Many posts on this site are intended to be humorous and light-hearted. This is not one of those. I will freely admit that I’m am writing this post while angry — not something I typically do. But at this moment there is a white-hot righteous indignation that has kindled in my bones and I either have to write this down or spontaneously combust. You have been warned.
Imagine for a moment that you’re a fundamentalist pastor who has just learned that a 15 year old girl in your congregation has been raped and is pregnant by a 39 year old member of your church. Now try to imagine what kind of thought process might lead you to decide that the proper way to proceed is to bring that teenager before the entire church to apologize for her part in being so thoughtless as to get raped and end up pregnant. Then imagine forcing her to write a letter to the wife of the rapist apologizing for your part in his crime. Of course you then send her away to another state and make sure that the baby is adopted off to another fundamentalist family.
What kind of person would do this? Surely this must be some pastor from the darkest fringes of fundamentalism, someone so far outside the “mainstream” that they are almost unrecognizable as an Independent Baptist. Or perhaps not.
For the pastor in question is none other than Chuck Phelps, who left the scene of this outrage at Trinity Baptist Church  to become President of Maranatha Baptist Bible College. To be fair to MBBC, they quickly realized that they were dealing with someone a little too far out for their taste and gave him the boot in the nicest way possible. He also is the chairman of the board of Central African Baptist College and sits as vice-chairman of the Fundamental Baptist Fellowship. Last but not least, as of 2008 he was listed as an adjunct professor at Bob Jones University’s school of religion and a member of their cooperating board(PDF).
Oh, but the story and connections don’t end there. For this paragon of fundy virtue now pastors on a church staff with none other than Bob Taylor, former pastor of the Campus Church at Pensacola Christian College. The ‘crazy fringe’ of fundyland is never as far from the center as it would seem.
Now let’s play another game of let’s pretend. Let’s imagine that you’re the current pastor of a church where all this happened.  Let’s further imagine that like your predecessor you’re also a favored son of Bob Jones University and that you were actually there at the church while this travesty was being executed on this victim. What do you do now? Apologize? Issue a statement condemning what was done to the 15 year old girl? Or do you do damage control and cover for your old pastor even going so far as to send e-mail to your church members instructing them not to speak to anybody about the situation?
And then lastly imagine you’re a fundamentalist type who is observing this situation from the outside? Does your heart break over the injustice and your anger rise to think of the victim in the case? Or do you flee to your favorite fundamentalist message board and question whether the 15 year old girl may have seduced the 39 year old man and is to blame for the whole situation?
I can only assume that these people involved in the humiliation and condemnation of this girl cannot really believe in a righteous God Who’s justice is terrible toward those who hurt the innocent. Â If I had a scrap of mercy to spare for these miserably failed hirelings, I would be very, very afraid on their behalf. But I don’t. All I have is a small voice to expose their evil to as many as have ears to hear.
Destroyer of Innocents thy name is Fundamentalism.
(updated 29 May at 4:07 pm.)
What a horrible situation for the girl and her family! To force her to apologize to the congregation for having been raped is heinous. Then to cover up the rape by sending her away just multiplies the sin. I hope the perpetrator is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and that the pastor and everyone who participated in the coverup is prosecuted as acessories after the fact. No wonder you are angry – I am too, and so should any decent human being.
This is the most outrageous thing I think I have ever heard from a fundamentalist church. I hope this girl learns that these horrible men are nothing like Jesus and that there evil men spend time in prison. Although in this spiritually retarded land they will probably continue pastoring.
My rage at church abusers is sometimes frightening. I am the first person in line to say torture is never justified, etc. but the Phelps & Hephzibah House & the Culpepper church make me just wanna find someone that is willing & able to dream up & experiment new ways of torture on those who abuse & their enabling cohorts that cover up. I don’t think I would ever run out of energy if I had a baseball bat and opportunity.
“Indifference to injustice is more insidious than the injustice itself” – Cornell West
Covering up, & colluding with to me seems even lower than indifference, and at least as bad as the act itself.
Thanks for putting this up!!!!
Quote fro an AP story found here:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/05/27/pregnant-teen-victim-recalls-publicly-shamed-church-relocated-colorado/
Fuller’s e-mail, a copy of which was obtained by the AP from a former parishioner, contains two statements advising parishioners to remain silent.
“Instead of engaging in talk about this incident, I beg you to pray for all those impacted by this crime,” Fuller wrote. “I love you tenderly and am confident you will only talk of these matters to our Lord in prayer.”
Can someone please parse this for me cause it makes me to mad!!!
But then, the pastor pawns the victim to another pastor. A pastor that continues the cycle of abuse by making the victim write a letter of apology to the rapists wife. Then he gets promoted to the sacred college that is, Northland Baptist Bible Cawledge…aka….northland international university. And they all hub from B J U. I believe Matthew had it right…..millstones would be better than what they will endure for their acts of godlessness.
It is a toxic system, through and through. It doesn’t matter what affiliation, IFB churches are like this all too often. I attended an IFB church as a teenager, and my best friend was molested by a teacher’s husband. The pastor stated that it was just an adult being “overly friendly” with a student at the affiliated school. Really? Overly friendly? This same church had Ron Comfort preach during a revival and he stated that if a woman is dressed in a “worldly” manner and gets raped, she shares the blame. That was one of the last services we attended there.
So, it doesn’t surprise me that the sledgehammer fundies use known as church discipline would be used.
Your anger is okay… Righteous indignation. I think even Jesus would show anger over this situation. So many of his lambs being harmed by their shepherds.
Bravo, Darrell. Bravo. x 1000. Brave and honest.
Chuck Phelps is a BJU Board member too. Or he was in 2008.
God help us all.
This is one of the worst thing I have come across with Fundamentalism to date. A lot of people have been focusing on whether Phelps did anything nefarious or not. But I’ve been yelling from the roof tops that that is missing the point. What he did was morally reprehensible regardless of any illegal activity. The fact that he ever did lay any blame on this girl is beyond logic is sickening. Further when he finally issues a statement (http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/pastor-no-cover-up-of-alleged-rape) to save his @55 he again blames the victim victimizing her all over again.
Thank you for your post. This needs to spread like wild fire so the truth can come out.
Indeed. Even if he did fulfill the letter of the law by calling the cops and reporting, he still failed miserably in the job of shepherding his flock by his handling of the victim and the painting of her as the guilty party.
Those basic facts are not in dispute by anyone in this story.
This situation just broke my heart!!!
“Phelps said he told her to “be responsible, don’t allow yourself to be around a person you know to be dangerous. She knew this person was dangerous after the first time, but she continued to be around him. . . . She needed to be responsible.” Chucky is STILL blaming a 15 year old for being RAPED IN HER OWN HOME by a 39 year old man!
Then Phelps has the nerve to blame the police. IF THERE NO VICTIM CAN BE FOUND, WHAT ARE THE POLICE TO INVESTIGATE? RUMORS?
http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/pastor-no-cover-up-of-alleged-rape?page=0%2C0
@ML – “righteous indignation.” That’s it exactly. The more I read about this story the more angry I get. The point was made over at FFF that children cannot consent. A 15yo does not have the faculties to consent to that kind of relationship, so any hypotheticals about how she was dressed, acted, etc., and whether or not she somehow influenced him to rape her are all red herrings. What really lights my fire is how some folks are coming out in support of Phelps and the rest of the pastoral leadership. Whether or not he obstructed the investigation isn’t what gets me. What gets me is that this guy was allowed to stay in the church after the fact. I know you can’t hang a man based on an accusation, but every sign points to Phelps knowing that this man had sex with this child. Whether or not it was ever proven legally at the time, as a pastor, why would you allow that man to stay in a place where the same thing could happen again? Here – I’m going to be Phelps and walk through his thought process:
Guy’s accused by this girl of raping her. She won’t testify, her mom won’t testify, but obviously she’s pregnant and has identified him as the father. Maybe it was someone else and she just wants to blame this guy for something, but to cover my butt I’ve got to report it to the police and child protection. Police will want to interview both of them, but she doesn’t want to talk and he won’t talk, so they’ve got nothing to go on. Wow! Looks like I dodged a bullet! We’ll discipline the guy for being unfaithful and the girl for getting pregnant. No one will even suspect the accusation she made. Then we’ll send her off for her own good because her mom doesn’t want to deal with this, and life will go back to normal around here.
mounty here again. If you were a normal human being at this point, you’d talk to the guy and push him to find out if he’s innocent or guilty. If he’s innocent, you vocally back him and explain that any rumors about any illegal activity are false and don’t go any further, but make sure people know you support him. If he’s guilty, you have him arrested out of your office. There’s no good reason why you would just let this drop without investigating either way.
Phelps is now being very shrill in his own defense, talking about retaining his own lawyers and bringing charges against the police for some reason. My experience is, people that lash out at authority before that authority has even made a formal charge are guilty as sin and are trying to take the offensive before the crap hits the fan. One thing’s for sure, though, and it’s that Phelps and the TBC staff at the time were and still are not being very cooperative. If they were innocent they’d be eager for all the facts to come to light and prove their innocence. I don’t feel like this is happening.
I know what the party line is going to be on this because it’s the same every time.
“We don’t know all the facts of the case. Let’s not rush to judgment on these great men of God because we know that Satan brings people like this as stumbling blocks to their ministries.”
When it’s someone outside the camp who is on trial the fundamentalists are lighting torches and gathering pitchforks. When it’s someone on the inside, suddenly we need to proceed with extreme caution and avoid “spreading gossip.”
That last is probably worth a whole post on its own.
I cannot imagine the sick and twisted thinking it takes to blame a helpless victim for the crimes of a sex offendor.
May the pain and guilt endured by that poor girl be returned on that pastor and anyone else who stood by while such an atrocity was comitted.
Darrell, thank you for bringing this to light on your site. This makes me just sick on so many levels. Ugh. Even sadder is the fact that this 15yo girl is not the only one to have been victimized in this way. Why is it that people who *claim* to take the Bible literally blatantly overlook all its MANY commands to care for the weak, oppressed, fatherless, widows, children, etc.??????????????????
Sharper Iron has been discussing this case, too, with some of the same conclusions (by less of the passion/vitriol) of the FFF.
http://sharperiron.org/filings/5-27-10/15093
It gets even worse. From the Concord Monitor (http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/police-girl-raped-then-relocated):
“Over the next few months, the girl became suspicious she was pregnant. She called Willis, who brought over a pregnancy test that came up positive, she told the police.
‘He asked me if I wanted him to take me to a neighboring state where underage abortions were legal . . . and he would pay for an abortion,’ she told the police. ‘He then asked me if I wanted him to punch me in the stomach as hard as he could because that might cause a miscarriage.'”
This is what happens when everyone is accountable to the leader and the leader is accountable to no one. So sad!
That should be “but less of the passion/vitriol”…
@Darrell,
The way I’ve heard it so far is, “Wait until all the facts come out.” Which is essentially impossible. All the facts will never come out and they know that. Then I get this “Eph 4:29 “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.” This is not edifying to other believers. ”
To which I respond was Phelps being edifying to the believers by keeping silent on this issue, by giving half truths to what really happened? I believe bringing this out into the light is edifying, but hey if you quote one verse then you win the argument right?
Aside from the obvious heinousness…
I’m confused about some of the details. Obviously the pastor had contact with the rapist after the crime, since he called him to apologize to the church for “unfaithfulness to his wife.”
So… did he tell the church that there was a rapist in their midst? Did he advise Willis to turn himself in? Did he suggest that they delay the girl’s relocation until the police had had time to investigate? 2-4 weeks isn’t very long. If her mom didn’t know how to care for her, did they offer other options, like a local family to help take care of the girl so she could still be near her Mom and people she knew? Maybe they did all these things and we just don’t know? (I wish I had any hope that were the case).
This is the most upsetting quote from his statement:
“I expected Ernie Willis to be arrested,” Phelps said. “So to prepare the church for his imminent arrest, I communicated with the church or had him communicate with the church that he had been unfaithful to his marital vows.”
What?! I mean… What?!! So… because you thought he would be arrested for rape, you had him tell the church that he had been “unfaithful.” That’s like having a murderer get up in front of the church and apologize for “anger management issues.”
If you knew by his own confession that the girl’s accusations were true, then why didn’t you make him tell the church he was a criminal? Why didn’t YOU tell the church he was a criminal and to keep their kids away from him?
And then… when he didn’t get arrested, the pastor… did what, exactly? I mean… the guy didn’t move away, right? Was he still attending the church? Was he still in the area? What happened here? I honestly want to know.
Another awful quote:
“Phelps said he told her to ‘be responsible, don’t allow yourself to be around a person you know to be dangerous. She knew this person was dangerous after the first time, but she continued to be around him. . . . She needed to be responsible.’ ”
And YOU, an ADULT and LEADER OF THE CHURCH know that he’s dangerous. So DO something about it besides having him get up in front of the church and give some mealymouthed confession to “unfaithfulness.” He’s DANGEROUS! WARN the church so they can ALL be “responsible,” as you put it.
And if the victim is afraid to speak up (which is kind of irrelevant since she’s a minor and the criminal has already admitted to the crime), or if the police detectives are lazy and incompetent, then be a FATHER to the fatherless! Drag the animal who harmed your precious lamb to the police station with your own two hands if you have to!
Dang!
Ok. I’m done.
No I’m not. Have you ever noticed how true heroes always say “I should have done more” and people who don’t really care say “I did everything I was supposed to. Now get off my back?”
A man-controlled church is a Godless church.
This should cause our blood to boil.
I read all 15 pages of people’s posts and it seemed that the majority of people were on the victim’s side. I think that there were only a couple of people saying “what if it was consensual or could she have seduced him”. There were also a couple of fence straddler’s taking neither side and others trying to wait for more information. Members of SI(Shaper Iron) seems to be trying to handle the discussion carefully berfore making a descision also.
@phil the posts by users “Walt” and “ALAYMAN” on that thread were the ones that caused my comment.
Winston Churchill once said that “Most people, sometime in their lives, stumble across truth, and then jump up, brush themselves off, and hurry on about their business as if nothing had happened.”
And, so will many people who defend Phelps and Trinity will, piously close their minds to and CHOOSE to ignore facts and move on wholly self-contented.
going to bed after drinking a Mikes Hard Lemonaide!
There is zero excuse for a 40 year old man having sex with a 15 year old. Doesn’t matter how she dressed, acted, etc., the only way a grown middle-aged man will have sex with a child is if he’s already decided to do it anyway.
Bottom line: Willis needs to go to jail and find out how pedos make the world go round in there. Sex with a minor equals jail, period, doesn’t matter if he thought it was consensual because it couldn’t have been, not with a 15 year old. Phelps, if nothing else, is a bad shepherd, allowing his sheep to be assaulted behind his back so he can keep the title of “Most Awesome Shepherd” by everyone too blind or stupid to see what’s going on. At worst, he’s an enabler and should share in Willis’ sentence.
What everyone is also missing is the fact that she was sent to Colorado to a church run by Phelps good friend Matt Olson and she was forced to send a letter to the wife of the rapist and appologize to her for causing him to be unfaithful to her. Isn’t it funny how all those bob Jones boys stick together. She was also not allowed to even tell one other person about what happened her brother. She was put under constant surveillance so that even when her mother and brother went to visit her at olsons church her brother couldn’t even spend quality time with her because both Phelps and Olson were afraid she would tell him what happened.
Willis was a deacon at tbc at that time just so everyone knows. And Phelps report he gave to police was not that of a rape of a 15 year old but that it was a girl of near consenting age and a 38 year old man. That would be why there was no police action. Funny how changing 15 year old girl to a girl of near consenting age changes the way it wouldve been looked at.
Could we please stop refering to these supposed “great men of God” as pastors? A true pastor cares for his people and acts as a shepherd, leading and protecting. These men have done nothing but cover their own asses and those of the criminal(s) in their midst while adding to the pain and suffering of the victim. They have aided the wolf in its attack on the sheep (in this case a lamb). Preachers they may be–pastors they most certainly are not.
Thank you for posting this. Many of us have left Fundyland, but some of your readers haven’t. For 18 months, I resisted calling this stuff a cult. Alas, I was in denial. The numbness I felt as a part of this stuff, the feeling that “something’s not quite right,” are part of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and are symptoms of having been in a cult. This is no longer about God, rather preserving power in whatever ways possible. While I left Fundyland around 30 years ago, this stuff brings up all the same feelings when I was at Bob Jones Academy. These men are not men of God, they are narcissistic creatures who get off on power and control. Folks, run away, run far away from these people and these churches. There are plenty of good churches of all denominations and varying degrees of conservative to liberal that are truly out-posts of Heaven. Find one.
What is very interesting is that although Brian Fuller asked his flock to keep quiet, a letter to the editor was written by Gloria Woetzel. It was published in the May 28th edition of the Concord Monitor. Who is Gloria? In the letter she calls Trinity HER church and cries out against the unfair treatment of HER church. She defends the actions of HER church. Well, Gloria’s uncle-in-law is Kurt Woetzel…current music pastor of Trinity Baptist Church. Also interesting? Trinity Baptist Church was started in the living room of Kurt Woetzel and Kurt was on staff in 1997 when the rape occured. No doubt he was saying a hearty “AMEN” as Phelps shamed this girl in front of the church.
@Jess For anybody who wants to read this letter to the Editor, it’s online here: http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/unfair-to-trinity-baptist-church
Gloira Woetzel in that letter stated:
“I was a friend of the young lady at the time, and I can assure you that when she went public with her terrible news, the families in the church supported her, assured her of their love, and tried to do what was in her best interest. There never was any desire to “cover up,” or “whisk her away.” There were no questions from the authorities that were left unanswered by staff at Trinity.”
If everyone in the church knew about the incident, loved her and supported her, then I still don’t understand why she went to Colorado to have the baby.
It appears that the rallying cry for the church and “pastors ” is ‘we reported this and the police didn’t do anything so we’re off the hook.’ What exactly they told the police and when they said it remains to be seen. I have a feeling there’s more to that story than they’re saying, but we’ll see.
Phelps specifically refused to talk about the church discipline or why they sent the girl away. The church is keeping mum too. Even Gloria Woetzel in her letter didn’t bother addressing it.
This astounds me too. I’m still trying to wrap my brain around it.
Because . . . well, you all remember? You remember all those horrific stories of girls being carted off to [insert some place 100s of miles away] in order to . . . . well, you didn’t know WHAT went on. It was just this threat that hung over you like Damocles sword. Behave or else you get ripped from your family and have to sing ugly songs with the Honey Bees. Granted — I had no concept of any of the machinations or even biology, but I knew the threat quite well. The constant threat that if you goofed, you were “put -out,” to use Phelps’ words.
But again and again, as I read these stories, the girls were the victims of serial CRIMES. :-O I’m stunned. These girls who were “put-out” in my upbringing. Serial crimes. At the hands of men who were supposed to protect us — dads and brothers and uncles and teachers and pastors.
I still can’t wrap my brain around it. We were threatened with abandonment for THEIR crimes. It’s like kicking the dog because the postman delivered the mail!
I have frequently posted on the FFF, and I often tell them that they are, themselves, one of the best evidences of the moral and spiritual failure of Christian Fundamentalism. This is another excellent demonstration of that bankruptcy.
No, it’s like kicking the dog for some terrorist mailing you a pipe bomb.
That’s better.
Ah, as for the “we reported it” defense:
If I were to play devil’s advocate and talk biblically… Phelps regularly spouts that church discipline is for restoration. (Listen to Phelps’ message from April 21, 2010 at his current church Colonial Hills Baptist Church in Indiana. I do not know how to do links…sorry.) I understand they claim it was not discipline for the victim, but so that they could love and embrace her…okaaaay…why was she sent to Colorado? Not to mention, 13 years ago they DID call it discipline. Restoration was sending her to Colorado? As for the perp…He was disciplined…for restoration and apparently the congregation voted to lovingly restore him. Hmmmm…Phelps states that he was brought before the congregation because Phelps believed his arrest was imminent. Oh. My bad. I guess I was confused because next in his statement, Phelps said the flock was told he was being disciplined for adultery. Eh?? Rape…adultery…same thing right? I am sure they would have restored him to fellowship knowing that his arrest for the rape of a 15 year old girl was imminent. Right. And Phelps is owed an apology. Right. My bad.
Under the strict sense of the law Phelps may have done the minimum to avoid prosecution.
Under a liberal definition of being a man, father or pastor he scores zero.
That’s what I say, Jess. Phelps claims the church “embraced” her. How? by pulling her out of the Christian school although she had not broken any rules, keeping her sequestered at his house until he’d made arrangements, and then shipping her off to Colorado where she was also kept away from her peers and instructed not to discuss what happened? Odd, how an embrace by Phelps comes with shovels full of dirt landing on top of you.
@Jess, I linkified that sermon for you.
I love how he starts out the message assuring everyone that there’s no hidden agenda and “nothing going on.”
Yes Bassenco! I would imagine as pure and faultless as the members of Trinity were and apparently are, they would not be embracing her lest the dirt rub off on them She was sequestered in CO as well. No doubt though they would not have dirtied themselves by embracing her either. There is a blog post up by the Generations Pastor of Grace Capital Church in Concord.( I believe it can be found on their website gccnh.org) It is called Rise Above and recounts Brian Fullers awful treatment of him. It calls for Christians to rise above and pray WITH the leaders of this church. Grace Capital is by no means in the IFB circle, but to call for prayer with the leaders of TBC after reading Phelps statements? Wow.
@ Darrell…Thank you! I actually made it through the whole sermon. He makes a joke about being the Baptist Pope. Really? And I found his illustration of Nurse Marian Guinn in Oklahoma to be very innaccurately referenced. By the way, when I was released from membership at TBC, my soul was handed over to Satan for the destruction of my flesh. 30 men signed that letter. Oh well. I guess I paid off the loan.
To quote Russell Crowe in L.A. Confidential: “You know what they do to kiddy rapers in Quentin.”
This is one of the most upsetting, vile stories I’ve ever read. Even beyond the emotional and physical abuse of the victim, the ham-handed conspiracy, the rationalization, the pathetic attempts at damage control in a situation when they should have been abandoning ship or conceding defeat. I’m mad, too, Darrell. I think we all should. The knowledge that the fundy fringe is never far from the mainstream was just starting to wear off. This is a horrible reminder–and the graphic heading up the post really got me, since it’s one thing to remember the degrees of separation between the fringe and mainstream and quite another to see it illustrated.
From the Colonial Hills write-up on their senior pastor:
“Chuck and Linda have ‘been there and done that’ and learned from more than a few mistakes (some comical and some serious).”
Uh-huh.
Why the shock? People drank cyanide laced Kook-Aid, people still defend Jack Hyles, have dress codes at wedding rehearsal dinners, wear athletic shoes with long, homemade “culottes” and use the KJV exclusively. Exposure…a good idea. Shock, no.
This is appalling, but after leaving IFBdom I discovered that the SBC is little better. The world is a sick place. Thanks for writing this, Darrell.
Here is the link to the CBS Early Show Tina Anderson Interview from this morning
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/05/29/earlyshow/saturday/main6530160.shtml
Kuddos for addressing this story. It hits way to close to home in our family and the responses that I see and read by the defender’s of Phelps are the same party line that I’ve heard before. Sickening.
Slightly off topic, while all of this happened prior to MBBC hiring Phelps and they soon got rid of him, has any fundy institution done a worse job at vetting their presidents?
From the above link provided by Kitty. Make sure to read the last sentence.
“Chuck Phelps and (another church official) did a lot to systemically brainwash me and make me believe this was my fault, to cover things and make people believe that it wasn’t Ernie’s baby, to make — even Chuck Phelps’ wife, when we came forward, asked me if I enjoyed it when it happened. And it’s not OK.
What on earth does that have to do with anything??
Good grief.
Thanks for this post Darrell.