Guilt, Shame and Authority: A Case Study In How Grace City Church Maintains Control

'What you are feeing is guilt from the shared murder of your unborn child,' the pastor said

Note: The subject’s name has been changed to protect his privacy and safety.

Theodore grew up in the orbit of the McPherson family. His family was one of the first to join the budding Grace Covenant Church, the precursor to Grace City Church, when that organization was just getting started in Cashmere, Washington.

And pastor Carey McPherson, brother of GCC’s founding pastor and “church planter” Josh McPherson, made a big impact on Theodore’s life when he was a child.

In addition to being the lead music pastor at Teddy’s church on the weekends he was also his Bible teacher at The River Academy, a private Christian school in Wenatchee. Carey exercised his authority as a teacher and pastor over Teddy in ways that left him scarred for years.  

One day Teddy was at church, idly scrolling on his phone when Pastor Carey snuck up behind him and demanded to see what he was looking at. Teddy had been browsing a joke meme website, but Carey suspected he was looking at pornography.

So he called Ted…