I was listening to a former IHOPKC member's story recently. She said that in the 1980s in the wake of the Jesus People movement (when a senior leader molested her), there just was no "grid" for identifying and addressing sexual abuse & predatory behaviour by church leaders. This upsets me so much. I was a teenager in the 1980s. Everywhere I turned, I collided with gender hierarchy & male headship doctrine. I constantly pointed out that authority pyramids were unbiblical and counter to the unity & mutuality of true Kingdom of God culture. Everywhere, I could see grooming behaviour, coercive behaviour and predatory behaviour by the same men who lectured us on "purity" and man-splained the "umbrella of protection" to us and told us that women who wore mascara or pants were "in rebellion" and that rebellion was "as the sin of witchcraft". I noticed that the ones who spewed spiritualized misogyny & homophobia the most (carefully camouflaged in flowery Christian "love") seemed to be the ones most likely to be up to stuff behind the scenes and off the stage. So, in the 1990s, I started keeping a list. Ted Haggard. Jimmy Swaggart. Jim Bakker. Bill Gothard. Doug Phillips. The names kept coming. I started speaking up. I pointed out that gender inequality, white-washed sexism, and male headship doctrine in the church, plus the emphasis on venerating "authority", would lead to a scourge of sexual abuse & exploitation, and cover up, in the church. Even I could not have foretold how bad, and how rampant it would be. So, can you guess what happened to me, when I started calling out authoritarianism & male supremacy in the church, as early as the 1980s? I was branded a Jezebel. No one wanted to hear. I am just one of thousands of people, with true 'prophetic' voices on this issue, who were cast out, our warnings dismissed. I cannot tell you how frustrated I feel. We were told that WE were the evil ones. Our voices were quenched. We couldn't stop men like Bickle, or Morris and we couldn't save people like Tammy, or Cindy. The "nice" people in the church disapproved of the likes of us.
I was listening to a former IHOPKC member's story recently.
She said that in the 1980s in the wake of the Jesus People movement (when a senior leader molested her), there just was no "grid" for identifying and addressing sexual abuse & predatory behaviour by church leaders.
This upsets me so much.
I was a teenager in the 1980s.
Everywhere I turned, I collided with gender hierarchy & male headship doctrine. I constantly pointed out that authority pyramids were unbiblical and counter to the unity & mutuality of true Kingdom of God culture.
Everywhere, I could see grooming behaviour, coercive behaviour and predatory behaviour by the same men who lectured us on "purity" and man-splained the "umbrella of protection" to us and told us that women who wore mascara or pants were "in rebellion" and that rebellion was "as the sin of witchcraft".
I noticed that the ones who spewed spiritualized misogyny & homophobia the most (carefully camouflaged in flowery Christian "love") seemed to be the ones most likely to be up to stuff behind the scenes and off the stage.
So, in the 1990s, I started keeping a list.
Ted Haggard. Jimmy Swaggart. Jim Bakker. Bill Gothard. Doug Phillips. The names kept coming.
I started speaking up. I pointed out that gender inequality, white-washed sexism, and male headship doctrine in the church, plus the emphasis on venerating "authority", would lead to a scourge of sexual abuse & exploitation, and cover up, in the church.
Even I could not have foretold how bad, and how rampant it would be.
So, can you guess what happened to me, when I started calling out authoritarianism & male supremacy in the church, as early as the 1980s?
I was branded a Jezebel.
No one wanted to hear.
I am just one of thousands of people, with true 'prophetic' voices on this issue, who were cast out, our warnings dismissed.
I cannot tell you how frustrated I feel.
We were told that WE were the evil ones.
Our voices were quenched.
We couldn't stop men like Bickle, or Morris and we couldn't save people like Tammy, or Cindy.
The "nice" people in the church disapproved of the likes of us.
Textbook case of DARVO by Episcopal priest. ruclips.net/video/GZEDv-8PBXk/видео.htmlsi=ekNPKObxyZdbOQgk