Sinclair Famly and "Christian Fellowship Center"?

[neuroticcat]

Anyone know anything about this cluster of churches in NY state? I searched here on FJ but didn't find anything. It includes all the usual ingredients: QF, dominionism, abuse, homeschooling, instaobedience, patriarchy, covering up for pedophiles, narcissistic pastors. I've been reading some from a group of survivors posting nightmare accounts and they just started a series on QF: https://www.cfctoo.com/blog/the-quiverfull-families-next-door-part-1

More here - https://religionnews.com/2022/08/25/an-insular-quiverfull-church-in-new-yorks-north-country-faces-a-reckoning/ "On May 29, 2022, the sanctuary in Madrid was filled with church members who had come to discuss a news article, published a week earlier, reporting that Sean Ferguson, a husband, father and faithful CFC member, had been charged with first-degree sexual abuse of a child. Days later, Ferguson’s sister tweeted that CFC had known about Sean Ferguson’s abuse five years prior, in 2017.

Police records indicate — and New York state police confirmed — that Ferguson was charged in 2022 with having sexually abused his two young daughters in 2015. Ferguson’s lawyer did not respond to requests for comment.

At the May meeting, Sinclair defended his decision not to report Ferguson’s abuse to police, child protective services or to the broader CFC community. “His entire approach to addressing this crisis was the claim that he’s under no moral obligation to report unless someone can conclusively demonstrate that to him from Scripture,” said a CFC member who attended the meeting."

[hoipolloi]

Don't think we've discussed the Sinclairs or their church cult here but I have followed them online for some years and can summarize as follows:

• Rick and Darlene Sinclair have 9 kids -- 2 sons and 7 daughters -- who are mostly grown. The oldest son, Jamie, is a "lead pastor" in the cult along with his father and a brother-in-law, Daniel Paladin. IOW, a typical fundie Christian church that doubles as a family business, employing adult males who are otherwise unqualified to do much of anything. Although Rick Sinclair has been running the cult for over 40 years it's not clear that he has any legitimate pastoral training or experience beyond his decades of "OJT" at CFC. 
• CFC is a quiverfull cult with some vaguely Pentecostal leanings, such as speaking in tongues. Rick & Darlene push patriarchy, homeschooling, no college or university for women, and child-beating, among other strictures. They teach parents in the cult that corporal punishment is godly. The CFCtoo website has a lot more on this & other "teachings" pushed by CFC.
• The Sinclair daughters, with one exception, were all married young through courtship-style arrangements and have had a number of kids each -- at least 3 or 4 and up to 8 or 9. None of the daughters went beyond homeschool high school. The exception is Julia, now known as the musical artist Sinclair. Her coming out as a teen and her family's rejection of her were the catalysts to her leaving them behind. 

The CFCtoo website has more good background info.

Edited November 9, 2022 by hoipolloi
Clarity

[Columbia]

6 hours ago, neuroticcat said:

At the May meeting, Sinclair defended his decision not to report Ferguson’s abuse to police, child protective services or to the broader CFC community. “His entire approach to addressing this crisis was the claim that he’s under no moral obligation to report unless someone can conclusively demonstrate that to him from Scripture,” said a CFC member who attended the meeting."

Someone needs to check this dude’s hard drive ASAP. 

[hoipolloi]

An article from the WaPo, providing some context to the proposed legislation requiring clergy to be mandatory reporters:

Quote

 

“We are aware of a number of cases, most recently with Sean Ferguson, where CFC pastors knew about abuse and did not report it. Because pastors do not report abuse, it allows abusers to keep on preying on vulnerable individuals,” Nye told Religion News Service. “Most sexual abusers have multiple victims, which is why it’s so important to report.”...

While CFCtoo doesn’t view the CARE Act as a cure-all, the group still sees it as necessary. Nye added that at the Christian Fellowship Center, which has a significant home-schooled population, many children don’t have regular contact with other types of mandated reporters.

 

 

[AnonymousKumquat]

It’s pretty widely known that Rick Sinclair uses his influence to get people to vote Republican but somehow it hasn’t impacted CFC’s tax exempt status: https://countdowntotheelection.wordpress.com/2016/11/08/1-election-day-potpourri

[hoipolloi]

8 hours ago, AnonymousKumquat said:

It’s pretty widely known that Rick Sinclair uses his influence to get people to vote Republican but somehow it hasn’t impacted CFC’s tax exempt status: https://countdowntotheelection.wordpress.com/2016/11/08/1-election-day-potpourri

Heʻs been very open about it over the years. Of course, various family members have run for local offices as well.

An IRS complaint would hit CFC in its moneybags; I hope that someone files a complaint. 

Grifters, all of them. 

[AnonymousKumquat]

In honor of the Shiny Happy People documentary coming out…

it’s the Sinclair family!

[AnonymousKumquat]

Has anyone been keeping tabs on Rick Sinclair's son-in-law Ben Hull? He somehow won a seat on the county board of legislators (despite publishing a nightmare letter to the editor) and has been up to nasty tricks like trying to make June "Family Month" where family is defined as one man and one woman or bringing in sleazy lawyers to lie about some NY bill that would legally force Rick to report child sexual abuse.

[hoipolloi]

3 hours ago, AnonymousKumquat said:

Has anyone been keeping tabs on Rick Sinclair's son-in-law Ben Hull?

I knew he had been elected -- not surprising in that part of upper NY state -- but havenʻt seen any updates, mostly because the main newspapers are paywalled. 

Re: that awful letter. What do you bet his father-in-law wrote it for him?