Pacific Northwest ex-IFB members launch podcast exposing church trauma

Pacific Northwest ex-IFB members launch podcast exposing church trauma

News story by Mia Gallegos | FāVS News

Josie Pickens and Kristy Vestal, two former members of Independent Fundamental Baptist (IFB) churches in the Pacific Northwest, have launched a podcast to expose the trauma they experienced within the denomination. 

Their show, entitled “Cult Confessions,” sheds light on the dark side of a religious movement that claims to pursue purity and re-purification of the church. Despite the IFB’s portrayal of its adherents as bona fide Christians living out their faith, Pickens and Vestal’s stories reveal a troubling undercurrent of corruption within a system that often envelops its members’ entire lives, from church services to affiliated schools.

Inside Faith Baptist Church

Faith Baptist Church (Faith) in Spokane is one of the congregations that falls under the umbrella of the IFB. Pickens became a member of Faith at the age of 8, though she had attended IFB congregations all her life.

“I’m an OG (Original Gangster), I’ve been going to church since before I was born. My mom was raised (in) IFB. My dad didn’t convert until he was 22, but they met in the church and got married. But going to IFB church is the first thing I remember,” Pickens said. 

Pickens explained how even at the age of 8, she noticed a difference between Bible Baptist Mount Vernon — the church she had gone to in her native town of Mount Vernon — and Faith almost immediately. The most jarring and easily spotted difference she noticed was the physicality of those at Faith. Members of the congregation were particularly affectionate toward one another, giving hugs to older kids, adults and the pastoral staff.

“That was something very different from Bible Baptist. We didn’t really do that. I gave hugs to my girl friends who were my own age. But never the teenagers. I don’t think I ever remember giving my pastor a hug there,” Pickens said.

This physical tendency acted as a gateway for Pickens’ sexual abuser to fly under the radar and watchful eyes of Pastor Greg Boyle, the head pastor of Faith. Cunning was just under six and a half years older than Pickens and began molesting her a mere months after she and her family arrived in Spokane, she said.

“(The abuse) happened every Sunday for several months,” Pickens said. 

Apologies and limited consequences

Following one of the instances of abuse, Pickens’ mother questioned her and realized that something was off. Pickens did not fully disclose what she and Cunning had been doing, but gave a vague description that was still considered condemnable.

This mild description was both because she was scared of getting in trouble and because Cunning had told her not to tell anyone about their “relationship,” Pickens said. She went to Boyle and asked if he would make Cunning apologize to her daughter.

This was regular at IFB churches, Pickens explained. Every request had to go through the pastor of the church. This was not exclusive to the young members of Faith: the adults were expected to bring their questions, concerns and inquiries to Boyle before any action was taken.

The extent of what Pickens had been enduring was not known in its entirety, but an apology from Cunning was put in order and saw through. However, the abuse resumed a few months following this gesture. 

Pickens underwent this abuse for five years before any charges were pressed against the perpetrator. Cunning was charged with second degree child molestation, but pleaded guilty to assault with a sexual motivation. In the courts, this is considered a lesser charge, as it doesn’t involve children.

Cunning was given the choice of what he wanted his punishment within the Faith community to be. His options were for him to either leave the church for a year or to go up in front of the congregation and apologize for his actions. He chose the former.

Victim apologizes to abuser

During Cunning’s sentencing, Pickens wrote a victim’s statement, in which she wrote a letter that was read in the court. However, rather than condemning Cunning for his actions, Pickens’ letter functioned as a detailed apology to the perpetrator of her assault.

“I wrote about how sorry I was and how I never meant for this to happen and how I hoped he would forgive me,” Pickens said, getting choked up as she relayed this detail.

Pickens explained one of the mentalities preached in IFB churches: women and girls are not to act as “stumbling blocks” for the men and boys in terms of sexual temptation. This has the potential to make young girls take the blame upon themselves when situations of sexual assault take place, exactly what Pickens experienced in writing her victim’s statement. 

‘Just a goof’

This mentality also caused Pickens to feel like what she was experiencing wasn’t considered sexual assault. This is noticeable within the apology she wrote to her molester and also in the police report that was filed to report these years of abuse.

The report details the entire interaction between Pickens and Sargent S.J. Wohl held on June 29, 2011. In the interview, Wohl asked Pickens about what kind of adult supervision was present around the times when she and Cunning would be left alone together. Pickens said that Cunning was an adult, but “doesn’t act like one.” When Wohl asked her to elaborate on that point, she claimed he was “just a goof.” 

This word choice suggested Pickens viewed Cunning’s behavior as less than assaultive. Pickens had explained how being noticed by an older boy was “exactly what (her) little girl heart always wanted.” A similar sentiment is mirrored in the interview with Wohl, when Pickens said, “I’m not social, but it was nice to have someone notice me.” 

These feelings made it difficult for Pickens to realize that what she was experiencing wasn’t love, and hence prompted the apology that was read aloud in the courtroom.

The abuser returns to Faith

A year went by and Cunning’s return date was approaching. Boyle pulled Pickens into his office and asked if she was OK with Cunning returning to Faith.

“Before I could even answer, he started to give me all the reasons why I had to be OK with it because (Cunning) had been punished. The big thing that (Pastor Boyle) stressed was ‘how was Daniel supposed to get better without the church?’” Pickens said.

Though the abuse didn’t begin in the same capacity as before, Pickens and Cunning had another run-in several years later, one that was more severe than before: attempted rape, as he was accused of in a police report, which Pickens just filed for in the winter of 2023. Last she heard, the most recently filed case is under review by an Assistant District Attorney (ADA) to see if it would be possible to press charges. 

Pickens said that Boyle encouraged her to consider entering a relationship with her abuser back when the information regarding Cunning’s most recent charges of assault had been brought to him. This suggestion was made in an attempt to encourage sexual engagement with only one other individual, Pickens said.

“Those types of things were supposed to be saved for my husband, and now I was not pure. So if (Cunning) and I were to date, it would still belong to my husband so it would be okay,” Pickens said.

Pastor’s views on sexuality clash with victim’s experience

In response to this, Boyle explained the main values surrounding relationships that are preached to the children who are raised in Faith. 

“We believe that sexual relationships should be something that is encouraged only within the bounds of marriage,” Boyle said in an interview with FāVS.

While he didn’t comment directly on Pickens’ situation, he explained the emphasis that both he and the teachers in the children’s schools seek to provide on the importance of avoiding situations that could result in instances of temptation.

“I raised two daughters. I tried to teach them not to have physical contact with boys. I don’t think there’s anything sinful about holding a boy’s hand. But I think that the action can lead the boy to want other things with his hands. I’m not saying that happens every time, but it happens some of the time,” Boyle said.

In Pickens’ case, the innocent gestures gave unto those more sinful actions that Boyle warned his daughters of.

Pickens explained it wasn’t until about a year ago that she accepted what she had undergone at Faith as sexual assault. Something that helped her in this time of realization and acceptance was her friendship with Kristy Vestal, her co-host on “Cult Confessions.”

Inside Willamette Valley Baptist Church

Vestal had experienced a couple instances of assault within her own IFB congregation, Willamette Valley Baptist Church in Aumsville, Oregon. Neither Vestal nor Pickens — who are now 31 and 26 years old respectively — attend churches of any kind today.

Vestal’s experience was different in that she didn’t start going to an IFB church until the age of 13. Her family had just moved up to Oregon from San Diego and began attending Willamette when they arrived in their new home. Vestal and her siblings were immediately enrolled in the church’s school.

After Vestal graduated from West Coast Baptist Church — all of her education had taken place in IFB schools — she got married and stopped going to church entirely.

“There was a lot of trauma and strict rules, especially for women within the IFB. It made me feel very unworthy and never good enough, no matter how much I tried. And I tried really, really hard,” Vestal said.

Vestal was and still is the face of the Willamette Valley Baptist School, as their school website hasn’t been updated since the time she left.

Deceptive perfection in IFB members

She was invited to go on tour groups, which would send out students to recruit more people to come and join their school. While on these tours and in the years following her departure from IFB churches, she learned the image of perfection encouraged by the denomination and its leaders was merely a facade covering a potentially corrupted interior. 

“The IFB is very much what you appear to be as a Christian rather than who you are on the inside. I just got really tired of trying and feeling like the person I was wasn’t good enough anymore,” Vestal said.

Vestal’s husband was a member of Faith, the same church Pickens attended. Through him, the two were connected. Vestal got the idea for a podcast and she invited Pickens to undertake the work necessary to produce, edit, market and release episodes on a weekly basis. The two women are the steam-engine behind the entire “Cult Confessions” operation.

Shining the light on abuse in IFB

Pickens and Vestal’s hope for the podcast is that it shines light on the transgressions that may still be taking place in Faith Baptist Church, among other churches within the IFB.

Two of the guests that Pickens and Vestal have had on the podcast have been Jay Breeden and Amelia Protiva, a brother and sister pair who grew up in IFB churches in and around the Pacific Northwest region.

In his interview on “‘Cult Confessions,” Breeden explained his walk as a homosexual man and how that uniquely impacted his experience within the IFB. He discussed a scenario in which he was inappropriately touched by one of the older boys within his youth group. 

“A lot of the conversations around sexual assault, at least in my house, were about men towards women. There wasn’t a conversation that (assault) could be a guy towards a guy. Those conversations didn’t happen,” Breeden said, detailing the reason why he was unable to classify what he had been through as sexual assault until later on in his life. 

Abuse hidden behind church doors

In a separate episode, Protiva, expressed a similar attitude that she felt like tainted the IFB churches.

“There were the typical abusive behaviors within the church and family that were just normalized. So it didn’t really strike me as negative,” Protiva said.

The assimilation of abuse into church society and the way it was most commonly kept under wraps contributed to this ideology that what these victims were undergoing wasn’t abnormal.

Pickens wholeheartedly believes these instances of misconduct are still taking place in Faith.

“Nothing has changed to indicate that it would stop. The same people are still in power, the same rules are still in place, the same structure is still there. I would be surprised if there was nothing going on,” Pickens said. 

“Cult Confessions” was created for others, especially children, undergoing similar situations the hosts of the podcast have gone through. Their purpose is to prompt the realization that anyone going through a similar turmoil that each of them underwent is not alone in that suffering, the hosts explained.

Vestal said she hopes members of IFB who come across their podcast would be inspired by a wave of curiosity and examination toward the denomination.

“Make sure to question everything. We’re taught to not question. We’re taught to just believe the pastor and believe God. But if you feel like something isn’t right, it’s OK to feel that,”  Vestal said. 

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