Kuehl said she hoped that coming forward would lead to more “transparency and honesty” about the issue.
In response to that letter, Lent sent his own email to People of Praise’s leaders in which he said “no words of ours can do justice to the horrors Ms Kuehl experienced”.
“To Ms Kuehl, we extend our prayers for comfort and healing and our sincere compassion,” he said. He also pointed out that the alleged abuse occurred in the 1970s, when Kuehl’s parents belonged to a precursor group to People of Praise that was called Servants of the Lord.
In his letter, Lent did not explicitly respond to Kuehl’s request for leaders to create an anonymous forum for survivors of abuse to come forward. In her letter, Kuehl said she was aware that other survivors of abuse had come forward to speak to Diane Doolittle, a lawyer from the firm Quinn Emanuel Urquart & Sullivan hired by the group, but that others feared possible retribution if they did.