Religion · Statewide · VA · October 8, 2026
Investigation: Vineyard Pastor Sexually Abused Women Across Two States For Decades
What Alinsky tactic is being used
2 of the thirteen rules are in play here — campaigns rarely run just one.
Rule 4
“Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.”
The whole force of this story is the distance between what the institutions said they were and what they did: a church and an oversight body at Vanguard Ministries learned of the abuse, left Roy in place six more months, then recommissioned him after a one-year 'restoration' — a procedure that exists on paper precisely to prevent what followed. The Stier Group's finding that the misconduct 'went largely unchecked with little consequences' is the gap stated and measured. Vineyard USA has now had its own book of rules read back to it by an investigator it commissioned, which is the only reason the gap closed at all.
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.
This month, get your church's written abuse-response policy in hand — ask for the policy number and the date the board adopted it — and read it against what the church actually does: who takes a report, who is told, how fast, and whether staff are trained annually. Where the written policy and the practice differ, put the difference in writing to the board before anyone outside does, and ask for a dated correction. Refuse the comfort of assuming a policy exists because leaders say one does.
Rule 13
“Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”
The mechanism that let this run two decades was isolation: one woman, a 26-year-old bookkeeper on staff, reporting against a senior pastor with the leadership structure around him, and twenty years passing before she reached an outside tip line in 2024. She did not need to be publicly attacked to be neutralized — being the single, unsupported, employed person in the room did it. The later victims in Indiana were likewise subordinates and congregants, each one alone.
Counter-Rule 13 · Radical Solidarity
Stand publicly with whoever has been singled out. Isolation is the whole mechanism; refusing it disarms the tactic.
If someone in your congregation brings an allegation, the practical counter is to make sure she is never the only one in the room: offer to sit with her when she speaks to leadership, write down the date and what was said, and say plainly to the board that you are standing with her. Ask now, before any case, whether your church's policy allows a reporter to bring a support person and an outside advocate. Refuse to carry or repeat any instruction to keep a report 'in the family.'
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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