Hey Stephanie. I'm thinking that you were the person who asked about this Sarah Stankorb quote: "How does a person, let alone an institution, heal without great, painful residence in the truth?" It came from this post on Sarah Stankorb's substack: https://sarahstankorb.substack.com/p/in-the-name-of-ruth-bender
Oh thank you so much! Yes, that was me! I really appreciate you digging that up for me. :) It's exactly the sort of thing I'm writing about in my book, so I really wanted to include the quote!
As a lifelong member of the General Council of the Assemblies of God, which stood for Trinitarian orthodoxy in the early days of the Pentecostal movement (the United Pentecostal Church is a breakaway from the Assemblies of God), I've lost much of the respect that I had for the Southern Baptist Convention because of the scandal. My pastor's wife is a former Southern Baptist herself. One of the people on the worship team at my church is the son of a Southern Baptist pastor in Louisiana (I live in East Texas). May the victims of this scandal find justice.
I was reading Beth Allison Barr's piece on Paul Pressler and it was striking how similar that Pressler's abuse was to Daniel Savala's abuse. We are dealing with a massive sex abuse and sex abuse coverup scandal within Chi Alpha chapters in Texas including my alma mater, Sam Houston State University (I was a part of SHSU Chi Alpha when I was at Sam) which is the epicenter of the scandal. Chi Alpha is the official college student ministry of the General Councill of the Assemblies of God. Daniel Savala (Savala didn't hold AG credentials) through Chi Alpha has abused possibly hundreds of young men and has also sexually abused boys. It's disturbing and I hope everything that needs to be exposed as a result of this scandal in Chi Alpha is exposed and that changes are made in my denomination.
Given the ever-growing weight of evidence, I’ve come to believe that while there are Christians in the SBC, the SBC is in no way a Christian organization under Christian leadership.
Beautifully written. An enabler is complicit with abuse and so becomes a systemic abuser. Ironically we will empower the system once again when we enact new rules in the wake of this new lawsuit rather than looking at the Frankenstein monster of an organisation and putting it to rest.
It is indeed a Frankenstein monster of an organization - one that has welded together authoritarian theology with structural unaccountability and has wreaked horrible destruction in countless people's lives.
The more I see the truth of all this, the more my life and experiences in the SBC and evangelicalism make sense. Abuse and corruption is not an aberration. The system is functioning exactly as it was designed to function.
So much grief and anger over the incomprehensible harm they've done, all the while still posturing themselves as men of God.
How can we do anything but place our heads in our hands and weep? The network is so vast, so thorough, so omni-present.
Hey Stephanie. I'm thinking that you were the person who asked about this Sarah Stankorb quote: "How does a person, let alone an institution, heal without great, painful residence in the truth?" It came from this post on Sarah Stankorb's substack: https://sarahstankorb.substack.com/p/in-the-name-of-ruth-bender
Oh thank you so much! Yes, that was me! I really appreciate you digging that up for me. :) It's exactly the sort of thing I'm writing about in my book, so I really wanted to include the quote!
As a lifelong member of the General Council of the Assemblies of God, which stood for Trinitarian orthodoxy in the early days of the Pentecostal movement (the United Pentecostal Church is a breakaway from the Assemblies of God), I've lost much of the respect that I had for the Southern Baptist Convention because of the scandal. My pastor's wife is a former Southern Baptist herself. One of the people on the worship team at my church is the son of a Southern Baptist pastor in Louisiana (I live in East Texas). May the victims of this scandal find justice.
I was reading Beth Allison Barr's piece on Paul Pressler and it was striking how similar that Pressler's abuse was to Daniel Savala's abuse. We are dealing with a massive sex abuse and sex abuse coverup scandal within Chi Alpha chapters in Texas including my alma mater, Sam Houston State University (I was a part of SHSU Chi Alpha when I was at Sam) which is the epicenter of the scandal. Chi Alpha is the official college student ministry of the General Councill of the Assemblies of God. Daniel Savala (Savala didn't hold AG credentials) through Chi Alpha has abused possibly hundreds of young men and has also sexually abused boys. It's disturbing and I hope everything that needs to be exposed as a result of this scandal in Chi Alpha is exposed and that changes are made in my denomination.
The leaders of Champion Forest mishandled this situation terribly. This includes the personnel committee and deacon body.
A big no no is for any Children’s leader to contact the student one on one, even through social media.
There should always be at least 2 trained adults working with minors.
The church I grew up in is now one of the campuses of Champion Forest. I’m sickened by this. And sad.
Given the ever-growing weight of evidence, I’ve come to believe that while there are Christians in the SBC, the SBC is in no way a Christian organization under Christian leadership.
Beautifully written. An enabler is complicit with abuse and so becomes a systemic abuser. Ironically we will empower the system once again when we enact new rules in the wake of this new lawsuit rather than looking at the Frankenstein monster of an organisation and putting it to rest.
It is indeed a Frankenstein monster of an organization - one that has welded together authoritarian theology with structural unaccountability and has wreaked horrible destruction in countless people's lives.
The more I see the truth of all this, the more my life and experiences in the SBC and evangelicalism make sense. Abuse and corruption is not an aberration. The system is functioning exactly as it was designed to function.
So much grief and anger over the incomprehensible harm they've done, all the while still posturing themselves as men of God.