#TGC16 and Soveriegn Grace: Break the Story. Break the Silence.

I'm watching the film Spotlight, and I stopped it because my husband came home from work. I'll finish watching it in a bit. I needed to express this much before I do.

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Scapegoating the SGA in Sex Abuse Scandals: First Generation Homeschoolers Must See, Hear and Speak No Evil (Part II)

Quiverfull/Patriarchy now reckons with the Phillips and Gothard sex abuse scandals. In my day and on the heels of a local one, I contended with the Jim Bakker sex scandal fallout.

Part II in a Series

• Part I   (Sarah Hunt on homeschooling problems)
• Part III (Homeschool Apostates and HARO)
• Part IV (Accommodating Perspective of the SGA)
• Part V  (Becoming a Safe Person for the SGA)
• Part VI (What Old Guard Parents Must Realize)

I will never forget the words of my mother or the day of the week when the PTL/Jim Bakker/Jessica Hahn story broke in March of '87. I was finishing up my last year of college, had just finished my classes for the week, and I would thoroughly enjoy Thursday night with my parents. We watched The Cosby Show and Family Ties, laughing together. We ate dinner and enjoyed the familiar warmth of the house when it was still heated with coal. It became a family ritual – one of the last, regular ones that we all still had together.

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Melancholy Thoughts as Gothard is Placed on Administrative Leave for Charges of Clergy Sex Abuse

It has been an interesting few weeks for the survivors of spiritual abuse and those who have suffered the “extra special” kind of spiritual abuse that comes with sexual advances made by clergy.

After years of suffering in silence and scorn, many have cause for hope. Bob Jones University reinstated the Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment Group to complete their investigation of unreported assaults. And... Bill Gothard was placed on administrative leave by the board of his parachurch organization, the Institute in Basic Life Principles. These matters have even caught the attention of the secular press including the New York Times and the Washington Post.

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Has Christian Fundamentalism Become Synonymous with Sexual and Domestic Abuse?

Note: For background info, please visit the embedded. The following is packed with them, and you may need a scorecard.]

After posting a link to a new article in the New Republic entitled Sexual Assault at God's Harvard in social media today, Eric Pazdziora drew attention to it. (Eric is an exceptionally talented musician, composer, and graduate student who was a featured contributor to the book, Quivering Daughters and has written much on the topic.)

Note: Patrick Henry College (PHC) designed for homeschoolers by the founder of the Home School Legal Defense Association and was referenced in as “God's Harvard” in the title of Hanna Rosin's book.

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Primary Problems in Nouthetic and Biblical Counseling Approaches: A Guest Post by Dr. John Weaver

Host's Introduction

When we human beings experience deeply painful setbacks in life when trying to cope with and solve our problems, and when our hopes are met with disappointment, we face the challenge of letting those things either “make or break” us. To thoroughly move forward through the experience to gain true wisdom from it, we need to understand what happened to us, why it happened, and who owns responsibility for causes that may have contributed to the disappointing outcome. When those who fully intended to help us or the systems or tools used result in failure, our healing becomes so much more complicated because of those good motives.

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An Example of the Anatomy and Physiology of Spiritual Abuse: Mahaney, T4G and the Gospel Coalition

In then next few days, I will feature a post written by a university professor who left Evangelicalism because of how poorly the Church responded to his needs. He references the similar plight of a population of people within the Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM) network of churches as an example of his frustration with his own matter of concern. Prior to diving into his contribution here, I wanted to focus back on how spiritual abuse works using the example of recent events  and problems concerning SGM. The misuse and abuse of authority through rigid systems allows a fleeting virtuous end to justify ever more questionable and unethical means. Soon, the individual that the system was meant to aid them finds themselves crushed by it instead, and the system blackmails the individual by claiming to govern their eternal fate. 

For many years, several parents and families endeavored to engage their church leaders to adequately and appropriately attend to the needs of all of those who were ill affected what emerged as a pattern of of both physical and sexual abuse that insulated abusers. When these change agents failed, they filed a class action civil lawsuit against SGM leaders for decades of unreported child physical and sexual abuse, attempts to cover up these cases, and for the pain and shame suffered by those who were manipulated to remain silent.

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The Importance of Reporting Abuse in a Religious Setting (especially if you attended Bob Jones U)

The message below was posted at Do Right BJU, and a portion of this came directly from a formal announcement made by Godly Response to Abuse in a Christian Environment (G.R.A.C.E.), the organization that Bob Jones University hired to investigate allegations that they do not handle sexual abuse matters appropriately I hope that it is encouraging to all victims and survivors, not just those who endured problems within the Independent Fundamental Baptist system.

The concern about how Bob Jones University handles reports of sexual or physical abuse became a very public matter when Tina Anderson's story came to light on ABC's 20/20 program in 2011. A previous post here notes that BJU seems to be interfering with students ability to access GRACE, and they appear have failed to include all former students in the requested surveys.

The GRACE organization “is a non-profit organization made up of highly trained and experienced multi-disciplinary professionals who seek to educate and empower the Christian community to identify, confront and respond to the sin of child abuse.” They provide a variety of services and resources toward that end. Read more on their website.

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Jack Schaap of the Independent Fundamental Baptist Church Dismissed And Sheriff's Office Investigation Ensues

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 Updated 4Apr12

Reports have just surfaced stating that Jack Schaap of the Independent Fundamental Baptist network of churches (IFB) has been dismissed from his position.  

Yet uncorroborated social media sources allege that he had a sexual relationship with a girl who was involved with the church and affiliated college bus ministry. There is some question as to whether the teenage girl was under the legal age of consent, as the activity allegedly took place in two locations in two different states with two different age cutoffs for statutory rape.  

When employed as pastor of the First Baptist Church of Hammond, a position he was dismissed from a few hours ago, Schaap oversaw Hyles-Anderson College for the IFB. One of their notable ministries promoted picking up disadvantaged children in their remote neighborhoods in order to bus them to church, hence the school offered classes in "bus ministry.”

The social media allegations made against Schaap suggest that he revictimized a young woman who previously suffered sexual abuse and sought counsel from the church. Similar cases of this this pattern of repeated abuse suffered by young women who seek out help after molestation and rape were highlighted by Elizabeth Vargas in 20/20's Shattered Faith episode last year, first airing in April 2011. (View the entire episode HERE.) Perhaps ABC will revisit this pattern of abuse on upcoming broadcasts? 

This mindset and teachings shared by Jack Schaap appear in the ABC investigation on the 20/20 Shattered Faith episode concerning Tina Anderson.  For a short time after the program's airing, video of Schaap appeared on YouTube wherein he scoffs and brags about his position. Those videos quickly disappeared. (One of them does still appear HERE on the Internet Archive, however.)

4Aug12 Update:  It has also been reported in social media that the attorney who has often been called upon as counsel for IFB pastors and abusive ministers addressed the congregation, advising the abused to report details to the church, saying nothing about about contacting law enforcement.  You're supposed to talk to the defense attorney for the church and perhaps for Jack Schaap that you were abused in their church?  Note this advice that the attorney gave to churches in a publication earlier this year.

View the entire image of the article HERE.

The allegations first appeared on a Facebook page entitled Do Right Hyles-Anderson, but the church has apparently released a statement to the press. (Note more details about the Do Right BJU protest below.)  The matter has been noted by the media where you can access a copy of First Baptist Church of Hammond's official statement.  Please take note that any other additional information that has not been reported in these major media press sources has only been alleged and appears in social media only.   4Aug12 Update: One of the most rounded articles I've seen thus far has appeared in the Chicago Tribune.   The Huffington Post, The New York Daily News, The Daily Mail, and other sources now confirm additional details noted initially in the social media outlets.   The Examiner.com also now features an article that explores the far reaching effects and harmful aspects of the ideology that facilitates abuse in religious settings. 

Initial Reports

• CBS Chicago  
• CNN iReport  
• The Times (HammondCommunity.net)  
• The Daily Reporter

Along with many other blog entries, a very brief history of the Tina Anderson story can be found HERE on this site. It also includes a very short introduction to the problem of demoralizing and abusing women in the IFB which often results in a secondary molesting of girls who are seen as "bruised fruit" (after their virginity is gone) when the go to clergy or others in the church for practical help and emotional support. These molested children are believed by many within the IFB to be complicit in their own sexual abuse and are held accountable as the first cause in the chain of events that solicit their own sexual and psychological trauma. Along with others in the IFB network, Ron Williams of Hephzibah House preaches a Doctrine of the Strange Woman that facilitates this type of abuse. Sectors within the IFB teach a very low view of women which relegates them not only to subservience but also demoralizes them as lesser moral creatures, a growing problem within many other sectors of the evangelical church, a position advanced by the late John R. Rice.

Doctrines of “complementarianism” within the Southern Baptist Convention also foster similar problems, as the learned evangelists for their unique twist on the same ideas defines women as having lesser essence and purpose by teaching that women are merely the “indirect” or the “derivative” image of God. Men are more purely connected to God in their essence, and women are lesser because she was taken from man's source material. Women are one step removed from God and are said to be more given over to deception, sin, and error, necessitating a male protector and intercessor before God.

As valiant survivors like Susan Grotte have pointed out so well, many within the IFB also teach a view that corporal punishment of children results in spiritual purification. Augmented by a literal interpretation hermeneutic and the view that the King James Version of the Bible is the only inspired and authoritative version of the text, far surpassing the original languages or older translations, proverbs from the Old Testament are interpreted to teach that bruising and physical discipline bring about salvation. Ron Williams also preaches a sermon regarding the efficacy of corporal punishment as a salvific method that parents must employ to save their children from eternal hell (Read the sermon HERE.) A fine example of the literal interpretation which is used as a proof text for striking crying infants can be found in Proverbs 20:30:

The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil:

so do stripes the inward parts of the belly.

(I suppose that we should all be grateful that they don't teach parents to feed shards of glass to their children to produce internal injury in the stomach, too. Perhaps such a method could turn all of their children into new versions of Billy Sunday and John R. Rice?)

When you place more value on the purity of others than you do on people, and when you vilify women and use them as scapegoats, this kind of thing seems to be a logical conclusion. When the virginity of a molested girl becomes more important than the girl and her great value to the world and to her Creator, it is a logical conclusion. And when young women are seen as "damaged goods" because of "sexual impurity" inflicted by another, she merely becomes another thing to be used for a man's gratification. The men can appease their consciences by telling themselves that their lack of self-control and compassion really fall to the inherent fault of women (or the children that they violate). 

What a sad day.

Additional Reading:

Read Redeeming Dinah HERE, a refutation of the Strange Woman Doctrine on UnderMuchGrace.com.

All posts on UnderMuchGrace pertaining to Tina Anderson's rape and the Do Right BJU protest that ensued can be found HERE, but they are not indexed, and you will have to scroll through many. 

Visit the Do Right BJU Protest on Facebook for more information about that protest. Following the airing of the ABC 20/20 Episode concerning the problem of covering up sexual abuse within the IFB, Bob Jones University appointed the pastor who covered up the rape featured in the episode to their Cooperating Board. In protest, students and alumni joined in a protest by wearing red to chapel in December 2011. (See BJU's Tankmen of Tianamen Square at UnderMuchGrace.com) The student who organized the protest was expelled a few days before graduating. (Also read Kicked Out of College for Watching Glee.)

Link HERE to an index of links and helpful information about the abuses at Hephzibah House and other IFB reform homes for teenagers. To view many posts that scroll through CNN's “Ungodly Discipline” report series on the abuse within these IFB homes, link HERE, though please note that the link also includes shows and transcripts concerning the child training methods and deaths related to Michael Pearl's corporal punishment system.

All references to the IFB that appear on UnderMuchGrace.com may be accessed HERE.

2Apr12 Update:  Chuckles Travels Blog has posted some insightful articles as well.  This one about Schaap points out details of a recent, very offensive sermon advising parents concerning sexuality and teens.  This post offers wise advice and words of warning to other abuse survivors at Hyles Anderson College and those within the IFB.  (Allegedly, the congregants at Schaap's former church of record were advised to take matters concerning abuse to the church's defense attorney who may possibly be acting as the defense attorney for Schapp.)

Hanna Thomas also noted some important advice for victims, and the comments under this post as well as her post about the Schaap scandal are followed by interesting and telling comments.

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How Do We Seek Justice when Religious Authorities Disappoint Us? Supporting the “Do Right BJU” Protest

 Are you wearing red tomorrow? Wear it and use it as a reminder to pray for us all to do right.

Raised to have great respect for authority and with a belief that God always plans good things for me, I anticipated that religious authorities in particular would always show my kindness and would offer the best help. Are they not people who have specially dedicated themselves to serve God and His people? The Apostle Paul says to esteem others in a positive way, giving them the benefit of the doubt, if you will. Especially when you are a young child and growing in faith in Jesus, it seems right to look to authorities as role models. This becomes especially important when you finally have the opportunity to carve out the specifics of how you would like to live the rest of your life as a young adult in college. Those early experiences have a profound effect on the rest of your life – how it will be lived and how you will experience it because it colors your outlook through experience. Good experiences build objectivity and confidence in God and in the community of believers around you.

What does the Bible say about example and expectation?

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Why support the Do Right Movement at Bob Jones University?

For a bit of context, please read this summary of the relationship between Tina Anderson and Pastor Chuck Phelps. During and after the trial, Chuck Phelps made himself out to be a bigger victim than Tina Anderson, then took credit for being responsible for getting her rapist convicted. A few days ago, Phelps stepped down from a position on the Cooperating Board of Bob Jones University because of a student protest online and one planned on campus on December 12, 2011. Sadly, the original problem of dismissing rape victims and covering up scandals to protect good ole boy religious network and the problematic attitudes at the root of the problem of how women are perceived within the IFB (things to be used by men) still remain. This is one woman's response to this yet unresolved problem.

 

A post by guest contributor

Ashley Henry 

who has graciously allowed her work to be published here.

(Appeared on Ashley's blog called “Socially Inappropriate” as her post entitled The perspective of an abuse victim and on the Do Right BJU Facebook Page.)

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Chuck Phelps Resigns from Bob Jones University

What a busy day of blogging!  Breaking news -

Dr. Chuck Phelps resigns from BJU Cooperating Board

At a regularly scheduled meeting of the Bob Jones University Board of Trustees, Dec. 2, 2011, Board Chairman, Dr. Bob Jones III, read a letter from Dr. Chuck Phelps in which Dr. Phelps voluntarily tendered his resignation from the Cooperating Board effective immediately. In submitting his resignation, Dr. Phelps expressed that he did not want anything to distract BJU from its mission.

“We are grateful to Dr. Phelps for his many years of loyal service to his alma mater as a member of the Board of Trustees,” says Dr. Jones III.

This may be the most honorable thing that the man has done thus far.

For several days, I've been considering what example from Scripture might best apply to the relationship and circumstances between Phelps and Tina Anderson.  I can only think of two.

First, I thought of how Phelps contends that he acted in the best interest of the church and concealed information from the congregation concerning Ernest Willis because it might put the church at legal risk from several perspectives.  In the sense of things secular and from a purely legal perspective, it was probably wise to note that it was a possibility.  But how does that compare to Scripture?

I can think of only one example.

Matthew 18: 10-14 (NIV)

The Parable of the Wandering Sheep

 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. 

  “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.

And is there another example that parallels Phelps relationship with Tina and his behavior with her? I can think of only one other example, that of the woman caught in adultery.

John 8:7

So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.

Phelps is all to ready with the stones, carrying out the law.

Sad.  If you had been raped or what if you weren't, and you went to this man for help...  Would you willingly go to him, knowing what you know about how he behaved with Tina and at least one other young woman?  (Read the open letter to Phelps from the other young woman's uncle.)

Would you want to be the lost one or one of the ninety nine under this pastor's care?  God forbid you should be found sinning or abandoned and abused.  Stones weigh more than grace does with some folks.

God have mercy on us all.

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IFB Pastor, Ron Williams, and One of His Sermons About the "Strange Woman"

Ron Williams, the founder of Hephzibah House, the private boarding home for troubled girls has a few interesting ideas about young women who are molested or raped.

Survivors of Hephzibah House (HH) will tell you about the cruel things that Ron Williams had to say, many of which are not captured in this sermon.

He spoke openly about the options available to young women who no longer had sexual purity, whether it was forcibly taken from them or whether they were too young to understand what was happening to them as they were being molested by an adult. These women have little value because they have poor character, otherwise they would have never been violated.

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Fast-Talking Phelps, Bob Jones U's Reward to Phelps for Resisting “Strange Women,” and the “Do Right BJU” Protest: What color will you wear on December 12th?

If you've forgotten the name and identity of Pastor Chuck Phelps, don't be too concerned. Bob Jones University remembers who he is.

Given some of the particular doctrines concerning women and sex held by those within the Independent Fundamental Baptist denomination (IFB) which they claim is not a denomination, I believe that the university actually rewarded Phelps after the events of 2011 concerning Tina Anderson. Phelps defended Ernie Willis who was found guilty by a jury of his peers for assaulting Tina Anderson at the age of 15. They recently appointed Chuck to the Board of Bob Jones University, despite his problematic testimony and the fact that, from the stand itself, Chuck claims to be a victim of the court and the press.

Strange Women

Many ministers within the IFB teach a doctrine concerning the “strange woman” (the expression used in the Book of Proverbs to describe prostitutes).

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Photo of Tina Anderson and Jocelyn Zichterman from the IFB Cult Survivors Facebook Page

Tina Anderson, left, and Jocelyn Zichterman, center, talk with supporters after a Merrimack Superior Court jury found Ernest Willis guilty of forcibly raping and impregnating his children's 15-year-old baby sitter, who belonged to the same church, more than a decade ago. (AP Photo/Alexander Cohn, Pool) AP

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Ernest Willis Found Guilty of Aggravated Sexual Assault of Tina Anderson

WMUR TV News 9 in New Hampshire announced via live blogging from the courtroom today that Ernest Willis was found guilty on two counts of forcible rape and one count of felonious sexual assault of then 15 year old Tina Anderson in 1997. Willis was in his late thirties and was married with four children when the abuse occurred. 

When Anderson became pregnant by Willis as a consequence of the rapes, Pastor Chuck Phelps of Trinity Baptist Church, an Independent Fundamental Baptist (IFB) affiliated church in Concord, NH, arranged for her to be sent to Colorado to carry the baby to term after being forced to repent to her congregation for “putting herself in a compromising situation.” While she was kept in social isolation and homeschooled by an albeit kind family until some time after her baby was delivered and adopted, Willis continued to have unchecked access to everyone among church congregants who were kept ignorant that Willis had committed statutory rape. Read more HERE.

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An Update on the trial of Ernest Willis (regarding the charges of sexual assault of Tina Anderson)

 At the time of this posting, Ernest Willis awaits day four of his trial for aggravated sexual assault of Tina Anderson, though he has plead guilty on one count of statutory rape which he claims was consensual. A local TV station in New Hampshire, WMUR's News 9, continues their close coverage of the events in the Merrimack County Superior Court of Concord, NH.

Judge Larry Smuckler will decide today whether the prosecution will be permitted to continue to pursue aggravated assault charges. It appears, at the time of this post, that the trial regarding aggravated assault will continue. Link HERE to follow WMUR's live blogging today.

The start of the trial was delayed today (26May11) while the judge decided whether Anderson's testimony regarding Willis' offer to take Anderson out-of-state for an abortion and to punch her to induce a miscarriage has been admitted and will be presented to the jury, overriding the previous decision to exclude this testimony.

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Two Items for Weekend Reading

#1: Announcing HephzibahGirls.com

With all of the discussion concerning the Former Hephzibah Girls who survived the suburban gulag at Hephzibah House in Winona Lake, IN, they have given themselves a facelift and adopted a domain name that is easier to convey and type!  (The Blogger URL is hephzibah-girls.blogspot.com.)  

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Examples of the Posterity of the Shepherding Movement: Geoff Botkin and Surviving Sovereign Grace Ministries

A few years ago, I read a book review of a book on the Shepherding movement that grew out of the Charismatic Renewal movement that started in the 1960s. The reviewer said that it seemed pointless to rehash a movement and a mindset that was old news and past-tense. I remember wondering what planet this person lived on? They certainly had not lived in my corner of the universe.

Shepherding is anything but past tense, and most everything that shepherding did is still alive and as active as it ever was. Though there is not a tremendous focus on the one-on-one (or one-over-one) pastoral care that some of the original groups followed, the other spiritually abusive practices persisted. Some of those include the tremendous focus on piety and an overt focus on submission to and governance by church leadership under the guise of personal concern for parishioners. These groups also spend a great deal of energy maintaining milieu control, urging others to refrain from “sowing discord among the brethren.”

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Links to Blogs and Ongoing Discussions of Abuse in the Church

In an article I referenced in the last post, Ron Henzel notes that the term “abuse” gives many Christians pause and problems. He discusses what I call the “culture of victimhood” that was so encouraged 20 years ago when everyone was a victim of something and needed some sort of therapeutic measure to be made whole. It seemed like a select few people had been victimized and began to heal, and they projected that experience onto everyone else on the planet with the good news of their deliverance from their personal evils. And our culture drank too deeply from the fountains of the victim mentality and developed quite a sour belly full of it.

The problem is that there is a serious and what I would define as a growing problem with real abuse in the church today. Just because others have overused and extended the term should not turn into a reaction that ignores real abuse. We have problems with neglect of those we should be ministering to within our walls and outside of them, but that is not abuse as many have defined it. That problem is yet another problem, a different one. But I mean serious, actual abuse. Reflecting upon the Lord’s work in my life in recent years, a dear friend wrote to me yesterday, stating that “those times have given you the insight to address many of the imperious, life-strangling movements in today's church.” And I see more instances of abuse now than I did then, even when I was very hypervigilant and still suffering the active pain that those abuses brought with them.

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Self-Blame is Not Guilt! (It is not an invitation for abuse!)

From David Stoop's "Forgiving Our Parents, Forgiving Ourselves"

"We regularly see an interesting phenomenon occur among adults who were abused as children. Thy experience an overwhelming need to cast blame somewhere. Because of the dynamics of childhood – where adults are bigger and more powerful, and therefore perceived as “always right” – abuse victims invariably place the blames on themselves." (pg. 246)

Read more HERE.

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From Pia Mellody's "Facing Love Addiction"

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