Here is a collection of testimonies from various people, articles and livestreams taken from a Reddit post by a now deleted author. Edits have been made in brackets.
Click here for a link to the whole post.
Former members have testified to the following abuses via social media posts, most of which occurred in the early 2000s:
- One woman whose husband was in minor leadership at the "church" reported that, one day while she was at work, her husband removed all of ther belongings, from furniture to pictures on the walls, from their home except for their clothes, which were lying on the floor of their bedroom. Why? Because the "church" (Chaney) had put forth a "giving challenge" of some kind. Subsequently, the husband signed over his $30,000 military severance pay to the "church" without even cashing the checks, when his own family was so impoverished that the mother was improvising diapers for her baby out of her toddler's underwear and her own menstrual pads. Later, the couple needed financial assistance to pay for the self-storage that contained all their belongings. The "church" paid the $400 needed, but they seized the items in a U-Haul truck and then forced the mother to buy back her own children's clothing before the rest was sold in a lawn sale. When she left the congregation, after divorcing her husband over it, Chaney attempted to ruin her life by spreading lies about her, accusing her of stealing from the church to fuel a cocaine habit.
- Speaking of scamming poor congregants, Chaney would frequently require congregants to buy food for church banquets and cookouts, even if they were on food stamps. At least once, this included $300 worth of crab legs. Tickets to these dinners were then sold for exorbitant prices (one person said $3500 per adult).
- Speaking of cocaine, a woman who claims to have been molested twice by Chaney says that he was a borderline alcoholic while his preaching "made it sound like, if you even look at a wine cooler, you're going to hell;" regularly used cocaine and had his congregants buy it for him from drug dealers; and was sexually active with many women within the congregation while demanding that the women wear ankle-length dresses for modesty's sake and forbidding them from looking men in the face...excusing all of his behavior by saying that if he and/or his victims "repented" afterward, it was all fine in the eyes of God.
- And speaking of divorce, multiple marriages have broken up within the congregation with Chaney's encouragement/engineering. For instance, he would make men who entered the ranks of leadership spend nearly all their time with him and winked at their adultery with other women in the church.
- Anwoman was sexually assaulted/raped by Chaney. [THIS LINK HAS SINCE BEEN TAKEN DOWN SINCE PROTESTS BEGUN (https://blackfolk.livejournal.com/3354080.html) SEE TESTIMONIES PAGE FOR THE FULL ARTICLE] at threat of being shocked with a stun gun. After she came forward to a local news source and filed a civil suit against him, Chaney ordered the congregation to shun her completely and brought several members of the congregation to a cemetery and instructed them to "speak" the whistleblower and her children "to death" by shouting their names in the graveyard and writing them on tombstones. BTW, even though the assault was reported by a local news outlet, the Livejournal post is the only place it survives because Chaney or his underlings are adept at scrubbing evidence of their misdeeds from the internet.
- However, one thing they cannot erase is their tax records, or lack thereof. The "church" does not appear on any database of registered nonprofits, but it does have a 501(c)3 filing. None of the required tax returns are available either, which suggests that the "church" has been committing tax fraud. And this is corroborated by reports of Chaney talking to members about needing to register things in different people's names because he owes taxes!
- Speaking of stun guns, Chaney purportedly derives pleasure from shocking women with a stun gun, especially on their genitals. He would impose fines for minor infractions, mostly disobedience to him, upon people *who often did not have a cent to their name.* Then he would propose to absolve the fines in exchange for stinging them with the stun gun.
- And speaking of curses, Chaney styles himself as being able to put curses on people and threatens that they or their children will die if they leave the congregation.
- Another woman and her family reportedly became homeless after making large financial outlays to the "church" under the promise of return or "reaping what you sowed." They were eventually housed in a home owned by the church. (This was a common occurrence, as families who fell into Chaney's orbit often became homeless because of the outrageous financial demands placed on them by the "church". These families would then be housed in illegal conditions, with 3-4 other families in the same house.) Two people from this family later witnessed Chaney engaging in sexual behavior with underage girls.
- Speaking of child molestation, Chaney (through his secretary) would commonly fetch women and girls from the congregation after services to perform sex acts on him (kissing and masturbation at least) in his office.
- A security guard reportedly saw multiple members of church leadership molesting little boys in the men's restrooms. When this was reported to someone in the church, nothing happened except that Chaney, in his next sermon, said something about parents needing to keep an eye on their kids.
- The "church" operated a hair salon at which women from the congregation worked without pay. The woman from the improvised-diaper/storage-unit story worked 72-hour weeks there, without seeing a cent in compensation. It also operates a daycare and a "Christian academy" which appears to teach nothing but trauma. One woman from there reportedly left as a seventh grader (age 12-13, for international readers ) with a second-grade (age 6-7) education.
- According to eyewitness reports, there were people, including children, illegally living within the "church" building until the night of June 26, when the protests began. Former members on the premises heard occupants being told to pack their belongings, saw beds being disassembled, and saw U-Haul trucks pulling out from behind the building.
- The "church" was apparently dismantled in the early 2000s for **human trafficking** when they were based at [1121 E Little Creek Road] but they just moved to [707 E Bayview Blvd] Norfolk and regrouped.
Click here for a link to the whole post.
Former members have testified to the following abuses via social media posts, most of which occurred in the early 2000s:
- One woman whose husband was in minor leadership at the "church" reported that, one day while she was at work, her husband removed all of ther belongings, from furniture to pictures on the walls, from their home except for their clothes, which were lying on the floor of their bedroom. Why? Because the "church" (Chaney) had put forth a "giving challenge" of some kind. Subsequently, the husband signed over his $30,000 military severance pay to the "church" without even cashing the checks, when his own family was so impoverished that the mother was improvising diapers for her baby out of her toddler's underwear and her own menstrual pads. Later, the couple needed financial assistance to pay for the self-storage that contained all their belongings. The "church" paid the $400 needed, but they seized the items in a U-Haul truck and then forced the mother to buy back her own children's clothing before the rest was sold in a lawn sale. When she left the congregation, after divorcing her husband over it, Chaney attempted to ruin her life by spreading lies about her, accusing her of stealing from the church to fuel a cocaine habit.
- Speaking of scamming poor congregants, Chaney would frequently require congregants to buy food for church banquets and cookouts, even if they were on food stamps. At least once, this included $300 worth of crab legs. Tickets to these dinners were then sold for exorbitant prices (one person said $3500 per adult).
- Speaking of cocaine, a woman who claims to have been molested twice by Chaney says that he was a borderline alcoholic while his preaching "made it sound like, if you even look at a wine cooler, you're going to hell;" regularly used cocaine and had his congregants buy it for him from drug dealers; and was sexually active with many women within the congregation while demanding that the women wear ankle-length dresses for modesty's sake and forbidding them from looking men in the face...excusing all of his behavior by saying that if he and/or his victims "repented" afterward, it was all fine in the eyes of God.
- And speaking of divorce, multiple marriages have broken up within the congregation with Chaney's encouragement/engineering. For instance, he would make men who entered the ranks of leadership spend nearly all their time with him and winked at their adultery with other women in the church.
- Anwoman was sexually assaulted/raped by Chaney. [THIS LINK HAS SINCE BEEN TAKEN DOWN SINCE PROTESTS BEGUN (https://blackfolk.livejournal.com/3354080.html) SEE TESTIMONIES PAGE FOR THE FULL ARTICLE] at threat of being shocked with a stun gun. After she came forward to a local news source and filed a civil suit against him, Chaney ordered the congregation to shun her completely and brought several members of the congregation to a cemetery and instructed them to "speak" the whistleblower and her children "to death" by shouting their names in the graveyard and writing them on tombstones. BTW, even though the assault was reported by a local news outlet, the Livejournal post is the only place it survives because Chaney or his underlings are adept at scrubbing evidence of their misdeeds from the internet.
- However, one thing they cannot erase is their tax records, or lack thereof. The "church" does not appear on any database of registered nonprofits, but it does have a 501(c)3 filing. None of the required tax returns are available either, which suggests that the "church" has been committing tax fraud. And this is corroborated by reports of Chaney talking to members about needing to register things in different people's names because he owes taxes!
- Speaking of stun guns, Chaney purportedly derives pleasure from shocking women with a stun gun, especially on their genitals. He would impose fines for minor infractions, mostly disobedience to him, upon people *who often did not have a cent to their name.* Then he would propose to absolve the fines in exchange for stinging them with the stun gun.
- And speaking of curses, Chaney styles himself as being able to put curses on people and threatens that they or their children will die if they leave the congregation.
- Another woman and her family reportedly became homeless after making large financial outlays to the "church" under the promise of return or "reaping what you sowed." They were eventually housed in a home owned by the church. (This was a common occurrence, as families who fell into Chaney's orbit often became homeless because of the outrageous financial demands placed on them by the "church". These families would then be housed in illegal conditions, with 3-4 other families in the same house.) Two people from this family later witnessed Chaney engaging in sexual behavior with underage girls.
- Speaking of child molestation, Chaney (through his secretary) would commonly fetch women and girls from the congregation after services to perform sex acts on him (kissing and masturbation at least) in his office.
- A security guard reportedly saw multiple members of church leadership molesting little boys in the men's restrooms. When this was reported to someone in the church, nothing happened except that Chaney, in his next sermon, said something about parents needing to keep an eye on their kids.
- The "church" operated a hair salon at which women from the congregation worked without pay. The woman from the improvised-diaper/storage-unit story worked 72-hour weeks there, without seeing a cent in compensation. It also operates a daycare and a "Christian academy" which appears to teach nothing but trauma. One woman from there reportedly left as a seventh grader (age 12-13, for international readers ) with a second-grade (age 6-7) education.
- According to eyewitness reports, there were people, including children, illegally living within the "church" building until the night of June 26, when the protests began. Former members on the premises heard occupants being told to pack their belongings, saw beds being disassembled, and saw U-Haul trucks pulling out from behind the building.
- The "church" was apparently dismantled in the early 2000s for **human trafficking** when they were based at [1121 E Little Creek Road] but they just moved to [707 E Bayview Blvd] Norfolk and regrouped.