Hi all

Here's the link to that article Rensil mentioned. Just in case some people are still unaware of the Latigo site:

http://latigo214.info/page18.html


From this article it can be seen that, over the last 40 years, the membership has dropped from around 1,000 souls (when I attended) to under 300. And this is the church membership apparently GROWING??? If you believe the rubbish being spouted from the pulpits!

Whatever happened to being TRUTHFUL or does truthfulness not apply to the 'holy and anointed'??

As always
Biiiiiig love and huge huggggggs to all
God Bless xxx

Just another link here.

This article on Latigo is very poignant to the discussion regarding the safety of young people and minors who attend SMC (the church that is, not the school).

http://latigo214.info/page20.html

Ifellaway, you should have a read at this article because it really says it ALL about how SMC treat young people and it asks some very interesting questions.

I dare say, having attended the church yourself, you will be able to identify with quite a lot of what's in this article - as do the rest of us who were involved from a young age.

There are a couple of testimonies in there (some from posters here) with very harrowing tales to tell, it makes you want to weep for kids who are still being taught that what SMC leaders want is the same as what God wants and the majority of them will never 'make the grade' to be good enough for God anyway. It actually makes me want to scream and give these 'holier-than-thou' pastoral farces a good hard kick up the How's-your-Father!!

Biiiiig love and huge hugggggs
God Bless xxx

Thanks cbarb, I'm just going to put son to bed and will do some reading. I feel I need updating. They provide ammunition themselves usually. Not very clever...or maybe even in a bit of disarray. Or just so arrogant they think they are untouchable?
Your first link to latigo shows all. Smc is no longer a church for grown-ups. It is self-serving and weak. I have stopped using Struther's name. I feel it is an insult to the memory of someone who more than likely would be disappointed.
Better go...reading the Hobbit tonight so I better go for a quick fag to help me get the trolls' voices just right!!
I'll post any thoughts on that link later (post here, I mean..). There may be a way to link up different agencies responsible child protection.
Take care for now. Night...

LOL I love the Hobbit - and am pretty partial to a wee fag myself - enjoy!! :-)

xxx

There are a few things going on that people who have been following this forum might be interested in.

The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator published their next phase of schools due to be inspected to ensure they provide sufficient public benefit and, suddenly, Struthers Memorial Church is right at the front of the list. This is possibly because they are very likely the only school/organisation on the list about which OSCR will have also received complaints.
[www.oscr.org.uk]

On the back of that they will be very likely getting inspected right now, or very soon, or possibly even on an ongoing basis as answers they provide lead to more questions. If so it is very unlikely Struthers would be making the fact that they are being both inspected and investigated public but the reports will follow in a few months and will be published on the OSCR website. OSCR will report on whether the whole charity (presumably not just the school as the church and the school are parts of the same charity) meets the tests of delivering public benefit. OSCR will also report on their findings re any complaints. They usually publish them on their website to let the public know what the outcomes of their investigations into specific complaints are.

There is an example of a complaint investigation report online for another charity and it is an excellent and thorough document covering some issues not entirely different to some of the Struthers problems. It is a very interesting and encouraging read if you are someone who wants the charity sector to display more accountability and behave with higher standards.
[www.oscr.org.uk]

So all we can do is hang on happy that, possibly for the first time ever, Struthers Memorial Church are being asked to account for at least some of their decisions, their actions and their treatment of people. Not much we can do at his point to hurry that along - we'll just have to wait for the outcomes. But it is important to realise this is gong on.

The Struthers charitable company is facing a range of problems at the moment:

financial decline,
people leaving,
an ageing leadership with no succession plans as yet shared with their supporters,
loss making businesses,
debt
questions about recruitment
inability to explain (or successfully sweep under the carpet) the years of unfulfilled prophecy
a monumental collapse of their public reputation given
the testimonies and questions for their organisation now online
the utter failure of the leadership to address the online criticisms in any effective way
the likelihood over the next few years of still more branch churches declining and closing
the exhaustion of their people as the revival and church growth the leaders continually promise remain as far off as ever.


The changing of some of the Saturday night Glasgow meetings to outreaches shows how much the Struthers leaders are now aware they need to reverse their decline. For as long as most of us can remember Saturday night was always for “deepening” and it is unlikely Ms Taylor would ever have agreed to it becoming a family friendly outreach. Yet on several recent occasions it has, as has been reported on the Cumbernauld website.

There is a conflict obvious to anyone between the mystical, "holiness by following rules” no compromise church set up by Ms Taylor, and the complete incompatibility of that with running a school where every document and CSofE web page strains to pretend that Struthers is just another mainstream church that believes and teaches more or less what all the others do; and is a church where all children are (and always have been) valued and loved and treated with all sensitivity and care.

Over 40 people have now testified on this forum to how little sensitive tender care they were subjected to; and many of these people have also indicated as young people they were allowed to be in situations where children should never have been.

But perhaps that is no longer the case. Perhaps the Struthers leaders have finally, genuinely, seen that some of the the things they have been preaching and teaching have no value and no biblical basis and stem from the dark controlling failed dogmas of 1930s Brethrenism. In that case many people are waiting for some sign of repentance from them and some sign of regret that they subjected people to this nonsense for so long. Yet, apparently, these teachings that caused so much anguish and suffering could be easily abandoned when the chance for school fees income came along.

Or do Struthers leaders not apologise even when they are wrong?

Or perhaps if these teachings are still believed and members of the churches are still subjected to them, perhaps hiding that side of the church from the school families is enough. Perhaps then carrying on in a hypocritical position is easier that apologising and putting things right with people they have hurt.

Your post is very interesting, Chesterk55. Please don't miss it, folks!
I will keep a look out re OSCR, regarding any reports of the investigation.

Just to encourage people to keep on posting here, this Forum thread is being read by many people, i.e. those who have left SMC, those still in SMC and those looking for a new church to go to. On here, people are getting information about SMC which shows them the truth about what has been and is still going on, and alerts them to the dangers of becoming involved. People are finding information from here but get very little information from the bare bones of SMC's own website. No new podcasts, no testimonies, no pictures of the pastors and leaders (as is normal with most evangelical/Pentecostal church websites), a few Flickr photos from past years, very little to provide someone with knowledge of a church before they decide whether to join up or not. And they have given no answers to our questions and requests for clarification, on here or on the Latigo site. People are seeing this and wondering what is going on. Even after visiting SMC, they are very wary about returning after reading this thread.
So keep up the good work!

Progress has been made. Good. Thanks to people here who have openly shared, concern about smc widened.
Accusing by name puts more onera on the relevant (and often mentioned) authorities.
Results will be made available on respective websites...Charity guys, Care Commission (whatever they are now..), HMIE, etc.
Freedom of Info is usually free for those concerned, especially victims.
Acknowledgements or apologies for cruel behaviour remain notably missing.
We can conclude that the perpetrators are never going to do the decent thing. Perhaps some "fellow" members will have had their memories jogged by posts here. Perhaps they have realised that their silence is complicity. Perhaps, if rabbit holes are investigated deep enough, criminal proceedings may well be initiated. Perhaps y'all might wanna think on that... or risk going down with the ship.
Great post Chester55. Encouraging and enlightening. This isn't just a pesky storm that they are riding out. It's ongoing. The efforts of the people in this discussion have definitely been of great assistance. The future of smc involves complete overhaul at the least. This is a success and makes for a safer environment, especially regarding youngsters.
The past, sadly, they seem to live with it with ease.
Anyway, still much to do...but we got a superb team here.
Thoughts and thanks to all. :)

Hi guys

Just to let you all know I had some correspondence from the OSCR regarding complaints and they seem to be focusing on investigating concerns around public benefit and the way in which paid positions are handed out.

As ChesterK55 pointed out, the investigation process is underway and no doubt we'll all be waiting with baited breath for the outcome of such investigations.

Yes!!! We ARE making a difference. It's just a pity that SMC couldn't have entered into some discussions with us before it had to go this far!

Anyway, will let you all know if I hear anything else before the reports are published.

Take care for now

Biiiiig love and huge hugggggs to all
God Bless xxxx

Some interesting thoughts and developments here recently.

For example,

Quote
cbarb
Just to let you all know I had some correspondence from the OSCR regarding complaints and they seem to be focusing on investigating concerns around public benefit and the way in which paid positions are handed out.

and

Quote
Chesterk55

So all we can do is hang on happy that, possibly for the first time ever, Struthers Memorial Church are being asked to account for at least some of their decisions, their actions and their treatment of people.

I think it is interesting to compare these to an extract of the Blog for Struthers Cumbernauld dated 20 April 2013.

Quote

'But Jesus made no reply' Matt 27:14

When Jesus was accused by the chief priests and elders, He gave no answer. To answer them would only have been to join them at their level of nastiness, lies and deceit.

...

What an example is this to us! In the midst of life, let us remember how He dealt with this situation. He didn't waste unnecessary energy justifying Himself; explaining why He followed a particular course of action.

I think that sums it up. The leaders of Struthers are still spouting the same rubbish - 'we are so spiritual that we do not need to be answerable to anyone'. I hope that OSCR read this and remember it when they are conducting their investigation - the leaders of Struthers do not have any respect for the idea of accountability, so they will say anything to anybody. It doesn't matter to them, as they do not recognise the authority of any other person on the planet. That is at the core of the problem- they will say all the right things to any inspectors or others in authority but deep down, they do not actually believe they should be held accountable.

I am particularly saddened by the phrase "He didn't waste unnecessary energy justifying himself". Forty people coming forward on this forum, not with any level of "nastiness, lies or deceit" that I can see, and she doesn't want to waste unnecessary energy on it. Really? Where is all your energy going? What better use of your energy could there be than helping people hurt by nastiness and arrogance of the Struthers pharisees? Is it more important to bake cakes for the coffee shop?

But that is the hypocrisy they have been spouting for years - put on a public face of believing in accountability, but preach something very different to those under your control. Push is now coming to shove however - it looks like questions are being asked and they will have to make a decision. Is answering the questions form OSCR an unnecessary waste of energy? That is very clearly what Diana is saying. I hope she for once practices what she preaches and refuses to talk to OSCR. Come on Diana, Member of the Board of Directors, put your money where your mouth is. You have publicly stated that you believe that any attempt to answer criticism is an unnecessary waste of energy, and used Christ Himself as the example of that. Well, please do put that into practice and refuse to speak to the OSCR inspectors.

I suspect that will lead to a very rapid decision about whether SMC should remain a charity.

Very well put, The Petitor. Yet another example of SMC leaders taking a verse out of context and using it to justify THEIR conduct. Yet another example of them twisting Scripture to suit and to condemn those who don't agree with everything the leaders say. I heard verses used in that way, on innumerable occasions whilst in SMC. It is a form of mind-manipulation to keep people held in to their teaching and control.
Perhaps DR might recall that Jesus one day made himself a whip and chased the money-changers out of the Temple. He didn't always stay silent and do nothing. He regularly asked people questions and He regularly answered people's questions. Because He loved them and wanted to show them the truth.