UPDATE:: Brazil Branches of US-Based Church Target of Numerous ProbesWord of Faith Fellowship in Spindale, North Carolina is in the news AGAIN; shaking babies to banish demons, kidnapping and beating a gay man to eradicate his “homosexual demons,” and siphoning slave labor from its branches in Brazil.
The business and its labor practices are under investigation by Brazilian authorities — just one of several inquiries launched into a pair of churches connected to Word of Faith Fellowship, a secretive evangelical sect based in Spindale, North Carolina.
The Associated Press has learned that Brazilian prosecutors also are looking into possible improprieties in a land deal involving one of the churches. And education ministries in two Brazilian states said they are investigating allegations that church schools physically and psychologically abused students and redacted textbooks in violation of state policy.
The investigations were spurred by AP stories in July detailing allegations that Word of Faith Fellowship created a pipeline of young congregants who say they were brought to the U.S. from Brazil and forced to work at church-affiliated businesses for little or no pay. The stories also documented how the church steadily took over the two Brazilian congregations, instituting a fundamentalist vision that included verbal and physical abuse aimed at expelling devils.
Pastors at the Word of Faith Fellowship branches — located in the Brazilian cities of Sao Joaquim de Bicas and Franco da Rocha — have issued statements denying the accusations, but did not respond to numerous interview requests from the AP.
When Randy Fields' construction company faced potential ruin because of the cratering economy, he pleaded with his pastor at Word of Faith Fellowship church to reduce the amount of money he was required to tithe every week.
To his shock, Fields said church founder Jane Whaley proposed a divine plan that would allow him to continue contributing at least 10 percent of his income to the secretive evangelical church while helping his company survive: He would file fraudulent unemployment claims on behalf of his employees. She called it, he said, "God's plan."From Hemant,
Fields and 10 other former congregants told The Associated Press that they and dozens of employees who were church members filed bogus claims at Word of Faith Fellowship leaders' direction, and said they had been interviewed at length about the false claims by investigators with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The unemployment allegations were uncovered as part of the AP's ongoing investigation into Word of Faith, which has about 750 congregants in rural North Carolina and a total of nearly 2,000 members in its branches in Brazil and Ghana and its affiliations in Sweden, Scotland and other countries.
As I’ve said before, it’s appalling that this wasn’t all discovered sooner. If not for the AP, would anything have happened? Apparently, “three ex-congregants” told an assistant U.S. attorney about the slavery at the church — and the AP has a recording to prove it. While the attorney said she would look into it, it didn’t seem to go anywhere and the victims were never able to get in touch with her after their meeting. The attorney said nothing to the AP months ago, claiming this was an “ongoing investigation.”Church stoked tithing with unemployment scam, ex-members say - SFGate
Also, how many traditional members of the church knew all these things were going on and said nothing? How many refused to believe what they were witnessing with their own eyes because they didn’t want to displease Whaley (or God)? How many assumed, wrongly, that she was acting in everyone’s best interests?
This is cult-like behavior. This is what happens when you’re convinced the pastors know best even when common sense tells you otherwise. This is what happens when you’re taught to stop thinking for yourself and just accept whatever the church teaches you.
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