Kait Gannon grew up in an abusive household that trafficked her for money. And when GRACE got involved in her case, things got a lot worse.
Kait and Laurie Krull (Kait’s social worker) were interviewed by Peter Bell at the Sons of Patriarchy podcast. Towards the end of they interview, they described two problems they had with GRACE.
GRACE’s model is that the church is the payer source.
When an unsafe church is paying GRACE to investigate, the corrupt church can call the shots. Chances are, the church will not allow the investigators to uncover the full extent of the problem. In the course of the investigation, the victim or the wider church community may provide information to GRACE about other unsafe people / systems in the church, but those things are outside the scope of GRACE’s brief. Then GRACE is bound to say, “Well, we can only investigate that if the church says it’s okay.”
GRACE passed back confidential information to the church, which made Kait’s situation worse.
The Ugly Truth About the Girl Next Door — Sons of Patriarchy, Season 2, Episode 9. YouTube Spotify Apple Podcasts
Transcript starting from 31:30, lightly edited for clarity:
Laurie Krull: Unfortunately, we do not have a good GRACE experience.
Peter Bell: Others don’t too.
Laurie Krull: GRACE is not normally hired to investigate family-controlled human trafficking. GRACE is normally hired to investigate one offender, one victim; or one offender, multiple victims. When you read some of their public reports, that’s typically what they deal with. That was not the kind of situation we were dealing with.
GRACE’s specialty is not human trafficking. And it’s typically not something where people are literally in danger of losing their lives.
The other fault that I find with GRACE’s model is that the church is the payer source. That’s how GRACE works. Churches pay them to do an investigation, which sounds okay — except it’s not okay, because when information starts coming back, that makes it very complicated for GRACE. So, if GRACE is investigating the church, but the church is paying for the investigation, help me understand how that circle makes sense!
And we had several experiences with GRACE where they said, “Well, we can only do that if the church says it’s okay.” Our response was, “But you’re investigating the church!”
In my experience, our case was not something that GRACE were prepared for. They should have never taken the job, which we tried to tell them, frankly, before they even signed a contract. We tried to say, “Are you really sure that you are prepared to take this on?” And they said, “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.” And then they proceeded to make things so much worse instead of better.
We begged them over and over, even no matter how this goes, please just don’t leave us in a worse spot than you’re finding us! But that is exactly what happened!
And it was really confusing, because the investigators who actually came to meet with us — they did all the right things, they said all the right things. We have transcripts and audio recordings of them saying, “Absolutely we believe you. We can see how this happened. There’s so much evidence, all the things!” At the end of the day though, it was information getting back to the church that should have been kept confidential.
It was like GRACE were not prepared for the enormity of what was being handed to them. That made it very very messy and muddy. And eventually we pulled out. Kait said to GRACE, “I’m done. I’m not doing this anymore. You can continue your investigation without me. I’m not interested in continuing to work with you.”
The church had originally come to us saying, “We want to do the right thing and make sure that the children in our building are safe.” We said, “We’re all about that, so, let’s figure out how we can help make that happen.” So the church ask GRACE to investigate and write a report.
But ultimately, what has happened is that the church which asked GRACE to investigate has continued to spread a narrative of us being manipulative and not telling the truth. Talk about a betrayal of trust!
[End of transcript.]
Final note by Barb: One thing Laurie said in the interview concerned me: “(56:45) we know that false allegations are extremely rare and they are usually in very specific circumstances. Typically something like a divorce that’s gone bad, right?” Laurie’s wording could easily give the wrong impression. A “divorce gone bad” is often caused by an abusive father who is weaponising the justice system so he can continue raping his children. Usually, the Family Court viciously retaliates against every protective mother who tries to stop her ex from raping his kids.
***
Kait Gannon and Laurie Krull have their own website The Ugly Truth about the Girl Next Door where they are shedding light on Family Human Trafficking and Ritualistic Abuse.
UglyTruthAboutTheGirlNextDoor
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Hmmm. Brings back a lot of bad memories about how Applegate Christian Fellowship handled abuse. Basically they allowed it. I can remember there was one older female counselor saying to me “One lady claimed abuse when her husband wouldn’t let her drive the car”….in the back of my mind then I was thinking “Well? I’m sure there is more to that? And why is she telling me this?”.
I realized years later it was just a way to make me question myself even more, to minimize my trauma, and basically gaslight me. Not that I think she in particular was doing that with evil intent, however she followed the protocol of the church.
Geez, it’s hard to reflect back on all the abuses perpetrated on my kids and myself, thinking surely the church must be a safe place…. Had I know then what I know now….I would have left earlier, I wouldn’t have given them the chance to raise the abuser up while forcing us into silence.
Their ignorance and delusional advocacy for families (the mask has not yet fallen) meant a woman MUST endure a marriage even though the roots of that marriage are buried in evil.
I remember them saying “maybe it’s your calling to go home at the hands of your husband.”1 And the words “if he’s beating you, you need to build him a sanctuary, make the home more peaceful….but if he hurts the kids then you’re also responsible for not doing these things”.
Essentially my kids and I were shunned, and the abuser [was] made a “door man” or given some other job at the church. Sorry if I’m off subject. Funny thing, that one lady counselor’s name was actually Grace.
I’ve been away a long time, I also do not want to say anything that may offend anyone. I still consider myself a believer. I don’t believe in any part of man’s church. We were lucky to make it out alive. Thanks for such good content.
1[Note: A possible clarification of what memphisrayne wrote, as many “Christians” and churches use the phrase “maybe it’s your calling to go home at the hands of your husband” euphemistically — and I’m not implying that this is what memphisrayne is saying, nor that memphisrayne speaks euphemistically. When some “Christians” or churches use the phrase “maybe it’s your calling to go home at the hands of your husband”, they’re referring to the person they’re speaking to physically dying….in this case, being killed by their husband. Reaching Out.]
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Hi, memphisrayne, you are not off topic. The memories and insights which this post brought up for you is helping me; and I’m pretty sure they will be helpful to others. Thanks for sharing! BTW, I edited your comment a bit for clarity. Hope that’s okay.
I like your insight about that older female counselor: she followed the protocol of the church and she wasn’t doing that with evil intent. She was simply conforming. Being a good sheep.
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My apologies to you, memphisrayne, for “piggy-backing” on your excellent comment. 😊
First….
Barb,
Thank you for your post. 😊
I’ve been “struggling” with what to write….I believe Kait Gannon and Laurie Krull….and I’ve started to question G.R.A.C.E., although it’s a case of “I don’t yet have enough information to know why.” And to be honest — and no offence to anyone intended 😊 — I’m not going to go out of my way to “keep tabs” on G.R.A.C.E. the way I might’ve done in the past. But that’s because I’m only human….I can only do so much 😊 ….if stuff about G.R.A.C.E. “crosses my path”, well, I’ll have to decide what to do then with whatever the information is. 😊
In your post, you wrote:
(The italics are in Barb’s post.)
I’m glad you caught this and pointed it out….I’m not sure many would have caught it, and I think it’s an important point to make. Sometimes someone says something without realizing the implications….it’s not a reflection on them, but rather is a reflection on the / a system.
And at the bottom of memphisrayne’s comment is a clarification of exactly this kind of thing, only with a bit of a variation….
(The italics are in Reaching Out’s clarification.)
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When the comment “maybe it’s your calling to go home at the hands of your husband” was made to me in my own home, in front of our abuser, you can only imagine every tiny bit of hope for safety left my body and spirit. It meant “Stay” “There is NO way to escape” and God’s covenant of marriage only applied to ME breaking it, not the fact that it was already broken and dismantled by the person pushing me, shoving me, punching me and threatening me and my children.
It was Applegate’s belief system — the pastor and the church that backed him — to add to my burden of being responsible for the abuser’s behavior. The husband was literally never held accountable. They burden was on me to protect my children, and appease his demands in every way. They failed to educate themselves, or refused it out of fear of exposure perhaps. It felt like I was sentenced to being damned.
In a way, however, it ripped me out of the fog. I lived with a packed SUV of basics, and survival things for the kids and I. I started believing in my own thoughts, and own experiences, and I kept on doing that until I was able to leave knowing the church was not safe. The Family court system was not safe (but that’s another story).
Thank you for validating my experiences here.
Barb, feel free to edit. Sometimes I get carried away. 😊
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memphisrayne,
You wrote (20th July 2025):
I don’t think you got carried away at all, memphisrayne. 😊 And thank you for sharing a bit more of your experience 😊 ….perhaps what you wrote will open a few more eyes to the “reality” that some people live in, every day of their life, and how it’s possible to leave that “reality” and enter into your own, new reality. 😊
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