A Church Group, a Lawsuit, and a Culture of Abuse

[kwassa]

Because of cbayer, I have started reading Religion Dispatches and immediately ran into this story, which is all about a megachurch that is local to me. My neighbors are members. I know others from the nearby neighborhood that are members. A friend of a friend escaped from this patriarchal mess of a church, that basically supported her husband's right to beat her.

The strange local aspect is that this church is located in Montgomery Country, Maryland, immediately north of DC, an affluent and mostly liberal blue county in a blue state. There are 3 Christian megachurches within a few miles, with the irony that the Islamic Center of Maryland sits right between two of them.

So, how did this happen here? I don't know, but the analysis of what she calls "abuse culture" is brilliant. Hats off to T.F. Charlton. It is all about the sickness of the patriarchal practices of Christianity.

http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/atheologies/6788/a_church_group__a_lawsuit__and_a_culture_of_abuse/

I was not surprised when Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM), the church group I grew up in as a teen and young adult, was served with a lawsuit this past October, alleging clergy cover-ups of sexual abuse.

Sadly, I was even less surprised when the suit was amended in January to include Covenant Life Church (CLC), the congregation I had attended for nine years, and to add new charges of physical and sexual abuse by pastors, as well as allegations of abuse on church property. From what I’d seen inside Sovereign Grace and Covenant Life from 1996–2005, the alleged abuse seemed almost predictable—the result of the group’s toxic teachings on parenting, gender, and sexuality.

....................................................................................................................................

The larger context for corporal punishment is the belief that Christians must cultivate a lifelong attitude of submission to God-given authority. Parents are one such authority; male leadership over women in the family, church, and society is another.

Both women and children are taught that submission is part of a divine plan that should be embraced joyfully, and that even submitting to abusive men is noble and Christ-like. CLC pastor Joshua Harris quotes 1 Peter on this score, praising slaves who obeyed the masters who beat them as following Jesus’ example. Harris interprets this to mean that all Christians are called to submit, even when “suffering” under “unjust” leadership. Therefore wives are called to resist the “sinful” impulse to “fight back” against or even criticize husbands who misuse their “authority.”