COERCION?

SUPPORT? Steven B Clark Defends the

Sword of the Spirit

OR

"When we are helped to do what we believe we are called

to do and committed ourselves to do, we are not being

coerced but supported."

--- Steven B Clark, New Covenant Magazine, November 1991 ~ ~ ~

When is supporting a person just another way of coercing them?

It depends on your definition of being “helped.”

~ ~ ~

The problem with Clark’s statement is the word “helped.” In the Sword of the Spirit

there were many forms of pastoral “help” for those who failed to live up to their leader’s

expectations. These included but were not limited to, a) questioning one’s loyalty to the

Community; b) questioning one’s willingness to allow God to work in their life; c)

threatening to “review” their level of service or their membership status in the community

-a veiled threat of expulsion; d) calling people derogatory names like “pigpen,” or “lazy”; e)

mocking people to their face to show them how they appeared to the leader; f)

questioning their manly character; g) praying “over” the member for deliverance from

whatever evil spirit is preventing them from “seeing the truth;” h) use of the power of the

pastoral office to intimidate or short circuit critical thinking of the member by insisting on

compliance without understanding; i) use of the belief that God is acting through the

pastoral leader and, j) believing that God will bless the subordinate even if the pastoral

leader’s decision/direction is wrong just for submitting to the leader.

All of these are documented uses of pastoral care in the Sword of the Spirit of the

1980s and 90s. ALL OF THESE ACTIVITIES ARE COERCIVE. They are helpful only in that

they achieve the goal of maintaining the member in submission to the goals and activities

of the Sword of the Spirit. They do not take into account the member’s own heart,

background or specific Calling from God. They are listed here so that current members of

“self governing” Sword of the Spirit communities can compare them to their own

experience.

In the Sword of the Spirit of the 1980s and 90s, there was a tremendous effort to

make people conform to a “way of life.” Many people who had joined Charismatic

Communities that were then assimilated into the Sword of the Spirit were forced to leave

those communities when they “couldn’t live the life.” Many more moved from great

distances, leaving jobs, families and friends only to discover they were trapped in a

lifestyle of authority and submission to a body of teaching they were not fully informed

about prior to making their decision. And as recently as May 2011, a current Sword of the

Spirit member who challenged practices in their community was placed on an indefinite

leave of absence for doing so.

One has to ask: how many Apostles of Jesus would have survived if they had been

asked to leave every time they expressed concern or questioned the Savior’s teachings

or actions?

Clark attempts to utilize the traditions and history of the Catholic Church in the area

of “obedience" to justify the use of obedience in the Sword of the Spirit. The truth is

however, that no matter how much he wants to pretend otherwise, the Sword of the Spirit

is not the Catholic Church. Steven Clark (or his delegates) had no ecclesiastical right to

exercise authority over anyone, let alone obedience. Clark's expectation of "obedience"

from faithful Catholics participating in Sword of the Spirit Communities is a direct

challenge to the authority of Catholic Bishops. Albert Ottenweller said as much in his

Pastoral Visitation and ordered Servants to sever "all ties" with the aberrant Clarkian

Community.

The Sword of the Spirit continues to evade the Catholic Church’s authority by

maintaining separate, “self-governing communities” in their network. They prefer the

loosely supervised status of “lay associations” to the safety and shelter of Catholic Bishops

and their Dioceses. They do this solely to maintain their own church-like governments,

where it is SOS leaders who function as Bishops, Cardinals and Popes with subsequent

access to the money and power that accompanies their self appointments.

Using "scarred children" from poorly functioning marriages as a metaphor for

former SOS members, Clark tries to rescue his aberrant brand of Community by

suggesting that we shouldn't throw out the baby with the bathwater. So even though his

pastoral methodologies have chewed up faithful Catholics like so much toilette paper,

"...Catholics will want to maintain them when they can." No thanks, Steven, for once again

telling Catholics and others how we will want to think about your ideas. I prefer to listen

to my Bishop.

In a magazine dedicated to the support and Renewal of the Charismatic Movement,

Steven B Clark attacks the very Renewal Movement that feeds the Sword of the Spirit.

Like other Covenant Community leaders of that day, when they are held accountable for

the abuse and injury of their members they shift the blame to their favorite whipping

child: the Charismatic Renewal. Clark blames problems his teachings and pastoral

practices have created on the, "subjective leading of the Spirit over objective teaching,

tradition and church authority..."

I pause here to wonder what the world would be like today had Mother Theresa

ignored the "subjective leading of the Spirit" and never sought to minister to the dying

people of India, or if Francis of Assisi would never have followed the "subjective leading of

the Spirit" and shed his clothes and walked naked out of Assisi. How much the poorer

would the world be had they ignored these very subjective and personal leadings of the

Holy Spirit?

Clark attacks individualism because he can't control it. He believes the Church

should embrace his Sword of the Spirit "Clone" theology (as described in the secret Sword

of the Spirit Policy Notebook.) The rich history of the Church's "individual" Saints and

their unique, heroic examples speak to that issue better than I could ever do. Clark's

arguments THRIVE on manipulating the Church's history to his own ends. These ends are

never very good for the individual. The Clarkian "hive" mentality may work for bees, but

probably won't work for those of us created in the image and likeness of our Divine

Creator.

Page 2 is included to show how New Covenant eventually dumped Steven Clark and

demoted Fr Michael Scanlan. New Covenant magazine was purchased by Our Sunday

Visitor Press in the early 90s, and failed completely several years later. It is no longer

published but articles are archived by Our Sunday Visitor Press and still available free of

charge by this generous organization.

Published September 9, 2009. Second Revision: June 19, 2011 Third Revision August 6, 2011 John Flaherty Grand Island, NE johnandtimmy@hotmail.com