Just Listen
Things will be a little different this weekend at First Baptist of Hammond. Instead of thousands of people gathered to listen to one man and his support team speak from their church’s platform, thousands will assemble outside to ASK that one man and his support team to stay quiet and just listen.
This was the pastor’s response.
While Wilkerson claims that the church has turned over all materials to the police and that he mourns with all of the victims of the church’s past abuse, he has no plans to listen to those at the protest and encourages “private” meetings instead. For many victims, “private” denotes a lack of transparency that is needed to stop abuse once and for all. As he continues his statement, he moves quickly past the harm done to those abused by those in FBCH leadership. He lays out its ministry’s worldwide impact and popularity (claiming it has had more visitors than any other religious institution “Except maybe the Vatican”). This kind of grandiosity is typical for churches within the Independent Fundamental Baptist movement.
For decades, abuse victims in Independent Fundamental Baptist churches have been cajoled or threatened into silence by those whose voices were magnified from the pulpit. They listened to their leaders and believed that speaking up and exposing their abusers would harm the church and make its ministries unavailable to those who needed them most. Though they were the victims, they were punished and shunned while their abusers were allowed to move freely from church to church, working in positions of leadership without remorse or censure.
While many men and women have been forced into keeping the perverted secrets of their spiritual betrayers, those featured in the documentary Let Us Prey have a history of stepping forward to tell their stories. They’ve been interviewed for newspaper articles, talked on podcasts, and given their testimony (backed with hard evidence) under oath in court. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt29926213/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
And yet, the first reviews of the documentary included people (many from the IFB) complaining that these victims were “Bringing up things that happened decades ago!” and asking, “Why didn’t they mention this stuff when it happened?” or remarking, “Remember, there are two sides to every story.”
The willful ignorance is astounding. It takes a quick Google search to discover that the average age of someone reporting childhood sexual assault is 52 years. It is a lifelong trauma. https://childusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Delayed-Disclosure-Factsheet-2020.pdf
One complete viewing of Let Us Prey is enough to realize that the women featured DID mention their abuse and reported it to their religious leaders (consistent with the beliefs of the IFB) and police. As for the “two sides to every story,” That argument has been faced head-on. April Avila, a victim of her youth pastor’s predations, perfectly expressed her frustration in a Facebook post.
Those still in the Independent Fundamental Baptists (IFB) tend to look at any criticism as an attack from the world and the devil. This WILL be the stance they take regarding the protest in Hammond. Those at First Baptist will see the protest as spiritual oppression. Other IFB churches will take up their cry and pray for their persecuted brethren. How do I know? Because this is what they have always done. Their churches have often claimed that someone in their leadership is being harassed by someone “lying” about them. Sometimes, they will pay for a U-Haul so the leader can move to another location. If the police have gotten involved, the church may even raise money for that person’s defense, sometimes AFTER that person was found guilty in a court of law and sentenced for their crimes.
None of this information is new, but times are changing, and more avenues of communication and education have opened. Victims are refusing to retain the guilt that has been heaped upon them by their abusers and their churches. They are reclaiming their voices and refusing to be silenced.
They are peacefully protesting and demanding that, for once, their churches listen.
If you want to support the First Baptist of Hammond protest, use the above graphic as your temporary profile picture. When referring to the protest, use the hashtags #LetUsPrey and tag First Baptist Church of Hammond and Pastor John Wilkerson. Let your voice be heard.
