How could it have happened?

The basic formulas for abuse were put in place in the 1970’s, and largely remain intact today

In my quest to get to the root causes of CFCMI abuses, I have stumbled across a few principles or fundamental issues that I believe are at the crux of the situation.

The slide show above summarizes, in three slides, my view on: how it got started (slide #1), how the abuse has been sustained (slide #2) and how the leadership has failed to respond in any appropriate way to exposure of the abuse (slide #3).

Most of the issues generally deal with one of three Root Causes (slide #2):

(1) the authoritarian organizational structure of CFCMI,

(2) the institutionalization of flawed leadership within CFCMI, and/or

(3) the distorted teachings or practices of CFCMI that were originally designed, and honed, to support and protect LRD’s abusive activities.

The first two Root Causes are dealt with separately under the following posts: "Foundation Cracks" (Root Cause 1 & 2) and “Leadership Dichotomy” (Root Cause 2).

To summarize, these links discuss the problems of:

(a) the institutionalization of absolute authority with no downward accountability (RC 1),

(b) demonstrated lack of integrity (i.e., through taking an active role in protecting and/or participating in the “family secret”) as a prerequisite for International Board-level leadership positions in CFCMI (relates to RC 1 and RC 2) and

(c) the “Catch 22” that Pastor Paine has created for himself in claiming he had no knowledge of LRD’s activities prior to 1996 (the “Leadership Dichotomy”, and a great example of RC 2).

Now, I’d like to address Root Cause 3, the distorted teachings and practices in support of LRD’s activities.

The logic goes something like this:

- LRDs wrongdoings could not have gone on for over two decades unless they were supported by other wrongdoings and teachings.

- To assume the passing of LRD solves the problem (the rationale Pastor Paine has adopted, as he personally professed to me) ignores the root causes, ensures institutionalization of distorted teachings and, very likely, continued wrongdoing and abuse.

- To address only the homosexual activity-related teachings would only scratch the surface of reform (mentioned in a minimalistic way by

Pastor Paine, but not seriously pursued to my knowledge).

- Utter refusal by Pastor Paine to look into the matter AT ALL (he's not even willing to read the court transcripts!), much less to explore how deep the roots of the problems go, to consider structural reforms, to be open to transparency about the findings and to reach out to hundreds, even thoutsands of victims, reflects an unwillingness to set CFCMI on a godly path.

That’s pretty much it. The following explanation sort of fills in the meat on the bones of the argument:

Is it possible that LRD’s teachings and activities regarding mutual masturbation/homosexuality (consistently documented throughout the court transcripts) were the sole examples of misconduct or out of balance (non-biblical, take your pick) practices within CFCMI? Or, were other incorrect or distorted teachings and practices required to allow the activities to continue (i.e., to ensure submission, to keep people quiet, to keep people from leaving, to provide “plausible deniability”, to have a “cover story” to help explain anomalies, etc.)?

I think it’s clear pretty much to everyone that you can’t go on having illicit sex with your congregation as a pastor for over 20 years without putting some pretty significant effort into covering it up. The sayings “Oh, the tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive” and “one lie begets another” come to mind. They’re not biblical, but I’m sure there are a million scriptures to back it up.

Well, it was pretty easy for LRD to cover things up. I mean, he was the ultimate dictator…if he said it, we did it (Root Cause 1). If he used a scripture or two to back up a philosophy, interpretation, a policy or a procedure, then it automatically was chalked up as “truth”. That was it. This was especially true for the “Staff”. It was ruled by his iron fist. If there needed to be an adjustment to the way things were done, then he simply “put it out” and that was it. This explains why many of us would go on a 6 month cruise and have to spend the first month or so adjusting to the rules that had changed while we were gone. Welcome to the world of relative truth.

So, if we agree that there had to be at least something done to keep the cover-up going, and that LRD himself was pretty much the sole source for the teachings and practices of the ministry, particularly the Staff, then there must have been some teachings that were at least “out of balance”. Whether they were doctrinal or “administrative”, the general direction and climate of teachings within the ministry had to be oriented in a way that supported his activities. If not, he would be exposed. This is really an inescapable fact.

Thus, as I explained to Pastor Paine, it appears to me that only addressing the “homosexual activity” issue, with respect to CFCMI/LRD’s teachings falls woefully short of getting to the root of anything. Only a critical, sincere, soul-searching review of all of the church’s teachings would reveal where the problems still lie. Just to provide a few small examples (there are MANY more) of obvious teachings that supported LRD’s activities are:

- Hundredfold Ministry/Abiding in Your Calling: “God called you here, this ministry is the highest level of calling you can have, so if you leave/fall away you will absolutely go to hell.” I call it the “CFCMI is the pinnacle of spirituality on planet Earth, and if you fall off, you’re going to hell” philosophy. It’s an extremely powerful motivator, absurd on it’s face and way out of balance scripturally.

- Communication: The types and levels of communication required by the pastors (i.e., “checking in” requirements for the Staff) are patently cult-like (just read any literature on it).

- Two-by-two. Another overly emphasized teaching that served as a control mechanism and supported keeping people “in the box”.

- Eunuchship. A completely CFCMI self-styled teaching that perfectly supported his activities. Once you could be persuaded to “take a vow”, the “Abide in your calling or go to hell” philosophy had you under his thumb for the rest of your life.

I could go on. In fact, go to the library, Barnes and Noble, or online and look at any book on cults or abusive relationships. These and other CFCMI practices are at the top of every checklist I have found on the subject. Don’t accept the CFCMI pastoral explanation of what a cult is. EJT used to call the Navy a cult, because it forces people to dress and talk the same…it’s typical of his “shotgun” style of zero-analysis, spew-out-a-few-rationalizations-and-call-it-done methodology when dealing with nagging, valid issues or concerns. Anyway…

The final part of the story here is that Pastor Paine rejected the notion of doing a comprehensive review of CFCMI’s doctrinal stances, policies, staff procedures, etc. Thus, my wife and I took that to indicate that he had no real intention of “turning things around” and really seeking out God for the direction of the entire ministry.