Jeri Massi

Jeri M. Massi (born 1960 in Levittown, Pennsylvania[1]) is a contract technical writer and an Evangelical Christian author whose novel Valkyries: Some Through the Fire (2003) was nominated for a Christy Award.

Since 2001, Massi has attacked the response of Fundamentalist churches in cases of child molestation committed by members of the clergy in which the leadership (and sometimes the entire congregation) enforced silence on the victims.[2] Massi argues that rigid adherence to the teachings of Jack Hyles and the King-James-Only Movement are typical characteristics of such churches.

After compiling a list of abusive clergy who have never been subject to church censure or discipline, Massi alleged that the church government system of Baptist Fundamentalism permits its clergy to abuse children by granting them positional immunity. She has asserted that fundamentalists have refused to expel abusive pastors, including those convicted of sex offenses. In 2005, Massi produced a five-part audio documentary, The Lambs of Culpeper,[3] and released it onto the Internet for free download. The documentary addresses alleged abuses against children at Calvary Baptist Church of Culpeper, Virginia, a church then pastored by Charles Shifflett. In 2007, Massi founded the Conference of the Lambs, a two-day conference designed to assist adults who had been molested as children in Fundamentalist churches.[4] In 2008 Massi self-published Schizophrenic Christianity, which denounced corruption within Christian Fundamentalism that had resulted in harm, especially to children.[5] In 2009, Massi conducted interviews of former residents of Hephzibah House in Warsaw, Indiana, a Christian Fundamentalist Children's home for girls. She then produced The Lambs of Hephzibah House,[6] an audio documentary that alleges severe abuse of residents at Hephzibah House. In 2011, Gary Tuchman, a CNN journalist reporting for Anderson Cooper 360, interviewed many of the same former residents and produced an episode about Hephzibah House on CNN's Ungodly Discipline series.[7]

Works

Notes

  1. ↑ "Nuttin' But the FAQ". Retrieved 27 December 2011.
  2. ↑ Opposition to abusive fundamentalist churches took form with the publication of Vic Nischik, Wizard of God: My Life with Jack Hyles (Buchanan, Mi.: Sychar Publishing, 1990) and gained impetus with the publication of Voyle Glover, Fundamental Seduction: The Jack Hyles case (Schrerville, Indiana: Brevia Publishing, 1990) who marshaled evidence against Jack Hyles and First Baptist Church of Hammond regarding abuses of church office and church doctrine. Massi was further influenced by a 1993 news documentary Preying from the Pulpit, produced by WJBK of Detroit. Audio of this documentary is available at Massi's website.
  3. ↑ http://www.jeriwho.net/tloc.html
  4. ↑ The first conference was held in Charlotte, North Carolina, the second in Jacksonville, Florida.
  5. ↑ Jeri Massi, Schizophrenic Christianity: How Christian Fundamentalism Attracts and Protects Sociopaths, Abusive Pastors, and Child Molesters (Raleigh, NC.: Jupiter Rising Books, 2008). Massi has also critiqued fundamentalism through the serialised stories Secret Radio and A Standard Christian, which chronicle the life of a student at fictional Greater Independent Baptist College.
  6. ↑ http://www.jeriwho.net/tlohh.html
  7. ↑ "Video: UnGodly discipline investigation". CNN. 1 September 2011.

Official website

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