Five women in California have filed a lawsuit alleging that a nondenominational Christian organization covered up instances of child sexual abuse and 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, 31, Salud Gonzelez, 30, and Elena Peltola, 23, are also named.
The women allege that the International Churches of Christ (ICOC) and affiliated organizations — which include Hope Worldwide, Mercy Worldwide, the International Christian Church and the City of Angels International Christian Church — "indoctrinated" them and isolated them while exploiting them sexually and manipulating them through a strict belief system, according to Rolling Stone.
The lawsuit also names leaders Kip McKean, the founder of the church, and the estate of the late Charles "Chuck" Lucas as defendants. The women allege that church leaders established a system of exploitation that extracts whatever it can from members.
The lawsuit further claims that church members were pressured fund special mission trips twice per year and tithe 10% of their income to the church to the point that some were driven to depression and suicide.
"If the tithing budget was not satisfied, leaders or 'disciplers' were forced to contribute the financial shortfall themselves, or members were required to locate the offending member who failed to tithe and sit on their porch until they arrived home in an attempt to obtain their tithe funds before Sunday evening was over," according to the lawsuit.
"The pressure to comply with the church's rigid demands was a source of anxiety and depression for many members," according to the suit. "So much so that several ex-members committed suicide."
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Church members were also reportedly saddled with a quota for bringing more members into the organization, ostensibly for the sake of raking in more tithes.
Sisters Diaz and Perez named convicted pedophile David Saracino as their abuser, and claimed the church did not adequately protect them from him. His alleged offenses include telling the girls "that they needed a bath," which they say he used as an "opportunity to heavily fondle their naked bodies while they were bathing." Ruiz claimed Saracino performed a sex act on her.
When their mother went to church leaders about the Saracino's abuse, the sisters claim they informed him of the complaint so that he could evade authorities.
Saracino was eventually sentenced to 40 years in prison for raping a 4-year-old. A judge told him that he is the type of person for whom maximum sentences are designed.
Gonzelez claimed that she was sexually assaulted by a Sunday School teacher for a period of five years beginning when she was 4 years old. She also alleged that she was abused again in a rehab program connected to the church when she was 15, and again when she was 17. According to Gonzelez, the abuses she experienced drove her to a suicide attempt because she lacked support from the church.
Peltola also reported being raped in 2012 during a mission trip to Honduras by an ICOC member when she was only 13 years old. She alleged that when she reported the rape, ICOC and Hope Worldwide leaders "victim-blamed" her and called her a "slut" for several months before ultimately expelling her, claiming she was a "liability."
"Even though the sexual abuse happened to me in the ICOC at around age five and robbed me of my childhood, the trauma also followed me into my adulthood, where I feel like I am always in survival mode," Ruiz told Rolling Stone. "Having some sort of legal closure and acknowledgment about what happened to me as a child will… be tremendously helpful!"
"For decades, members of the ICOC/ICC and its affiliates groomed and sexually abused children as young as three years old," said Bobby Samini, an attorney for the plaintiffs, in a statement to Rolling Stone.
"Instead of reporting the sexual abuse to law enforcement, ‘church’ leaders shamelessly targeted and blamed the survivors, admonishing them that they ‘risked losing their salvation’ unless they forgave their abusers," Samini said. "The lawsuit … will expose the perpetrators at the ICOC/ICC and its affiliates who claim piety, all the while enabling the sexual abuse of children."
ICOC did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment by time of publication, though a member of the New York City branch of the church told The Christian Post that churches in the ICOC are joined only by their beliefs and are not governed by a central authority.
