Abuse In Methodism...Long and sensitive material

[yeshua'smags]

I hate to do this to everyone, but I'm feeling led to tell our story. I'm going to try and keep it as short as possible, I promise...and I'll try not to curse!
My sister was the Youth and Children's minister, my husband and I were involved with the youth, he was their sunday school teacher, I was their bible study leader. If I'm repeating my self, I'm sorry.
6 years ago the methodist church decided that we needed to have a "multicultural outreach" initiative. So we were very excited when the property manager of one of the "projects" (forgive the term) here came to us and said that the children that lived there could really use free lunches in the summertime because they'd be out of school. She also said she had seen 4 children eating out of the dumpsters on the property. So we organized the lunch program.
The powers that be @ St. Looney's were thrilled that we had filled our initiative duties. But the more we went over to that neighborhood, and got to see the conditions they were living in, and the environments they were subjected to (let's just say us WASPS were a little out of our league!) the more we fell in love with these kids! So lunches snowballed into bringing them to Vacation Bible School...which got some panties in a twist until the bishop gave her stamp of approval, and the preacher got quite the at-a-boy, suddenly that was a wonderful thing! Excuse me, I'm gagging.........
Ok so we got into a deep relationship with these kids, they were coming to our wednesday night program, some were coming to church on sundays, we thought things were ok. We got to know these kids pretty well. One day we were told one of them was in juvenile detention for rape. The kids told us that there was a shed that the boys took little girls to on their 9th birthday to "loose their virginity." Do you think anyone would help us shut it down? Nope! Our church turned it's back, the police had no proof, the city wouldn't tear down the shed. That Christmas, we got to play Santa Claus to 50 children. Families picked a child or two off a tree and bought for them. We invited their parents to come for Christmas dinner and we gave them their presents. Those kids got everything they wanted on their lists for the first time in their lives!
the night before the dinner, one of the guys that worked in this program with us happened to be head of security at the mall. The man who was playing Santa handed him a list he'd gotten from a little boy named "Scooby". turns out he had been coming to wednesday nights but his mom had been sick and couldn't bring him lately. We delivered Scooby's presents to him when we took the kids home that night. It was one of the most precious things I've ever been a part of! Don't tell me there is no Santa!
Soon after Christmas, the uglies started. The Sorority (you know, all of the mothers that think church is only for their children) started to be "concerned", there was a ladder missing and someone made the remark that "that's what happens when you bring niggers into the church!" But was that person told to shut up? No, they were playcated. It was "suggested" that we not bring so many kids on wednesdays anymore. Uhh...yeah, how do you look at those little faces and say, "no no, you can't come the bus is full." Not long after that one lady grabbed one of the kids by the back of the shirt and told him "niggers shouldn't run in church." Did anyone say anything to her? Nope, we got into trouble for not having control over them!
Finally it got to the point where we had to stop the program for the children's sake. At a church. A church couldn't handle being multicultural? It was then we first thought about leaving. But this wqs the church my husband had gone to his whole life, my family went there, his family was there...youknow the drill.
We were labeled troublemakers of course. The Sorority was growin in size, jealousy and hatred for my sister and me. I don't know what they were jealous of me for but my sister is beautiful. Blonde, thin, is 50 but looks 35, dresses in nice clothes, and not the moomoos and extra 100lbs that those women resigned themselves to after either having children or working with them. I have a big mouth; I'm brutally honest, and when something pisses me off I have no problem confronting it. That tends to be not very popular evidently.
Ok, so we have this reputation. A year and a half ago we got a new preacher. He was a former pharmacist that felt he had been called into ministry, his wife was a nurse and she made it clear that she had not been called into ministry. Nice huh? something wasn't right about those two from the beginning. He wasn't very nice, she was overly nice. She was really huggy, personal space invader ya know the type? Not that huggy is bad but you got the feeling she was after something when she did it.
I had some troubled youth, one was struggling with homosexuality, one had a father that was homosexual, one thought he had screwed up so badly sexually he wasn't good enough to come to church any more, a brother and sister had a mother that had tried to commit suicide...lots of stuff teens don't know how to deal with, especially when they're christians too. So I got the Word one day that I needed to show parts of The Passion. The part when Jesus is praying in the garden and Satan is taunting him because they hear that taunting voice all the time. And the Beating, to when He falls. and then He stand back up again. I paused it when He stood back up and I told them that it was then that our faces flashed in front of His eyes and He remembered how much He loved us and that we were worth saving, and He could go on with the punishment. I wanted them to get that there was nothing they could do that His Blood couldn't wipe clean.
The youth band played one sunday and there was this grumpy old man that got up, in the middle of their song, so everyone could see, and stormed out. It made me mad, but when the kids were talking about it after the service, and they said how much it hurt their feelings and made them not want to play anymore, I bacame incensed! Who was he to knock the wind out of their sails? So I wrote him a letter and told him he was ugly and rude, that he had hurt their feelings, and I added some bible verses to back myself up.
We'd heard that the preacher's wife was saying some pretty slanderous things about me behind my back, so my husband set up a meeting with the pastor and his wife.
We told them about everything. The black kids being called names and accused of stealing a 24 foot ladder, the wife told me that this was the south, what did I expect? The preacher was mad because he had gotten a complaint from a parent about my showing The Passion. I had told the kids I didn't think they should look away during the beating because this was the closest thing to the real thing we were ever gonna see, i didn't think we had the right to look away from what He did for us. Well he told me that I was mean and like to hurt people. He said he thought I was wrong to write the man that letter. And then his wife told me I shouldn't quote bible verses to people, it's condescending and makes people mad! WHAT?
I'm tired and very upset, I'm going to finish this tomorrow...