51 thoughts on “CNN Investigates Abuse at Fairhaven”

  3. Dare I gloat? Is this true? I mean, it’s not like a “real” first- but still I’m a fundy and this may be the first time a fundy got a first. Can I get a HAYMAN?

  4. It is true!!! Glory. Well, first I’d like to thank my brother, who pointed me to this site. Next, I need to thank the one who screens the comments from the new guys. Apparently now I can post in an instant and not have to be filtered out. Thirdly I’d like to thank all of my supporters in Fundyland and beyond. Oh yeah- HI MOM AND DAD.

    Ok- I’m done now.

  5. This is abhorring! I pray the abused will find peace and help for what they are saying has happened to them. I realize this is still an “innocent until proven guilty” but God help us to do right by our children! I believe that surely this should serve as a warning to ALL schools that corporal punishment HAS to stop! That verse is misused!

  6. I hope this is going to be a 250+ show series, and no stone is left unturned in Fundystan.

    Suggestion for the next episode:

    👿 North Valley Baptist Church, Jack Trieber, and Mike Strouf 👿

    1. So, I went to look at Trieber’s church’s web site, because I think a guy who went to HAC with me is out there. Anyway, looking at the list of videos available, I note that it reads like a fundy Who’s Who of minor fundy luminaries.

  7. Anybody else have their stomach turn at the sight of the official church paddle given to visitors??? Who the hell does that???

    2. Seems like a Bible would be a more appropriate gift, if a gift were to be given at all, not a paddle…

      1. No, it wouldn’t be more appropriate. It would be better, but not more appropriate. The paddle clearly symbolizes what is most important to them, so it’s a very appropriate “gift”.

    3. What a disgusting gift to give to a visitor! 👿

      Any sane person (who was not already indoctrinated into an abusive IFB culture)should see this as a clear sign to GET OUT.

    5. I have never, not once, seen a paddle such as that given to a visitor. I went there for 19 years. You’d think I’d have noticed that. I was blind, but not that blind.

    6. No wonder the one young man does not know what love is…give an engraved paddle to a visitor! True fundy philosophy>

  8. I liked the interviewer. He never attacked the pastor personally, just the actions. I felt it was very objective and he asked the pastor some very direct and honest questions. Some of the answers that the pastor gave, gave me the impression that he was a sad, little man. I also thought it was sad that his adopted children haven’t spoken to him in many, many years.

    1. The report is Gary Tuchmann. And it does appear he is a moderate Christian. Unlike many in the American press, he knows the Bible and understands Christianity. He is able to debate these fundie nuts because he knows the bible.
      It is great to have a reporter exposing the crimes of the IFB.
      Let’s show our support by being a fan on Facebook

      http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Gary-Tuchman/28262511963

      2. Liked his page. Appreciated his report. Hope more people come out about what goes on there.

      3. I do feel that reports like these are more credible when the reporter understands Christianity and the Bible. It’s not necessary for the reporter to be a Christian (if it were, the same reporter couldn’t report about what Jews or Muslims or agnostics do), but he/she should be knowledgeable about the subject.

  9. I do not believe any of the things that were said in the interview. I personally attended Fairhaven college for four years and lived there for five. I appreciate what they teach and think they are great God fearing people who will not be plowed over by this whole mess. and no I was not brain washed I can think for myself. I think it would be wise for people to know what they are talking about before they start pointing fingers at a church that deffinately has Gods power upon it

    3. After four years you obviously learn a lot about punctuation and spelling. Damn fine education, there.

    4. Is it at all possible that you just didn’t see it? How often do we find out that people are actually horrible human beings yet to most people they were great people. Ted Bundy was quite charming and personable.

    6. Fairhaven has God’s power on it? Really?? I’m sure you can’t see my “bitch, please” look through my webcam, but that’s what I’ve got on my face right now. You’ve probably seen it on other people’s faces as you’ve talked to them before.

      It sounds so much like Bill Gothard’s IBLP teachings. Damnable heresies. There is a special place in Hell for Bill Gothard and Mike and Debi Pearl, just as I’m sure there is a special place in Hell for the people at Fairhaven who espouse this abuse.

  10. I have personal connections to this church/school/college. I know for a fact that they are at the extreme edges of fundy extremism. They are some serious nut jobs.

    1. Oh that’s a fact, is it? What’s your definition of “the extreme edges of fundy extremism” and “nut job”?

      1. I’d say the CNN report about “discipline” at Fairhaven IFBC and the schools it runs does a good job of illustrating the extreme edge of abusiveness.

  11. I went to the school from ages 4 to 13. They do humilate. They control…. (even when you are allowed to use the bathroom) They use (in my opinion) a ‘form of godliness’ but deny the real power of God. They preach rhetoric… the same stuff over and over… all about what clothes to wear, what Bible to use, how often you should spank your kids or your kids will go to the Devil. I was physically abused lots…by their staff. My mom was in the hospital for long periods of time and my dad worked full-time and went to the college there. My sister and I stayed with this family from the church. The wife was an elementary teacher there and the husband was a professor at the college. I was spied on in the bathroom. I was spanked for not shutting off lights. They made oatmeal and I couldn’t eat it. (it’s a texture thing) They would spank me for not eating it. They made it everyday, and everyday I tried to eat it and couldn’t so I got spanked. Sadly this church and school has NO CONCEPT of love and grace that originates with God and is manifested through Jesus…. I am so glad I don’t live in the chains of legalism…. these people aren’t really happy. They are trying to prove their spirituality. They have lots and lots of anger and I feel very sorry for them. Oh, and btw…the people that were inerviewed aren’t lying. It’s an abusive, brain washing institution with some Bible thrown in…and other parts of Scripture thrown out. Sad. Sad. Sad.

    1. I’m so sorry you went through that Sara. I often wonder what’s going on at the Christian school in my former church in Michigan. We were there for 23 years but since we don’t have children and were on the periphery of things because of that there are a lot of things that may have been going on we didn’t know about. It’s barbaric what you went through. I hope God will give you grace and peace to be able to overcome those things. 😥

      1. Thank you Macushlalondra! By God’s grace I have healed and have come to peace with so much. God is so kind to me! He has shown me what He is really about: Love, Grace, Forgivness, Redemption. The more I get to know Him-the more amazingly beautiful He is. I am so thankful to have escaped that church and the mindset it promotes.
        Thank you for caring. I guess my thoughts about Fairhaven now are: I wish we could do something to stop the abuse that goes on there. I feel bad for the kids who don’t make it out- those who are either brain washed for life and live in constant fear of making God angry or for those kids/people who walk away from God because of this church…and never find out who Jesus really is.
        I hope the church you speak of didn’t hurt your view of God or make you feel guilty all the time…thinking that you could never please God. We please God because we are His children-through Jesus.

    2. If they spied on you while you were using the toilet, they sound like perverts as well as sadists. 😯

  12. I love it when things sting but don’t hurt. Rare to find but good when you do. Tears come out but I don’t cry.

  13. This exchange really struck me…

    Interviewer: What I’m saying to you is, God doesn’t say anything about humiliation in the Bible.
    “Pastor”: No.
    Interviewer: He does talk about sparing the rod.
    “Pastor”: Yes.
    Interviewer: That is mentioned in the Bible.
    “Pastor”: Yes.
    Interviewer: So, why the humiliation? Why is that necessary?
    “Pastor”: [Shrugs] Habit.

    That is just about perfect…

  14. I am so livid I can’t vent. There was a couple who belonged to an FBC that I attended, due to filial piety. The couple was looking after a child. One thing lead to another and the child’s arm “ended up” broken because she wouldn’t say, “Thank-you”.

  15. This is a beautifully structured report. First, we learn that the school uses public and rather brutal corporal punishment. Not just physical blows, but (allegedly) forcing a teen to drink water until he vomits. Then we learn that the punishment was meted out for things like taking piano lessons and coming in second in a race. Then we hear that a student raped another student repeatedly, and when the student reported it, the pastor said he wouldn’t help because the victim was not tithing. Other shoes keep dropping. And for the supreme finale, the report reveals that the church happily hands out spanking paddles to guests.

    As a brief TV news report, it could hardly be any better.

  16. This is a beautifully structured report. First, we learn that the school uses public and rather brutal corporal punishment. Not just physical blows, but (allegedly) forcing a teen to drink water until he vomits. Then we learn that the punishment was meted out for things like taking piano lessons and coming in second in a race. Then we hear that a student raped another student repeatedly, and when the student reported it, the pastor said he wouldn’t help because the victim was not tithing. Other shoes keep dropping. And for the supreme finale, the report reveals that the church happily hands out souvenir spanking paddles to guests.

    As a brief TV news report, it could hardly be any better.

  17. Distancing language is a tell-tale sign of trouble…

    Clinton referred to Monica Lewinsky: “I did not have that woman” That was one of his regular interns.
    Simon Peter said of Jesus “I do not know the man” This was the man Simon left everything and followed for three years.

    “We did nothing but try to help Frank and his sister…” That’s the pastor’s daughter, but the pastor calls her Frank’s sister. To me, that screams something far deeper. Not sure what.

    1. Wow, Josh from FL, nice catch. I didn’t notice that he didn’t call her by her name. It does present some interesting material for psychoanalysis; although he was scary enough without the distancing language. There was something about the way that he just stood there emotionless while admitting that he had no good reason for spanking the kids publicly that creeped me out.

      1. Well, what emotion would be appropriate when admitting that you regularly beat and humiliate children, and you don’t plan to stop?
        Laughing? Smiling? Crying?

        He’s not ashamed of doing what he thinks is right. The tragedy is that what he thinks is right is very, very wrong.

  18. I attended Fairhaven Baptist Church for four years, have known the staff for the last twenty years, graduated from the college, and knew the kids in the interview personally. I believe every word they said, and there was so much more that was told the day of the interview that CNN didn’t have time to include. I hope more members and ex-members of Fairhaven Baptist Church will gain courage from this and come forward with their own truths of how they were treated at Fairhaven.

    There is verbal abuse at Fairhaven.
    There is spiritual abuse at Fairhaven.
    There is physical abuse at Fairhaven.
    There is sexual abuse at Fairhaven.
    There is physchological abuse at Fairhaven.

    It needs to stop.

  19. I actually toured this college and it was a strange experience. Didn’t feel so strange at the time, because I was mired in the depths of fundamentalism 🙂 But now I look back on it and wonder what would have happened had I gone there. Ended up at PCC instead, and survived. But wow – how weird is it to be thankful you ended up at PCC? lol

  20. Is this church ever gonna reilize that thier going down!!!!!!!!!!!Even a good God beilieving church can go BAD 😈 Also they just got reported to every website on the internet and on t.v.. I just have one more thing to say if they don’t get it together and or stand strong they will be the most critisized church in the U.S. 😡 😡 👿 now since i have been there i am hoping they will get through this. 😥

  21. This video caused me flashbacks to my two years of hell at Fairhaven. I knew 5 of the seven students interviewed in that video. They were in my classes at Fairhaven. It saddens me to hear what fear they also endured there, but I am glad that they are free from that place. Unfortunately, my step-brother and his 8 children attend that church and academy.

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