{"id":3881,"date":"2023-01-11T04:44:49","date_gmt":"2023-01-11T10:44:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=3881"},"modified":"2023-03-22T03:36:19","modified_gmt":"2023-03-22T08:36:19","slug":"multiple-women-sue-christian-organization-for-alleged-abuse-coverup-a-source-of-anxietyand-depression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=3881","title":{"rendered":"Multiple women sue Christian organizatio<br>n for alleged abuse, coverup: &#8216;A source of anxiety<br>and depression&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Five women in California have filed a lawsuit alleging that a nondenominational Christian organization covered up instances of\u00a0child sexual abuse\u00a0and exerted financial pressure on members to the extent that some took their own lives.<br \/>\nThe lawsuit filed late last month names the five plaintiffs as sisters Darleen Diaz, 33, and Bernice Perez, 31. Ashley Ruiz, 31, Salud Gonzelez, 30, and Elena Peltola, 23, are also named.<br \/>\nThe women allege that the International Churches of Christ (ICOC) and affiliated organizations \u2014 which include Hope Worldwide, Mercy Worldwide, the International Christian Church and the City of Angels International Christian Church \u2014 &#8220;indoctrinated&#8221; them and isolated them while exploiting them sexually and manipulating them through a strict belief system,\u00a0according to Rolling Stone.<br \/>\nThe lawsuit also names leaders Kip McKean, the founder of the church, and the estate of the late Charles &#8220;Chuck&#8221; Lucas as defendants. The women allege that church leaders established a system of exploitation that extracts whatever it can from members.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/multiple-women-sue-christian-organization-alleged-abuse-coverup-source-anxiety-depression\">Foxnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Five women in California have filed a lawsuit alleging that a nondenominational Christian organization covered up instances of\u00a0child sexual abuse\u00a0and exerted financial pressure on members to the extent that some took their own lives. The lawsuit filed late last month names the five plaintiffs as sisters Darleen Diaz, 33, and Bernice Perez, 31. Ashley Ruiz, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3882,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1189,4085,1668,2223,4084,1524,1305],"class_list":["post-3881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-california","tag-child-sexual-abuse","tag-christian","tag-church","tag-nondenominational","tag-organization","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3881"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8244,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3881\/revisions\/8244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}