More clergy abuse: Luz del Mundo

To all the young survivors of Garcia's abuse

Sexual abuse turns out to be the Achilles heel of male control of Christianity. 

Patriarchy's grip on religion continues to loosen--thanks to a tip to California's Department of Justice made in an online clergy abuse complaint form.

Today's LA Times reports that prosecutors have asked that the bail for Naason Joaquin Garcia--accused of rape, trafficking, and child pornography--be raised to $50 million.  He is international president of La Luz del Mundo, the largest evangelical church in Mexico.

The reporting of abuse began with the Roman Catholic Church, moved to Protestant churches--most recently the Southern Baptist Convention--and now accuses the leader of Luz del Mundo, which has 40 congregations in southern California and others in more than 50 countries around the world.  He was arrested at LA International Airport on Tuesday.

What do the Catholics, the Southern Baptists, and Luz del Mundo have in common?  A religious studies professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, Andrew Chestnut,  comments:

"These kinds of churches that are extremely authoritarian, hierarchical and based on cults of personality around strong pastors lend themselves to these kinds of abuses."

Of course, the faithful are being told to pray for their poor, persecuted leader.  

Of course, women in this group "must dress modestly and cannot rise to leadership positions," according to reporters Leila Miller, Cindy Carcamo, Ruben Vives, and Maria L. La Ganga of the LA Times.

Three women were arrested with Garcia for procuring young girls and delivering them to him for his use sexually. 

"It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea," says Jesus, "than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble" (Luke 17:2).  

I wonder if these men--and these three women--actually read the Bible and what their mind does when they come to verses like this one. 

Thank you to my friend Barbra Graber and others in the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, (SNAP), who provide online resources to report cases, make public the names of abusers, and support survivors.

Barbra keeps a blog for sexual abuse survivors and maintains the Mennonite Abuse Prevention List (the MAP list), which tracks the whereabouts and current employment of credibly accused church workers.