By Dr. Kimberly Ervin Alexander
Of course, we’ve all known it was happening and far too many of us have experienced the harassment and abuse in our Pentecostal churches and institutions. We’ve heard the stories about leaders and pastors who did or didn’t get caught. And we’ve rarely, if ever, seen any repercussions, criminal or ecclesial.
The lid began coming off last Fall: #metoo. We we heard numerous, painful stories from seemingly all walks of life: Hollywood, Washington DC, news outlets, corporations, Olympic athletics.
We Pentecostal women waited for the response of our leaders. It seemed to me to be low-hanging fruit; I mean, how hard is it to name the sin of rape?
But….crickets.
For me, it was reading the New York Times obituary of Recy Taylor in late December, and hearing Oprah’s recalling of Recy’s story of gang rape gone unpunished that jarred me into action.
I’m a lifelong Pentecostal. I’m a Pentecostal historian. Why was I just now hearing this story of my Pentecostal sister?
We know the answer. There is a culture of silence in the church.
#PentecostalSistersToo
So, the Society for Pentecostal Studies (SPS) sisterhood decided it was time we called for a response.
*Click to see full size. Used with permission.
On Friday, March 9, 2018, following the plenary session, at 9:10 pm, 101 SPS members and conference attendees, female and male, gathered at the Cross Chapel at Pentecostal Theological Seminary to discuss how Pentecostal scholars should address the #metoo moment.
Not surprisingly, one by one, women rose to share their stories of being abused in their homes, in their churches, and in Pentecostal educational institutions. Other women ministers shared painful stories of discrimination in the church.
Cheryl Bridges Johns and I carefully facilitated the time of lament but also of constructive engagement as the group brainstormed and strategized about needed responses and resources.
Going Forward
The consensus was that a formal statement, that includes a call for repentance, is needed, written by Pentecostal scholars, in consultation with Pentecostal leadership. This statement will be signed by SPS members and distributed to the larger Pentecostal scholarly and ecclesial community, especially its leadership. Other plans include publications and presentations at future meetings.
The meeting closed with a powerful time of prayer in the Spirit, led by Pastor Sandra Kay Williams of the North Cleveland Church of God. Had it not been after 11 pm, I’m relatively sure many of us would have continued in a real Pentecostal time of tarrying. In fact, I’ve been told that a number of young students did just that until well after midnight.
Impact
My phone pinged with messages and texts well into the morning as women and men thanked me for helping to facilitate the conversation. The next day, I was particularly struck by the men who expressed how much the meeting impacted them.
SPS President, Dale Coulter, closed the SPS business meeting with reflection about how, as a father of daughters, he was impacted by what was shared by those brave women who gathered on Friday night.
I believe I hear the Spirit saying that the listening and the prophetic speaking have just begun.
Leave a comment below by clicking here.
Kimberly Ervin Alexander, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Church History at Regent University’s School of Divinity in Virginia Beach, VA. She is the co-author of What Women Want: Pentecostal Women Ministers Speak for Themselves and author of Pentecostal Healing: Models of Theology and Practice. She has more than 25 years of experience in parish ministry.You might also be interested in these posts:
I commend you for your courageous statement and overview of the Pentecostal Fellowship
Great story! Thingsneed to be revealed.
When we talk about “a culture of silence,” I sometimes wonder if anyone realizes that part of it is simply a culture of lawsuit? Most often churches cannot speak about former employees or even volunteers, because they would then be wide open to libel lawsuits, etc. Most churches have long since implemented anti-abuse programs which means they talk about these issues all the time with their volunteers, which is often the more appropriate (and effective) place than from the pulpit.
I realize there may be way more out there than I realize, but over the years I’ve seen lots of “ecclesial repercussions” for ministers who abuse their position of trust for their own sexual gratification (which I understand to be the major concern of the #metoo movement, not just the general treatment of women). [In general, if the relationship was between adults and consensual, regardless of how awful the ethics of it are, there can be no criminal repercussions.]
Long before the #meToo movement, Pentecostal pastors were regularly fired and lost their credentials due to sexual sin. In fact, in the Pentecostal circles in which I minister in, the eventual conclusion was that the consequences were too harsh (usually resulting in the person never returning to ministry and most often leaving the denomination/fellowship altogether) and that there was need for a more redemptive approach, which led to a restoration program that repentant ministers could go through over a period of years to seek restoration to ministry.
Even with the restoration program, I think it is safe to say that most of the ministers who sin sexually do not make it back into credentialed ministry. I know of at least one case where a minister lost their ministry credentials due to the accusation of someone else that was denied (and is denied to this day more than 20 years later) by both the supposed perpetrator AND the supposed victim (and their spouses – both marriages remain intact and the couples are still friends). That doesn’t mean there aren’t situations where a #meToo revelation wouldn’t be helpful – but to equate our situation with that exposed in Hollywood where it was an “open secret” to me seems a mistake.
I’m not opposed to a formal statement and call for repentance, or even an investigation of how we can do better in the future. But I hope it doesn’t just become another case of painting everyone with the same brush of corporate guilt. I think the church can (and should) do better than the world in this area, just as it should do better in terms of not covering up offenses (and in my personal experience it has [imperfectly, of course] done better).
After more than 20 years in ministry, I know of only one minister/volunteer who has not suffered the consequences of his actions – but in his case the accuser would not testify, and because the presumption of innocence is an important concept in justice, of course nothing was done (nor is the matter widely known).