On Wednesday, December 2nd; Deborah Leonard was arraigned in Chadwicks, NY on a plea deal concerning the death of her son Lucas and the severe beating of her other son, Christopher. She entered a guilty plea to first-degree assault in the death of Lucas, for which she will serve five years. She also entered guilty plea to second-degree assault in the beating of Christopher for which she will serve an additional two years. In exchange, she agrees to testify truthfully in any of the trials for the other eight defendants charged with 13 counts including murder, felony assault and gang assault. The list of defendants includes her husband, Bruce Leonard and daughter, Sarah Ferguson, as well as the Pastor of the church, Tiffanie Irwin.

Two very important statements were made by Deborah Leonard which gives great insight into the dynamics inside the Word of Life Christian Church (WOLCC) where the beatings took place. These two statements tell us about the power structure within the group as well as the penalties for breaking the rules or going against the expected behavior norms. The similarities between the church in New York and Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF) in Spindale, NC became more evident after Wednesday.

First, Mrs. Leonard said she was afraid and believed her son’s shift away from the church would get her in trouble with other members of the church, including the Pastor Tiffanie Irwin. Let’s examine this belief since it may seem out of order for those not familiar with groups such as WOLCC or WOFF. Mrs. Leonard said she may get in trouble for her son’s desire to leave. Just exactly what the “trouble” would have been was not made clear in reports on Wednesday. Allow me to explain how this occurs inside of WOFF and I believe the reactions would have been very similar.

From recent accounts conveyed to me, parents who have children who leave WOFF are openly encouraged to cut-off all contact with them and shun them completely. Recent reports coming out of WOFF tell of parents with children who have left – aggressively rebuking other parents who also have children who have left telling them our children have turned their back on God and we don’t talk to them, you must do the same! With Jane’s approval, members gang up on other members to pressure them to conform to the no contact policy. At that point, the victims of the aggression must make a choice; join their children and leave WOFF or stay inside the closed subculture which they may have been members of for many years. I believe this type of aggression and pressure would be similar inside of WOLCC.
Continue reading At any time, Pastor Tiffanie Irwin could have stopped the beatings… →