Reply to : jmassi

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Thanks snakechic. I think your analysis is spot-on. I am somewhat dismayed with myself that it took me six years of intense research to figure out the same thing; whereas you seem to have figured it out at a glance. Plod, plod, plod, that's all I do.The editorial by Shelton Smith is a hoot, and it's one more instance where a person has given himself just enough rope to hang himself. The excesses ofThe Sword of the Lordare legendary, so his riff against bloggers pretty much wins the irony award for 2007.Thanks again.

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jmassi, I was abused in the church and I am participating in a PhD thesis about childhood sexual abuse with a Social Ecologist. I'd be happy to contribute to your research also. But please understand that I'm keeping other survivor stories at a distance, so I haven't read up on the links you posted (or, listened up). I'm trying to be gentle with myself for a change.

A site where I have been hanging out for nearly three months is malesurvivor.com, they have some links to researchers and results of research, obviously not restricted to the church. Also, perhaps I can contact the PhD guy and ask if he's willing to share his methodologies with you. From the bits of the thread I did read (most of the first page, half of the second), my blunt insight is that you may be at a significnt risk of getting sidetracked with sensationalist media horseshit. I would hate for you to go public with a program or a book that doesn't stand up to rigorous criticism, because you will cop it from legitimate researchers as well as the popular press. See the 'repressed memory' thing (ie: stopbadtherapy), and Capturing The Friedmans, et al.

A site that helped me start dealing with my abuse was:

http://www.menweb.org/sexabupg.htm

For me the most significant underreporting of chld abuse occurs when the kid, like me, takes it for granted and then goes on to either relive the abuse (through online bondage communites - Femdom in my case, along with a lot of other guys who are in denial) or becomes a perpetrator, since for men at least, being a victim is not an acceptable option. But I'm sure you've found this out in your own research. Unfortunately this is a new area of study, just like female perpetrators, so there's not a lot available for second-hand research.

Also, the only film I know of that deals specifically with Christian Fundamentalism and sexual abuse is Antwone Fisher, well worth a watch.

Many thanks IWF. I'll keep you in mind! DO you have anything published anywhere? The sensationalistic side of the church abuse story is something I have talked about with both my publishing rep and my lawyer. In my opinion, the analytical version of the book is more important. I want people to understand how porous the most conservative churches actually are, and how much their standard habits of practice actually shield abusive leaders. But everybody else on my informal "committee" agrees that a book that appeals to the masses (ie, a book about the cases themselves) will be the one that sells in numbers large enough to embarrass church leaders. I plan to write both, as the Lord allows.

Please let me know if you have any papers out or a prospectus for your dissertation.

How's it going ?.. plod plod..not wearing I hope?

I'm not sure if you've seen this one before Jeri ......so I'll paste it anyway.....incase Okay.. I have a question of you as well...What's your opinion of Franklin Credit Union CHild-sex scandel _ its a little difficult for me to suss out...not being an american or living in the country. Its old news I know...I'm curious.

its ...pretty bad stuff.!!!

From http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6625955 , click link for audio story:

December 14, 2006 ?In southwest Missouri, police are investigating allegations of child sexual abuse involving church leaders and church members. Prosecutors in two counties say there are multiple victims and similar patterns of abuse.

Some of the alleged sexual contact may have been committed as part of a ritual or ceremony, crimes that are rare in the United States. NPR has reviewed extensive legal documents in these cases over several months and also talked to most of the accusers, as well as some of the accused.

The area of Missouri where the cases surfaced has been home to extremist and fringe groups in the past. Data show that a high number of cases of child sexual abuse in the same area are reported annually to the Department of Social Services. What makes this story different is that almost all the accusers -- five so far -- and the accused -- five in total -- are related by blood or marriage.

Newton County's Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Bill Dobbs says complicated family ties are involved in the cases.

"We have, in McDonald County, Raymond Lambert, who is married to his stepsister," Dobbs says. "We have George Johnston, who is an uncle to Raymond Lambert. It is alleged by some members of that community that the religious leaders may, in fact, be the biological parents of several children who have been born into this group."

Our story focuses mostly on the pastors Raymond Lambert and his uncle George Johnston. Both men are charged with multiple counts of statutory sodomy or child molestation. Pastor Lambert led his flock on a 100-acre farm. Pastor Johnston led his on a 10-acre farm. They ministered in the family's Grand Valley Independent Baptist Church.

A Close-Knit, Isolated Community

Earlier this year in the spring, 10 people secretly moved out of the 100-acre farm. Most of those left behind were shocked, since members of the religious community were unusually close.

A woman who left with this group agreed to be interviewed, but only on condition of anonymity. NPR agreed to this because she fears for her and her family's safety. She is also an alleged victim named in one of the child sexual-abuse cases. The woman, in her late 20s, says she fled because she realized her extended family was behaving like a religious cult.

"They operate in a cult-like fashion," she tells NPR. "Raymond Lambert sets all the rules for the people who live there. He tells you what to go to school for, he tells you who to marry. He basically controls your life."

Former residents of this religious commune say non-church members were kept at arms-length. While children were home schooled, adults did have jobs outside of the farm. Some worked at Wal-Mart's headquarters in nearby northern Arkansas. The anonymous woman says Pastor Raymond Lambert told her to study music in college, so she became a music teacher.

One day last year, while surfing the Internet, she accidentally came across a cult-awareness Web site. The Bible-based cults she read about began to sound as if they were pages out of her own life. Alarmed, she contacted a California rabbi linked to the Web site. She says he counseled her for months, and in April of this year, she finally found the courage to leave everything she once believed in. Pastor Raymond Lambert not only controlled her, she says, but he also used his role as a minister to sexually molest her.

'This Was Her Way to Heaven'

"The first incident started with taking my clothes off when I was 15 years old," she said. "He touched me from head to toe, every part of my body, and told me that this body belongs to God. And the only way that I could subject myself to God is to give my body to Raymond, who is God in the flesh."

She grew up on the farm, passionately believing in God and church, trusting that her sexual relationship with Raymond Lambert would bring her closer to God.

"I believed that it was right, and that it was OK," she said. "I didn't feel like I needed to tell anybody, because I was believing in that at the time."

In June, she filed child sexual-abuse charges against Raymond Lambert. Not long after, Missouri police began to investigate other church leaders in the community, including Pastor George Johnston, an uncle of Raymond Lambert.

Mike Barnett, Newton County's child-abuse investigator, says another alleged victim, a 17-year-old girl, told him that Johnston sexually abused her, beginning when she was 8 years old.

"It became worse at about 12," Barnett says, referring to the 17-year-old's case. "He would tell her that he was ordained by God, that this was her way to heaven, and that she needed to give her body to him."

Barnett says he investigates child abuse all the time, and cases involving religion are rare. In a police statement, he says 63-year-old pastor George Johnston told this alleged victim that even if she had sexual intercourse with him, she would remain a virgin. In neighboring McDonald County, the state alleges that Johnston gave "angel kisses" to this same young girl, where the kiss would involve touching and fondling of her breasts and other inappropriate areas.

Allegations Heard in Court

At a preliminary hearing in October, another alleged victim, 20-year-old Mackenzie Kyle Aimee, took the stand in the Newton County courthouse. Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Bill Dobbs asked her what happened in the winter of 1998, when she was 12.

"I was starting to develop or go through puberty," Aimee said, "and I had some stretch marks coming, and he told me that he could heal them for me, and he touched my breasts."

On the stand, Aimee alleged that Pastor George Johnston, whom she used to call Grandpa, was going to teach her algebra, but instead, "he touched me on my breasts and my vagina."

Months before these allegations, families in the religious community were coping with other disturbing news, says Amey Burkett, who grew up on the 100-acre-farm.

"In April, I learned that my grandfather thought that his daughters needed taking care of spiritually," Burkett tells NPR. "And so in order to do that, in order to keep his daughters, he had sex with them. He then went on to father a child for most all of his daughters, or his daughter-in-laws [sic]."

Her grandfather was the late Cecil Epling, a minister originally from Ohio. According to Burkett, Epling wanted his seven sons and four daughters to become a tight-knit community, so he helped buy them the Missouri farm. When Epling died, his stepson, Raymond Lambert, took over the ministry. George Johnston later joined the family's church.

Family members say Cecil Epling passed his sexual beliefs to both pastors, teaching them that they needed to fulfill the sexual needs of their daughters and selected girls in the church.

"What's inside of them is God, and they think that they have all the power, all that it takes to take care of a woman," Burkett says.

Taking care of a woman meant having sex with her, in some cases from early childhood on. Burkett said that Pastor Raymond Lambert believes that women should be put in their place to make them humble. Burkett said that this usually required stripping off clothes.

"He would always say, if you're spiritually hindered, it's one of two things: your mind or your flesh," Burkett said of Lambert. "By taking off your clothes, and knowing that you weren't ashamed of your body, it did feel like it set you free. And I know that sounds weird. A lot of things sound weird to me now. But it didn't then."

Pastors Deny All Charges

Lawyers for Raymond Lambert and George Johnston say each of their clients deny every charge made by the alleged victims.

"No one has begun to question, why are you talking now?" says defense attorney Dwayne Cooper, who represents Raymond Lambert and his wife, Patty Lambert. "What are their motives in coming forward at this time, all of them simultaneously?"

Pastor George Johnston's attorney, Andy Wood, said the allegations have hit his clients hard.

"George and his wife are just absolutely devastated," Wood said. "This has come out of nowhere. These kids that they did think of as being their grandchildren -- now these kids have made these just horrible, horrendous accusations against him. And obviously, it's ruined their whole life."

I met Pastor Johnston at a preliminary hearing for one of three child sexual-abuse cases against him. He's a balding man, with a moustache and pasty skin. During the hearing, he sat solemn and devoid of expression, rarely looking up at anyone in the courtroom. When I ask him about the charges against him, he declines to speak, referring me to his lawyer.

Lawyers for Pastor Lambert and his wife, Patty, agreed to let me talk to their clients, but with substantial restrictions. I was allowed only to ask about life on the farm, and how the allegations have affected them.

Raymond Lambert is charged with seven counts of statutory sodomy or child molestation in McDonald County. Patty Lambert is charged with child molestation.

In a soft voice, Pastor Lambert describes his life: "You wake up one day and things have all changed. And the whole world now seems to be looking at our lives, and they're accusing us. We've been tried and sentenced in the media already."

Lambert says he loves every person who left the 100-acre farm, including those now accusing him of child sexual abuse. He says the allegations have been tough for his entire congregation.

"God said he was going to try us," Lambert said. "The only problem of it is, we never thought we'd be tried in such a way." While he speaks, his wife Patty holds his hand tightly.

"Everyone that lived there by choice would build, and we would watch each other's children as we went out to work," Raymond Lambert says, recalling life on the farm. "And it was a place of a community -- it was not something of a forced thing."

'They're Not Fearing Me'

Raymond and Patty Lambert say families left the farm not because they feared Raymond, but because of rumors that the FBI or other authorities might take children away from families and put them into foster care.

"They're not fearing me. That's not what this is about," Raymond Lambert says.

Patty Lambert adds, "The fear came from the outside. I have no great fear of these charges, because I'm going to trust my God all the way through it."

Raymond Lambert nods his head in agreement.

"If our love and our truth about one another, and about what God has given us -- and about our relationship, my wife and I -- hadn't been based on something true and strong, this would have tore our life apart," Raymond Lambert says.

"But thanks be to our lord that our love is stronger," he says. "We stand together and we believe as one that our lord is going to make a way, as he's made a way and going to make a way for all those that have left."

The child sexual-abuse allegations have affected more than 30 families. One trial date has been set for Pastor George Johnston in February. No matter what the legal outcome of any of these cases, this community that so many believed in for decades is gone.

And a follow-up. From http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6632499

 

Hey SC! The Missouri case is another case of a cult that has gotten into incest and pedophilia. They carry the name "Independent Fundamental Baptist," and---being so stupidly independent---no church of better doctrine or conduct will challenge him, nor can he be "put out of fellowship." I don't think these guys in Missouri are teaching or are even aware of the same historic Baptist doctrines that, say, John Bunyan (Pilgrim's Progress) taught. But the Baptists have made themselves unable to expel him from Baptist fellowship. (Fred Phelps, the looney who protests at the funerals of slain soldiers, is another example of this type of situation.)

The totally porous nature of being Baptist and/or Fundamentalist is one of the pillars of my book. Nobody wants to purify the group/denomination, but if you point out that openly predatory men have taken the name Independent Baptist Fundamentalist, the response is that you should realize they are "fakes." And my point is that until the name gets some standard of conduct behind it, the pedophiles are just as much Independent Baptist as the non-pedophiles. Whoever can defend the name gets the name, and if nobody defends it, then everybody who wants it can have it with just as much validity as the next person.

I will have to look at the Franklin Credit Union Child-sex scandal when I get a chance to do so. I have some deadlines I have to meet, and I am on a strict regimen to handle the stress factors, as I got sick again after the threats to disrupt the conference. So I have to go walk for a couple hours to burn it off. I do that nearly every day now, and it has helped me calm down. Plus, my rep has offered to do some ghostwriting for me, as I have been too overwrought about the book. But I am getting that ready to ship off to him.

Best wishes,
Jeri

Hope you are okay, Jeri. For several years the idea of writing a book based on my experiences as an IBF has come to mind from time to time, Frankly at this point I don't have the guts to do it. Yes they are pathetic and ridiculous and in my lighter moments, I can joke about it. But what I have seen firsthand and what I have heard secondhand from people who have no reason to lie tells me that they are also dangerous. Please take care of yourself.

Thanks Jeri.... 

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And my point is that until the name gets some standard of conduct behind it, the pedophiles are just as much Independent Baptist as the non-pedophiles. Whoever can defend the name gets the name, and if nobody defends it, then everybody who wants it can have it with just as much validity as the next person.

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Yes.....Absolutely! why not? it doens't make any sense to think otherwise........... Its not very difficult to imagine that there are many more 'FredP's" out there in FundyBaptist Land.....I shudder everytime I read 'Independent".....!

Sorry to hear that you got sick - stress is a bugger! & the subject matter you are having to deal with is very taxing on the emotions - not to mention writing - that in itself is hugely demanding.......................................yes ...so do take care. Walking - fresh air...peace..

When are you going to take a break?.....................I agree they are dangerous!

Hi Glad2BeFree and SnakeChic. Thank you for your concern. For the moment, I have stopped working on the book, mostly because I know that at the Conference of the Lambs I will likely get a lot of NEW info. It may very well re-shape the book. So in the meantime, I am putting together a new series of 30 episodes for the Recovering Fundamentalists podcast.

The big news on the last couple weeks is that Charles Shifflett, infamous child molester/rapist/violent abuser who pled guilty to 7 felonies and walked away free (returning to his pulpit) has been arrested again. I am going to reprint what I sent out in the newsletter:

As you may know, I produced a podcast documentary last year about the serious (and unspeakable) abuses perpetrated in a Fundamentalist church in Virginia by Pastor Charles Shifflett (Lambs of Culpeper).

I was able to meet with several of the victims. I thought that the documentary was a help to them and a witness that they have not been forgotten by Christ or His people. But when Shifflett finally went to trial, he pled guilty on all counts and in return served no jail time and went right back to his church. It was as though nothing had happened at all. I was deeply shaken by this loss, and I didn't even know how to face his victims, who have already endured so much abuse and, on top of that, isolation, as they have been blamed by many people for being trouble makers.

I've been praying since the trial results in early December for the Lord to remember His lambs in Culpeper and to act in judgment on Shifflett so that the young people know that God does hear their prayers and He is their defender. Earlier this week, one of the young people e-mailed me and told me to check their local paper.

Charles Shifflett has been indicted on 51 counts of tax fraud and other monetary crimes. If found guilty, he faces a minimum of 52 years in prison, and possibly life at the maximum. These charges came as a surprise to everybody, including Shifflett. There had been one brief hearing previously that did not seem to amount to much (defrauding an insurance company), and it was expected that he would return the money and be let off. But these new counts, 51 of them, include defrauding the gov't as well as insurance companies and whoever handles disability claims.

It may sound strange to rejoice that somebody has been arrested, but this is an answer to prayer. If nothing else, I believe that he is a dangerous man who must not be allowed near children, as his previous abuses have been of the most depraved nature and have been against both boys and girls. But most of all, I believe that God has answered prayer in not letting Shifflett walk away simply because the court system in Culpeper refused to appropriately sentence him for his crimes. We may be on the verge of seeing the Lord do great things for His people, the Lambs who have suffered church abuse.

Best wishes,
Jeri

Jeri

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Hi Glad2BeFree and SnakeChic. Thank you for your concern. The big news on the last couple weeks is that Charles Shifflett, infamous child molester/rapist/violent abuser who pled guilty to 7 felonies and walked away free (returning to his pulpit) has been arrested again. I am going to reprint what I sent out in the newsletter:

....
It may sound strange to rejoice that somebody has been arrested,

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No - not at all.....I'm happy as  pig in shit right now....!!!! I've seriously got goose bumps reading this wonderful news!!! How great is that.!.....I hoped that case wasn't over with.

thanks so much for the update on that.

 

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Charles Shifflett has been indicted on 51 counts of tax fraud and other monetary crimes. If found guilty, he faces a minimum of 52 years in prison, and possibly life at the maximum. These charges came as a surprise to everybody, including Shifflett. There had been one brief hearing previously that did not seem to amount to much (defrauding an insurance company), and it was expected that he would return the money and be let off. But these new counts, 51 of them, include defrauding the gov't as well as insurance companies and whoever handles disability claims.

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Even thou its not related to the other crimes re: abuse................(imo) its more likely Shiffett will fall on these counts - you don't mess with the great taxation god or take money from the government. !.....any government.!

I have a similar hope for the crooks who run the revival centres in Australia....that although the government  (including the legal system) aren't interested in how corrupt or abusive their churches are..or how much personal pain or how many families they are responsible for breaking apart.........................I'm hoping their plain ordinary GREED with be the undoing of their nice little business scam....they call  'gods chosen  true church'.

Yay!!!!