Takeaways from the GRACE report on GGWO
For context, read this and this. Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment (GRACE) report on Greater Grace World Outreach (GGWO) can be found here.
The report was released one week before Christmas. I started reading it on Friday and finally finished the last four pages this morning. It has been sitting heavily on my soul this past week. I have been angry, deeply sad, furious, curious, dumbstruck, and angry over and over again. The 172-page document is a lot to process. Now that I have consumed the entire thing, I need a minute to digest, gather my thoughts, and fully consider my conclusions before sharing. But I did make a list of the main takeaways.
Here are the top five.
The current leadership has repeatedly displayed their ineptitude for leadership/pastoring in the way that they have responded to allegations of sexual assault, misconduct, and grooming.
There are way more deeply held, harmful doctrines in that organization than I realized.
These doctrines are ingrained in the students at Bible college and in seminary so deeply, even if, in my experience, they don’t speak about them.
The hero-worship of certain leaders, especially Carl Stevens, is not a bug or an odd quirk of those folks who actually knew the man; it is a feature of the Greater Grace culture reinforced through the Bible college.
The ignorance/lack of curiosity and critical thinking skills I’ve observed in some is not unique to individuals, but something they’ve learned from the pulpit.
The loose nature of the affiliation agreement is by design.
The Patriarchy/Misogyny of the organization runs deep and is potentially more insidious than I realized.
In addition to these five realizations, the report also provided validation. Seeing the very same things I, and others, have been ranting and shouting about, written down in white and black, tells me that I wasn’t crazy, or being too judgmental, or wrong about my observations. I’m not the only one who noticed these areas that are potentially problematic, frustrating, or damaging. Much of it was merely an accepted part of the culture. Which makes me wish I’d pushed back harder and been more vocal when I was a part of an affiliated church. I get to do that now, I guess. Never too late to do the right thing.