(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . International House of Prayer may be about to implode due to abuse accusations against founder [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-29 Trigger warning: contains accusations of sexual assault One of the most notorious outfits in the Christofascist universe may be on life support. The International House of Prayer in Kansas City (IHOPKC), which has run praise and worship sessions 24 hours a day, seven days a week since 1999, was recently rocked by claims that its founder and longtime leader, Mike Bickle, had sexually assaulted a number of his adherents. Three former leaders recently issued an open letter claiming that they had tried to bring these claims forward to Bickle himself—but were forced to go public after Bickle blew them off. They did, however, bring their claims to IHOPKC’s executive team. And based on the reaction from several staffers at a church attached to IHOPKC, this movement may be teetering on the brink of collapse—and not a moment too soon. Most religious right watchers like yours truly know IHOPKC as one of the fountainheads of the New Apostolic Reformation, an overtly fascist offshoot of the religious right that seeks to bring about the Second Coming by taking over the world. Back in 2011, IHOPKC got a lot of mainstream heat when several of its missionaries were featured in the documentary “God Loves Uganda,” which explored the ties between American fundies and the homophobic tide in Uganda. In response, IHOPKC claimed it wasn’t political. That claim is downright laughable considering that several members of IHOPKC’s board sit on the board of TheCall, the ministry of Lou Engle of “Jesus Camp” fame. Additionally, Bickle emceed “The Response,” a prayer rally that launched Rick Perry’s 2012 presidential bid. When Bickle endorsed Ted Cruz for president in 2016, Right Wing Watch revealed that in the past, Bickle claimed that Jews would be mowed down if they don’t convert to Christianity. Bruce Wilson/Troutfishing of Talk2Action dug up video of these messages; watch it here. The most chilling part came from a 2004 conference in which Bickle claimed that all Jews would be given “grace” to accept Jesus. But if they didn’t respond to that grace, Bickle said, God would “raise up the hunters” to slaughter most of them. He then went as far as to say that Adolf Hitler was “the most famous hunter in recent history” because he drove many of the Jews to Palestine. Amazingly, that didn’t bring Bickle down. But an open letter released by three former IHOPKC leaders just might. The Kansas City Star reported that former IHOPKC executive leadership members Dwayne Roberts and Brian Kim joined with former student affairs leader Wes Martin to release an open letter accusing Bickle of sexual assault—and that Bickle rebuffed them when they tried to confront him. “A few days ago, we made the leadership team of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City (IHOPKC) aware of serious allegations spanning several decades concerning its founder, Mike Bickle,” the statement said, adding that they found “these allegations of clergy sexual abuse by Mike Bickle to be credible and long-standing.” (...) The men said that prior to meeting with IHOPKC leadership, they tried to bring the allegations and testimony of one alleged victim to Bickle. “However, we were repeatedly rebuffed by Mike Bickle and we were refused any sort of meeting,” the statement said. “Instead, Mike used manipulating and intimidating tactics towards the victims to isolate them and discredit them.” They said they met with several members of IHOPKC’s executive leadership team and shared testimonies of “these victims of Mike’s inappropriate words and actions.” Roberts, Kim, and Martin added that Bickle was accused of engaging in “misconduct were sexual in nature where the marriage covenant was not honored,” and that he even went as far as to abuse his “spiritual authority over the victims." They went on to say that they were “shocked” by these allegations, which were “out of character” for a man they had known for a decade or more. In Roberts’ case, he was one of IHOPKC’s founding members. IHOPKC’s leadership team discussed this bombshell at a meeting with staffers. “By Their Fruit,” a site run by IHOPKC walkaways, obtained video of that meeting. According to The Star, that meeting didn’t go well at all. When Isaac Bennett, pastor of Forerunner Church—a church with close ties to IHOPKC—said that he and his colleagues “really care(d) about all those that are affected by this news,” some staffers hit the ceiling. “I do not consider this an acceptable level of transparency,” said one man in attendance. “In a room full of faithful witnesses, being a faithful witness to my brothers, there is more to be shared, and what David just said is well-intended, righteous bull----.” “I second that!” one woman shouted. The man added: “I believe that you need to address this in a different way, with a great degree of transparency, or this is not going to be a trustworthy process.” In this world, a staffer calling BS on leadership IN PUBLIC literally does not happen, ever. The fact that anyone was willing to do so suggests that scales are starting to fall off. Having spent the first six months of my adult life in a similar environment, it’s only fair to wonder if IHOPKC can survive. This outfit has been rocked before with some really disturbing claims of sexual assault by leaders. For instance, in 2018 it was criticized for hiring a man who had been accused of sexually assaulting a minor decades earlier. But this feels different. When longtime leaders of a ministry in this world openly go public with allegations of this nature, and when staffers of a church in this world are openly calling out leadership for inadequate response, it’s only fair to wonder if said ministry is on life support. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/10/29/2202313/-International-House-of-Prayer-may-be-about-to-implode-due-to-abuse-accusations-against-founder Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/