Jeri Massi Explained

Jeri M. Massi (born September 4, 1960 in Levittown, Pennsylvania[1]) is a technical writer and an Evangelical Christian author whose novel Valkyries: Some Through the Fire (2003) was nominated for a Christy Award.

Since 2001, Massi has attacked the response of Fundamentalist churches in cases of child molestation committed by members of the clergy in which the leadership (and sometimes the entire congregation) enforced silence on the victims.[2]

In 2005, Massi produced a five-part audio documentary, The Lambs of Culpeper,[3] and released it onto the Internet for free download. The documentary addresses alleged abuses against children at Calvary Baptist Church of Culpeper, Virginia, a church then pastored by Charles Shifflett. In 2007, Massi founded the Conference of the Lambs, a two-day conference designed to assist adults who had been molested as children in Fundamentalist churches.[4] In 2008 Massi self-published Schizophrenic Christianity, which denounced corruption within Protestant Fundamentalism that had resulted in harm, especially to children.[5] In 2009, Massi conducted interviews of former residents of Hephzibah House in Warsaw, Indiana, a Protestant Fundamentalist Children's home for girls. She then produced The Lambs of Hephzibah House,[6] an audio documentary that alleges severe abuse of residents at Hephzibah House. In 2011, Gary Tuchman, a CNN journalist reporting for Anderson Cooper 360, interviewed many of the same former residents and produced an episode about Hephzibah House on CNN's "Ungodly Discipline" series.[7]

Works

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Nuttin' But the FAQ. 27 December 2011.
  2. Opposition to abusive fundamentalist churches took form with the publication of Vic Nischik, Wizard of God: My Life with Jack Hyles (Buchanan, Mi.: Sychar Publishing, 1990) and gained impetus with the publication of Voyle Glover, Fundamental Seduction: The Jack Hyles case (Schrerville, Indiana: Brevia Publishing, 1990) who marshaled evidence against Jack Hyles and First Baptist Church of Hammond regarding abuses of church office and church doctrine. Massi was further influenced by a 1993 news documentary Preying from the Pulpit, produced by WJBK of Detroit. Audio of this documentary is available at Massi's website . In 2012, Flashrock Films' executive producer Adam Rockoff engaged Massi as associate producer of the independent film, The Blue Room, a documentary examining the abuses at Hephzibah House (unreleased).
  3. Web site: The Lambs of Culpeper by Jeri Massi: An audio documentary of the Charles Shifflett church abuse case.
  4. The first conference was held in Charlotte, North Carolina, the second in Jacksonville, Florida.
  5. Jeri Massi, Schizophrenic Christianity: How Christian Fundamentalism Attracts and Protects Sociopaths, Abusive Pastors, and Child Molesters (Raleigh, NC.: Jupiter Rising Books, 2008). Massi has also critiqued fundamentalism through the serialised stories Secret Radio and A Standard Christian, which chronicle the life of a student at fictional Greater Independent Baptist College.
  6. Web site: The Lambs of Hephzibah House by Jeri Massi: An audio documentary of the history of abuse at Hephzibah House in Warsaw, Indiana, run by Ron Williams.
  7. News: Video: UnGodly discipline investigation . CNN . 1 September 2011.

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