Breaking reporting is exposing that DC insider and Big Oil Lobbyist Michael Whatley has ties to a church “at the center of an abuse scandal” that included punching and choking children.
MeidasTouch Network: “A yearslong Associated Press investigation that found members, including children, subjected to a practice called “blasting,” an hours-long, ear-piercing ritual meant to cast out demons that former members described escalating into punching, choking and restraint.”
This comes as Whatley is in the spotlight for campaigning at a church that reportedly covered up for and protected an employee who groomed and sexually assaulted young girls for decades “through his work” as a piano teacher and basketball coach at the Church.
اقرأ المزيد:
Aaron Parnas | July 30, 2026
- Michael Whatley, the Republican National Committee chairman now running for North Carolina’s open U.S. Senate seat, has spent his campaign branding the GOP as the “party of faith.” His actual record with one particular congregation tells a messier story.
- Word of Faith Fellowship, based in Spindale in rural Rutherford County, has been the subject of a yearslong Associated Press investigation that found members, including children, subjected to a practice called “blasting,” an hours-long, ear-piercing ritual meant to cast out demons that former members described escalating into punching, choking and restraint.
- The legal fallout is still unfolding.
- Whatley’s connection to the Word of Faith network follows a pattern set by Mark Robinson, the North Carolina Republican whose 2024 gubernatorial campaign collapsed under scandal.
- New details point to Whatley’s own links to the Word of Faith network specifically. Gerald and Linda Southerland serve as pastoral counselors at the Word of Faith Christian School; before that, the couple ran Grace and Truth, a related ministry that former members pushed North Carolina authorities to investigate as far back as 1995 alongside the broader allegations against Word of Faith Fellowship. Campaign finance filings reviewed for this story show Gerald Southerland gave $300 to Whatley’s Senate campaign this cycle. And a Whatley for Senate campaign post from a February 20 Rutherford County GOP event reportedly shows the Southerlands alongside Robin Webster, the daughter of Word of Faith founders Sam and Jane Whaley, a connection first flagged by the outlet Forward Carolina.
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