It's even worse. She cycles through, as in multiple times with each group. The church knows her issues, so they cycle her through 3-4 small groups for a few months at a time so that she's included and taken care of but not overly burdensome on any particular group of people.
They are also very patient with sexual and financial predators in their midst. If I was going to make my living scamming, my home base would be a large fundamentalist christian church. Over 40, bald and fat? Want teenage girls fighting each other for the chance to be your bride? I can point you in a few directions. They will even house, feed, and clothe you until you can get on your feet and ravage their flock.
Yeah, we had to intervene with respect to a particularly scummy financial planner from the church in particular. Completely idiotic fixed income products that made no sense relative to the alternatives. He was a non-fiduciary and taking commission plus absurd fees, of course.
The church is a net positive and mostly saints, as GP characterizes. But anywhere you find a high trust environment with low barrier to entry there will be some wolves in the flock.
