"Let Us Prey" exposes abuse in Independent Fundamental Baptist churches

The new ID series, premiering Friday, will leave you shocked

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Over the past few months, the American public has been able to witness a couple of jaw-dropping documentaries revealing the dark sides of Christianity. There was Shiny Happy People (Prime Video) about the Duggars, and Savior Complex (HBO) about a missionary whose ignorance and zeal may have led to the deaths of African children, and The Mission (National Geographic) about John Allen Chau, the Christian missionary who foolishly and fatally tried to sell his faith to an isolated tribe.

And now we can add one more to the mix: Let Us Prey: A Ministry of Scandals (Investigation Discovery).

The four-part series, which airs Friday and Saturday on ID, exposes the predatory behavior within the Independent Fundamental Baptist movement, as told by several survivors of sexual abuse.

The women—and the narrators are almost entirely women—share their horrifying stories as well as their efforts to obtain justice. Sometimes, it works. Often, it doesn’t. But for people who aren’t familiar with this religious sect, the stories of Purity Culture, sexual grooming by pastors, and unearned trust given by families to religious leaders will be shocking. After all, this is hardly a fringe movement. The IFB consists of over 6,000 churches and roughly 8 million members.

I had the opportunity to watch screeners for the series earlier this week and I’m still in awe of the courage of the survivors who retell their traumatic stories, who go out of their way to support fellow victims (even through they’re strangers in all ways but one), and who lay bare the moral bankruptcy of the IFB sect through their whistleblowing and pursuit of justice.

If you’re familiar with the names Jack Hyles, Jack Schaap, Boyd and Stephanie Householder, Bruce Goddard, then you’ve likely heard the stories in this series. (Kudos to director Sharon Liese for including the voice of Star-Telegram reporter Sarah Smith, who, in 2018, uncovered “at least 412 allegations of sexual misconduct in 187 independent fundamental Baptist churches and their affiliated institutions, spanning 40 states and Canada.”)

But since most Americans have no clue who those religious leaders are, they’re in for a shock. How can you not be when one woman describes the way predators moved from church to church as the “pedophile shuffle”? Or when we learn that pastor Laverne Paul Fox once gifted a 15-year-old girl a teddy bear and underwear, then asked her later, “Are you wearing the panties?” Or when Amanda Householder talks about turning in her own abusive parents, who ran a dangerous Christian boarding school, to authorities? Or when a former IFB member says “every IFB church is a powder keg ready to explode”?

Some of the lines are just gut punches, too. As one victim explains just minutes into the first episode, “When women are being told they have no power, and when men are given all the power, it's a perfect storm for sexual abuse.” Another, in tears, says of her pastor/rapist, “I hate that he was my first everything.” The viewers soon learn how women are routinely blamed for the bad (and sometimes criminal) actions of the men around them.

It’s not that every IFB church harbors predators. It’s that the institution is so broken that predators are able to roam freely between churches, knowing they will likely avoid accountability. It’s that women in those churches are taught to be submissive and obedient and to suppress their sexuality, creating a pathway for predators to pounce. It’s that even family members and friends of those victims are led to believe the pastors can do no wrong.

These accounts need to be told and I’m eternally grateful for the people in this series for telling theirs.

As I’ve written before, there’s an audience eager to hear fair criticism of faith-based beliefs. And when you watch these shows, it’s hard to come away with more sympathy for these people who believe their religion gives them the freedom to cause immeasurable harm to others.

Investigation Discovery is best known as a “true crime” network. That usually brings to mind sordid tales of murder and revenge. It’s telling, then, that the channel is now focusing on these conservative Christian churches, a hotbed of sexual abuse and predatory behavior.

You can watch the series beginning Friday at 9:00p (ET). And then let’s hope there are more series like this one because, unfortunately, there’s no shortage of stories to tell.

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