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Huge sex abuse scandal SGM


DefraudedbyGothard

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This has been ongoing at SGM (Soverign Grace Ministries) for sometime. But the really horrific parts are just starting to surface. This is a blog about the second filing for a lawsuit.

 

The blog includes the link to the actual filing ****WARNING*** the lawsuit is very graphic and may be a trigger to some.

 

thewartburgwatch.com/2013/05/14/sovereign-grace-ministries-2nd-amended-lawsuit-a-house-of-horrors-graphic/

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My husband and I left an SGM church about 8 months ago. (We disagreed with many, many things and weren't willing to be quiet about the things that we found to be, uhm, cultish) Anyway, at that time, the lawsuit was just coming to light. Since then, many SGM churches have left the "family". I think that the last count was in the 10-20's. Also, the flagship SGM church, Covenant Life Church, bailed from SGM a few months back, by actually *gasp* letting their members vote on something!

My heart breaks for those who were abused. The three year old that was forced to be in a room with her abuser to and told that she had to "forgive" him gets under my skin the most. I hope that they are able to find peace, comfort, and healing in healthy ways. It is utterly disgusting that the leaders were able to get away with the cover up for so very long. More than anyone else, CJ Mahaney deserves the blame. He is the very manipulative ring leader behind it all and is very careful not to get his hands dirty. If anyone is interested in further reading/commentary about the SGM scandal, sgmsurvivors.com is a blog that details the debauchery within SGM.

In many ways, I find that SGM is more dangerous than many of the fundie organizations that are discussed here because on the surface they appear normal, but slowly the craziness begins to come to the surface.

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I had to go look this up and I was stunned to find that they're actually trying to get this dismissed because "It's a church issue and therefor the government shouldn't have any jurisdiction." I think I'm mostly horrified that they could actually think that when they've been covering up for RAPISTS and abusers. There just aren't words for how disgusted I am.

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I only read a little bit and had to stop. I feel sick. Those poor kids. If ever there was someone who deserved the death penalty, these fucking disgusting human beings are it. :cry:

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I had to go look this up and I was stunned to find that they're actually trying to get this dismissed because "It's a church issue and therefor the government shouldn't have any jurisdiction." I think I'm mostly horrified that they could actually think that when they've been covering up for RAPISTS and abusers. There just aren't words for how disgusted I am.

I'm not surprised. The CM&A church we attended and then left years ago, did the same. We went to the district about it and were pooh-pooh'd and then essentially shunned. Years down the road and the church split after a lot of stuff came to light - a deacon caught boinking some woman IN the church - as in a back room of the church, some stuff that we tried to bring to light, lies upon lies upon lies perpetrated by the lead pastor's wife (she was and remains a huge gossip), men who had been accused and convicted within their corporate judiciary of sexual harassment and intimidation, who had admitted to multiple affairs (and his wife still stands by him to this day) and on and on and on.

All these years later and we run into people that used to attend there whose first words are an apology to us. They bought the bullshit hook, line and sinker and then found out the hard way, that what we said was truth and that we weren't the vicious liars and "life ruiners" we'd been made out to be. For the most part, we have accepted the apologies as offered. There were a few we told to beat it.

Church is still operating though. I hope they, and the district, end up getting the shit sued out of them for knowingly allowing this church to function under the same "leadership". If anything ever went to court, I'd be there with bells on, to watch the mighty fall.

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I couldn't go any further when I got to the part about the two kids talking about how it was too late for them to be pure, because "Nate had gotten to [them] already." Purity is a messed-up concept for so many reasons anyway, but to teach children that they are tainted, ruined, because of something that someone did to them without their consent?

I hope that all those who have been abused get justice and closure.

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Couldn't finish reading the amended complaint - too horrific. The fact that a number of plaintiffs have chosen to file this amended complaint under their own names is very telling. Hope that this fact plus the level of detail which would allow corroboration will result in them prevailing.

The press is starting to pick up on this as well:

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctliv ... wsuit.html

http://blogs.courier-journal.com/faith/ ... h-lawsuit/

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I just read the court complaint. It is the most disgusting thing I have ever read in my life. I can't believe this happened. I can't believe that parents didn't go to the proper authorities to report abuse. I can't believe this. at. all.

Those poor, poor children.

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Couldn't finish reading the amended complaint - too horrific. The fact that a number of plaintiffs have chosen to file this amended complaint under their own names is very telling. Hope that this fact plus the level of detail which would allow corroboration will result in them prevailing.

The press is starting to pick up on this as well:

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctliv ... wsuit.html

http://blogs.courier-journal.com/faith/ ... h-lawsuit/

Good. I hope these people rot in jail!

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I...just...well....words haven't been invented to describe what I'm feeling after reading that. I now feel sick to my stomach.

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My husband and I left an SGM church about 8 months ago. (We disagreed with many, many things and weren't willing to be quiet about the things that we found to be, uhm, cultish) Anyway, at that time, the lawsuit was just coming to light. Since then, many SGM churches have left the "family". I think that the last count was in the 10-20's. Also, the flagship SGM church, Covenant Life Church, bailed from SGM a few months back, by actually *gasp* letting their members vote on something!

My heart breaks for those who were abused. The three year old that was forced to be in a room with her abuser to and told that she had to "forgive" him gets under my skin the most. I hope that they are able to find peace, comfort, and healing in healthy ways. It is utterly disgusting that the leaders were able to get away with the cover up for so very long. More than anyone else, CJ Mahaney deserves the blame. He is the very manipulative ring leader behind it all and is very careful not to get his hands dirty. If anyone is interested in further reading/commentary about the SGM scandal, sgmsurvivors.com is a blog that details the debauchery within SGM.

In many ways, I find that SGM is more dangerous than many of the fundie organizations that are discussed here because on the surface they appear normal, but slowly the craziness begins to come to the surface.

I totally agree. The more I learn about it, the crazier it starts to seem. We've got a few SGMs near me, and I knew they were very conservative but the people often seem very clean-cut and normal in the few surface encounters I'd ever had.

The other thing that creeps me out is how often, when you start digging into some of the fundie orgs, you start finding some kind of tie back to SGM. For instance, guess where Dougie was before he started Vision Forum?

That's right. He's very proud of having been discipled by Sovereign Grace as a young man and I have found references to him and Beall being active in an SGM church before he started Boerne.

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At this point I wonder if there is any major religious organization that isn't just an elaborate system for aiding child sexual abusers.

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The other thing that creeps me out is how often, when you start digging into some of the fundie orgs, you start finding some kind of tie back to SGM. For instance, guess where Dougie was before he started Vision Forum?

That's right. He's very proud of having been discipled by Sovereign Grace as a young man and I have found references to him and Beall being active in an SGM church before he started Boerne.

This is very interesting - can you provide links to where you saw this?

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I couldn't get very far in the document, either--too disgusting and horrific. What gets me most of all is that there were multiple molesters colluding with one another--within one church!

What also gets me is that one of the SGM churches mentioned is close to the area we're hoping to move to. I hope none of my future neighbors go there. :shock:

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This is very interesting - can you provide links to where you saw this?

For mention of him being in SGM church circa 1999 (VF was started 1998, I believe, if that give any reference): homeschoolchristian.com/allabout/interviews/interviewphillips.php

And references to discipling are in various places but most tellingly, he puts it in his own bio:

visionforumministries.org/home/about/about_the_president.aspx

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For mention of him being in SGM church circa 1999 (VF was started 1998, I believe, if that give any reference): homeschoolchristian.com/allabout/interviews/interviewphillips.php

And references to discipling are in various places but most tellingly, he puts it in his own bio:

visionforumministries.org/home/about/about_the_president.aspx

Thank you! That interview alone is worth the price of admission!

I may be mistaken but I think that these Sovereign Grace churches are not part of Sovereign Grace Ministries, but belong to a different affiliation called Sovereign Grace Baptist Association of Churches. Here's a directory of their churches: sgba.net/churches.html

Here's the directory page for churches still affiliated with Sovereign Grace Ministries: sovereigngraceministries.org/churches/united-states.aspx

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Thank you! That interview alone is worth the price of admission!

I may be mistaken but I think that these Sovereign Grace churches are not part of Sovereign Grace Ministries, but belong to a different affiliation called Sovereign Grace Baptist Association of Churches. Here's a directory of their churches: sgba.net/churches.html

Here's the directory page for churches still affiliated with Sovereign Grace Ministries: sovereigngraceministries.org/churches/united-states.aspx

There's more than one "sovereign grace?" I had no idea! Also, I'm think if I were in another group using that name, I'd change my group name pretty quickly. I had just figured all of the "sovereign grace" churches went together.

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... if I were in another group using that name, I'd change my group name pretty quickly.

ITA although the Sovereign Grace Baptists don't appear to be the sharpest knives in the fundie drawer, KWIM?

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If there is a hell, the defendants will be suffering a long and horrific eternity there for what they've done. One of the most disgusting and heartbreaking things I've ever read. I wish I hadn't.

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I'm also one who isn't normally for the death penalty, but in this case, these monsters deserve it. If there is a hell, then there's a special place for them as they used religion as an excuse to do such disgusting things to innocent children. I also think those religious leaders who covered up abuse and allowed it to go on also deserve a spot in hell if there is a place.

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Commenting again, because it just fucking astounds me how so many people can know a person is sexually abusing a child and just try to sweep it under the rug, or force 'reconciliation' and 'forgiveness' from the child. Like how fucking disgusting of a person are you that you think it's a good idea to force a child to live with his/her abuser again, because they're the 'head of the household'.

Just... ugh. All the rage.

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I dearly wish I had not gone through those links. Those men are animals, and deserve to be put down. I hope the whole organization is leveled to the ground by the judgments that are coming, and that no trace of them remains.

I pray those children, however old they may be now, can find love and peace.

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