It should be obvious from previous posts the disregard of authority that the leadership had. Technically the leaders didn't tell us not to call the police, but they sure didn't suggest we should report that a crime had been committed. By looking at the non-action of the elders and Eddie, I believe they communicated quite well that they didn't believe the police had any right being involved in this matter. Eddie never reported Patrick's previous crimes. Jim and Dave never told the detective the detailed information that they knew and that was crucial to our case. It was stated more than once that biblically Patrick just needed to confess his crimes to them and repent.
According to the elders, women are easily fooled. Women are weak. Women are to obey their husband. The man is the head of the house. The man is the authority. If the man is the head of the household and the woman is in her place then all will fall in line. Truthfully, I struggled with this! Somehow I thought that my struggling with this was sin. In a meeting that I did not attend, the leader of Household of Faith Church, Gregg Harris, actually told one of the men in attendance that he was not to believe his wife. I have verified this statement with multiple eyewitnesses. There was actually a young man in the meeting that had the guts to stand up and defend this man's wife. This man's wife had seen first hand the sexual psycho evaluation report that Patrick had taken and this man was stating that he knew from his wife that certain information was not gossip, but was fact. The information was dismissed, because none of the men in the room had seen the information with their own two eyes.
One way the leadership tried to control was by what information was shared. Most of the information that was divulged was in the way of "Heads of Households" meetings. Only the men were to attend. The elders would share information and it was up to that man to relay to his wife what information he saw fit. I know for a fact that many men didn't share much of the information with their wives. A woman could have attended the meeting, but it would have been frowned upon. Women are considered too "emotional."
Also, the leaders directed the women and children not to discuss in any way what was happening, not even in their own family. If the child or wife had questions they were to go to the husband and if he couldn't answer the question he was to talk with the elders. Any discussion outside of this model was considered gossip and a sin. It was also stated that this matter was between the Rojas family and the Schneider family and it would be wrong to take up your "brother's" offense.
According to the elders, women are easily fooled. Women are weak. Women are to obey their husband. The man is the head of the house. The man is the authority. If the man is the head of the household and the woman is in her place then all will fall in line. Truthfully, I struggled with this! Somehow I thought that my struggling with this was sin. In a meeting that I did not attend, the leader of Household of Faith Church, Gregg Harris, actually told one of the men in attendance that he was not to believe his wife. I have verified this statement with multiple eyewitnesses. There was actually a young man in the meeting that had the guts to stand up and defend this man's wife. This man's wife had seen first hand the sexual psycho evaluation report that Patrick had taken and this man was stating that he knew from his wife that certain information was not gossip, but was fact. The information was dismissed, because none of the men in the room had seen the information with their own two eyes.
One way the leadership tried to control was by what information was shared. Most of the information that was divulged was in the way of "Heads of Households" meetings. Only the men were to attend. The elders would share information and it was up to that man to relay to his wife what information he saw fit. I know for a fact that many men didn't share much of the information with their wives. A woman could have attended the meeting, but it would have been frowned upon. Women are considered too "emotional."
Also, the leaders directed the women and children not to discuss in any way what was happening, not even in their own family. If the child or wife had questions they were to go to the husband and if he couldn't answer the question he was to talk with the elders. Any discussion outside of this model was considered gossip and a sin. It was also stated that this matter was between the Rojas family and the Schneider family and it would be wrong to take up your "brother's" offense.
No comments:
Post a Comment