This blog is for the silenced, the marginalized, and the victims of the many types of abuse that the leadership and members of Liberty Church in O'Fallon Missouri have inflicted on their members and any who opposed their love for control. These are the stories of the witnesses:
Mona's Story Part 1
"So, my story will be in pieces. It's long because I've known DJV since 1978 when I was 19 and he was in his mid 20s. We met at a staff Christmas party. I worked for Zondervan Family Bookstore in Chesterfield Mall and he worked for the same bookstore in Jamestown Mall. David was clean shaven at the time and sort of looked like Charles Nelson Rielly. I was put off a bit because David seemed really nosey - asking me a lot of questions about what I believed. But we eventually became friends and even dated in a casual platonic way. I actually developed a huge crush on him but that never worked out. David was leading a bible study group called Moriah which I started attending. I loved the close-knit group. I loved David's teaching. I loved playing violin in the group. I loved the fellowship after the study at Panterra's Pizza. So it was a natural move to begin attending North County Community Church where David led worship and where many Moriah members attended.
There seemed to be an underlying legalism (Florida Bible College influence in the leadership) at North County that made me uncomfortable, but I was young and loved the people and didn’t think it was a big deal. Because there also seemed to be an openness to differing views. For some of that time David and I were occasionally casually dating. (To give you a better idea – we went to dinner and sometimes movies together. We never so much as kissed or held hands.) David suggested that we have dinner with his brother and sister-in-law to which I agreed. A few weeks went by and we talked about it a few times. So, at church, I brought it up with Paula (DJV’s sister in law), asking what she would like me to bring to the dinner. She was polite, but sort of taken aback as she had not heard about this plan. I had actually thought it was their idea rather than David’s. Awkward. And similar kinds of things happened again at Liberty. David also rarely sat through an entire sermon. He’d lead the music, sit down in congregation and then usually disappear until the end. David was fairly flirty with the girls. Always with waitresses (even later in his Liberty days). Not sexually suggestive. Just acting like there was a special connection going on. He had a way of making a person feel special. Men and women. And I think they even felt like they had a special, exclusive sort of relationship with him. Like most pastors I know, David has charm and charisma. These are gifts to be used carefully. I met the man who was to become my first husband and North County – John Maynard. John had recently left a very legalistic bible church and I was working my way through the influences of some cultish charismatic churches. John was handsome, an awesome bassist and looked a bit like DJV. I took note! We started dating and soon became engaged. We found people split on the idea of our engagement. Some of our friends felt we were jumping into things too soon and urged us to be cautious and patient. My boss at Zondervan was one who was concerned. Others were simply very happy for us and that included my parents and John’s parents and David Vaughan. (I suspect David was a bit relieved that I was no longer mooning after him.) However, when we asked the pastor at North County to officiate our wedding, he wouldn’t agree with the date we set, because he also thought it was too soon and that we needed a series of counseling appointments. We found another pastor who wasn’t quite as rigid and were married after a three month engagement. Two things I remember during this engagement time. One was at a worship team rehearsal when a church member stopped by and was talking to me during a break. He was telling me that marriage is hard and not something to jump into. Before I could even respond, David came from behind me, grabbed my arm and pulled me (gently but firmly) away from this church member, whispering in my ear: “Leave the presence of a fool.” The second was a Moriah camping trip over the July 4 weekend in 1985. I gave a ride to Jim Farmer who asked me to talk to the sisters about their swimwear – stating that when girls get cold sometimes their nipples show though their suit and that causes the brothers to stumble. I was pretty embarrassed by the conversation, but pointed out that it was a little late for this lecture when everyone was already on their way or already there with their swim attire. This was just an inkling of a glimpse into the hyper-modesty and body shaming that was a part of Liberty and the associated youth group and camps at El-Shadai Ranch. It was also the first time that the concept of my clothing being responsible for a man’s actions was introduced to me. At this same camp David Vaughan and his girlfriend Diane Eckart (now Diane Vaughan) slept together in the bed of a pickup truck. I’m not suggesting they had sex – I’m sure they did not. It wasn’t an enclosed bed and they both had high moral standards. But, wow, what an example to set for a youth group. And as far as I know, no one said a word about it. These are actually little things I think. And at the time they didn’t change my opinion of David Vaughan. I thought he was an extraordinarily gifted teacher, a kind person, a fantastic and insightful listener and someone who really wanted to glorify God. I STILL think those things about him. I don’t ever for a second think he intended to be a spiritually abusive leader. But I do think he got lost somewhere."
Mona's Story Part 1
"So, my story will be in pieces. It's long because I've known DJV since 1978 when I was 19 and he was in his mid 20s. We met at a staff Christmas party. I worked for Zondervan Family Bookstore in Chesterfield Mall and he worked for the same bookstore in Jamestown Mall. David was clean shaven at the time and sort of looked like Charles Nelson Rielly. I was put off a bit because David seemed really nosey - asking me a lot of questions about what I believed. But we eventually became friends and even dated in a casual platonic way. I actually developed a huge crush on him but that never worked out. David was leading a bible study group called Moriah which I started attending. I loved the close-knit group. I loved David's teaching. I loved playing violin in the group. I loved the fellowship after the study at Panterra's Pizza. So it was a natural move to begin attending North County Community Church where David led worship and where many Moriah members attended.
There seemed to be an underlying legalism (Florida Bible College influence in the leadership) at North County that made me uncomfortable, but I was young and loved the people and didn’t think it was a big deal. Because there also seemed to be an openness to differing views. For some of that time David and I were occasionally casually dating. (To give you a better idea – we went to dinner and sometimes movies together. We never so much as kissed or held hands.) David suggested that we have dinner with his brother and sister-in-law to which I agreed. A few weeks went by and we talked about it a few times. So, at church, I brought it up with Paula (DJV’s sister in law), asking what she would like me to bring to the dinner. She was polite, but sort of taken aback as she had not heard about this plan. I had actually thought it was their idea rather than David’s. Awkward. And similar kinds of things happened again at Liberty. David also rarely sat through an entire sermon. He’d lead the music, sit down in congregation and then usually disappear until the end. David was fairly flirty with the girls. Always with waitresses (even later in his Liberty days). Not sexually suggestive. Just acting like there was a special connection going on. He had a way of making a person feel special. Men and women. And I think they even felt like they had a special, exclusive sort of relationship with him. Like most pastors I know, David has charm and charisma. These are gifts to be used carefully. I met the man who was to become my first husband and North County – John Maynard. John had recently left a very legalistic bible church and I was working my way through the influences of some cultish charismatic churches. John was handsome, an awesome bassist and looked a bit like DJV. I took note! We started dating and soon became engaged. We found people split on the idea of our engagement. Some of our friends felt we were jumping into things too soon and urged us to be cautious and patient. My boss at Zondervan was one who was concerned. Others were simply very happy for us and that included my parents and John’s parents and David Vaughan. (I suspect David was a bit relieved that I was no longer mooning after him.) However, when we asked the pastor at North County to officiate our wedding, he wouldn’t agree with the date we set, because he also thought it was too soon and that we needed a series of counseling appointments. We found another pastor who wasn’t quite as rigid and were married after a three month engagement. Two things I remember during this engagement time. One was at a worship team rehearsal when a church member stopped by and was talking to me during a break. He was telling me that marriage is hard and not something to jump into. Before I could even respond, David came from behind me, grabbed my arm and pulled me (gently but firmly) away from this church member, whispering in my ear: “Leave the presence of a fool.” The second was a Moriah camping trip over the July 4 weekend in 1985. I gave a ride to Jim Farmer who asked me to talk to the sisters about their swimwear – stating that when girls get cold sometimes their nipples show though their suit and that causes the brothers to stumble. I was pretty embarrassed by the conversation, but pointed out that it was a little late for this lecture when everyone was already on their way or already there with their swim attire. This was just an inkling of a glimpse into the hyper-modesty and body shaming that was a part of Liberty and the associated youth group and camps at El-Shadai Ranch. It was also the first time that the concept of my clothing being responsible for a man’s actions was introduced to me. At this same camp David Vaughan and his girlfriend Diane Eckart (now Diane Vaughan) slept together in the bed of a pickup truck. I’m not suggesting they had sex – I’m sure they did not. It wasn’t an enclosed bed and they both had high moral standards. But, wow, what an example to set for a youth group. And as far as I know, no one said a word about it. These are actually little things I think. And at the time they didn’t change my opinion of David Vaughan. I thought he was an extraordinarily gifted teacher, a kind person, a fantastic and insightful listener and someone who really wanted to glorify God. I STILL think those things about him. I don’t ever for a second think he intended to be a spiritually abusive leader. But I do think he got lost somewhere."
Do you have a story to tell? Has Liberty Church hurt you? Email your story to petertkintz@gmail.com and I will have it posted!
I would like to clarify something here. These accounts were written hastily and not edited before being posted. I was under a time constraint and would like to further edit them in the future so that things are not taken in a way that I did not intend. I mention someone - Jim Farmer - in this post. He had nothing to do with Liberty and although he briefly attended Christ Community Church, had nothing to do with its breakup. Jim is a fascinating and nice person. I've always liked and respected him - and still do. The only reason I mentioned his name is that I like to give specific details for the veracity of the account and I feel that the germ of his reasoning "blossomed" into a major tenet at Liberty. (Again, NOT his doing - it was an idea that was in its infancy in this post - and held by others.) And that is the hyper modesty and body shaming of girls and women at Liberty. This ties into something that I saw growing throughout the years: men's sins were the woman's fault. If he lusts, it's because the woman is immodest, if he is unfaithful it is because the woman did not give him sex enough and unsubmissive. If he beat the woman it was because she provoked him and was unsubmissive. I saw this so. many. times. And experienced it myself. And my daughters experienced it. My oldest daughter was rebuked for hugging her brother because maybe everyone didn't know they were siblings. I don't believe my son was rebuked as well. And of course there was absolutely nothing wrong with a brother and sister embracing for goodness sake. My youngest daughter and her friends were not to go off alone or even link arms because that led to lesbianism. The girls had to wear ridiculous long dark t-shirts over their swimwear and the straps of their tops had to be 3 inches and their shorts had to come down so far. Always the responsibility is on the girl/woman. What an extra-biblical load of crap. It was even put forth that David's sinful relationship with Bathsheba was HER fault for bathing in a public place. Does the bible condemn HER? Did Nathan confront HER? NO!
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