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Once upon a time, back in my previous
life as a Word of Faith devotee, doing what my mama raised me to
believe was true, right and the best thing to do, Chuck Smith and Calvary Chapel both rang fondly in my ears. But that was all long
before I ever knew that there was such a thing as “spiritual abuse”
and something called the “Shepherding Discipleship Movement.”
In
fact, I was so good at innocently believing in goodness and hoping
for it in the name of God's love, I think that I had to observe some
serious abuse and experience a little of it myself to even consider
that it such a thing was possible. What made it harder was the fact
that it wasn't just a matter of a few bad apples who ended up being
pastors. As Zimbardo puts it, the barrel was bad, and a good apple
can't survive in a bad barrel – a barrel that is poorly maintained
and provided for. Some systems and barrels become a perfect storm
for spiritual abuse. No apple survives it unblemished.
Discernment Ministries Usually Avoid
the Bulk of the Problems
Compounding the problem in the
pre-internet days, most counter-cult apologetics groups would only
ever confront doctrinal problems and ignored the behaviors, ignoring
the fact that the Bible teaches that abusive religious leaders can
best be spotted by what they do, not what they say. And this is, in
my bold opinion, remains one of the primary failings of what many
call “discernment ministries.” Modern Christians decided
somewhere along the way that the twisted Scripture mantras of the Shepherding movement were all important: “Don't sow discord
among the brethren.” “Don't be a talebearer.” (And don't
confuse the latter one with a prejudice against family pets.) High
demand religion takes this a step further and also cites “Touch
not mine anointed and do my prophets no harm” as insulation and damage control against examining a pastor's behavior. “Let love cover a multitude ofsins” also exploits the trust of good, earnest people. “Don't
take up offenses” also helps to maintain control.
They forget that Jesus told the
Twelve to go out and shout from the rooftops about the evil deeds
done in secret. They forgot about the rather histrionic ceremony of
going out to the gate of a city to “kick
the dust off off one's feet” as a very public sign – a
formal statement against the abusive behaviors of religious
charlatans within those gates. As the sidebar of this site notes
prominently, 90% of the Scripture verses found in the Bible
concerning false teachers, false prophets and Pharisees talk about
behavior, fruit, and motive. They focus on only that ten percent,
and they often teach others that discussing or focusing on anything
else is improper. They forget that the late, great Walter
Martin often reminded Christians that the life one lived was as
important as the doctrine taught, and a Christian was accountable to
have both well in order.
So the survivor of religious abuse often finds themselves without much help when they go to Christian
discernment ministries for help and information about the worst
things that these groups do to their members. The counter-cult
apologetics groups usually fail to realize that, though important,
doctrine usually isn't the primary or the most significant problem in
pragmatic terms. That one thing which makes the Word of God
ineffective poses the greatest problem: the
traditions of men. But as I've noted here, Christians have
largely decided that it's only fitting and proper to discuss
doctrine.
Calvary Chapel
I could not even begin to list all of
the problems with Calvary Chapel, but those who read this blog should
be fairly familiar with the all too familiar dynamics of high demand
religion, notably Shepherding. If you're familiar with the abuses of
Bill Gothard's system, you know it well, too. Considering that Paul
told us in many passages that human beings are quite predictable in
the ways that they sin (I
Corinthians 10:1-22 , Galatians
5:19-20 as two notable examples), and considering that Jesus
pointed out the predictable patterns of the Pharisees, the things men
do to control a group of people are fairly predictable. Manipulation
of groups looks like what Henke
calls spiritual abuse and what Lifton
called thought reform. And Christian groups who end up falling
into the predictable patterns of the traditions of men instead of
trusting God end up looking like any other high demand, abusive,
idealistic group. They end up doing what the Pharisees did.
Below I'll list some links to
information about the history of thought reform and spiritual abuse
at Calvary Chapel who followed the errors of the Shepherding movement
(which you can read about here). Think Shepherding, and you're on
the right track. If you're familiar with the problems at SovereignGrace Ministries, you have a good idea of what goes on at Calvary
Chapel, too.
Shepherds Suing Sheep
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| Read more about the abuses of Matt 18 HERE. |
Please note that my primary focus today
isn't shepherding I want to point out the growing trend of abusive
ministries who sue fellow Christians and churches that sue members
and former members of their flocks for breaking silence about abuse. I
wrote about this trend last year – about how many churches
actually believe that they're doing Gods will when the sue other
Christians. Bill
Alnor successfully defended himself with an anti-SLAPP suit when
Hank Hanegraaf launched a defamation suit against him. I've only
very briefly mentioned Julie
Anne Smith's victory in court when her pastor sued her for
posting a bad review of the church on Goggle, making note of some
specific abuses there. Now, a church within the Calvary Chapel
network has filed suit against two former congregants for exposing
the abuses within the church on the internet – one of whom is the
plaintiff's own son. It's yet another case of an abusive shepherd
using Caesar's courts to protect the public image of the church and
their “ministry.” What happened to good shepherds and why have
pastors in particular dismissed 1
Corinthians 6?
Julie Ann Smith wrote a
fine summary of the case on the BGBC Survivors blog some time
ago, if you're not yet familiar with the issue (BGBC stands for
Beaverton Grace Bible Church, the acronym for the church that sued
her). She follows up with her support of the defendant at the
Spiritual
Sounding Board. Christianity Today helped
to start the ball rolling to bring attention to the case on a
wider scale. Religion News also features a
quick read summary of the highlights. OC
Weekly has an interesting bit to contribute, too. You can also
visit the blog that started the controversy, CalvaryChapelAbuse.com.
Oppose the Tyranny
If you speak out against spiritual
abuse online and elsewhere, if you gain benefit from those who do,
and if you appreciate the freedom to be able to do so, please
participate in the February 21 protest against those who oppose this
liberty. Stand with those people who speak openly about the abuse
that they endured at the hands of miserable religious groups – and
stand beside them as they defend themselves against their own pastors
and churches who use the civil court system to silence them. Help to
shout from the rooftops that which is done in secret.
Please pop on over to Who
Would Jesus Sue to find out more about how you can take action
tomorrow to stand along side Tim Taylor and Alex Grenier.
More about spiritual abuse at Calvary Chapel:
There are more – you can use Google!
I don't want to waste any more time on the matter. I
have tweets to write.
