The AP has found that authorities repeatedly tried to derail a proper investigation of anti-gay abuse in a North Carolina church where members were repeatedly assaulted by congregants in a horrific effort to expel “homosexual demons.” Former congregant Matthew Fenner “not only told law enforcement agencies about what happened to him,” noted the AP investigation, “but also warned of ongoing abuse in the church.” Inside the church, leaders pressured congregants to lie to authorities about the beatings in order to protect the influential church. It would be years before charges were finally filed against the abusive congregants:
In February, the AP detailed how many Word of Faith Fellowship congregants were regularly attacked both physically and verbally in an attempt to “purify” sinners by beating out devils.
The church has come under scrutiny by law enforcement and social services authorities on numerous occasions with little effect, mostly because followers refused to cooperate. But Fenner’s relentless pursuit eventually led to the indictment of five congregants, who were charged with kidnapping and assault.
“The whole investigation should have taken a month,” said Michael Davis, who spent 15 years as a Rutherford County sheriff’s investigator before retiring last year, and was not involved in Fenner’s case. “They should have interviewed witnesses. They should have gone to the church. They should have written up a report and sent it over to the sheriff, then to the DA. But that didn’t happen. None of that happened.”
According to testimony from the trial of the church’s minister, “church leaders including two state prosecutors at the time met with the roughly 30 people present when Matthew Fenner was beaten in January 2013. She says then-assistant district attorneys Frank Webster and Chris Back told them to tell authorities that nothing happened.” But it was Fenner’s “relentless pursuit” for justice that “eventually led to the indictment of five congregants, who were charged with kidnapping and assault,” notes the AP.
Fenner was a teenager when he joined the church with his mother and brothers in 2010. During his years at Word of Faith, he testified that he saw congregants, including children, subjected to violent deliverance and a practice called blasting — an ear-piercing verbal onslaught often conducted in hours-long sessions meant to cast out devils.
He said he experienced both himself, but nothing like what happened in January 2013, when he was surrounded by nearly two dozen people while leaving a service.
Danielle Cordes, one of four former church members who told AP they witnessed the attack, said, “They just kept hitting him over and over. It was horrible. ... I thought that he was going to be the first person they killed.”
NY Daily News detailed some of the other horrific abuse:
Congregants of the Word of Faith Fellowship were regularly punched, smacked, choked, slammed to the floor or thrown through walls in a violent form of deliverance meant to "purify" sinners by beating out devils, 43 former members told The Associated Press in separate, exclusive interviews.
Victims of the violence included pre-teens and toddlers — even crying babies, who were vigorously shaken, screamed at and sometimes smacked to banish demons.
"I saw so many people beaten over the years. Little kids punched in the face, called Satanists," said Katherine Fetachu, 27, who spent nearly 17 years in the church.
But when Fenner attempted to report the abuse, he was shifted from FBI agent to FBI agent, finally being told months later they would not investigate “because the other church member who reported being attacked had recanted.” In a yet another insult, Fenner was told he could file misdemeanor charges, despite the fact he was nearly strangled to death and verbally abused by congregants. Fenner persisted, going to child welfare agencies to report that kids were being abused in the church’s school.
After years of efforts, District Attorney Brad Greenway lost his re-election and a grand jury indicted five church members on charges of second-degree kidnapping and simple assault. The trial of the church’s minister is the first of the five to begin, and she faces up to two years in prison.
“If it wasn’t for our pressure,” [Fenner’s aunt Lynn] Rape said, “nothing would have happened.”
Added Davis, the former sheriff’s investigator: “They just wanted the case to go away. They never expected Fenner to push so hard.”
“Over the last two decades, it appears that different politicians or leaders in the community have had a certain fear of the Word of Faith and for whatever reason that sort of encapsulated them and made them untouchable,” said Jerry Wease, chair of the Rutherford County Democratic Party.
“If no one is going to stand up and say choking, beating, violence and abuse is illegal and morally wrong, I have one question: Why? Why is every elected official not standing up and saying this?”