Charlotte, NC – Victims of abusive churches include adults and children, men and women. Their histories vary from being bullied and shamed by abusive church leadership to horrific instances of being molested or assaulted. Though most churches are ethically sound and would not permit abuses, recent headlines point to a growing problem, or at least a growing awareness, of abusive churches. While public perception has focused on such problems in the Roman Catholic Church, Protestant churches, less visible because they are often independent, congregational churches, have their share of abuses and cover-ups.

The Conference of the Lambs, scheduled for June 15-16, 2007 at Northside BaptistChurch in Charlotte, NC, is designed to offer consolation and information to assist victims of abusive churches. Founder Jeri Massi, who produced the internet audio documentary the “Lambs of Culpeper”, in 2006, and Conference Host Pastor Dan Burrell, will offer information about abusive churches and a Biblical rebuttal to the harsh, legalistic methods often used in churches that abuse their members.

Most churches remain scandal-free. Yet, case after case of child molesting, criminal use of pornography, and financial looting of churches from pastors or other church officers have made headlines in the last ten years. Victims of such abuses sometimes have no remedy, as accountability and rules of due process are often ignored in Christian communities.  “Good Christian people just can’t believe this could happen in their church,” says Jeri Massi, founder and moderator of the Conference of the Lambs.  “And when these things do happen, the most vulnerable members of such a church have no protective rules or grievance process in place to protect them. The result is that the victims often face only silence, sometimes outright abandonment,
by people they considered brothers and sisters in Christ.”

Massi hopes that the Conference of the Lambs, which is open to all victims of church abuse who register to attend, will offer victims a broader view of their abuse, a sense of not being alone in being abused, and provide them with steps to take towards recovery.

Jerri blogs at Blog on the Lily Pad. She takes on fundamentalists head on, he courage is outstanding and the amount of abuse, vitriol and threats thrown at her is staggering. The obsessive verbal attacks on Jeri and the minister/church hosting the conference have been reported to the Charlotte NC police.

I notified the police and gave them the info. As the Conference is so brief, the officer I spoke to said they could pretty easily provide a presence for us for the whole thing if they/we felt that disruption was going to be a serious problem. He asked about traffic direction, too, but I nearly fell over laughing. I told him I didn’t think we’d have that many people. Charlotte traffic can probably handle it.

You can see the level of abuse coming from The Fighting Fundamentalist Forums, toward Jerri and the hosting church here and here. Notifying police is a wise decision, victims need safe environments, information and sanctuary to heal and threats and intimidation have been directed at Jeri that required she notify police in the past.