Religion · Cincinnati, OH Metro · August 21, 2026
Crossroads Church Suspends Founding Pastor Brian Tome Amid Misconduct Probe
What Alinsky tactic is being used
One of the thirteen rules is in play here.
Rule 4
“Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.”
The pressure on Crossroads came from its own stated standard, not from outside. The accuser went back to leadership only after the church swiftly removed the Next Gen director for secretly filming women at a gym, and argued the 2024 in-house handling of his own complaint had not been fair — the same institution applying two different measures. The board's own words supply the yardstick: it had 'formally admonished' Tome to be above reproach in 2024, and in April concluded his actions 'were inappropriate and not above reproach.'
Counter-Rule 4 · Radical Integrity
Close the gap between stated values and actual practice before anyone else finds it. This tactic only works where the gap is real.
Close the gap before someone else measures it: ask the board in writing for the written policy governing allegations against staff and against elders/senior pastors, and ask whether the same document governed both the 2024 review and the youth-ministry firing. Read the church's own bylaws and any published safeguarding policy before the next members' meeting, and write down the two timelines side by side — date of report, who reviewed it, outcome. Refuse to argue about personalities; argue only about whether one written standard was applied twice.
Chapter 3 sets out the rules; Chapter 15 answers each of them in turn. This is that pairing applied to this story.
Know where you stand
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