Boz Tchividjian wants IHOPKC shuttered as 3rd woman brings claim against Mike Bickle

Here's an article from the Kansas City Star that gets into some of the complicated things about the case. It's a case of statutory rape (sexual contact with a minor) , and the perpetrator persuaded the victim to cover for him "because he was doing such great work for The Lord", more or less, for the past 43 years. There are at least two other women who have come forward, and they're telling about the same story, right down to pet names and such. The others appear to have been adults.

Here's another that gives some of the details that probably tell us why Tchividjian wants the place shut down. Apparently there are at least two former pastors whose misconduct warranted removal, and it does appear that they used "prophetic" authority to indulge their sins, among other things.

Shut it all down? Well, at one level, three complainants would ordinarily get a settlement (let's assume statute of limitations is not expired, etc..) of a few million dollars unless the behavior was super egregious. What I see here is gross, but nowhere as bad as what, say, Larry Nassar did to all those gymnasts. So financially, I don't know that they need to close up shop.

On the flip side, I think the articles make clear that there are certain cultural and even theological tendencies that need to be addressed there, and I don't know how extensive those are. It may be that you can't remove the abusive tendencies without gutting the theological distinctives of the place, but I don't know.

Lawyers usually get 1/3 of the settlement plus expenses. Liquidating the ministry provides money for victims as well as lawyers. Conflict of interest?

Wally, yes, you can get people who are money hungry, but on the flip side, if you don't allow lawyers to have arrangements like this, the largely poor victims of things like this don't get to take things to court.

Long and short of it is that if statutes of limitations haven't run out, and Tchividjian has a good case, he is going to get a payoff. And for the thousands of hours he's putting into it, shouldn't he be compensated?

A very nice compensation!