Word of Life videos offer glimpse into church services

Observer-Dispatch, New York/February 6, 2017

By Micaela Parker

The congregation of Word of Life Christian Church is gathered for a church service.

Pastor Tiffanie Irwin, usually seen seated behind a table with her laptop in front of her, delivers her sermon. Members of the congregation, seated in long rows of chairs, bend their heads and studiously take notes.

It's a rare look inside the church, courtesy of videos obtained from the Oneida County District Attorney's Office via a Freedom of Information Act request. It's video that could lend support to a former member's claims that church officials controlled the congregation through a variety of means.

The scenery — a narrow room with rows of seats facing Irwin and band equipment on either side of her — remains the same, but the topics covered in Irwin's sermons vary: scripture, rebellion, demons and spirits, witchcraft, sexual molestation and visions brought to her by God.

Seated separately at the end a row of chairs like two bookends are Christopher Leonard, always seated on the left next to his father, Bruce Leonard, and Lucas Leonard, who remains seated on the far right. The most recent video obtained by the O-D is dated Sept. 27, 2015, according to information provided by the District Attorney's Office. Less than a month later, 19-year-old Lucas would die as a result of injuries sustained during a beating inside the building. His younger brother, now 18, would be severely injured in the attack.

Nine people — including Irwin and the teens' parents — were charged for their involvement in the Oct. 11-12, 2015, "counseling session" where both teens were struck by their parents and sister with a folded electrical cord. The session focused on allegations levied against the teens ranging from the sexual molestation of children to witchcraft.

The teens' older sister Kristel Leonard Lindsey has spoken at the sentencing of seven defendants so far. As she prepares for the Monday sentencing of her parents, Bruce and Deborah Leonard, for their role in the incident, the Observer-Dispatch spoke to Lindsey in a wide-ranging email interview about the 25 years she was a member of the church.

Communicating with God

From the time she was 10 years old, Lindsey said, she was taught to believe that the pastors of Word of Life — first Jerry Irwin until his death in 2012, then his daughter and current Pastor Tiffanie Irwin — could communicate with God. Describing herself as a "survivor of this high-demand authoritarian group," she said the church practiced "undue influence" and "practiced unethical destructive mind control."

"The basic belief in their exclusive ability to communicate with God was founded in scriptural teaching on that subject," she wrote. "The problem is that the Irwins controlled the interpretation of the scripture and adamantly criticized other bible teachers who had varying interpretations. The illustration of a frog in boiling water well represents the experience there for those who attended long-term. There are plenty of bible verses that can be interpreted to say that followers are to submit to and obey their leaders; to honor and respect the teachers of the faith, and there are plenty of verses that address direct communication with God as well. The Irwins knew how to use the scripture to support their doctrine and their ambition for control."

The "frog in boiling water" anecdote is one where if a frog is placed in boiling water, it will hop out, but if the frog is placed in cold water, which is then brought to a boil slowly, it will not perceive the danger and be cooked to death.

Discrepancies between prophecy and reality was attributed to a person not obeying God, causing the prophecy to be unfulfilled, Lindsey said. Hearing "once or twice weekly" for years that God speaks through former pastor Jerry Irwin meant there was never any consideration he was wrong. Additionally, she said another aspect of control was the use of "labeling" people with personal sins. Due to those sins, they were told they could not hear from God and therefore had to rely on the Irwin family to relay God's messages.

In one video obtained by the Observer-Dispatch, current pastor Tiffanie Irwin tells her congregation during a Sept. 6service that she will not allow the sexual molestation of children in her church, and if she sees it she will put an end to it.

She also describes a "vision" indicating "great change" for the church that depicted God standing nearby. After describing the vision, she adds that she had been communicating with God regarding plans for a garage sale; she believed he indicated that they should not have a craft table.

Other topics at church services include:

• Questioning Deborah Leonard in front of the congregation on her relationships outside the church and their opinions regarding church teachings. Christopher is questioned on whether he feels "victimized by the church." She also questions him on her decision that he have a partner on the grounds at all times due to concerns that he "could not be trusted" and to help him avoid "temptation." She urges him to have an "about-face" and respect his father. She alludes to an incident where he got "bashed in the face" but does not explain the circumstances.

• She discusses rebellion as the sin of witchcraft and questions the congregation where demons go once they leave a person's body. She claims some church members, without naming them, have demons.

[...]

Tiffanie Irwin's attorney, Kurt Schultz, declined to comment on the facts of the case while he's in the process of appealing the court's decision to deny her efforts to withdraw her Alford plea to first-degree manslaughter and second-degree assault. She alleged at the time of her sentencing that her case was improperly handled and that she was denied "a fair trial and impartial jury, and a fair and impartial judge."

"I am going to stand by my self-imposed gag order to not comment on the facts of the case because I fully anticipate when the appellate division reviews what transpired in my client's case that my client will have her day in court," he said. "All the speculation about mind control and hypnosis is nothing more than that — speculation. There has been no evidence at any allocution of anyone that my client was either an accessory to a crime, participated in a crime or my client had a legal duty to do anything."

About this report

The Observer-Dispatch obtained videos of Word of Life Christian Church services from the Oneida County District Attorney's Office via a Freedom of Information Act request. Reporter Micaela Parker pored through hours of video to help construct this report.

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