"Let Us Prey"

The horror of it may be closer than you think

“The adult is always right. Even when they are wrong.” - Kathy Durbin, an IFB survivor

In Baptistland, the theology of authority and submission conditions women & children to accept relinquishment of their own self-agency for the sake of pleasing God… which really means pleasing the men in authority who proclaim what God wants.

It’s a perfect set-up for predation, abuse, and unaccountability.

The recent “Let Us Prey” docuseries does a stellar job of spotlighting this reality in Independent Fundamentalist Baptist churches—commonly called the IFB movement. Don’t miss it.

And don’t dismiss it, either. Because it’s not only IFB churches and it’s not just fringe groups.

The same theology of authority and submission pervades large swaths of white evangelicalism, including the Southern Baptist Convention, which is the largest non-Catholic faith group in the country.

Rick Pidcock explains this in his piece titled “The horror of ‘Let Us Prey’ may not be as far from home as you think.”

IFB churches began in the 1950s as a reaction to what they perceived as liberalism in the Southern Baptist Convention. But as Pidcock points out, the reality nowadays is that “the SBC has moved back toward the IFB through the conservative resurgence.”

We see within the SBC a similar theology of “sacralized male power” and subordination of women.

It is an authoritarian system with its very origins in a theological rationalization for slavery. The foundation rests on domination.

Such an authoritarian system forms a breeding ground for abusive behavior.

As Eric Skwarczynski, featured in the film, explains: “When women are being told they have no power, and when men are given all the power, it’s the perfect storm for sexual abuse.” (Eric is host of the Preacher Boys podcast – worth listening!)

This kind of patriarchal authoritarianism—the kind promoted in both IFB and SBC churches—not only dictates who should wield authority and who should submit, it inculcates in people the belief that this is the way God wants it, and this belief becomes a powerful weapon. For women and children who are taught compliance, obedience, and submission, a failure of submission becomes not only a rebellion against the man in authority but also a sin against God.

Abuse is fostered not only by the authoritarian theology, which sets up a dynamic of dominance, but also by the institutional structures—and lack of structures—that systemically serve to squash accountability. In this sense, too, the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention are much like IFB churches.

Al Mohler, top guru of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, once wagged his finger at a sex abuse scandal in an independent Baptist church (not IFB but still another kind of independent Baptist) and claimed that independent churches “lack the discipline of a denomination.” It seemed he was attempting to distance the SBC by suggesting that denominational affiliation would protect against such scandals.

But it was pure posturing. There is no such denominational discipline in the SBC, and SBC kids are as unprotected as IFB kids. The “discipline of a denomination” is nonexistent in systems that proclaim every church is wholly autonomous.

Instead, in every church, the pastor is usually the most powerful and trusted person—often little more than a “de facto dictator.” He is the “man of God”—often viewed as the very voice of God—who can do most anything and likely get away with it. Women and children, who are viewed as lesser, are easily tossed aside, their worth and credibility never a match for that of the pastor.

Rather than providing accountability, other church leaders will almost invariably close ranks around an accused pastor.  

Without accountability, power corrupts. We have seen this truth repeatedly manifested among both Southern Baptists and independent Baptists.

Combine the structural lack of accountability with a theology of domination and you have a Frankenstein monster that inflicts enormous harm.

Let Us Prey shows the long and gut-wrenching trail of that destruction. The film will be shocking for many, but it wasn’t for me. I’ve seen—and experienced—much of the same within the SBC.

I hope you’ll watch the film—it’s streaming now on HBO MAX. And when you do, please hold in your hearts the IFB survivors who put their pain and their voices on the line to courageously bring this reality to light.