ABC has posted a new story detailing the abusive teachings believed to be related to the death of three children. Tina Anderson's story is mentioned because Trinity Baptist Church, the church where she was made to stand in front of hundreds of adults and "confess" her "responsibility" in her rape, is an IFB church.
Quoted from the article:
When Melissa Fletcher was little her mother would dress up in a gray wig and horn-rim glasses, ring the doorbell and pretend she was "Myrtle" from the child protective services.
"Where did this bruise come from?" she would ask systematically. "Myrtle," a United Airlines shift control manager and devout Christian, made it a game, quizzing and recording her five little ones, drilling them to say, "I fell" or "I bumped into something."
She didn't want authorities to find out about the two- to three-hour beating sessions that her husband carried out on his children in the name of God -- so-called "breaking the will of the child".
Melissa Fletcher has been a supporter of Tina Anderson since her story first became public in May of 2010. Melissa's sister, Jocelyn Zichterman, also a strong supporter of Tina Anderson, is also mentioned in the article.
Quoted from the article:
Fletcher is now a 36-year-old mother and lives in Hawaii, but she is in therapy reserved for soldiers of war because of the ritualized trauma.
"My father found a great position," she said. "Most people bend over. I would lie on the bed on my stomach and he would put my face in the pillow so no one would hear me scream. Our hands were underneath our stomach."
Years later, when her father became pastor, he brought the rod and pillow in to demonstrate it to his parishioners.ABC's "20/20" called her father for comment last year, but he refused.
Fletcher's sister, Jocelyn Zichterman, was also abused. They two became activists, and their group, Freedom From Abuse, reaches out to other "survivors" who were indoctrinated into the faith and now want out.
One survivor, Tina Anderson, made headlines when she was raped and impregnated by fellow parishioner at Trinity Baptist Church in Concord, N.H., in 1997 when she was only 14.
Anderson was forced to confess to her pregnancy congregation and was then sent to live with another IFB family in Colorado where she was homeschooled, kept from other teens and eventually put her daughter for adoption.
Anderson's rapist, Ernest Willis, 51, was convicted earlier this year and is now in prison.
Many other survivors have come forward since Tina Anderson allowed her name to be used when her story became public. Some have indicated their own abuse and sought help and healing on a
Facebook group organized to show support for abuse survivors from within the IFB.
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