Sexual Abuse of Children in the COG
A statement reportedly made previously at a Church of God summer camp—that ministers have higher authority than campers’ parents—should raise serious concerns for any Christian parent. If the intent was simply to explain that camp staff had temporary authority to enforce rules, supervise activities, and ensure safety that might be understandable. Every school and camp operates that way. However, if the statement was meant to imply that ministers possess greater spiritual or moral authority than parents, it directly conflicts with the biblical pattern. Scripture consistently places the primary responsibility for raising children on parents, not church leaders (Deuteronomy 6:6–7; Proverbs 1:8; Ephesians 6:1–4). Church leaders are called to serve and shepherd, not replace or override parental authority (1 Peter 5:2–3).
This matters because child protection experts have long documented how abuse can develop in environments where authority is misunderstood or overstated. Offenders in trusted positions often use authority, influence, and spiritual language to shift a child’s trust away from parents and toward the adult in control. This process is commonly described as grooming. While a statement about authority alone does not prove wrongdoing or intent to harm, it can still create an unhealthy dynamic if children are taught that a minister’s authority supersedes their parents’. That kind of framing can discourage children from speaking openly with their parents or questioning inappropriate behavior.
The history of abuse in many churches (including the COG) makes clarity on this issue essential. Investigations across multiple denominations have shown that harm is more likely to persist when authority is concentrated, unquestioned, or handled internally rather than transparently. For that reason, churches must be careful never to communicate that spiritual leaders outrank parents in a child’s life. Healthy ministry strengthens family trust rather than weakening it.
Parents in all churches should teach children that they can always speak openly about anything that makes them uncomfortable and that no adult—minister, teacher, or counselor—should ever ask them to keep secrets from their parents. If a child raises concerns that may involve abuse or criminal behavior, parents should listen carefully, take it seriously, and report it directly to law enforcement or child protective services. Criminal allegations require independent investigation. Protecting children is not disloyalty to the church; rather it is a basic responsibility of loving parents and an act of obedience to God’s will.
Please email this blog post to all parents that you know in the COG!
Aristophanes
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Resources:
RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network)
General information on abuse, reporting, and warning signs
https://www.rainn.org/
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC)
Child safety, exploitation prevention, reporting resources
https://www.missingkids.org/
GRACE (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment)
Independent investigations and abuse prevention in churches
https://www.netgrace.org/
23 comments:
I have always made it clear when my children go to summer camp with a COG that no minister or camp counselor is ever allowed to discipline my child.physically. If they did they would never see the light of day again. I remember at SEP in Orr how counselors took great pleasure in publicly spanking kids in front of the others in the dorm. The church has long had too many deviates in power positions at summer camps, Thankfully, most now require background checks for criminal activity, but that never seems to stop some from still committing horrendous acts.
Bit rich coming from blog commentators/runners/ authors who put young children, including a baby in arms, in a cold storage cupboard during church services in winter.
Having your then superdeacon wait at the church door to announce the alleged new rules to arriving parents.
That children couldn't stay in church services.
Turned out to be all lies.
I never forgot.
If your concern is adults abusing children, the official church camps are some of the safest places for your children. The larger ACOGs all have strict policies in place, governed by their insurance policies, which keep children out of the reach of dangerous adults. Your child is in much greater danger visiting the private home of a "nice old man" in the congregation, where that nice old man has been able to hide his deviant urges behind his church face.
The greatest danger of church camps is not the adults, it is the older children abusing younger ones. Especially if the counselors are the children of ministers, there will be a culture of bullying and shamed silence enforced that the adults won't even see. Whether it is drug use or sexual experimentation, your child at church camp is at risk of being intimidated into silence by older ministerially favoured young people.
In my local area, there was a man who traveled overseas and tried to pay to have sex with the children of church members. The area was very poor, but the character of the locals was not. My understanding is that this predator was kicked out of the church, but then he went back and sucked up to the pastor, who happened to be a member of the council of elders. He was promptly let back in.
This same minister, who swept the incident under the rug, would rant from the podium about violations of his policies (feelings). Apparently that was the real immorality in his eyes. No LCG for me after that. I can't trust them.
Some of the stories I've heard from when Gerald Weston ran the youth camps make it no surprise that young adults don't stick with LCG after attending.
I would not hesitate in the slightest in going to the Police if any minister or member laid a finger on my children. The church can no longer coverup the abuse, I will make sure of that. The ministers and leaders here in LCG did just that over the years. I don't care if it is our pastor, elder, deacon or member, you WILL go to jail. I will make sure of that! No HQ administration/employee or group leader/evangelist will ever stop me. Church government will fly out the door at that point. It will be a very. public and messy humiliation of church leadership.
What’s with the interracial marriage? Why do you continue to force your filth on us? The reprobate mind is a thing to behold.
What in the hell are you talking about?
That, 3:35 was one of the Kook-a-boos who believe that we are the UCG ministers!.
You mean the racists who forbid it?
Some of the stories I've heard from when Gerald Weston ran the youth camps make it no surprise that young adults don't stick with LCG after attending.
To his credit, Rod Meredith eventually kicked Weston out as leader of LCG youth camps, putting Sheldon Monson in as the replacement. After that, Weston nurtured a deep root of bitterness against the much more popular and much more successful Monson, eventually getting rid of Monson after becoming LCG's El Supremo. It's such a shame to see that Monson has now self-destructed, as he was doing a much better job leading those camps than Weston ever did.
Grow up asshole!
I grew up in Worldwide in the 70s & 80s. Heard some disturbing things from some girls who went to SEP during that time. My father never made me go thankfully.
They are known to be desperate for a interracial marriage in their neck of the woods.
Go ahead and mock. Christ revealed to Mr Armstrong that the races would be separated once again as they had been dispersed to at the Tower of Babylon. UCG ministers refuse to teach this instead want the races to intermingle just as in the times of Noah. So they come here and reveal themselves mocking Gods word. This blog is run by rebellious ministers.
What is the evidence for this post title? No link no nothing. You wrote a shocking highly emotional post title, yet the first line of the article does not match the shock grabbing title with any evidence.
You have turned against the church camps because they have continued, it is a sign of hope for the future: the entire church will one day continue.
You are filled with hatred and despisement of the COG, all you bring is trouble, favourtisim of your cronies, worship of power and hatred towards others not in your clique. You never stop with your antics, even at Tabernacles.
In the cold light of day what is actually Christian about you ?
God didn't reveal $hit to "Mr." Armstrong. His incest was why all the prophecies failed in 1975! It is no surprise to me that with an example like that there would be so many sex sins in Armstrongism.
Maybe UCG's Aaron Dean can provide us an update on how brother Kevin is fairing in prison.
https://hwarmstrong.com/sex-crimes.htm
Richard
Look, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence to support what has been stated in this blog entry. It is contained in the archives of Ambassador Reports, the abundance of first person testimony from the actual victims of SEP in the letters to the Editor of the Painful Truth, and older articles right here at Banned.
You want to be an ostrich and bury your head in the sand, then do so! I understand. This is stuff that could disillusion well intentioned people and make them want to leave their church. This was not God's holy, white and pure summer camp! There were serious problems, and many current members of the Armstrong nostalgia groups like to treat it like Catholics do the problems with and effects that activities of certain priests have had upon youth in the RCC.
There is such a double standard in play with certain people. They freely acknowledge and trash GTA, but will not acknowledge the fact that there were plenty of other priviledged little demon seeds (ministers' kids) running around throughout the church doing the same things as GTA did to the co-eds at Ambassador College.
You may be one of the people who believes that there actually is a brass ring or crown to steal in play and that you lose yours unless you can maintain your naivete. Eventually you will need to confront a reality. Such a crown, by definition, must be based on truth. Truth is not something that is concocted by people who deal in public relations, apologetics, or damage control. It is based on fact. There is no real crown which could possibly be based on one's ability to deny or ignore the underlying facts.
Armstrongism in so many ways is like an elevator. Two men are riding it to the top floor of a tall building. A fart is blown. It is very offensive. Both men know who did it. When the elevator stops at a floor near the top and a pretty young woman enters, she immediately gasps, and looks inquisitively at both men, they both deny responsibility. She knows one of the men, works with him, likes him and chooses to believe that the other one did it. This is a case in which objective thinking may not even be possible, but she believes she knows a truth which she cannot know for certain.
Remember Exodus 20: 12 “Honor your father and your mother," -- it says nothing about "Honour your minister". God puts the parents in full authority over their own children. Children do not have to honour anyone who tries to take their place.
Lazy journalisim then. This article does not imply it's about the past but repeatedly writes about the present and throws much shade on how camps are being run now, not the past. It ends with a high emotions of telling readers to email the article to parents in COG now.
COGlodytes never repent of the old man's sins! (HWA) I don't think they ever cleaned it up. Historically, child abuse in Armstrongism was always extreme corporal punishment. Spankings that turned into beatings, forced fasting, head shaving, exorcisms. It is no great mystery that there could be a sexual aspect. A mother giving 40 lashes to her teenage son, pants and underpants down? I wonder how many kids segued into masochism in their adult lives. Child rearing in Armstrongism was always a perversion of the normal parental love we're all born with.
3:56, how did Gerald Weston burn Sheldon Monson? Monson was successfuly bribed back into LCG along with Elertson both with fat paychecks, and he was a part of the elders council and so on and so forth. It seems that Sheldon Monson did quite well overall, and it was he who butted heads with Mr. Weston for years.
LCG'r
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