DARVO is a technique employed by abusers and their flying monkeys that is the preferred technique employed by caught, accused, or even convicted abusers.
Deny – Deny that the abuse even happened. If there is overwhelming evidence and it happened a very long time ago, playing the card of how long ago it was and how changed the abuser will be used.
Attack – This can be a blatant smear campaign against the survivor and as subtle as casting doubt regarding details questioning the integrity of the survivor or their case.
Reverse the role of the abused and offender – When the reversal happens it will sound something like, “I can’t believe that someone who has done so much good would be accused falsely of such things.”
There is a recent example of this technique that made the national news in the Oklahoma City area. Michael Coghill was charged with lewd/indecent acts with a child in September of 2021. This came about after a child spoke with his father about how he got uncomfortable when a man would come and touch him while he was at the school bus stop. Soon after the disclosure the father dropped his son off at the school bus stop and then parked a little distance away and waited while recording the school bus stop. A short time later a jogger (Coghill) ran past the children at the school bus stop for a distance then turned around and proceeded to touch the child unaware of the father recording the incident from a distance. After a few moments and being sure to capture the events on video, the father approached the jogger and got into a confrontation with him while attempting to detain him until the authorities arrived. In the confrontation the jogger Michael Coghill sustained multiple facial injuries at the hands of the father.
It was learned that Coghill was the involvement minister at the Lakehoma Church of Christ and he was dismissed immediately. A previous employer of Coghill, the Choctaw Church of Christ employed a different technique regarding Coghill, DARVO.
In a news report covering the response of the Choctaw congregation one can observe a well executed application of DARVO for the television broadcast by the minister of the congregation.
“Knowing his character and his work here, no way, how could this happen?” Kessler said. He went on to add, “Like it was a sick joke of some kind,” Kessler said. “I couldn’t believe it, thought somebody had doctored the picture.” When Kessler was asked about the families of children for whom Coghill was a youth minister, Kessler stated that the parents were extremely supportive, “They keep coming to me saying, ‘We talked to our kids because our kids were in the youth group when Mike was here,’” Kessler said. “And they all say, ‘No way, no how.’”
Kessler, the Choctaw congregations minister concluded the interview by telling the reporter of the prayer vigil to be held for Coghill., “We’re having a prayer vigil, we’ll call it, starting at 9 p.m. tonight going through 7 a.m. in the morning,” Kessler said. “My hope is there’s something, some kind of evidence, that in the end will prove Mike’s innocence.”
Now that we have the quotes provided in the Jenifer Pierce piece from September 27, 2021 for channel 9 news in Oklahoma City, let’s examine how DARVO was employed by the minister and by extension the congregation in Choctaw.
We’ll match the acronym to the quotes and provide some explanation of how the statements made by the minister are harmful.
Denial – “Knowing his character and his work here, no way, how could this happen?” Kessler said.
Attack – “Like it was a sick joke of some kind,” Kessler said. “I couldn’t believe it, thought somebody had doctored the picture.” When Kessler was asked about the families of children for whom Coghill was a youth minister, Kessler stated that the parents were extremely supportive, “They keep coming to me saying, ‘We talked to our kids because our kids were in the youth group when Mike was here,’” Kessler said. “And they all say, ‘No way, no how.’”
This Attack is more subtle; however, the intent of the statement is essentially questioning the integrity of the video which captured Coghill in the act and of the father who then acted to detain Coghill.
Reversing the role of abused and offender. This was already quoted in the Attack above, however the Attack had two layers to it including the reversal. – When Kessler was asked about the families of children for whom Coghill was a youth minister, Kessler stated that the parents were extremely supportive, “They keep coming to me saying, ‘We talked to our kids because our kids were in the youth group when Mike was here,’” Kessler said. “And they all say, ‘No way, no how.’”
In the role reversal Kessler claimed how supportive the families of the children Coghill had worked with in the past were. This is drawing attention to all the good that Coghill had done coupled with the prayer vigil and claims of innocence. The implication being that if Coghill is innocent, then how awful is the father and young man who brought all of this on Coghill.
This article’s quotes highlighted the use of the DARVO technique by a congregation to defend an individual who had been videoed touching a child and what a former employer used to bring the accusations into question and defend their former employee. This technique is used in multiple scenarios beyond abuse in churches. At Ezekiel 33 we have seen DARVO employed in families, churches, and school situations. It can work in the simplest and most complex of abuse cases to take the negative attention away from the offender and attempts to put the negative attention on the abused.
Learn DARVO, learn to recognize its use, there are enough news stories and items on social media where you can observe its use. When you learn to recognize it, when you see it being used in a situation you can impact, you will have the opportunity to correct oppression (Is 1:17). “Taking no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.” Eph 5:11. In doing so, you take on the role of the good watchman.