When a Church Platforms an Alleged Abuser
Tomorrow, on July 7, 2024, an alleged abuser will walk through the doors of the University Church of Christ in Murray, Kentucky and speak during Sunday School. (I use “alleged” for legal reasons. I am also unaware of his real name.)
He may also speak at the worship service.
His alleged victim, author Nancy French, posted on both Twitter/X and Threads. Her thread on X is here.
Nancy first wrote about this person’s alleged abuse in the October 21, 2016 issue of the Washington Post. She also referred to him in her new book, Ghosted.
The alleged abuse began after the preacher in question drove Nancy home from Vacation Bible School. Her mother needed to run errands, and who wouldn’t trust a preacher? Nancy recalled him as a man younger than most preachers who wore “cool glasses.”
So the preacher took Nancy home.
And then, “the preacher’s thin mouth pressed against mine, his wiry tongue stuck down my throat. He pulled me down onto the love seat and ran his hands over my budding breasts.”
It was the first of many assaults.
At church, he preached that sexual immorality was wrong.
With Nancy, he behaved as if sexual immorality was right.
Nancy didn’t know the term “pedophilia”. She didn’t understand that she had done nothing wrong, that this so-called man of God was abusing her, violating the very commands he preached against on Sundays.
Instead, her thoughts told her, “He didn’t do anything wrong. You caused this. You enjoyed it. You deserved it.”
When some discovered the abuse . . . nothing changed. No one confronted the preacher, demanded his resignation, or fired him.
So as soon as she was old enough, Nancy left home, left her church, and left her conservative background.
She did find her way back to faith and eventually became a ghostwriter, collaborating on books with subjects such as Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson East; both Bristol and Sarah Palin, and The Bachelor contestant Sean Lowe.
But the effects of the preacher’s sexual abuse remain.
Nancy, in her X thread, says that the University Church of Christ is allowing the preacher to speak after:
She sent a family member with a rape counselor to explain to their leadership what happened to her
She wrote about him in the October, 2016 Washington Post article referred to above
She wrote about him in her book Ghosted
He used racial slurs as a high school teacher, asked students about their sex lives, and had been ordered to do sexual harassment training
The pastor of her old church wrote a letter saying he’d abused other church members
He mocked LGBTQ students
He referred to masturbation as his “happy time”
He said that being gay was the same as being a pedophile
He made fun of Asian students, calling them “Ching Chong”
He told students not to tell parents what he said in his classes about sex (which is a common grooming technique among sexual abusers)
He dismissed a student’s disgust over child porn, saying, “We’re all perverted in some way.”
He was repeatedly caught alone with female students in a locked room
He called a student a whore
He attempted to rape other people at Nancy’s hometown church (Nancy heard two reports of this behavior; one from a husband, the other from a son.)
His state teaching license was revoked in 2023 after she contacted the appropriate authorities and explained the behavior that the preacher’s high school principal and superintendent was overlooking.
None of the items on the list made a difference. He was still invited to speak at the University church in Murray.
I’m outraged. I’m outraged on Nancy’s behalf. I’m also outraged because I’m part of a Church of Christ congregation in Atlanta and have been part of Churches of Christ since 1981. I’m very familiar with many facets of the Church of Christ. Many members call it, “the Lord’s church” and say they are “not a denomination”. Admirably, they do look to Scripture and use Scripture for matters of faith and practice.
And they also have had their share of sexual assault cases. One Church of Christ minister, Les Ferguson, lost his wife and a disabled son when the church member who’d raped Les’s son - after being arrested and while out on bail - came back and shot Les’ wife and Les’ son.
Another Church of Christ preacher, Jimmy Hinton, turned in his own father - also a Church of Christ preacher - after Hinton learned that the elder Hinton had sexually abused numerous children, including his own daughter.
More recently, the International Churches of Christ and International Christian Churches - both breakaway sects from the Church of Christ - were targeted with lawsuits stemming from years of alleged sexual abuse.
And still, we go on.
We blame the victim for what she was wearing, for not screaming, for not telling.
We don’t place the blame where it belongs: square on the shoulders of the perpetrator.
We demand that victims forgive instead of demanding repentance from the offenders.
And we metaphorically rub victim’s noses in the dirt when we refuse to acknowledge that yes, those who speak of and preach Christ can also be those who abuse others in the worst way possible.
Which is what is happening to Nancy French right now.
And why she’s taken to social media to call out abuse.
Jesus had some very harsh words for those whose who abused children, and I think it applies to abusers of adults also: It would be better for them to be drowned in the sea with a millstone tied around their neck.
Not platformed on the stage of a place that claims to honor God.
Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.