Open Letter from Eileen Scipione
Eileen Scipione and her husband George worked in biblical counseling for many years. Her husband also served as a pastor at Bayview Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Chula Vista, California, closely associated with theologian Greg Bahnsen. Eileen reflects in this letter on her memories of this era of her life.
Having seen the news article on the OPC website regarding a civil suit being brought against the denomination, I believe I am compelled to respond.
I have decades of experience counseling abuse victims in church settings. My late husband, George Scipione, was a pioneer of the biblical counseling movement, being mentored by Jay E. Adams at Westminster Seminary of Philadelphia. He was ordained in the OPC and was a leader in CCEF and IBCD.
As a family we struggled with the trauma that comes from abuse. We were committed to being totally biblical in bringing healing to the wounded and justice mingled with mercy to the perpetrators. However, looking back, my personal opinion now is that we didn’t do it well. Some of our children suffered the consequences of these imbalances.
As members for 24 years of Bayview Orthodox Presbyterian church in Chula Vista, CA, we encouraged a few of our own counselees to come to Bayview because we trusted the session to handle domestic issues in a biblically balanced way. And in my opinion, they often did well. But not in all cases. This includes my beloved late husband. He became convinced of this fact, evidenced by an 18 page paper he wrote for the presbytery of Ohio in 2018 on Willful Desertion. pohopc.org (see Resources, Reports)
However, because most OPC elders and pastors and missionaries are not trauma informed or trained, these men do not recognize the signs of abuse and trauma. Therefore they don’t know the questions to ask. They do not know how to investigate allegations that come to them. They inadvertently put children and women in danger by sending them back into their homes with the admonition to “submit more”. There are some marvelous exceptions to this sad fact, but not enough.
Because these ordained leaders have seen churches and families suffer from false accusations, they seem to miss the signs of true allegations. Because Satan undoubtedly wants to attack the church of Jesus Christ, these highly doctrinally conservative leaders are quick to write allegations off as from the devil. But they don’t investigate deeply and thoroughly the allegations that would potentially bring shame to the particular person or church or denomination being charged. Loyalty to respected leaders seems to be a much higher value than finding the facts of the case in order to protect the most vulnerable in our midst.
The named defendants in the civil case being brought against the OPC at present were/are well loved and respected men in the OPC. Some are deceased. Other are not. Some of the named churches no longer exist.
My prayer is the OPC trustees will hire experts on these kind of investigations, not simply lawyers to protect the denomination from financial loss or scandal. We must do better than the Roman Catholics and Southern Baptists in our level of investigation.
God’s truth is not ultimately damaged by any sins and failures of church leaders. King David is proof of this fact.
