Christy connects some dots between the teachings of Bill Gothard, founder of IBLP--the Christian cult exposed on Amazon's new documentary Shiny Happy People and Evangelical Christianity. Gothard's teachings on authority (power), obedience (oppression and suppression) and gossip (truth telling) were pretty extreme. But have those teachings trickled into mainstream evangelical Christianity? Or are these things that we broken people naturally struggle with anyway?
Christy tackles the concept of gossip. Often abusive leaders will use the threat of being called a gossip, or of people gossiping, to stop truth from being told and exposed. There is an unfortunate number of stories coming out about power-hungry, narcissistic church leaders who are able to stay in power because people are too afraid to tell the truth. Christy would like to change that dynamic. She would like to see the church become a place where Jesus reigns not a person, where people humbly use their gifts (like truth telling) instead of bossing others around, and where people find healing rather than abuse.
Books referenced:
When Narcissism Comes to Church by Chuck DeGroat
The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse by David Johnson and Jeff Van Vonderen
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