Joe.My.God. LGBT News
The Associated Press reports:
One of five people charged with beating a fellow church member to expel what they called “homosexual demons” says church leaders asked everyone at the attack to tell investigators that nothing happened.
Sarah Anderson testified Friday that she told other leaders at Word of Faith Fellowship she thought Matthew Fenner was unclean and sinful. Anderson also testified that Covington began the confrontation by screaming at Fenner after a January 2013 service at the church in Spindale, North Carolina.
Minister Brooke Covington is standing trial on kidnapping and assault charges. Some church members have referred to Sarah Anderson as Brooke’s daughter. However, Anderson told jurors on Friday she has no biological ties to Covington, and that Covington was her guardian, and she lived in Covington’s home with Matthew Fenner.
More from the New York Daily News:
Despite her attorney’s objections, Sarah Anderson, 30, testified that she told other leaders at Word of Faith Fellowship that Matthew Fenner had experienced “some kind of sexual sin or thought.”
She claimed Minister Brooke Covington, who is standing trial for kidnapping and assault, confronted the 23-year-old about his homosexual thoughts and that she started pushing Fenner’s chest, screaming “Open your heart!”
That’s when Anderson said she slapped Fenner in the face, with about 30 other members of the church joining in — beating, screaming at and choking the man for hours. Even after he admitted to having homosexual thoughts in a dream, the assault continued.
Fenner, who has since left the church, testified earlier this week that he thought he was “going to die” during the Jan. 2013 prayer session or what they call “blasting.”
Also from the Associated Press:
Covington, 58, is one of five congregants facing trial. All have been charged with kidnapping and assaulting Fenner. Covington faces two years in prison if convicted. The Associated Press spoke with four former church members who said they witnessed Fenner being assaulted. Based on the accounts of 43 former Word of Faith members as well as documents and recordings, the AP concluded members were regularly assaulted to “purify” them of their sins.
The AP investigation also revealed that the church leader had forced members to lie to the authorities who were investigating abuses within the sect. Jane Whaley, a former math teacher, and her husband, Sam, a former car salesman, founded the sect in 1979. The Word of Faith Fellowship began with 750 members in North Carolina and grew to nearly 2,000 members in Brazil and Ghana.