RUTHERFORD CO. (NC)
7News WSPA

December 1, 2017

By Brianna Smith

RUTHERFORD Co., NC (WSPA) — Rutherford County Department of Social Services and the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has announced a new partnership in reviewing child abuse and neglect cases connected to Word of Faith Fellowship.

A settlement between Word of Faith and Rutherford County DSS in 2005 from a federal lawsuit, has recently become scrutinized. The settlement closed and expunged records of 10 pending cases on children within the Western North Carolina church. The settlement also laid out stipulations for future cases. Those stipulations included giving Word of Faith Fellowship the right to record any interviews Rutherford County DSS had with children, it also to some extent protected a religious ritual inside the church known as blasting. Blastings are prayers within the church that include large amounts of screaming or shrieking and often physical…