From all over the world, they flocked to this tiny town in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, lured by promises of inner peace and eternal life. What many found instead: years of terror — waged in the name of the Lord.
Congregants of the Word of Faith Fellowship were regularly punched, smacked, choked, slammed to the floor or thrown through walls in a violent form of deliverance meant to "purify" sinners by beating out devils, 43 former members told The Associated Press in separate, exclusive interviews.
Victims of the violence included pre-teens and toddlers — even crying babies, who were vigorously shaken, screamed at and sometimes smacked to banish demons.
"I saw so many people beaten over the years. Little kids punched in the face, called Satanists," said Katherine Fetachu, 27, who spent nearly 17 years in the church.
Word of Faith Fellowship, an evangelical church with hundreds of members in North Carolina and branches in other countries, also subjected members to a practice called "blasting" — an ear-piercing verbal onslaught often conducted in hours-long sessions meant to cast out devils.
Apparently this constant assault was directed by the church's controlling leader, Jane Whaley, who appointed herself a kind of dictator, controlling every aspect of her congregant's lives. Including whether they could have children or not.
And oh yes there was of course sexual assault on some of the children as well.
Once again this is another reminder that even seemingly intelligent people can allow themselves to suffer incredible abuse and manipulation after surrendering their critical thinking skills and accepting everything on faith alone.
I think that the majority of us would have left this "church" the minute that somebody put their hands on us, or we witnessed them putting their hands on others.
And yet many of these people stayed for years of physical and mental abuse, why?
Faith, that's why. Good old fashioned, superstitious, barbaric, faith.
I've always found it fascinating how fast religious followers go from "our leader knows God" to "our leader IS God" and then how fast that leader tells some of the male congregation that "oh yeah, and by the way, God wants me to have sex with your wife"
ReplyDeleteand then when they fall for that it advances to "Oh yeah, and sex with your daughters too!"
And, well, whattya gonna do - right?
He's GOD after all...
Joseph Smith, Brigham Young (and bringem often), David Koresh, etc. etc.
Also remember that Muthee told $arah that she was Esther reincarnated. We all saw how that turned out. Eye roll.
DeleteOn my small Eastern Washington collegiate hometown, there still to this day is a "Living Faith Fellowship." A longtime friend of mine from high school went there for years, and finally had the courage to come out to them. It doesn't take a vivid imagination to know what happened to him for that courage; much like described in this article.
ReplyDeleteNeedless to say, he quit and went to the newspaper with his story. Huge article, they are still in existence to this day, and the ushers also carry sidearms in services. I am not making this up.
Someone show me exactly where in The Bible that this behavior is encouraged as "from God."
The only way to help those victims is to stand with them and empower them and FIGHT TO WIN against the rapist, abusers, liars, thieves, con artist, and manipulators. When we give voice, strength, hope, power to those raped, to those broken, to those hurt and abused, they win, they heal, they become whole, they can defend themselves and help others. Expose the crime and criminal.
ReplyDeleteNasty dirty liars.
ReplyDeleteAhhhh, faith ….. “a belief that is not based on proof, confidence or trust in a being, object, living organism, deity, view”…. In other words a cosmic “kick me” sign that says I am available for being duped.
ReplyDeleteIs there any reason why those who committed the violence cannot be prosecuted?
ReplyDeleteTHIS is what I want to know, too.
DeleteNC is a red state, so there is probably some stupid excuse given as a legal reason as to why these xtians won't be prosecuted for doing this.
If this fundie group had been Muslim or any other faith than those jesus freaks, you'd for damn sure hear about jail, court sessions, and maybe even a lynching(it IS NC, after all).
The local WLOS, owned by Sinclair Corporation, is saying as little as possible on air about this. It maybe got one minute of coverage this morning, and a non-specific line in the news ribbon at the bottom of the screen.
I hope those monsters get locked away for life, but that's too much to hope for.
Did they 'speak in tongues' and call Pastor Muthee, like Sarah Palin did?
ReplyDeleteWhat do you want to bet this is the way she treated her kids, and now look at what they are today.
DeleteWell, everyone who voted for Trump said that a person with a long history of sexual assault and attempted rape was just fine by them, so this makes sense.
ReplyDeleteAlicia Mangelsdorf has to be a product of that cult,
ReplyDeleteshe exhibits no common sense.
It's a personal delight of mine to point out to these christians that women are to keep silent in the church,
ReplyDelete1 Cor. 14:34 and 2 Tim. 2:12,
and that these churches headed by women preachers are all going to hell.
Those above verses are very specific about women staying silent in the churches.VERY SPECIFIC.
Paul said those things. Jesus did not. I hope you point that out to Christians.
DeleteJesus held women in high esteem. Lots of mainline Christian churches have female pastors, vicars, deacons. And of course the Jewish faith has female rabbis.
"Once again this is another reminder that even seemingly intelligent people can allow themselves to suffer incredible abuse and manipulation after surrendering their critical thinking skills and accepting everything on faith alone."
ReplyDeleteI think the reason people are willing to surrender their critical thinking skills is that they are fearful and desperate. Perhaps their life has been hard in some major way; perhaps they think they've done everything right, done the best they can, and yet the hardships keep coming. So they find something that promises inner peace and they're desperate enough to latch onto it. And then of course there are those who are simply raised in such a church, critical thinking skills drilled out of them, don't know any better, and if they do are too afraid to jump ship, not knowing what awaits them outside the cult.
Rat Robertson 'TOO'
ReplyDeletehttp://churchandstate.org.uk/2016/09/pat-robertson-non-religious-children-should-be-beaten-until-they-respect-christian-beliefs/
I was raised in a mainstream, somewhat conservative Protestant church, and we didn't have any of this weird Evangelical stuff going on. But still, even being raised by very religious people to believe every word that was preached at the pulpit, beginning at 5 years thru my teens, I have memories of sitting there thinking, "I really don't believe this talking snake story, or that two of every animal could fit on a wooden boat, or that Jesus could magically turn water into wine." In fact, when I took my first communion, I made note that the wine tasted just like regular wine, and the bread certainly didn't taste like "flesh". I really do not understand how people believe this stuff, and I certainly wouldn't tolerate anyone interfering in my marriage bed. I don't think it's a suspension of critical thinking skills in the case of this particular congregation. These people are just really, really dumb. And unfortunately for us, it appears that they voted in the last presidential election!
ReplyDeleteThe victims of these cults have been brainwashed for years, they have had little opportunity for independent thinking, and likely no one to support them (either mentally or economically) if they did.
ReplyDeleteExtracting yourself from that milieu takes a remarkable person, and also takes many years to overcome the guilt.
It isn't a simply matter of "faith."
This isn't faith, this is a cult.
ReplyDeleteI'm not religious but I know better than to paint everyone that is with a 30 ft wide brush.
Thank you for bringing some critical thinking to this post. There are way too many emotionally-involved remarks here.
Delete