day Adventist Church, who has been speaking for the Le and Widawsky families, appeared on the “Today” show on Thursday and called the arrest “wonderful news.”

“They are very appreciative of the thoughts and prayers of everyone during this terrible time of grief and loss,” he said in an e-mail message later in the day.

Upon doing some news searching, it appears that Dennis Smith has been on NBC's Today Show and CNN's Larry King Live as well as local Connecticut media speaking on behalf of the Le family...

Spectrum contacted Pastor Dennis Smith, asking him about his involvement. He reports that Annie was not a Seventh-day Adventist, nor is anyone in the immediate Le or Widawsky families.

He said:

"An Adventist friend of the Le family emailed me asking if I would be willing to assist the family if they needed assistance. I responded that I would. The family asked me to help them compose a statement representing both families for the press. This did and read the statement last Tuesday night at a press conference at Yale. The Le family began getting phone calls, which made the whole situation more difficult for the family. So I told them to refer the calls to me and that I would assist them with the media. That is how the media began contacting me. I only represented the Widwasky family when I read the statement from the families on Tuesday night. After that I was only representing Annie Le's family.

Continue to pray for the family. There are still several things that lay ahead for them, which will be difficult. Also, the grief process will take time."

[GreatLakesGramma]

I've been following that story from the beginning, but they hadn't mentioned before that the family's spokesman was an Adventist minister. The Le and Widawsky families are Jewish.

[Dr. Shane]

This morning on GMA before going to Pastor Smith, they showed his church sign which clearly read "Seventh-day Adventist." I think it is a kind gesture and a great opportunity to minister to these hurting people. Now we just need another minister to go inside the jail and minister to the perpetrator.

[GreatLakesGramma]

What is GMA?

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

Good Morning, America (I think that's it)

[phkrause]

Thanks Rudywoofs, I was wondering about that myself.

pk

[Dr. Shane]

Yes, ABC's morning news program is Good Morning America and the anchors on it refer to it as GMA. This pastor has been getting a lot of media exposure.

[olger]

I conducted a 3-day marriage & relationship seminar at Dennis' church in 2007. Nice people there.

g

[phkrause]

Olger, we've had Pastor Smith in our SS class a year or so ago. He wrote a few books on the Holy Spirit I believe.

pk

[olger]

Yes indeed. He is well versed in the Holy Spirit.

g

[phkrause]

And he's a pretty good person to boot olger. There are some so smug but not pastor Smith.

pk