Our scapegoating in 2016 at the Ashland United Church of Christ ( also known as the “Ashland Congregational Church” or, even more ironically, the “Peace Church”) was cathartic, not only for us, but for the congregation itself.
By the time we published this website in December of that year, the congregation was not interested in practicing any kind of “radical welcome”, as Jesus taught. They had collectively, sometimes intentionally and sometimes mindlessly, resorted to a kind of “social club for good people” mentality.
According to the rules of the “social club for good people” rules, L and Daniel, who were attempting to get some very bad behavior on the part of Brad Roupp and Christina Kukuk discussed and addressed, had to serve as examples of what “good” and “bad” would mean going forward.
“Good” would mean:
Don’t ask questions.
Don’t ruffle the feathers of the new minister, Christina Kukuk.
Don’t question Brad Roupp, ever.
Don’t question the Council.
The idea was this: your job as a member of the church is to show up, maintain the pretense of “goodness”, support the church with money, so that these fine “leaders” can help perpetuate the scam for everyone in attendance. The church had become a collective exercise in denial and virtue signalling.
What the congregation “purged” in the process was it’s soul. Instead of the heart that had been engaged in community in the years prior to Christina’s arrival, the congregation decided to surrender to the will of their new chosen pastor, along with surrendering the idea that there was something “Christian” - or even “spiritual” - going on inside the doors of that church.
No forgiveness, no atonement, no redemption, no grace. No blessing.
It is not a surprise that as we pass by the church, the place looks desolate and forlorn; dead. We assume it is. Whatever was alive and vibrant in the years we attended is gone.
Christina had a catharsis, too. Let’s look at that. The work she performed in casting out the “devils” in the form of L and Daniel, making them stand as scapegoats in her petty war on conversation, truth and reconciliation, had a particularly cathartic effect on her life.
Once this website was published and began receiving traffic from all over the country and the world, it quickly became clear that the first results one could find when searching the name “Christina Kukuk” on Google was this account of her corruption of the church.
What this will mean for her future as a minister remains to be seen.
But one thing is certain: no one will ever have to engage with her in the future without being forewarned about her deviousness, her power-hungry nature, and her ineptitude in performing the most basic pastoral function of holding a congregation together and growing it.
Besides the horrible reputational damage she has suffered, there may be some deeper reckoning, that between her and God, which will become more apparent with time. I wouldn't presume to know anything about this. All I know is, “what goes around comes around”.
And there is a larger purge she has become a part of. She’s become one more unfortunate cause of the great wave of people leaving churches in general, especially young people. Maybe it is not unfortunate. Perhaps it is for the best. But surely there is a gigantic hole sitting in the chest of the American psyche, a place of loss and meaninglessness. Christina can consider herself part of bringing that about.
When you give your parishioners nothing real to hold onto, and make your church into a house of cards, for good reasons, they leave.
So Christina’s catharsis is to have purged out the real Body of the Church. As some would say: sad!
Whether the catharsis of the congregation or Christina’s catharsis is more dramatic, I’ll leave you to decide. Both have seen a huge fall.
For our part, the catharsis has been the purification of illusions about church life and human groups in general. We have lost illusions, and gained some sober, but helpful, new understandings.
Both of us have been able to see bullshit coming better from a distance. We’ve both been more brave about speaking up when anyone is treating us disrespectfully. That is a real favorable outcome of this debacle.
The gap left by our participation in the life of that church makes room for deep study of human nature and the various kinds of group-think that pass for “being a good person” these days.
For me, it's become a personal mission; to discover what is behind the many awful ways we have departed from our senses, forgoing our true connection to each other.
As far as I can see, humans have a hard time facing the truth, even truths staring us right in the face. We especially have a hard time resolving conflicts of any kind. In many cases this begins with an unwillingness to engage when any kind of conflict comes up in conversation, or to agree on first principles when engaging.
Even so, whenever L and I see any kind of collective action that results in genuine human improvement, it is heartening. The joy is greater than before. We don’t expect it. The successes we see in people working together to actually solve problems has become a phenomenon that is even more precious now, after this catharsis.
The process of learning and discovery continues. We’re encouraged by the continuing audience this website has gained. We welcome your questions or input. If you would like to contact us and share these, fill out the contact form and we will do our best to get back to you.
Daniel Sperry