We at Kuyperian have been keeping a close eye on the Doug Phillips unfolding drama, which came as a result of his inappropriate relationship with a woman. With the recent news of the resignation of another famous patriarchal leader, Bill Gothard, the patriarchal movement has come to the center of several new investigations. Now, World Net Daily reports that the same woman–Lourdes Torres– is accusing Vision Forum leader, Doug Phillips, of inappropriate behavior far worse than originally implied by the resignation letter:
In the complaint filed in Kendall County District Court in Texas Tuesday morning, Phillips is accused of using a woman named Lourdes Torres, now 29, as “a personal sex object” over a period of five years.
Asked if she ever believed she loved Phillips, Torres, who was over the age of 21 at the time of the sexual contact, told WND, “Oh, yes, definitely.”
Torres said she met Phillips and his wife, Beall, at a homeschooling conference in November 1999 when Torres was 15 years old. Torres spent many hours in the Phillips home, cared for their children and helped run the family farm. She was invited on trips with the family to Hawaii, Virginia, Mexico, Florida and other states.
By 2007, according to the complaint, Phillips began “to pay special attention” to Torres, complementing her beauty and devotion to his family, giving her money, touching her, asking her personal questions about her thoughts and life plans and telling her he would take care of her.
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Sick and disgusting. It seems that the heavy-handed patriarchy movement may be cloaking a lot more of this. Sadly, even Doug Wilson, who I assume many Kuyperian readers including myself are supportive of, was reported a few years ago as having assisted in covering up the sins of a man in his congregation because the man was a patriarch/head of household and so as to not bring the patriarch to shame. Even in our Reformed circles we are not immune to the reach of the patriarchy movement.
Because of similar wording as well as the traces of patriarchy that can still be found in some circles, since the Doug Phillips case came out I have had to do explaining to family and acquaintances. No, Vision Forum and Federal Vision are not the same thing! VF does not equal FV. Have had to be very clear with people that they are two very distinct things, especially having grown up in Bill Gothard circles with a lot of exposure to Vision Forum materials and teachings too.
Thanks for sharing, NJ.