A young man has experienced unimaginable abuse. Born into poverty, the son of a prostitute and a murderer. He spent his early years rummaging through trash cans for food, and trying to find shelter in motels, on park benches, even under stranger’s awnings. He was ripped from the arms of his mom, and mercilessly separated from his other siblings at the tender age of 5, kicking and screaming. He was then handed into the merciless arms of the state, where he would bounce from one foster care home to the next. After a childhood of horrors that left him downtrodden, defenseless, orphaned, and without hope, he reached out to God, where he found love.
In time, he entered a new home in his late teens. This family embraced him, providing a place where he felt love, and found a place, that in time, he would call home. It was during these early years that he and his new family would stay up late reading the Bible, praying together, and enjoying the fellowship of God’s love. At this time he begin to attend a church. It was in this church that others would begin to see his artistic giftings and potential to serve the church.
He began to wholeheartedly embrace the truth of Christ, and build relationships with those within the church. Although he had his own struggles, what he really wanted was nothing more than to be a good man, someone pleasing to God. He was taught, that as he changed his attitude and perspective, he would be made whole. That if he would serve, he would find healing. It was at this juncture, that the abuse would begin.
As leaders began to identify his talents and aptitude for the arts, they began to “create opportunities for him to serve.” Striving to be pleasing to God, and submit to his leaders, he worked tirelessly on videos promoting activities within the church. He made countless videos for the church, he helped launch a tech ministry, and among many other things, he made recap videos of the weekly sermons. He was awarded the “Creativity Award”, and was even brought on as a paid intern to work for the church.
As time went on, he began to experience emotional, spiritual, and even physical abuse at the hands of people in this church. Here are just a few examples of many…One week he traveled to Arizona, where the church was putting on a conference. At this conference he was literally pushed by a leader. After telling other leaders, no one did anything. No leader approached his new family about the incident, everyone simply kept quiet, placing the full burden on him, to tell his family. Another time, he was at work and a leader from the creative arts ministry was invited to visit him at his new job, where he was an editor for movie trailers. He was sitting at his editing bay working on a trailer, when this leader told him that he should be grateful to the church for his job. He further went on to tell him, that the only reason that he was able to have a job, was because the church had invested in him. Finally, on one occasion, he even spent the entire night sleeping on a couch in his office, allowing another member of the church to use the editing bay at his work. The person who was using the equipment, became very demanding about how long he needed to use the equipment. As a result, this person was eventually asked to leave, and that he no longer was welcome to use the equipment. The next day one of the leaders from the church called this young editor and informed him that he was being selfish, and unreasonable by not allowing the other member to use his equipment at work. This leader then proceeded to tell him that he was going to “pray for him to do the right thing.” The leader never asked for his side of the story.
The story of abuse only became worst. His new family went through a horrendous tragedy a number of years ago. The tremendous amount of confusion and pain that he went through was almost surreal. This however, does not compare to what the church would do next, or should I say, what they didn’t do. He was involved in a small group, he made weekly recap videos, his work was on the front page of this church’s webpage, he attended all of the various conferences, and retreats, and no one from this church called or visited him to see how he was doing. However, they never stopped calling him to produce another video. Numerous messages were left on his phone, from various members of this church asking, and then even at times demanding, for him to make a video for them. The best analogy that can describe these experiences can be found in a movie called, “Dogville”. In this movie, the main character, Grace, stumbles into a town. She is scared, helpless, and alone. The people in the town began to feed her, and give her work. As the movie progresses the town’s people make her start feeling that she is somehow ungrateful, and now is obligated to take on more and more tasks. Eventually, a man in town begins to take advantage of her. Although she objects, he continues his abuse. Eventually, word spreads, and one by one, each man takes his turn to what was not offered…This is what has occurred on a spiritual level to this young man.
The emotional and psychological abuses suffered by this young man would leave him spiritually paralyzed. Eventually, his life began to fracture. He felt helpless and abandoned. He began to reach out to various leaders, missionaries, and even members of his own family attending the church, trying to explain to them the grief and agony he felt. The responses of these members can be summed up in this next story: One day, after explaining how he was feeling, one of the members of this church, responded by telling him that he needed to serve more, if he was going to find healing. Then, this member proceeded to laugh at him and tell him that he was being too dramatic. This sent this young man into an emotional and spiritual spiral downwards. He eventually quit his high paying job, and isolated himself for close to two years. He began to have vivid nightmares, and spells of crying, that lasted for hours. Despite these ugly experiences, this young man has began to find strength in Christ. However, he is aware that he can’t be silent about what has happened to him. This is his story, but he is not alone. The manipulation, and abuse, that occurs in this church, must stop. Please consider this young man’s suffering, so that other’s will not needlessly suffer as well…
