When Leaders Reach for Stages Instead of Sackcloth
A line-by-line breakdown of Tim Barker’s 2026 statement, the psychology of DARVO, and the growing divide between protecting people and protecting institutions.
By Ron Bloomingkemper, Jr. | May 18, 2026,
The most dangerous spiritual manipulation rarely sounds abusive.
It sounds sincere. It sounds noble. It can even sound spiritual.
It reframes accountability as persecution,
scrutiny as division,
and loyalty as righteousness.
That is why so many ministers fail to recognize it while it is happening, and why so many people in the pews stay silent long after they do.
Tim Barker's statement at the 2026 South Texas District Conference in Corpus Christi was not merely defensive. It was an example of how institutional spiritual manipulation works in real time.
This essay is not about destroying a man. It is about exposing a pattern we can learn from.
Because once you see the pattern, it becomes very difficult to unsee.
“Tim Barker’s statement at the 2026 South Texas District Conference was a real-time case study of institutional spiritual manipulation.”
A Side Note Before We Begin
I don’t know Tim Barker personally; I’ve never met the man.
In 2013, I called Tim and warned him that Chi Alpha was platforming a registered sex offender and how Daniel groomed me and asked me to do something sexual with him. Tim has since stated under oath in a deposition that he has never had a conversation with me, and if anyone says otherwise, they are lying.
I have written about that call in full detail here. It is not the subject of this piece, but knowing its history brings clarity to the background.
What Is DARVO?
DARVO is a documented manipulation framework identified by psychologist Jennifer Freyd. It describes a predictable response pattern used by perpetrators and institutions when confronted with credible accusations.
Deny. Attack. Reverse Victim and Offender.
The accused denies wrongdoing, attacks the credibility or motives of those raising concerns, then positions themselves as the true victim — while framing critics, whistleblowers, and survivors as the aggressors.
What follows is a line-by-line breakdown of ten tactics used in Tim Barker’s response to the article “The Missing Page Two.” Listen to Tim's full response below.
Tactic 1: Poison the Well Before the Evidence Lands
"I will not lend credibility to an agenda-driven, tabloid-style narrative built upon half-truths, distorted facts, and selectively presented information." - Tim Barker
Notice what is missing.
No specific claim is identified. No document is challenged. No factual error is named.
The audience is simply told the reporting is bad before they ever evaluate the evidence themselves.
That is pre-emptive discrediting. If the room accepts the frame, they no longer need to examine the substance.
When someone is falsely accused, you expect clarity, specifics, and direct answers. Institutional language often does the opposite.
The standing invitation remains simple: name one specific factual error in The Missing Page Two article. Just one. With documentation.
Dismissing an investigation without addressing the evidence is not transparency. It is just managing the narrative.
Tactic 2: Make the Leak the Crime, Not the Contents
"What is especially grievous is that confidential executive presbytery materials have once again circulated." - Tim Barker
Read that carefully.
The grievous thing in Tim's framing is not what the documents contain, the content. The grievous thing is that people saw them.
If the documents were false, forged, or misleading, the argument would focus on their inaccuracy. Instead, the focus is on their exposure.
This is the institutional reflex: protect the container, avoid the contents.
Richard Nixon's men were not ultimately destroyed by the Watergate break-in. They were destroyed by what they were trying to hide, and by the lengths they went to hide it. Every move made to suppress the truth became its own indictment. The cover-up became the confession.
“As Watergate taught the country, the cover-up is usually what buries you.”
The same logic applies here.
When the loudest objection is that documents circulated rather than what those documents reveal, the institution has shown you what it is actually trying to protect.
Tactic 3: Substitute Process for Substance
"The South Texas Ministry Network thoroughly reviewed the matter and equivocally cleared me of the accusations… the general counsel, executive presbytery, and credentialing committee also reviewed the situation independently… The response of the national executive presbytery was unanimous, and I was cleared." - Tim Barker
Reviewed by whom?
What evidence was examined? What witnesses were interviewed? Were the reviews independent? Were the findings released publicly? Were the pastors funding this institution permitted to examine the records themselves?
Those questions remain unanswered.
A church investigating itself behind closed doors and announcing it has cleared itself is not accountability. It is public relations disguised as accountability.
That is like saying, "My district buddies and I got together and pardoned ourselves, nothing to see here, trust leadership."
My God, where are the adults in the room?
“Healthy leadership understands something simple: trust is not restored by asking for trust. Trust is restored through transparency. ”
Announcing a conclusion without showing the work is not accountability.
It is the appearance of accountability, built to end the conversation.
Tactic 4: Reframe Whistleblowers as a Faceless Mob
"A small group of disgruntled individuals…" - Tim Barker
There it is. The category.
Disgruntled.
In one word, survivors, former students, concerned parents, whistleblowers, journalists, advocates, former ministers, and anyone asking questions are reduced to a single, vague, emotional mob.
This is critical to understand because spiritual manipulation almost always strips individuality from dissenters.
Once people become "divisive," "bitter," "rebellious," or "disgruntled," the audience no longer has to wrestle with the substance of what they are saying.
The label does the work. But patterns matter.
We encourage STXD leadership to take time to read the survivor stories of the very people being dismissed as “disgruntled.” (Click the graphic to read)
Tim and others have repeatedly framed this movement for institutional accountability as “small.” Ironically, Scripture is full of moments where God used small groups to confront broken systems. Gideon’s army was reduced from 32,000 to 300 so nobody could confuse the victory with human strength. David was one shepherd boy standing before Goliath while an entire army trembled in fear.
Sometimes God intentionally reduces the numbers so nobody mistakes the victory for human power. But even then, the voices of survivors, advocates, pastors, and whistleblowers keep growing louder by the day.
When unrelated people across multiple years keep raising concerns around the same leadership structures, reasonable people eventually begin asking a different question.
What if the common denominator is not the whistleblowers?
What if the common denominator is the system itself?
Tactic 5: Stretch the Timeline to Imply Persecution
"For nearly 15 years, I have endured repeated attacks…" - Tim Barker
The argument here is subtle but familiar.
I have been criticized for years and am still standing; I must be innocent.
But the timeline cuts both ways.
Fifteen years of recurring concerns, recurring controversy, recurring warnings, recurring survivor stories, and recurring requests for transparency are not automatically evidence of persecution.
Sometimes it is evidence of unresolved problems.
The watchman on the wall does not stop calling because the city got tired of hearing him. He keeps calling because the threat never left. Call him obsessive if you want. The watchman is not the danger. The danger is the danger.
Scripture is not subtle about this.
"But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at the watchman's hand. So you, son of man: I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore you shall hear a word from My mouth and warn them for Me." (Ezekiel 33:6-7, NKJV)
The watchman does not get to stand down because the years are long. He stands down when the sword is gone.
Persistent smoke usually has a source.
Last Days Ministry, “The Watchman” asleep at his post. Ezekiel 33:6.
Tactic 6: Weaponize Biblical Language Against Accountability
"Leaders who follow biblical standards… seeking truth directly rather than speculation or gossip." - Tim Barker
This is where spiritual manipulation becomes especially dangerous, because now biblical language is being used to discourage scrutiny.
Matthew 18 is the passage routinely invoked. Here is what it actually says.
"Moreover, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that 'by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.' And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector." (Matthew 18:15-17, NKJV)
Read it again.
This is a process between individual believers about personal offense. It is not a gag order on institutional governance failures, abuse allegations, financial concerns, or leadership negligence. In sexual abuse cases, there are usually not two or three witnesses.
It is also a process with an endpoint. When the offender refuses to hear, Jesus does not say “protect him.“ Jesus says, tell it to the church. And if he still refuses to hear, treat him like an outsider.
The misuse strips away the final step and pretends the whole passage stops at "between you and him alone." That is not a biblical process. That is institutional cover.
And ministers across the Assemblies of God know this.
Survivors made phone calls.
Parents sent emails.
Pastors requested meetings.
Former students raised warnings.
Concerned ministers asked questions.
The so-called biblical process was tried. It was ignored.
You cannot invoke "biblical process" after years of ignored concerns and unanswered questions.
You cannot praise honest conversation while refusing to participate in it. You cannot praise honest conversation while blocking the people asking the questions from your Facebook page.
And you cannot quote Matthew 18 at the people knocking on the door, while you are the one refusing to answer it.
Case in point. Here is the screenshot of the email I sent to Tim Barker before “The Missing Page Two” article went live. I also sent emails to all the Executive District officials and the executive presbytery from a list someone sent me.
April 29, 2026, email to STXD Superintendent Tim Barker, requesting comment for the article “The Missing Page Two.” To date, no response has been received.
Tactic 7: Draw a Circle Around the Loyal
"Your integrity, fairness, and Christlike spirit have meant more than words can express." - Tim Barker
Watch what happens psychologically.
The room is divided into two categories.
Those loyal to leadership are framed as Christlike.
Those raising concerns are framed as destructive.
This is tribe-building from a platform. And suddenly every pastor in the room understands the cost of dissent. Ask questions, risk becoming one of them.
That is not unity. That is textbook social pressure.
Oddly enough, one of the funniest examples of this showed up in Seinfeld. In the AIDS Walk episode, Kramer refuses to wear the ribbon. Not because he hates anyone. He refuses because he will not perform public conformity on command. The crowd turns on him instantly. He is mocked, shamed, and treated like a dangerous outsider, all because he would not signal loyalty in the approved way.
That is the joke. And the warning.
When loyalty becomes the test, the ribbon becomes more important than the cause.
Tactic 8: Self-Coronation Through Spiritual Language
"Today, I draw a line in the sand. I will no longer allow false narratives, anonymous accusations, and continued character attacks to strike from the mission God has called." - Tim Barker
Against what, exactly?
Against survivors? Against scrutiny? Against documents? Against transparency? Against Accountability?
The language becomes spiritualized, and that is precisely the danger.
Because once the leader's position becomes inseparable from God's mission, disagreement with leadership subtly becomes disagreement with God Himself.
That is the end state of institutional spiritual abuse.
Put another way, “don’t touch the Lord’s anointed.”
The phrase ‘Don’t touch the Lord’s anointed’ is constantly ripped out of context to protect leaders from accountability.
In Scripture, David used it to restrain himself from murdering Saul, not to silence criticism, confrontation, or repentance. (1 Samuel 24 and 26) Another use of the phrase appears when God warns pagan kings not to harm Abraham and Isaac (Psalm 105:14–15 and 1 Chronicles 16:21–22).
Neither passage was written to create untouchable leaders immune from questions, correction, or exposure. The modern misuse flips the meaning on its head and turns a biblical warning against violence into a religious shield against accountability.
“Question the leader, and you are accused of threatening the mission. Challenge the institution, and you are accused of opposing God.”
That is not a line in the sand. That is a wall around a man.
Tactic 9: The Closing Virtue Stack
"My commitment remains unchanged to serve God, to serve this network as long as you allow, and lead with transparency, humility, and integrity for as long as the Lord allows." — Tim Barker
The three words at the end of the speech are the three words he stands accused of violating.
Transparency. The records have not been released. Even the live-stream was turned off.
Humility. The speech positions the speaker as the victim.
Integrity. The behavior described by survivors and former colleagues does not match the words.
Saying the words is not the same as doing the things.
This is verbal sleight of hand. The speech ends with the rhetorical equivalent of a man accused of theft signing off with honesty, generosity, and restraint.
The room applauds.
The words have done their work.
Tactic 10: Refuse the Conversation While Claiming to Welcome It
…..allowing honest conversation rather than speculation or gossip to guide their response or conclusion. — Tim Barker
He praises those who engage in honest conversation.
He then announces he will no longer allow questions to distract him from his calling.
Translation: I welcome conversation from people who already agree with me.
Everyone else is a distraction.
That is not openness. That is a velvet rope at the religious inner-circle club.
A quick example of trying to have an honest conversation, only to be shut down, ironically came from Tim Barker's wife. At the 2025 South Texas District Conference, I was standing around talking with a few Chi Alpha guys who approached me first. The conversation was respectful and productive, according to Robbie Anderson, right up until Jill Barker and another pastor, Joel Garza, who was recently elected as an Executive Presbyter in South Texas, walked into the circle and told me I needed to leave because I was not welcome there.
The irony was hard to miss. A conference promoting unity and transparency suddenly had no room for uncomfortable conversations. It is a wild story, and you can read the full account here.
You cannot praise honest conversation while refusing to participate in it. You cannot praise honest conversation while blocking the people asking the questions from your Facebook page.
As a side note worth pausing on.
Before any of this went public, I reached out to Eli Gautreaux on Facebook Messenger. I told him we needed to talk long before the forum blew up. He told me he would be back in a few weeks. When I went back to check the thread, the conversation was gone. So was Eli's entire Facebook page. So much for Matthew 18.
Sam Houston State University Chi Alpha Mexico City Mission Trip 1997.
“We cannot love the stage more than the sheep and still call ourselves a shepherd.”
Here is what people need to recognize, whether or not anyone says it out loud.
You cannot claim transparency while shutting off the livestream.
You cannot praise honest conversation while refusing to answer questions.
You cannot condemn anonymous accusations while ignoring documented concerns.
You cannot say trust the process while hiding the process itself.
You cannot welcome scrutiny while treating scrutiny as betrayal.
You cannot preach servant leadership while insulating yourself from accountability.
You cannot call whistleblowers divisive when the division was created by secrecy.
You cannot say we did not know when watching over the flock was the assignment.
And you cannot love the stage more than the sheep and still call yourself a shepherd.
The Stage and the Sackcloth
When survivors come forward describing abuse that occurred on your watch, and leadership did not formally investigate the named perpetrator for years, the response is not a stage.
It is sackcloth and ashes.
It is dust on the head. It is the king of Nineveh stepping down off his throne. It is David refusing to eat or stand up off the ground. It is Daniel praying with his face to the floor. It is every leader in scripture who, when the depth of the harm done under his authority became clear, did not write a speech. He tore his clothes.
“That is the posture survivors and concerned ministers have been waiting years for Chi Alpha and the Assemblies of God leadership to take.”
There is still time to take it.
There is no version of biblical leadership in which the right response to a sexual abuse scandal of Chi Alpha Campus Ministry magnitude is a polished statement read from a platform to a roomful of supporters. There is no version in which leadership casts itself as the victim and the abuse survivors and advocates as the bullies.
There is no version in which the Holy Spirit is invoked to help an institution win lawsuits against the very survivors who finally found the courage to come forward.
I encourage you to read the court filings from John Doe 1, John Doe 2, and John Doe 3, the very men abused by Daniel Savala, against whom the South Texas District was reportedly praying to prevail in court so they would not have to pay the lawsuits.
My friends, that is not Christianity. That is institutional self-preservation. Could anything be more grievous to God than this? Listen to the “We Will Win” prayer by Scott Briggs.
There is, however, a long biblical tradition of leaders who, when confronted with the harm done under their watch, came down off the platform and onto their knees.
AG Pastor & Gustav Dore - Jonah Preaches to the People of Nineveh (c. 1880, Bible Illustration)
Josiah did. Hezekiah did. Nineveh's king did. Peter did. Paul did.
Repentance is not the end of a ministry. It is the beginning of a restored one.
God is drawing a line in the sand in the Body of Christ right now. The line is between shepherds who love the sheep and hirelings who love the stage.
That is the dirty side of revival nobody wants to talk about.
God starts flipping tables. God starts exposing motives. God starts removing masks. And suddenly you discover who was building people, and who was building platforms.
Ezekiel 34 is not merely a warning to abusive shepherds.
Read the chapter. God indicts three groups.
The shepherds who fed themselves while the flock starved.
The shepherds who failed to strengthen the weak, heal the sick, bind up the broken, and bring back the driven away.
And the sheep who pushed the weaker sheep with side and shoulder and scattered them.
That third category is the one rarely discussed. It is the pastors who watched and stayed quiet. It is the colleagues who knew and looked away. It is everyone who decided the cost of truth was higher than the cost of silence.
God has a category for them. And it is not flattering.
But Ezekiel 34 does not end with judgment. It ends with restoration.
"I will feed My flock, and I will make them lie down," says the Lord GOD. (Ezekiel 34:15, NKJV)
The good news for any shepherd reading this who is feeling the Holy Spirit's conviction right now is that there is still a Shepherd above you who is willing to take the flock back from your hands and hand it back, cleaned, healed, and accountable, if you are willing to let Him.
That is the offer on the table.
“Some leaders are discovering that the applause of the room cannot drown out the cries of the wounded forever. And I believe that is exactly what is being exposed in the Church right now.”
Not who is loudest.
Not who controls the platform.
Not who gets the standing ovation.
But who is truly for the sheep, and who was always really fighting for the stage.
What We Want, Said Plainly
Tim Barker accused his critics of operating from a hidden agenda.
There is no hidden agenda. There never has been.
XA Lion's Den and the newly formed Wrestling Lions media platform have published the agenda on the homepage, on the masthead, on the podcast, on every piece of content we have ever produced, in six words.
Expose abuse. Seek justice. Revive lives.
That is it. That is the whole thing. Our heart is to listen and obey God.
If anyone in the South Texas Ministry Network wanted to know what we were doing, they could have read it for themselves at any point in the last several years. They could have picked up the phone and called to ask. The agenda is not buried. It is not whispered in a back room. It is written across the front of the work.
Finally. We do not want Tim Barker destroyed. We want the truth.
We want the full, unredacted Foley & Lardner report released. Honestly, we want a second investigation, conducted by an independent third party that does not also serve as defense counsel for the institutions under review, into the spiritual and sexual abuse scandal, including leadership's role in it.
We want the records of the 2013 Tim Barker review and the executive presbytery review released, in full, with no redactions. We are asking the General Counsel for those records.
We want a public accounting of who knew what, and when, about Daniel Savala from 2010 forward. Assemblies of God and Chi Alpha leaders included.
We want every minister in the South Texas Ministry Network to read those documents themselves and reach their own conclusion.
We want statutes of limitations for adult sexual abuse survivors abolished in Texas and other states. The institutional clock has been used to run out the human clock for too long. When this happens, there will be a flood of survivors coming forward to have their day in court.
We want survivors to be heard and to have a safe place to tell their stories.
We want creative resources in every college student's backpack so they can protect themselves from grooming and spiritual abuse by high-control, low-accountability campus ministries, no matter what denomination or organization.
We want the fear of God to return to the church, and the fear of man to leave it. We want an end to the institutional bullying that silences ministers and church members the moment they speak out against abuse.
Watch AG Pastor Jeff Gravis describe institutional bullying firsthand. He says ministers warned him to “watch himself” or risk leadership pulling his credentials.
As Jeff put it: “We are a fellowship, not the mafia.”
“One pastor told me, if he shares the truth, it will split the church. My response was, If the truth can destroy it, then it needs to be destroyed. ”
That is the agenda. There is no other one. It has been out in the open the whole time.
Questions for the Pastor and the Church
This is where the scrolling stops. Please sit with these.
Pastor, have you actually read the documents, or are you trusting the people who do not want you to read them?
Pastor, if a student in your church came forward tomorrow, do you already know what your district would do, or would you find out the hard way?
Pastor, when the records are finally released, where will your name appear? On the list of those who asked? Or on the list of those who stayed quiet?
Pastor, if silence is the price of your credentials, what are your credentials actually worth?
Church, do you know what your pastor knows about the Chi Alpha scandal? If not, why not?
Church, have you asked your pastor where he stands on releasing the Foley report, and if the South Texas leadership was also investigated on how they handled the situation?
Church, would you still send your son or daughter to a Chi Alpha chapter today, given what you know now?
Church, if your pastor cannot answer hard questions about abuse in his own district, who is your church actually protecting?
And one more for everybody.
“If God required your blood at the watchman’s hand tonight, would the trumpet in your hand show any sign of having been blown?”
Ezekiel asked it first. The question has not changed.
The agenda is on the table. The records exist. The survivors are waiting.
What you do next is the only thing that has ever actually been hidden.
