Women sue Christian Organization for Alleged Abuse and Coverup
Five California women have filed a lawsuit against an interdenominational Christian organization, claiming that they encouraged members to commit suicide due to financial stress and covered up cases of child sexual abuse.
Darleen Diaz, 33, and Bernice Perez, 31, are two of the five plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed at the end of last month. They also include Ashley Ruiz (age 31), Salud Gonzelez (age 30), and Elena Peltola (age 23).
According to Rolling Stone, the women claim that the International Churches of Christ (ICOC) and its affiliated organizations, such as Hope Worldwide, Mercy Worldwide, the International Christian Church, and the City of Angels International Christian Church, "indoctrinated" them, isolated them, exploited them sexually, and manipulated them through a strict belief system.
Church founder Kip McKean and former leader Charles "Chuck" Lucas's estate are also named in the lawsuit. As far as the women are concerned, the church leaders have set up an exploitative system that takes as much money as possible from the congregation's female members.
The lawsuit also claims that churchgoers were pushed to the breaking point by pressure to tithe 10 per cent of their income and pay for twice-yearly special mission trips organized by the church.
The lawsuit states that if the tithing budget wasn't met, "leaders or 'disciples' were forced to contribute the financial shortfall themselves, or members were required to locate the offending member who failed to tithe and sit on their porch until they arrived home in an attempt to obtain their tithe funds before Sunday evening was over."
"The pressure to comply with the church's rigid demands was a source of anxiety and depression for many members," the lawsuit states, "so much so that several ex-members committed suicide."
A quota for recruiting new members into the church was reportedly imposed so that the congregation could collect more tithes.
According to the sisters, convicted pedophile David Saracino was their abuser, and the church failed to protect them from him. In one instance, he is accused of telling the girls "that they needed a bath," which he then allegedly exploited by "heavily fondling their naked bodies while they were bathing." According to Ruiz, Saracino had sexual relations with her.
When their mother reported Saracino's abuse to church leaders, the sisters claim church leaders informed him of the complaint so he could bypass authorities.
After a lengthy legal process, Saracino was given forty years sentence for the rape of a 4-year-old girl. A judge told him that he fits the profile of the type of offender for whom the worst of penalties are intended.
Gonzelez stated that a Sunday School teacher sexually abused her for a total of five years, beginning when she was four years old. She claimed further abuse occurred in a church-affiliated rehabilitation programme when she was 15 and again when she was 17.
Gonzelez claims that the lack of spiritual comfort from the church during her ordeal of abuse led her to attempt suicide.
Peltola also claimed that an ICOC member had sexually assaulted her in Honduras in 2012, when she was only 13 years old, during a mission trip. After reporting the rape, she claimed that leaders at ICOC and Hope Worldwide "victim-blamed" her, called her a "slut," and eventually expelled her because she was a "liability."
"Even though the sexual abuse happened to me in the ICOC at around age five and robbed me of my childhood, the trauma also followed me into my adulthood," Ruiz told Rolling Stone. "It will be incredibly helpful to finally have some legal closure and acknowledgement of what happened to me as a child."
According to Bobby Samini, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, "members of the ICOC/ICC and its affiliates groomed and sexually abused children as young as three years old" for decades
As Samini put it, "church" leaders "blatantly singled out and blamed the survivors, admonishing them that they 'risked losing their salvation' unless they forgave their abusers." She added that "The lawsuit will expose the perpetrators at the ICOC/ICC and its affiliates who claim piety while enabling the sexual abuse of children."