RawStory:

A North Carolina woman admitted in court in Friday that she led approximately 30 parishioners from her church to attack and beat a gay member of the church in an effort to “expel his demons,” Pink News is reporting. Sarah Anderson is one of five members of the Word of Faith church in North Carolina who has been charged with assault on Matthew Fenner in 2013. Speaking in court, Anderson said she believed Fenner was “unclean and sinful,” after the minister of the church, Brooke Covington, launched into a reported 2-hour long verbal assault on the man. The minister told Fenner that “God said there is something wrong in your life.”

According to Queerty, this wasn't an out-of-the-blue assault. Other members of this church had been targeted for abuse:

[Members] of the Word of Faith church have a reputation for this kind of behavior. Since Fenner came forwards, more reports of congregants brutalizing people “in a violent form of deliverance meant to ‘purify’ sinners by beating out devils” have come to light. The church also has some strict and downright bizarre rules for members. For instance, church leaders decide which congregants can marry or have children, and members are forbidden from watching television, going to movies, reading newspapers, or eating in restaurants that play music or serve alcohol.

Fenner, the victim, is 23 now—so he was a teenager in 2013, when the assault took place. And it's probable his parents had been dragging him to that church for years, and he'd been brainwashed since childhood by the bullshit pouring forth from the pulpit at Word of Faith. It's a difficult thing to turn your back on your "faith community," even a completely batshit one, if your family is pressuring you to stay and their love is conditional. But I'd like to hear more from Fenner about his feelings about his church now and about the abuse he witnessed—and possibly participated in—before the congregation turned on him. Word of Faith didn't abuse Fenner one day. The abuse most likely went on for years.

Finally, you've gotta love Paster Anderson's defense:

Covington’s lawyer, David Teddy, told the court his client is innocent because Fenner never explicitly asked her to stop beating him.

Your honor, that bank never told my client to stop robbing it/that man never told my client to stop murdering him/that woman never told my client to stop mugging her.