The Protest

"A group of 10 adults (and 4 children) stood along the road leading to “Liberty” CC from 9:45-1pm. We had a peaceful protest, handing out pamphlets that explained why we were there, and included the link to this blog. These few hours were hard. They were difficult for all the people who have been hurt by the church to be back there, with memories flooding back. It was difficult to watch our friends pass by, either with looks of disappointment, disapproval, or those who pretended they didn’t see us. But it was harder still to watch the responses of those we loved.

Laughter. They laughed at us. They smiled and waved as they drove by. They chuckled. They mocked.

Those who we were there to support, who are in the church currently being abused, looked scared.

The leadership avoided us completely. David Vaughan smiled and laughed as he drove by. Andrea Bond yelled, “God loves you guys!” Dan Benson refused to look at us. Jeff Kotyk drove around the block at least 4 times, taking pictures of our signs. When we thanked him for helping us get our message out he scoffed and said “oh you have no idea.” Steve Gruender drove around us 3 times, laughing and waving. Loren Maloney and his wife laughed.  Heather Kesselring laughed and waved with both hands before driving back to play ignorant about why we were there, even though we had met with her and her husband to tell them all of our issues before. And they said that they knew bad things were happening, but that they would do nothing unless it happened to them. Steve Sanders laughed. We could go on, but you get the picture.

We were immediately unfriended by most of our “Liberty” facebook friends. We heard from someone who goes there that our protest was off-handedly mentioned with “if you want to know why they are here, please come talk to us after the service.” Laura Witty and Hannah Vaughan brought us pizza, but did not look any adult in the eyes. When Hannah Vaughan drove by later, she scowled. Anyone can buy pizza, but why did they not talk to us? Why did the leaders who have ignored us not come out to talk? Why do they think that the christ-like response is to mock?

  

The leaders won’t even come to talk to us. They think they don’t have to deal with their sins because they either don’t exist or “Jesus changed their hearts now.” They sent an elder’s wife, the daughter of the pastor, and the wife of the youth pastor, not to discuss the issues of why we were actually there, but to convey that they are better, that our message doesn’t touch them. They say women should not lead and yet David lets his daughter Hannah lead worship. Why does his daughter not have to live by the same rules? Why are certain people given different standards? 

Members of Liberty Christian Church, what kind of a Christ-like response is this? We hold signs calling out your pastors by name saying that they abuse people and power and those leaders you follow so dearly don’t come out to talk to us.

We aren’t here because we don’t believe god loves us, Andrea Bond, we are here because your church abuses people and your husband is among those who needs to be called to give an account. 

It is so sad how they responded. They mock, tell their congregation to talk to them in private about our concerns, and ignore us. This is not a church."