Cover Up Progression

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The brother's side:

• He was falsely accused of sins, coerced into confession
• He was retroactively punished for what he had earlier repented of
• He was verbally abused by his bible talk leader / discipler
• He was slandered behind his back at a leader's meeting
• He was publicly slandered from the podium at a meeting
• He was ostracized from his bible talk
• His emotional distress was invalidated
• He seeks input from 4 other therapists
• He signs a release waiver allowing Bruce Williams to communicate with therapist
• He communicates the abuse to leadership
• He submits to a reconciliation plan negotiated by therapist
• He wants therapist at 2nd meeting because of prior abuses
• He spends over $7000 on licensed therapy from Christian therapist
• He spends over 100 hours attending support groups
• He writes & sends response letter to leadership complete with documented exhibits

The Leadership side:

• Leadership enacts punishment in the name of 'church discipline'.
• Leadership does not communicate with therapist
• Leadership does not want therapist at 2nd meeting
• Leadership states it's not "demonstrating trust in leadership"
• Bruce Williams refuses to attend 2nd meeting, sends a text instead
• Leadership rejects reconciliation plan offered by his therapist
• Leadership invalidates brother's statements of abuse
• Leadership disfellowships him, says false & inaccurate statements
• Leadership does not acknowledge abuses written in binder
• Leadership does not provide answers to the questions asked
• Jaeho Park sends reply that no outside people allowed in meetings with leaders

After the binder was shipped to the leaders, they finally reply with a letter in which it says:

"..we expect all of our members to be willing to sit down with the leaders of the church without someone outside of our church being present. .. We believe this is a reasonable expectation that we have of all our members."

There are many problems with these statements.

• The prohibition is expanded from the brother's therapist to now anyone who is "outside of our church".
• This is a made-up rule and it is un-biblical.
• This violates the Matthew 18 principle of witnesses - the leadership can bring any number of witness against the accused, but the accused cannot bring independent witnesses against them.
• The same "ganging-up" abuses that were renounced in the Westside Consultation are now crystallized into a church policy.

There remains many questions -  

Are all the church members aware of this policy?

Will this new church policy be implemented in all the regions of Los Angeles? 

What precedent does this set for the other ICOC churches?

For a relief from all this, see the next section - Resource Hub.