The following are strictly the author's thoughts and are not endorsed by Plainville Baptist Church.
(My pastor asked me to say that.)
If you do a Google search on "Plainville Baptist Church" (PBC), you will find some surprising allegations about the church I attend. You will learn that the church is a front for a coven of witches, that it is a family-run church, and that we are guilty of sins including witchcraft and ritual child abuse.
You will learn all these things, and more, from the pages of a discernment ministry called "Liberty to the Captives." Their home page is here, and the specific page dealing with PBC is here. This site is high in popularity among Google searchers; only the church's own pages rank higher. Several people have expressed concern to our pastor about these allegations. We have no way of knowing how many people have been scared away from ever contacting or visiting us by this site.
There are a few problems with these allegations. Specifically:
- Liberty to the Captives is not a discernment ministry. It is the personal web site of Gary and Lisa Ruby, former members of PBC who now live in another state. See the "About" page on their site.
- According to the "About" page, the Rubys have cast off all Biblical authority and headship. They attend no local church; they are under the oversight of no pastor or any other church organization.
- Search the accusations they make against us, and you will find no specifics of any kind. No dates, no times, no descriptions of the actions we allegedly took against them or the harm we allegedly visited on them, no details of the curses we allegedly put on them, nothing.
- Their accusations consist of either putting normal words in quotes to make them sound sinister, or to cite things that other evil people do and let the reader assume that PBC does the same things, without actually committing libel by saying we do those things. These are the tactics of character assassination, not the actions of concerned Christians.
- I hope the reader will understand that pharmacy and pharmacists are not evil, and that Tom Bonifield's and Pam Crowell's choice of vocation was not satanic.
- We did not choose the date for our old building's demolition. It was decided for us by the contractor, based on the availability of his equipment. Likewise, the opening date for our new building wasn't chosen for any special significance; it was just the first Sunday after the building was finished and the town's building inspector gave us permission to occupy. Oh, and by the way, St. Winebald's day is December 18, not January 7.
- We did hold services in a Masonic lodge while our new building was under construction. This was for one reason and one reason alone: the Masons were the only organization who offered us a facility large enough for our needs, at a rent that we could afford. Other groups, including other local churches, wanted to charge us more rent than we could afford to pay.
- The Rubys cite this site as authoritatively describing our church leadership. This site is unaffiliated with PBC; it is a privately-run directory of churches, created by one individual pastor. It appears that this page has not been updated since 2004.
- It is disingenuous to assert that David Meunier "assumed" the role of "co-pastor." When Pastor Tom Bonifield retired, he formed a pulpit search committee, which recommended Mr. Meunier as their first choice. He was initially reluctant to take the role, but became the pastor upon a near-unanimous vote of all members. (The one dissenting vote was from a senior who felt he didn't know Mr. Meunier well enough yet.) David Meunier has never been a co-pastor of this church.
- The reason the church web site does not mention Harold Crowell in its church leadership is because Mr. Crowell is not involved in church leadership. At present (2018), he teaches a class for adult Sunday school, and serves as the building's caretaker.
- The allegation that he is our "chief financial backer" is false; PBC runs on free-will offerings from individuals, like any other New Testament church. Mr. Crowell's tithes and offerings may or may not be higher than anyone else's, but that does not justify calling him a "financial backer" of the church.
- The allegations about Mr. Crowell's personal blog are irrelevant. His blog is not affiliated with PBC.
- The section called "Unconscionable Harm to Children," aside from being sickening, makes some allegations that are improbable at best. Brainwashing and hypnosis through drugs? Allowing demon possession through sexual abuse? Putting "tiny, cursed implants into the bodies of their victims"? The reader may draw his/her own conclusions.
- The Rubys espouse some other beliefs that might raise the hackles of many Christians. Among them: it is evil to pray in a circle (see this page); Christian message boards are dangerous for the believer (see this page); and demons can be spread by touch, like a communicable disease (see this page). This does not speak well of the quality of their spiritual discernment.
The most likely reason that the Rubys' site is so high on Google's list is because they have "Google-bombed" it, linking many pages to it and repeatedly visiting it, in order to artificially inflate Google's perception of its importance. To verify this, check some other search engine, like Bing or Lycos; the Rubys' pages are lower on those sites' rankings.
Pastor Dave is unwilling to "go to war" to settle this issue, preferring to let the Lord be our defender. I am posting this page on my own personal site, with his consent but with no official blessing or endorsement.
We wish no evil on the Ruby family. We need to pray for them. "For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity." (Acts 8:23)
Please do not let the false accusations of two disgruntled ex-members color your perceptions of Plainville Baptist Church. Come and visit us! We'll show you the entire building; there are no hidden chambers for mistreating children. We can't show you individual giving records, but we can show you our books and demonstrate that there are no line items for "financial backers." Most of all, we'd love to show you our Savior, Jesus Christ.
