Abuse in Churches Becoming Rampant

My heart is heavy as I have been reading the comments below the court reports of the Chantry Trial on the "Thou Art the Man" blog.

I can not remain silent on this issue.

I'm seeing a pattern of people who have been abused spiritually through the years in Reformed Baptist churches, many of them from the ARBCA association.  

We fled an ARBCA church due to psychological abuse of our son by a church member and a church leadership that defended the actions because of the supposed good motives of the abuser.  They tried to turn the table and make the abuser the victim and our son the problem.  This is typical in abuse cases of all types and while I did not expect that to happen to us, we were not surprised when it did.

At the time we were angry and upset that we had to flee what we thought was a good church.  We had been taught by implication that there were no other churches as good as this one and the deacon's wife tried to reinforce that when she asked where we would go.  At the time I was not sure and she made me feel like there was no other church good enough, but we could probably attend a particular one, however, we would have to avoid certain people over there that had left the church because they were bad people and they were attending that other church. 

After the dust settled, we learned that Tom Chantry, whom the pastor had told us needed prayer because he had been arrested for something from his past, actually had been arrested because victims of physical and sexual abuse had come forward to accuse him and bring him to justice.  But that is not the impression we were left with by the pastor.  We were never told anything about victims or the horrific crimes that were committed against them.  One boy was beaten so badly that he had deep bruising from buttocks down his thighs and his mother said he could barely walk to the car when she picked him up from tutoring with Chantry. There are five victims who have testified and it's horrific what they endured.

So I have been following this trial closely and reading the comments at the end of the blog posts for each trial day.  I have discovered that ARBCA pastors have indeed been trying to cover this diabolical up among the churches.  I have learned there were two reports drawn up by the three man ARBCA committee that investigated it. One that said he spanked the children for his own pleasure and that recommended he not pastor another church.  They did not report this abuse to the police and instead hid this report from the parents.  He was taken into Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Tacoma for counseling, but the people there were not told why he was there and told not to ask questions.  There was no care for the safety of the children in that church!

Don Linblad knew there were abuses, as can be seen in the

Motion in Limine Don Linblad.

On the witness stand Linblad tried to be evasive.

The Judge then admonished Pastor Lindblad saying he was intentionally evasive and non-responsive to Eazer’s questions. He told him if he did not understand a question he should state that, otherwise he needed to answer her questions. He then asked Lindblad to step down and leave the courtroom.

Judge Astrowsky then admonished Eazer for her question, “why, as a Christian…” He said bringing anyone’s religion into a question was inappropriate and he would be referring her conduct to the State Bar. He was also clearly upset with Pastor Lindblad’s conduct on the stand. He stated that if his evasive and non-responsive answers continue he would admonish him again and perhaps cite him for contempt of court and strike him as a witness! He said he would make this clear to Lindblad when he came back into the courtroom and John Sears said he would also speak to him.

Eazer told the Judge that her line of questioning was intended to impeach Lindblad for giving damaging, untruthful testimony.

Once court resumed Lindblad did marginally better answering Eazer’s questions. It was evident he was still not being truthful on several subjects, other times he grudgingly answered.

Eazer got him to admit that he knew the 2000 ARBCA investigation was about more than reconciling the two parties for some light spankings Chantry had administered during catechism class. He admitted that the ARBCA was investigating bare-bottom beatings administered to three boys with hand-crafted paddles, a boat oar and other instruments and Chantry then rubbing their bare butts.

Eazer stated to Lindblad that you were very well aware of what Victim 2 had said. Lindblad said “yes.” And you were aware that the allegations against Chantry were a bit more serious than administering a spanking during a catechism class. Lindblad said “correct.”

Here are some patterns I have observed that have been seen in Reformed Baptist churches, mostly ARBCA but also others:

1). Total control of the church by the pastor/elders.  The people have no say.

2.) Evasive answers by pastor/elders to direct questions asked by people of the congregations

3.) Blaming the people if they come and bring concerns about how the church is run...saying things like "What wrong with you?  Noboy else is complaining!"

4.) Many have said that they dealt with depression and hopelessness while attending their Reformed Baptist church and it did not lift until they left the church

5.) Some have said that when they left the church they felt free and cried tears of happiness every week in their new congregation

6.) Business meetings in an envelope (in other words no opportunity for the congregation to ask questions or have a real business meeting).

7.) Sermons that are intellectual and academic, but without real application or power.

8.) Sermons that are devoid of passion, emotionless.  (Read the impassibility doctrine on ARBCA website. Their view of God might explain this)

9.) No outreach programs or opportunities for ministry, such as VBS, nursing home ministries, etc.  Very ingrown. In fact churches that have ministries outside the preaching are disparaged and the impression is given that people who want to be involved with a ministry are just proud and want recognition.

10.) Focus on how depraved man is, much focus on mortifying sin, but no real focus on the fruit of the spirit and spiritual gifts.

11.) Teaching that we need to tolerate each other, give a wide berth, put the best construction on things etc, but no real focus on how to love one another and what that looks like.

12.) Teaching by example that Christian liberty can excuse all kinds of aberrant behaviors and excuse the pastor from responsibilities to protect the flock

12.) Teaching by example and word that deception is okay if your motives are good.

13.) Saying things from the pulpit about people that have left to put fear in people that their reason for leaving is not valid and if they dare leave for that reason they too will be talked about from the pulpit

14.) Preaching from the pulpit about things shared with the pastor in private, meant to humiliate the person.

15.) Gossiping about those who have left the church so others will shun them in public or cut off communications with them.

16.) Bullying

17.) So far, four ARBCA churches including the one I left have had members or pastors with abuse cases come before the courts now.  I have to wonder if this is just the tip of the iceberg.

18.) One way accountability....the people to the leaders but never the leaders to the people

Why am I writing this?  I'm writing this because I am heartsick to see the widespread damage that has been caused by these churches and their leaders.  There are many good people in these churches but they are being spiritually abused and in some cases there is physical/psychological/sexual abuse going on and it is being hidden.

Many parents have reported that because of their time in these churches their children no longer have a desire for the things of God.  Many have reported that they have lingering problems of depression due to the abuses they endured in these churches. It breaks my heart. 

If you are a member or attender of one of these churches, I beg you, please take a close look at what you are in.  Are there things that are being done that make you feel uncomfortable, but you put it on the back burner because you don't want to rock the boat?  Are there things that don't seem right, but you do not say anything to anybody because you are fearful of how it will be taken?  If either of these questions is true of you, then you are in a bad place.