Religion · Myrtle Beach, SC Metro · August 20, 2026
Emergency Hearing Set in Pawleys Island Church-Academy Lawsuit
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.”
Nothing in this story shows an organized campaign — it is a lawsuit — but the one Alinsky dynamic genuinely present is the leverage that comes from an institution's own book of rules. A church academy that publishes a child-protection policy, a background-check requirement, or a mandatory-reporting commitment will be measured in court and in the press against that document, not against its intentions; the alert itself flags that it is unconfirmed 'whether leadership is accused of negligence, concealment, or failure to report.' The gap between a written safeguarding policy and what was actually done is where a case like this lives.
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 in your own congregation before anyone else measures it. This month, pull the written child-protection policy, find the date the board or session adopted it and its policy number, and check three concrete things: when each current volunteer's background check was run, whether every staff member and volunteer has documented mandatory-reporter training, and whether the two-adult rule is actually kept in practice. Where the answer is 'we can't produce the record,' write that down and fix it — and refuse the temptation to describe a policy as 'in place' when only the document, not the practice, exists.
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
The free 4-minute assessment identifies your mountain and your institution’s capture phase — so alerts like this one arrive matched to where you actually stand.
Facing this yourself? Ask. Describe what is happening and get what the book, Scripture, and the law of your state say, with the exact words to use. Your first one is free.