Thread by @oldreepicheep

🧵 Image Repair Analysis case study: former megachurch pastor Patrick Garcia.

The link to the story is in the QT.

https://twitter.com/oldreepicheep/status/1671254697884405761

"Since my fall happened two years ago, I’ve been able to determine what caused my crash...”

He is leading off with MINIMIZATION. How is this minimization?

In two cases--"since my fall happened..", "..what caused my crash" he is using PASSIVE VOICE.

Remember what I said: minimization can take MANY forms. When you state something in passive voice, you are weakening your statement. Lawyers coach clients to use passive voice on cross-examination. Some of you remember the Watergate hearings ("mistakes were made.")

So when you are speaking of a disqualifying abuse, by using the passive voice, you are framing it as less severe than it was. He does that TWICE coming out of the gate.

This should set off your alarms.

He also engages in MINIMIZATION by comparing his abuse to a car crash. Combined with his use of passive voice, he is framing his downfall as something that HAPPENED TO HIM rather than THE CONSEQUENCE OF HIS OWN ACTION.

It's like a child who kills his parents, then pleads for mercy from the court because he is now an orphan.

"I’ve learned this through lots of prayer, self-reflection, hours of counseling and having difficult conversations with mentors and other pastors.”

This is BOLSTERING.

Why?

Notice that he has switched from PASSIVE VOICE to ACTIVE VOICE now that he is seeking to make the case for his restoration. This is all about himself.

He is talking about what he has learned, and the conversations he has has with "mentors and other pastors."

In the latter case, alluding to "mentors and other pastors", including Bob Russell (a retired mega pastor who has a sterling reputation), is a form of BOLSTERING known as TRIANGULATION.

He is using the integrity of well-known figures to make the case for HIS integrity.

"I didn’t just lose a job. … I lost a career. The options in the corporate world for fallen pastors aren’t many. I vastly underestimated the challenge of this...The only job I could initially find was washing windows for a friend’s company.”

This is CASTING HIMSELF AS A VICTIM

He is reflecting on consequences that he suffered.

But what is missing here?

Not one word about his VICTIMS?

Fact is, the consequences, while hard, are self-inflicted.

But the real damage here was (a) what he inflicted on the woman he took license with, (b) what he inflicted on his family, and (c) what he did to the church body to whom he should have been a shepherd rather than a wolf feasting on lambs.

Garcia says nothing about THAT.

"I went through a time when I was totally angry with God because I believed He could save my marriage. I preached for years that He can revive what's dead. My marriage was obviously very bad. I wanted it to live again.”

More CASTING HIMSELF AS A VICTIM.

He takes no ownership for that failure; he speaks of blaming that on God. He says his marriage was "very bad", but does not own his part in that poor quality of marriage.

"My mentor, Bob Russell, has always said, ‘Wise people learn from their mistakes. Wiser people learn from the mistakes of others’”

This is MINIMIZATION. What he did was not "mistakes". And he is engaging in BOLSTERING BY TRIANGULATION by appealing to Bob Russell.

"So that's what I hope can be the angle of this story. I'm going to be truthful, but at the same time, my intent is not to put The Hills Church down. … I just think that it's worth knowing what happened, what didn't happen.”

This is GASLIGHTING.

So far, he has yet to acknowledge the severity of his own culpability. That's what honest reflection and MORTIFICATION would communicate. So far, there is no MORTIFICATION.

"Garcia says he was never sexually intimate with the woman with whom he admits to having the months-long inappropriate, sexting relationship."

This is MINIMIZATION.

Sexting is every bit as serious as "getting physical ".

If she's a parishioner, it's sexual abuse.

"My affair was not a full-blown sexual affair. Yet because we weren’t having sex — we never even kissed — I told myself the relationship with the other woman wasn’t that wrong or as wrong as it could’ve been.”

More MINIMIZATION.

"He contends that The Hills Church elders edited his statement to include that his affair was also “physical.” He speculates they might have been concerned he would start another church and bring the congregation with him as he did after leaving Crossroads Christian Church."

This is DARVO: DENY, ATTACK, REVERSE VICTIM and OFFENDER.

He's DENYING the affair
He's ATTACKING his elders
He's casting himself as their victim, and positing them as the offenders.

He is also ignoring the woman he was involved with.

"Garcia described the other woman as someone who served in an advisory role at The Hills Church who was also married."

She was a member of his flock. So that's sexual abuse. He does not acknowledge this. Well, he almost does later...

"But over time, I targeted her voice above others because she respected me and I was attracted to her,”

FINALLY he gets around to backhandedly admitting to targeting her. (A very weak admission, but a start. I'm not ready to classify that as MORTIFICATION just yet.)

TBC...

"While taking responsibility for the actions that led to his resignation, Garcia admits to getting swept up by the other woman’s company because she provided him with affirmation he was missing in his relationship with Savannah."

This is MINIMIZATION by ATTACKING.

How?

He is backhandedly attacking his (now ex) wife.

"Nobody is to blame for what I did besides me. A rocky marriage is never permission to look somewhere else or to someone else. I only bring this up to help you understand and cause you to pay attention to your wife."

That he is starting to take some ownership rings hollow. Why?

He has spent the preceding part of the talk minimizing, making a DARVO play on his church, and framing himself as a victim.

Describing the moment he strayed, "It was a Thursday afternoon and the other woman and I were talking on the phone when she told me, ‘I’m so impressed by you. I think you’re mesmerizing. I have a crush on you.’"

This is a backhanded ATTACK on his victim.

Fact is, it was his job to be the shepherd, to be the big man in the room. I don't care if she sent him a nude pic and said "do me!"

Being the people pleaser I am, I knew she felt awkward telling me that. Here she was being vulnerable with me and I appreciated it..So, to relieve her anxiety and reveal my cards, I said back to her, ‘Well, I think the same. I’ve had a crush on you for about three years now.’”

This is the most telling part of his story..in this, he is telling you what he is really all about. He has been all-in for his victim for 3 years, all while being a lead pastor.

Remember, he said he TARGETED her voice. He said TARGETED.

He told on himself.

"The other woman provided shots of dopamine. It was exciting. The thrill of it caused me to downplay the consequences of it...The relationship became an ‘escape’ from the stress and pressure of being a senior pastor.”

@sheilagregoire we have a narcotic reference here

Facing questions after being caught: "Instead of unveiling the inappropriate relationship I was responsible for, I confessed just enough...I told the guys we had met up one time to exchange a book I needed for my ‘coaching sessions’ for time management,”

He is confessing, post facto, to lying. And consider that he has spent much of his time MINIMIZING what he did.

There's an elephant in the room: Does anyone want to bet he's not telling the truth now?

"He alleged that the executive pastors hacked his phone to gain access to his “texts, Instagram/Facebook messages” and printed all of them for Savannah."

No...she handed them the phone. She had access. He had a #FAFO moment.

"Garcia told CP that he tried to do the right thing and fight for his family. He said he got very little support in that area from The Hills Church."

This is a DARVO, again. He's putting the guilt on the church. He's casting himself as a victim.

"I said, ‘Well, can you at least tell me how they are going to gauge my success as the senior pastor?’” he noted.

By his calculation, Garcia says the church had grown by 12% under his leadership and there was a surplus of $500,000 in the budget."

This is BOLSTERING. He is arrogating himself by appealing to numerical, business-like metrics to make the case for his greatness.

"I don't think he meant to say it, but he did say it. And I'm so glad that he did say it because I knew I was getting fired for the right reason. If you're going to fire me, fire me because I'm trying to do ministry like Jesus.”

I'll take TRANSCENDENCE for $500, Alex.

Later on, he speaks of his suicidal thoughts. That is CASTING HIMSELF AS A VICTIM.

Ladies and gentlemen, this man should not be trusted to pastor a herd of pigs.

Here's what he should do: forge a secular career doing honest work, face up to his own failures without minimizing them, quit blaming his former board, and start living humbly in repentance.

But what I am seeing here, this is pure Image Repair. And not the good kind. His story is self-serving.

10/10 do not recommend.