High Rock “Family Meeting”
This is what family should look like.
The “Family Meeting”
In the wake of revelations over Steve Morgan’s 1986 arrest for Aggravated Criminal Sodomy, a number of churches held what they called “Family Meetings”. The recording of one such meeting, at High Rock Church, was shared with the r/leavingthenetwork subreddit in December. It is marked by:
Numerous “us vs. them” statements
Repeated statements of motives and objectives of those who are shining light on the network. Statements that do not match those individuals stated motives and objectives.
Various untrue statements, including speculation, exaggeration, and outright lies.
Adamant defense of Steve Morgan and The Network against claims of any significant wrongdoing. He admits that Steve Morgan did what he was charged with, but
It’s that first line that I want to focus on briefly. Scott Joseph affirms the faith of multiple people in the survivor community, while referring to them as:
adversaries
opponents
“those who are against us”
mob, including:
“online mob that has formed against us”
“angry mob”
“outrage mob”
“those who formerly were part of what we are, but now hate us”
And importantly, he suggests the following when asked about maintaining friendships with people who have left The Network.
But if if your effort to hang out with them just feels to you like super slimy, heavy you leave feeling like "oh Man, I hated that," well then you don't hang out with people that you hate spending time with.
Scott Joseph, on what grounds? I admit, that I have established a line in which I will not be close with people who continue to give money to The Network. Why? Because such a person either:
Believes I’m a liar about the abuses I and others have experienced
Thinks such treatment is ok
They are actively funding the furthering of this. But I have not ended the relationship with a single person - I tried to give everyone enough time and patience (which everyone deserves) to come to their conclusions. The only relationships that I no longer have are those where the other people wanted distance, and I have respected that.
Stitch, from Disney’s 2002 film “Lilo & Stitch”, saying “Ohana means family and family means nobody gets left behind. Or forgotten.
In one of my favorite movies ever, the recurring line is an appeal to the Hawaiian word “ohana”. Lilo and Stitch repeatedly defines it as: “Ohana means family. And family means nobody gets left behind. Or forgotten.” Scott Joseph, you refer to a “family meeting”, but you are part of the family of Christ. There are many in Bloomington who were formerly part of High Rock Church, but you did not invite them. They are your brothers and sisters. Did you forget them? Did you leave them behind?
But shall we look to the Bible on how it speaks of such behavior? Because you’d rightly say that Lilo and Stitch is not part of the Bible.
“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.
In the former, I’ve heard Tim Keller expound on “You fool”. He says it goes so much deeper than just an insult. It’s a “you are so foolish I have no interest in your presence in my life.” The modern equivalent is close to “You’re dead to me.” The reason it’s comparable to murder is that, in a very real way, the one who says it is removing the target from their life. When Luke Williams chose to slander me to my friends, and never reached out to me to discuss his issues, he did this. When close friends ceased reaching out or talking to me (one cruelly did not greet my wife, but did greet our dog that she was walking). Jesus does not allow for this behavior.
Our Lord continues, stating that if you know you’ve sinned against someone but have not made it right, you sin every time you give your offering. Scott Joseph - you have lied about me and others. You have used cruel language about us. When you give your offering this Sunday, without having attempted reconciliation, you do so in sin.
I recommend that people consider 1st Corinthians 11:17-34 (sorry, it’s long), 1st John 1, and 1st John 3 in their analysis of leaders actions. I will expand on this line in the future, but this isn’t the article for it.
I still stand ready to discuss with any leader in The Network (as I’ve said before, with a qualified moderator and victim’s advocate present). But I want to help, not hurt. I want to call to repentance, not condemnation. I want to build, not tear down. I moved to SLO in 2016 to help build Jesus’ church, and my work on that continues to this day, even as I write these painful words.
Listen. Humble yourself. Receive the amazing grace of which we sing.
Timeline
July/August 2021: An anonymous group creates Leaving the Network (“LTN”). Shortly thereafter, someone creates the unaffiliated r/leavingthenetwork subreddit. Both serve to create transparency and shed light on the history and actions of those in the network of churches founded and led by Steve Morgan, colloquially referred to as “The Network.”
In the following year, hundreds of stories were shared across these platforms, and multiple additional websites were created, including mine and Unorthoprax (which is anonymously published). Theology & Me, by Black Hadley, was created after the events covered in this post.
July 6th, 2022: An email is sent to myself and LTN. The sender says they are close to a man who was sexually abused by Steve Morgan in 1986. They include sufficient detail that publicly-available court records are quickly located and obtained. They confirm: Steve Morgan was arrested for Aggravated Criminal Sodomy against a 15 year old boy.
July 8th, 2022: LTN publishes stories about the new revelations, including lengthy background information, primarily from Andrew Lumpe. I summarized all of it on July 9th. You can (and should) read LTN’s extensive coverage, as well as my articles about the cover-up (from July 8th) and the timeline of the stories being published (from July 16th, the day after the High Rock Family Meeting).
July 10th, 2022: Multiple pastors address the allegations across The Network, to some degree or another.
Lead Pastor Casey Raymer at Vine Church (Carbondale, Illinois) spoke about it for a little over 13 minutes.
A statement attributed to the Lead Pastors across the Network was distributed to attendees at (at least) Joshua Church
Lead Pastor Nelson Liu made an opaque reference to “mobs” challenging leaders in his sermon at Roots Church in Taipei.
July 15, 2022: Lead Pastor Scott Joseph hosts a “Family Meeting” at High Rock Church in Bloomington, Indiana, in which he addresses the allegations and other allegations from the website for over three hours. I learned that night about the meeting happening, but minimal details about it.
July 16, 2022 (afternoon): I posted a timeline of how the revelations about Steve Morgan were shared (highly relevant to countering much of Scott Joseph’s narrative).
July 16, 2022 (night): I got significantly more detail (just noting this, as the timeline was posted before I knew that Scott Joseph had so aggressively pushed a false narrative on how this came out).
December 21st, 2022: u/exmorganite shares the full recording to the r/leavingthenetwork subreddit. It, and lengthy discussion of it, can be found here: High Rock "Family Meeting" Audio : leavingthenetwork (reddit.com)
January 10th, 2022: I posted the transcription of the audio here Transcription of High Rock Family Meeting : leavingthenetwork (reddit.com). A little more discussion takes place
Transcription
I have transcribed it, with a fairly lengthy disclaimer at the top (PLEASE read it). No commentary is included in this transcription outside of some brief notes in the disclaimer at the top, but I am working on some commentary to follow.
As I say in the disclaimer: Please be careful with your mental health as you read this. Reading it is likely easier than hearing it, but it's still a lot to take in, which is one of the reasons it took so long to transcribe.
Audio
For your convenience, and because I’ve split the transcript into 6 sections, below is the audio as I’d split it. There is small overlap between each part, and if there isn’t, please let me know and I’ll fix it to ensure that it’s clear nothing’s been cut here. Like I said - the full audio is above.