http://shoebat.

com/2014/05/06/sexual-abuse-protestant-churches-catholic/
There is More Sexual Abuse in The Protestant Churches Than Catholic
By Shoebat Foundation on May 6, 2014
Tchividjian had become convinced that the Protestant world is
teetering on the edge of a sex-abuse scandal similar to the one that
had rocked the Catholic Church. He is careful to say that theres not
enough data to compare the prevalence of child sex abuse in
Protestant and Catholic institutions, but hes convinced the problem
has reached a crisis point. Hes not alone in that belief. In 2012,
Christian radio host Janet Mefferd declared, This is an epidemic going
on in churches. When are evangelicals going to wake up and say we
have a massive problem in our own churches? For years, Protestants
have assumed they were immune to the abuses perpetrated by
celibate Catholic priests. But Tchividjian believes that Protestant
churches, groups, and schools have been worse than Catholics in their
response. Mission fields, he says, are magnets for would-be
molesters; ministries and schools do not understand the dynamics of
abuse; and good ol boy networks routinely cover up victims stories
to protect their reputations. He fears it is only a matter of time before
it all blows up in their faces and threatens the survival of powerful
Protestant institutions.
The report by Kathryn Joyce, Article from Prospect.org is an eye opener to the
extend of the sexual abuse epidemic in many Protestant Churches and schools.
By this article, we do not want to undermine Catholic abuses by Catholic
priests whom we feel should also be burned at the stake, but its time to fess
up, and before we pull the plank out of the eye in our Catholic brothers,
Protestants should first see the plank in their eye. The following is the full
report:
In November 2012, Bob Jones University, the longtime flagship institution of
fundamentalism, announced it had hired GRACE (short for Godly Response to
Abuse in the Christian Environment), an independent group of evangelical
lawyers, pastors, and psychologists, to investigate the universitys handling of
sexual-abuse and -harassment reports. Bob Jones officials said they were
taking the step after watching the pedophilia scandal unfold at Pennsylvania
State University the previous year. They vowed to ask forgiveness of any
students they may have underserved.
In truth, the origins of the investigation were closer to home. In 2011, an
abuse scandal from years before had become national news with
a 20/20 report. Tina Anderson, a 15-year-old who lived in New Hampshire, was
raped and impregnated in 1997 by one of her churchs deacons, then in his late
thirties, while she was a babysitter for his family. When Anderson and her
mother told their pastor, Bob Jones graduate Chuck Phelps, what had
happened, Phelps had Anderson stand before the congregation while he read a
confession of her pregnancy. She was then sent to a family in Colorado until
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the baby was born and given up for adoption.

Andersons rapist, a registered sex offender, was made to confess as wellbut
to adultery, not rapeand he remained at the church for years. Phelps, whod
gone on to be president of the fundamentalist Maranatha Baptist Bible College
in Wisconsin, maintained close ties to Bob Jones, serving on its board of
trustees as well as on its missionary and youth-camp boards.
Students and alumni had already begun to agitate online against the schools
lack of academic and student freedom, as well as its response to reports of
sexual abuse. Andersons story highlighted what these criticsdismissed by
the school as disaffected detractorssaw as a pattern in how Bob Jones
stigmatized students who reported rape or sexual assault. A senior named
Christopher Peterman started a Facebook group and website called Do Right
BJU, which aimed to remove Phelps from the board and called for a range of
reforms; he organized the first campus protest in the universitys history to
raise awareness of sexual abuse. Phelps resigned from the board of trustees in
December 2011, just days before the rally. But then a few months later, on the
eve of graduating, Peterman was expelled for watching Glee, among other
violations.
The story continued to grow. Peterman and alumni groups active on Facebook
began to hear from more and more students who claimed they had been
poorly treated when they reported sexual abuse to school staff. Over the
following months, alumni pressured the university to update its policies and
investigate the schools handling of abuse reports. They urged the university to
hire GRACE, which had investigated allegations of sex abuse in two Christian
missionary groups. To almost everyones surprise, seven months after
the 20/20 report aired, Bob Jones announced that it had listened.
Its hard to overstate the significance of the hire. Bob Jones, founded in 1927,
isnt just any conservative Christian college; its the de facto center of the
national Independent Fundamental Baptist network, which functions almost as
a denomination unto itself, with thousands of affiliated churches, feeder
schools, and businesses including Bob Joness textbook company, radio station,
and music publisher. Outsiders call the school the mother ship of
fundamentalism; the university prefers another moniker, the fortress of faith.
To call Bob Jones insular doesnt quite cover it. On its compound in Greenville,
South Carolina, once surrounded in part by barbed wire, faculty children were,
until recently, born at the on-campus hospital, raised in the K-12 Bob Jones
Academy, educated at the university, then sent out into the world armed with a
list of approved churches (mostly those that send the school students or
money and that are often pastored by Bob Jones preacher boys like Phelps).
Until the early 2000s, faculty were paid minuscule wageshovering around
$15,000 a year for a full-time professorin exchange for subsidized living and
the commitment that the school would care for them into old age (a retirement
plan called The Promise). Rules for students are infamously strictno TV, no
holding hands, no Christian contemporary music, and, until 2000, no interracial
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dating.
By 2012, though, the fortress no longer seemed inviolable. While Bob Jones
was for decades the choice destination for conservative Christian students,
enrollment at the school was dropping: down about 10 percent in the last
decade and nearly 25 percent since its heyday in the early 1980s. Alumni blogs
published pictures of what used to be an overflowing chapel, now left with
hundreds of empty seats; two dorms are scheduled to be demolished this
summer. Leaked minutes from a recent faculty meeting noted that Christian
colleges are closing across the U.S. but that Bob Jones might find salvation in
China and South Korea, where the opportunity for Christian education is still
unbelievable. The school has begun selling off assets: the radio station, the
music publisher, the hospital. The Promise to support retiring faculty has
been rescinded.
Christopher Breedlove
Boz Tchividjian
Even so, the idea that Bob Jones would reach
outside itself for help was stunningespecially
considering to whom it was reaching out.
GRACE was founded by a member of
evangelical royalty: Boz Tchividjian (rhymes
with religion, he likes to say), a former
prosecutor who teaches law at Liberty
University in Lynchburg, Virginia, Jerry
Falwells legacy school, and who is the
grandson of Americas pastor, Billy Graham.
Before he came to fame, Graham was a Bob
Jones University dropout who Bob Jones Sr.
said would never amount to more than a poor
country Baptist preacher somewhere out in the
sticks. Though the two later became friends,
they split again in 1957 over Grahams revival
crusadesin particular, a crusade at Madison
Square Garden that Jones, whod warned Graham to avoid cities and
politicians, condemned as too ecumenical and accommodating to modern
society. The quarrel between the two men led to a rift between fundamentalists
and evangelicals that persists today, as evangelicals seek to win souls by
engaging mainstream culture and fundamentalists retreat from it. When
Joness great-grandson Stephen Jones, now president of the university,
appealed to Grahams heir, it seemed like a transformative moment. Perhaps
the fortress was raising its gates at last.
It was momentous for Tchividjian and GRACE as well. Tchividjian had become
convinced that the Protestant world is teetering on the edge of a sex-abuse
scandal similar to the one that had rocked the Catholic Church. He is careful to
say that theres not enough data to compare the prevalence of child sex abuse
in Protestant and Catholic institutions, but hes convinced the problem has
3

reached a crisis point. Hes not alone in that belief. In 2012, Christian radio
host Janet Mefferd declared, This is an epidemic going on in churches.
When are evangelicals going to wake up and say we have a massive problem in
our own churches?
For years, Protestants have assumed they were immune to the abuses
perpetrated by celibate Catholic priests. But Tchividjian believes that Protestant
churches, groups, and schools have been worse than Catholics in their
response. Mission fields, he says, are magnets for would-be molesters;
ministries and schools do not understand the dynamics of abuse; and good ol
boy networks routinely cover up victims stories to protect their reputations.
He fears it is only a matter of time before it all blows up in their faces and
threatens the survival of powerful Protestant institutions.
In the past couple of years, Tchividjian has begun to look prophetic. Reports
and allegations of sex abuse, rape, and harassmentand a culture that has
badly mishandled themhave become more and more frequent. In fall 2012,
former members of Sovereign Grace Ministries, a family of about 80
conservative churches from various theological traditions, filed a class-action
lawsuit against the ministry for failing to report allegations of sex abuse in the
1980s and 1990sincluding abuse perpetrated by church leaders immediate
family membersand discouraging victims and their families from going to law
enforcement. (The lawsuit was dismissed last year because of expired statutes
of limitations and jurisdictional questions, but an appeal and criminal
investigations are under way.) This spring, an expos in The New
Republicrevealed that Patrick Henry, the college of choice for evangelical
homeschoolers, has covered up alleged campus rape and sexual assault,
thanks largely to its victim-blaming emphasis on womens purity. Allegations of
similar practices soon surfaced against other Christian colleges, including
Pensacola Christian College in Florida and Cedarville University in Ohio. A
documentary released in February, No Place to Call Home, recounts the
systematic sexual abuse of children in the 1980s at Jesus People USA, an
evangelical commune in Chicago. The empire of Bill Gothard, founder of the
fundamentalist Institute in Basic Life Principles, crumbled earlier this year after
bloggers revealed dozens of sexual-harassment and molestation claims against
him.
Common threads run through the stories: authoritarian settings where rulefollowing and obedience reign supreme; counseling techniques that emphasize
victims own culpability; male leaders with few checks on their power; and, in
the eyes of many Christians including Tchividjian, a perversion of the Bible to
justify all three. When you have this motley group of many denominations,
this independent environment, and then this distortion of scripture, thats an
environment where abuse can flourish, Tchividjian says. But weve never
been forced to deal with it on a Protestant-wide basis.
This will be a challenge. The Protestant world includes tens of thousands of
denominations, plus thousands more nondenominational churches, ministries,
mission boards, and subcultures. Unlike the Catholic Church, there is no
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Vatican, no shared leadership connecting, say, Calvary Chapels 1,600 churches

with the Southern Baptist Conventions 46,000. No common standards apply
but the authority of scripture, which is interpreted differently from church to
church, school to school, mission to mission.
Even with its tightly controlled hierarchy, the Catholic Church has responded
abysmally to sex abuse. The Catholics have been forced through three
decades of lawsuits to address this issue, Tchividjian says. The first decade,
they gave it lip service, but after three decades, hundreds of millions of dollars
lost, and publicity that devastated the Church, they were forced to begin
addressing it. Its my prayer that well deal with it without being forced to.
GACEs mission grew out of a phone call that Tchividjian received from a
reporter in the summer of 2003. Now in private practice, Tchividjian for eight
years had prosecuted child sex-abuse cases as a district attorney in
northeastern Florida. The reporter was looking for perspective on a story. In a
Pentecostal church in Wisconsin, a convicted sex offender whod been allowed
to volunteer in Sunday school had allegedly abused two sisters, ages 8 and 12.
When the girls told their parents, their father went to the pastor, who advised a
sit-down with the volunteer. During this meeting, Tchividjian says, the perp
did what perps usually do: cry and ask for forgiveness, so happy he was
caught. The pastor said it sounded like repentance to him and that the
accused could prove it by staying active in church life. Would that be enough to
allow the father to forgive him, the pastor asked, and to forgo reporting the
accused to mans authority? The father said OK, if thats what God wanted
them to do. By the time the journalist called Tchividjian, six years later, the
victims family had been asked to leave the church and the Sunday school
volunteer was about to go on trial.
The pastors mishandling of the case touched a nerve with Tchividjian, who had
seen similar dynamics play out many times. When hed started working in the
district attorneys office, criminal cases had been distributed to prosecutors
like a deck of cards, each prosecutor getting a mix from grand theft to
molestation. Tchividjian saw how his colleagues shuddered at the sex-abuse
cases and tended to plea them out quickly, as though the facts were too awful
to bring to court. It was almost too painful for them to grasp, he says. When
Tchividjian requested to take on all the districts child sex-abuse cases, the
other prosecutors happily obliged. In time, he established a sex-crimes unit
that handled hundreds of cases over eight years.
All too often, he says, a pastor would come to court in a supportive role,
almost always sitting on the perpetrators side of the aisle, not the victims.
The Wisconsin case made Tchividjian think back on those pastors. He began to
realize that he had a calling of his own: to teach the Protestant church to be
part of the solution, instead of part of the problem. I was encountering
survivors who were absolutely eviscerated as a result of disclosing abuse in the
Protestant church, Tchividjian says, and the long-term damage is sometimes
more from how the church responded, or failed to respond, than the abuse
itself.

He contacted people hed met over the years, advocates for abuse survivors he
suspected were Christian, like Victor Vieth, former head of the Gundersen
National Child Protection Training Center, and Diane Langberg, a Pennsylvania
psychologist who specializes in trauma, including child abuse. Together, in
2004, they pulled together a board of lawyers, pastors, and therapists and
formed GRACE. To their knowledge, this was the first group dedicated to
educating Protestant churches about sex abuse and the ways in which religion
can be used to sweep abuse under the rug.
They started speaking at conferences, urging Protestants to take child sex
abuse seriously and support survivors rather than blame them. Tchividjian
wrote a booklet for the World Reformed Fellowship, a cross-denominational
network, on Protecting Children from Abuse in the Church. Today GRACE,
which still has no full-time staffers, offers prevention seminars for churches,
along with consultations when abuse allegations arise.
On a snowy Saturday afternoon in January, in a converted shopping plaza
north of Philadelphia, Tchividjian stood before several hundred staffers and
volunteers at Calvary Chapel of Central Bucks County. Though hed be hard to
pick out of a crowd, with his close-cropped brown hair, glasses, and blazerand-khakis uniform of a Baptist college professor, when Tchividjian gets going
as his talks escalate from campus lecture to closing argument to full-on
sermonyou can hear and see a flash of the fiery young Billy Graham.
As he always does, Tchividjian delivered a scary set of facts: If general
statistics applya quarter of U.S. women and a sixth of men have been
sexually abused before age 18Calvary Chapels 1,000-member congregation
might easily include 200 victims. But even that doesnt get at the scope of the
problem, he said. Congregations need to understand that churches are targets
and havens for abusers. One study has found that 93 percent of admitted sex
offenders describe themselves as religious. Offenders who report strong church
ties abuse more often, with younger victims. Thats not because Christians are
inherently more abusive, he said, but because theyre more vulnerable to those
who are. Tchividjian repeated what one convicted sex abuser told clinical
psychologist Anna Salter in her book Predators: Pedophiles, Rapists, and Other
Sex Offenders: Church peoplealways looking to see the best in people, to
welcome converts, to save sinful soulsare easy to fool.
When something does surface, all too often the church leadership
quiets it down. Because theyre concerned about reputation: This
could harm the name of Jesus, so lets just take care of it internally.
Tchividjian rattled off ways in which Christians openness can allow abuse to go
unchecked: Perpetrators tend to use scripture to coerce, justify, and silence. If
theyre clergy, they will exploit their positions; if theyre laypeople, they will
take advantage of a church hungry for volunteers and rely on the trust given to
members of a church family. The reason why offenders get away with what
they do is because we have too many cultures of silence, Tchividjian
said. When something does surface, all too often the church leadership quiets
it down. Because theyre concerned about reputation: This could harm the
6

name of Jesus, so lets just take care of it internally.

Jesus doesnt need your reputation! Tchividjian declared. When somebody
says that, its a lie. Keeping things in the dark and allowing souls to be
destroyed by abuse, that shames the Gospel. Jesus is all about transparency.
Calvary Chapels pastor John Hessler, who preaches frequently about his own
imperfect past as someone who enjoyed the 1960s, wants his church to be
vigilant. In the old days, Hessler says, if you had a pulse or could fog a
mirror, you could serve in childrens ministry. By the time Calvary Chapel was
founded 15 years ago, holding its first services in a barn, insurance companies
had begun to require that churches conduct background checks on all
volunteers. Hessler has made those checks increasingly rigorous, but even in
the churchs young life, he has run into a number of troubling situations. There
was the middle-aged congregant who would drift out of service to linger
around the Sunday school and who angrily quit the church when asked to stay
away from the kids. There was one of the congregations most straitlaced
members, an eager would-be missionary, whose daughter alleged at 16 that
hed been molesting her for eight years. So when GRACE came to Philadelphia
for a training session in 2013, Hessler sent several staff to attend. After the
staff came back shaken, Hessler invited Tchividjian to address his church.
Its a balancing act, Hessler says. We dont want to live skeptically. How do
you live in such a way that youre not suspecting that everybody is a
dangerous person but are realistic enough to create boundaries so that a
person who is a would-be perpetrator would find this too difficult an
environment to operate in?
Its a challenge for Tchividjian, too. Years of investigating abuse caseswe
spend our days swimming in Christian cesspools, he sayshas left him
hypervigilant. Megachurches with thousands of volunteers unnerve him, and
after working on too many cases where girls were molested by someone in
their best friends family, Tchividjian and his wife no longer let their daughters
spend the night at friends houses, let alone church camps or lock-in churchbasement sleepovers. But for my wife, he says, I dont trust anyone 100
percentIve seen too much, too many scenarios. What I have to wrestle with
is how do I deal with that? How do I balance that tension, between not trusting
anyone and knowing that we have to function in life? You have to figure that
out for yourself. But know this: Offenders exploit trust.
II. The Missions
In 2009, as invitations from church groups were multiplying, GRACE was
tapped for a new kind of work. A Florida-based group, New Tribes Mission, was
in trouble, as now-adult children of its missionaries were speaking out publicly
about sex abuse at a New Tribes boarding school years earlier. Another phone
call to Tchividjian, from out of the blue, led him from preaching prevention to
once again investigating perps.
With more than 3,000 missionaries across 20 countries, New Tribes members
have been described as the Indiana Joneses of the missionary world.
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Founded by a Los Angeles missionary in 1942, New Tribes sends its staff to
remote locales, from rural West Africa to the Arctic, to evangelize communities
that dont have translations of the Bible.
Children of the missionaries are known in Christian shorthand as MKs, for
missionary kids. About five years ago, a group of MKs whose parents were
stationed in Senegal during the 1980s and 1990s started exchanging stories
about the abuse they say theyd suffered. New Tribes had some 20 or 30
couples spread across Senegal, embedded with villagers they were trying to
convert. New Tribes culture (though not formal policy) dictated that children,
when they reached six or seven, were sent to a central mission boarding school
so their parents could focus on evangelizing.
In Senegal, the school was in the city of Fanda. The children lived there under
the supervision of untrained and usually reluctant New Tribes dorm parents
some of them missionaries whod failed in the fieldand saw their biological
parents infrequently until graduation. The dorm parents and the missionaries
were themselves overseen by field leaders, whose power and control, GRACE
would later write in its investigative report, paralleled that of a pastoral staff,
a congregational board of Elders, a set of church Deacons, an employer, a local
civil government, and a family chieftain, all in one. Former staff members are
more blunt. They describe field leaders as despotic.
The dorm parentswhom the MKs were taught to call aunts and uncles, and to
see as representatives of Godwere permitted to spank the children, and MKs
describe spankings that were more like beatings, leaving children with welts
after minor infractions like failing to sleep at naptime. Some say they were
subjected to cruel and bizarre punishments like being forced to eat their own
vomit. The culture at school was one of fear, says Bonnie Cheshire, a 34year-old MK who was sent to Fanda at age 7.
In the mid-1980s, one of the dorm fathers, David Brooks, who oversaw the
Little Dorm for the youngest children, allegedly began sexually abusing girls,
including Cheshire. The missionary kids say he would come to their beds at
night under the guise of comforting them and touch them inappropriately. They
say he taught them to masturbate and he encouraged the girls to take pictures
of one another in the shower and to play games that involved finding objects
hidden in his or other girls bathing suits. Another dorm father allegedly
punished girls by holding them down and kissing them. One allegedly groped a
missionary kids breasts. The wife of a New Tribes missionary allegedly had sex
with a male MK. In all, seven staff members at Fanda were accused of sexual
abuse.
MKs letters home were censored, but when some of the girls told their parents
what was occurring, and when parents told New Tribes field directors, they
were told that they were gossiping and that their slander would destroy
another mans ministry. The kids say they were told that their complaints
would condemn Africans to hell, because their parents would no longer be
there to save souls. The parents of the MK who alleged statutory rape were
8

sent back to New Tribes boot camp and eventually expelled from the field.
In 1988, Brooks left Senegal for a medical furlough. In late 1989, while he was
on leave in the United States, additional allegations of abuse emerged from
Fanda. Brooks made a partial confession to New Tribes administrators and was
asked to resign the following spring. But New Tribes never notified U.S. or
Senegalese authorities, and he was never prosecuted.
New Tribes Senegal mission exemplifies what Tchividjian and GRACE
call spiritual abusewielding religious authority to persuade the
victims that they were responsible for what happened to them.
New Tribes Senegal mission exemplifies what Tchividjian and GRACE call
spiritual abusewielding religious authority to persuade the victims that they
were responsible for what happened to them. They say such abuse is often the
by-product of legalism, a catchall term for rigid, rule-oriented Christianity
wherein the state of your soul is reflected by the length of your skirt or how
you discipline your children. Legalism is often used by moderate Christians to
decry the petty obsessions of fundamentalists. But the term also reflects a
seminal theological debate within Protestantism, which was originally grounded
in the conviction that Christians are saved by grace alonethat is, by their
profession of faith and not by their actions. Abuse victims often describe the
communities they came from as legalistic: isolated and authoritarian bodies
that placed obedience and rules above all else, where no one was allowed to
make small mistakes and where crimes had to be covered up to protect the
cause of Christ.
New Tribes school in Fanda closed in 1997, officially because of security
concerns as civil war raged within the country but unofficially because so many
missionaries withdrew their children from the school that there were no longer
enough students to maintain it. That same year, New Tribes conducted an illconceived internal investigation into the abuse claims. Mission officials sat in
on missionary kids interviews, and in the end, all but one of the abuse victims
declined to testify. Consequently, New Tribes identified just two perpetrators
and cast the abuse that occurred at Fanda as an exception. New Tribes
continued to operate schools in other countries it was evangelizing.
In 2008, Kari Mikitson, another Fanda MK who claims to have been abused,
contacted New Tribes looking for answers: What had the mission known about
the alleged abuses while they were being perpetrated, and what actions had it
taken to ensure it would not happen again in other New Tribes schools? The
mission board and lawyers met with Mikitson and Cheshire to offer an apology
and ask for forgiveness. That wasnt enough. Mikitson and other MKs founded
a website, fandaeagles.com, to publicize the alleged abuse. The site has had
3.6 million views and shows up on Google searches right below the New Tribes
Mission website. New Tribes subsequently conducted a second cursory review
of the Fanda allegations. When the MKs kept up the pressure, the mission
agreed to hire a neutral party to investigate.
The missionary kids were initially skeptical of yet another group promising a
9

Godly response, as GRACE did. This was the same terminology used against
us by New Tribes to justify both the abuses and the cover-ups, Mikitson says.
In evangelical-speak, Godly response to abuse means using any means
necessary to protect the institutions bottom line, while piously pretending their
real concern is protecting the name of Jesus. But GRACE offered to fly
Mikitson to Florida to observe one of its church trainings. She went prepared to
cross GRACE off the list but instead heard such a staunch defense of victims
rights that she became convinced that the group was right for the job.
GRACE took New Tribess commission with two conditions: that the
investigation would be independent and that its final report would be provided
to MKs and their families, with New Tribes only learning the results after
GRACEs investigators completed their confidential interviews.

Courtesy of Bonnie Cheshire

Bonnie Cheshire, right, outside the Fanda school
Their report wouldnt lead to criminal charges, because the alleged abuses had
taken place so long ago and outside the United States. Instead, GRACE aimed
for another sort of reckoning. Tchividjian shies away from comparisons to truth
and reconciliation commissions like South Africas, because of how the word
reconciliation is often used in a Christian context: as an end point to be
reached as expeditiously as possible, as code for cheap grace. True
reconciliation, Tchividjian maintains, is the prerogative of the harmed; beyond
that, its up to God. Instead, GRACE aimed for radical truth-telling. Its report
would give New Tribes a factual accounting of how it failed the MKs so that it
might confess, repent, and change its practices. From day one, Tchividjian
says, we thought the objective should be to demonstrate authentic
repentance, to know where youve failed and to be transparent about it.
10

GRACE board members, including theologians and pastors, volunteered to

serve on the investigative team along with former prosecutors Tchividjian and
Victor Vieth and psychologist Diane Langberg. They expected the process to
take a few weeks. Instead, it lasted more than a year, culminating in a 66page report. The abuse turned out to be far more widespread and severe than
anything even a former prosecutor could have imagined. We lost a little bit of
our soul on that investigation, Tchividjian says.
The investigators began by sending a confidential questionnaire to all the
Fanda students from the 1980s and 1990s whom they could find. Fifty-six of
108 MKs responded (compared to a 3 percent rate when New Tribes tried), and
GRACEs team interviewed 21 in person or by phone, taking written statements
from a dozen more. They also reviewed more than 1,000 pages of mission
records and interviewed nearly 40 New Tribes staff who had been associated
with the Fanda school.
Released in August 2010, the report identified more than 20 victims of alleged
sexual abuse and documented dozens more physical and emotional abuse
allegations. The victims of spiritual abuse at Fanda, GRACE concluded, may
well include almost the total school population. In addition, missionary kids
from other New Tribes boarding schools around the world had gotten in touch
with GRACE, with some reports going back to the 1950s, and it recommended
that New Tribes investigate those claims as thoroughly as those from Fanda.
We have seen what the devil does with silence and inaction, the investigators
concluded, and we reject it as the sin that it is.
The report offered a checklist of ways that New Tribes could demonstrate
repentance: Establish a $1 million fund for victims and their families care;
terminate 14 former dorm parents and supervisors; notify the abusers current
churches; cooperate with future lawsuits; and, for those Fanda and New Tribes
leaders who had ignored the abuse, require a penalty tithe of 10 percent of
their paychecks for the victims fund.
Tchividjian and the other investigators spent a day going through the report
with New Tribes board of directors. They prayed together, and New Tribes
agreed on the spot to most of the recommendations. The missions CEO, Larry
Brown, told the conservative Christian World magazine that the board was
ashamed by what GRACE had found and acknowledged that Fandas
authoritarian atmosphere and theologyspecifically its culture of legalism
was to blame. He pledged to find out what had happened at the other schools.
It seemed very clear to us that they got it, Tchividjian says. But that was the
immediate response. The long-term response, Tchividjian says, was that
New Tribes pulled back significantly from us. I think what was happening was
other institutions were looking at them thinking, Why in the world would you
hire a group to do what they did? They dragged you through the mud.
New Tribes soon announced new investigations of alleged abuses in at least
nine other schools in eight other countriesbut this time, it wouldnt be hiring
11

GRACE. The mission hired a new coordinator to administer investigations under

the project name IHART, or Independent Historical Abuse Review Team. New
Tribes has told the missionary kids that whatever information the research
turns up will be stored at a law firm, accessible only through a legal
process. (New Tribes leaders declined repeated requests for comment on the
investigations and to answer questions about whether it has implemented the
recommendations in GRACEs report.)
Rachel Steffen, a New Tribes missionary, says her two daughters were sexually
abused by a dorm parent in the Philippines. Click below to read more of her
story.
Rachel Steffen
I think what happened with GRACE and the Fanda report
is they took New Tribes by surprise, and it was a huge blow
to them when it came out, says Rachel Steffen, a former
New Tribes missionary who says that her two daughters
were sexually abused by a dorm parent in the Philippines.
I think they vowed that they would never lose control like
that again.
Nearly four years later, only one of New Tribes subsequent investigations has
been completed, for a school in Brazil, and the results have not been released.
In 2011, as the initial promise of GRACEs first investigation turned to
disappointment, another embattled missionary group came calling. The
Association of Baptists for World Evangelism (ABWE) was founded in 1927 by a
splinter group called Regular Baptists to promote a militant, missionaryminded, Biblically-separate haven of Fundamentalism. Thanks in part to its
insular culture, the group remains obscure even in conservative Christian
circlesGRACEs leaders had never heard of itbut ABWE is hardly marginal,
with around 900 missionaries in 60 countries, backed by some 5,000
supporting churches. Here was a second chance to establish GRACEs model of
redemption in a group that was struggling with its past sins.
In 1988, one of ABWEs missionary doctors in Bangladesh, Donn Ketcham,
allegedly began sexually abusing and raping a 12-year-old missionary kid who
asked not to be named; well call her Julia. Ketcham, then in his late fifties,
was a beloved figure with deep ties to ABWE; his Baptist-preacher father had
helped found the General Association of Regular Baptists. He was charming
and charismatic and alleged to have had serial affairs with younger female
ABWE staff, more than once resulting in the womans dismissal.
Julias sister Diana, a 41-year-old pastors wife in Colorado who alleges that
Ketcham groped her in Bangladesh, told the Prospect the story she and Julia
shared with GRACE. In July 1989, the sisters were back home visiting an adult
sister in Indiana when Julia, who hadnt revealed what had occurred to anyone
in the family, told their pastor what Ketcham had allegedly done. Instead of
informing the family, Diana says, the pastor phoned ABWE headquarters in
Pennsylvania. A staff psychologist, Russell Lloyd, flew to Indiana with
12

Ketchams supervisor, Russell Ebersole, to determine whether Julia was telling

the truth. Once convinced, Diana says, they compelled Julia, who was just shy
of her 14th birthday, to sign a confession stating that she had participated in a
physical relationship with the doctor and that what she did was very wrong.
The ABWE officials then flew with Julia to Bangladesh. Julias parents were
made aware of her confession but never told that their daughter had said she
had been raped. Julia was made to ask her familys forgiveness.
Lloyd and Ebersole confronted Ketcham, who left the mission field and
returned to his home state of Michigan. ABWE sent a vague notice to the
churches that sponsored Ketchams missionary work, stating that hed been let
go for immoral conducta phrase that most read as adultery. Ketcham
established a family medical practice where local church members sent their
children, and where he continued to work for more than 20 years. (ABWE did
not reply to repeated interview requests for this story; attempts to reach
Ketcham, now in his eighties, through his daughter yielded no response.)
By the time the family left Bangladesh in 1991 to get her better
counseling, Diana says that the alleged rape had forever altered her
life. The family wouldnt hear her whole story for another 20 years.
Julia
time
says
hear

struggled with eating disorders and repeatedly attempted suicide. By the

the family left Bangladesh in 1991 to get her better counseling, Diana
that the alleged rape had forever altered her life. The family wouldnt
her whole story for another 20 years.

More than a decade after Julias family returned to the United States, stories
about Ketcham began to surface. At least two MKs allege they were raped, and
five others allege being groped under the pretext of unnecessary breast or
pelvic examinations. Another six or seven missionary kids accuse Ketcham of
drugging and abusing them. They remember being alone with Ketcham at the
ABWE hospital or in his home and waking up in the morning feeling hazy and
nauseated, unable to recall what happened the night before. At a 2002 ABWE
reunion, a group of now-adult Bangladesh MKs confronted the missions new
president, Michael Loftis, about Ketcham.
They went away expecting the mission to launch an investigation, or at least
report Ketcham to the Michigan Board of Medicine. But ABWE offered only to
help pay for victims counseling. Little happened until 2011, when Julia spoke
out publicly. After finally telling her family about her alleged rape, she cofounded a website, BangladeshMKsSpeak, with another missionary kid,
Susannah Beals Baker. The site detailed Julias story and published testimonies
from other victims. In the first week it was live, BangladeshMKsSpeak
attracted thousands of comments and scores of other stories.
ABWE was forced to respond. The mission reported Ketcham to Michigans
medical board; within a year, he surrendered his license. On its website, ABWE
published a confession of its own, acknowledging that Ketcham should have
been fired years earlier and that the vagueness of its dismissal letter had
allowed the doctor to conceal his alleged acts. The letter pleaded with the MKs
13

to please, please forgive us. ABWE president Michael Loftis was let go. By
mid-April, at the missionary kids urging, GRACE had a new job, investigating
Ketcham and ABWEs response.

Courtesy Tamara Rice

Julia (front center) and her sister Diana (right)
GRACE went to work in June 2011. It soon became clear, however, that ABWE
was not enthusiastic about being investigated. The mission failed to produce
documents GRACE requested, Tchividjian says, and in early 2012, ABWE began
a separate investigation of all its missions. The result was a brief website
notice stating that a handful of abuse cases had been confirmed, that unnamed
offenders had been identified, and that none was still working in the field.
Some allegations were not reviewed, ABWE said, because the victims did not
consent to pursuing an investigation. While GRACEs investigation continued,
Diana says the mission tried to undermine it: ABWE leaders offered
compensation for Julias treatment in what struck the family as an attempt to
buy her future silence. They said no.
In January 2013, after more than 100 interviews, GRACE announced, in a
routine update on its website, that its investigation was nearly complete. Three
weeks later, ABWE fired GRACE, alleging that the investigation was fatally
flawed and would not find the truth. For survivors and their families, this
was devastating news; it meant, under the terms of its contract with the
mission, that GRACEs report could not be released.
The public criticism of GRACE put its fledgling reputation on the line. ABWE
14

claimed that the missionary kids testimony was tainted by their exposure to
one another; that the investigators werent using the evidentiary standards of
a courtroom and had not recorded the interviews; and that eight interviewees
had complained that GRACE had asked leading questions and excluded positive
recollections about ABWE from their interview summaries. ABWE claimed that
one unnamed interviewee said she felt revictimized by GRACE.
Tchividjian and his fellow investigators published a 15-page, point-by-point
rebuttal on GRACEs website. Their process wasnt like a courtrooms, they
said, because this wasnt a legal proceeding. The investigators recorded some
testimonies, but not all, because they allowed interviewees to ask that they not
be tape-recorded for fear of reprisal from ABWE. There were no court-grade
transcripts because hiring court reporters would be exorbitantly expensive, and
the mission had balked at paying even a fraction of previous transcription
costs. GRACE pointed out that all interviewees, both survivors and mission
staff, had been given drafts of their transcripts and asked to correct them
however they saw fit. Fond memories of the Bangladesh mission, the
investigators noted, were not what theyd been hired to find. When placed in
the context of ABWEs conduct over the past 20 months, GRACE concluded,
the termination strongly suggests ABWE is unwilling to have itself investigated
unless the investigation is within your control.
ABWE replaced GRACE with Professional Investigators International (Pii), which
said it was conducting not an investigation but research into the Bangladesh
hospital where Ketcham had worked. Pii, which is also handling at least one of
the New Tribes investigations, was founded by a Mormon couple, one of whom
runs an imageconsulting firm. The companys website emphasizes that the
client suggests the scope of work initially. In a brief statement responding to
questions from the Prospect, Pii CEO Linda Davis characterized its work for
ABWE and New Tribes as totally independent investigations following
investigative procedures, very thorough in nature. Beyond that, she had no
comment.
Courtesy Tamara Rice
A teenage Tamara Rice on a
train in Bangladesh, where she
alleges she was abused by
missionary doctor Donn
Ketcham.
In a section for frequently
asked questions on its website,
ABWE promises that in its
desire for transparency, it
intends to publicly release the
unedited report, when it is
completed. The Bangladesh
missionary kids are dubious.
When Pii contacted Tamara
15

Rice, an MK, for an interview last November, she says the investigators refused
to say how her answers would be used or whether her identity would be kept
confidential. She, like other MKs, has refused to speak with the new
investigators under those conditions.
ABWE accused GRACE of building a case against them in their investigation,
Rice says. I feel theres a good chance that what ABWE is doing now is
building a defense case against future lawsuitsthat really these interviews
are lining the walls of their lawyers office.
III. The Fortress
By 2013, a decade after Tchividjian felt called to spread the word, sex abuse
had become a topic that Protestants could no longer ignore. Since 2004,
GRACE had trained more than 150 churches and ministries, consulted with
dozens more on prevention policies, and helped implement abuse-awareness
programs at six Christian colleges. Despite the disappointments, the New
Tribes and ABWE investigations had shed new light on the problem. So had a
fast-growing network of survivor websites publishing accounts of abuse.
Two major evangelical foundations, childrens mission ministry OneHope and
relief organization Samaritans Purse (run by Tchividjians controversial uncle,
Franklin Graham), had asked GRACE to help them develop and implement
abuse-prevention and response policies. Tchividjian, Langberg, and others on
the GRACE board were regulars on Christian media. The Southern Baptist
Convention, Americas largest Protestant body, had passed a resolution calling
on member churches to report suspicions or allegations of sexual abuse to law
enforcement. Then as the ABWE investigation was unraveling, Bob Jones
University turned to GRACE.
It appeared that the school was ready to open itself to change. Bob Jones
revised its sex-abuse policies, held its first campus-wide awareness training,
and sent a sizable delegation to a GRACE conference. Meanwhile, alumni and
staff members were telling their stories to GRACE.
While Tchividjian would not comment about their ongoing investigation,
theProspect interviewed eight Bob Jones alumni who say theyve given
testimony. Their accounts offer a glimpse of what GRACE is likely to find: a
cloistered atmosphere in which abuse victims have been discouraged from
coming forward, and in which those who do are routinely blamed and
discouraged from reporting it to family members and police.
Katie Landry, now 31, left her homeschooling Mennonite family in Ohio and
matriculated at Bob Jones when she was 19, two weeks after she says shed
been raped by a co-worker back home. When that happened to me, she says,
I didnt have the word rape in my vocabulary. I knew that there was a word
called fornication, when an unmarried person has sex, and I knew there was
adultery, when a married person has sex outside marriage. But there wasnt
anything in my life that said sometimes sex happens when you dont want it
and you didnt ask for it.
16

Erin Burchwell, who grew up on the Bob Jones campus, was sexually assaulted
by a Bob Jones preacher boy. When she revealed this to Dean Jim Berg, she
says Berg asked her what she had been wearing. Click on the image below to
read more of her story.
Erin Burchwell
Landry acted out her freshman year, which in the context
of Bob Jones meant she left campus without permission to
get pizza with a few friends. She says she was suspended
for a semester and came back to intensive disciplinary
counseling. When she finally told her counselor what had
happened, she was taken to see Jim Berg, a powerful
campus figure who was Bob Joness dean of students for nearly three decades,
from 1981 to 2010. Landry says she told Berg how shed struggled since the
rape to understand where God had been and why He hadnt intervened.
I was hoping hed say that hed help me get help, help me tell my parents,
maybe even help me call the police, Landry says. And I was hoping that hed
tell me it wasnt my fault. Instead, she says Bergs first response was to ask
whether shed been drinking or smoking pot the day she was raped. He then
suggested, she says, that her rape had a spiritual root. He said that under
every sin is another sin; that there is a sin in your life that caused your rape,
and we have to find out what that sin was, Landry says.
She recalls running out of Bergs office, terrified shed be expelled. Landry says
that neither Berg, who now teaches counseling, nor the dorm counselor shed
first told ever checked back with her. At the end of the next semester, Landry
withdrew from Bob Jones, returned home to Ohio, and married a childhood
friend, reasoning that no other man would ever love her. The marriage was
short-lived. For three years, Landry never told anyone else about her rape, and
she didnt again seek treatment for another five years. I already had a plate
full of shame when I walked into Dr. Bergs office, she says, and he put more
shame on that, more than I could bear.
When Camille Lewis was a student at Bob Jones in the late 1980s, a roommate
told her that her father had molested her for years. Lewis urged her to talk to
someone and arranged an appointment with Dean Berg. He didnt tell the
roommate that it was her fault, Lewis says, but he did warn her not to go to
the police. Over time, Lewis began to detect a pattern. She became a speech
and rhetoric professor at Bob Jones, where she worked from 1990 to 2007,
and says that during her two decades at the school, 11 other women told her
they had been sexually assaulted, raped, or molested8 on campus, and 3 off.
She knew others, she says, who were sexually harassed as students or
employees. But when they sought help from the school, Lewis says, the
response was the same as the one her roommate and Landry had received.
The metaphor they used in the olden days was a show window, that they
were setting up a show window to sell God and didnt want anything marring
it, she says. Thats why its perfect for predators, because they just hide
17

behind Bob Joness silence. Its built into the system.

Longtime Dean of Students Jim Berg has
been accused of silencing and shaming
abuse victims at the school.
Cathy Harris came to Bob Joness nursing
school in the mid-1990s. She says she was
already struggling with PTSD from being
abused as a child. Dean Berg counseled
her not to take medication, she says, and
he suggested she was complicit in her
abuse. After she attempted suicide in
1996, Harris says, Berg sent her expulsion
letter to the hospital. Two other former
students who sought counseling for
childhood physical or sexual abuse told
the Prospectthey were expelled or asked
not to return when university staff
became aware of psychological problems
or self-harming behaviors that may have
stemmed from abuse; two of these cases
occurred within the past four years.
Jeffrey Hoffman, who would later help found the LGBT alumni group BJUnity,
grew up in the Bob Jones system in the 1970s and 1980s. Hoffman alleges he
was molested as a young boy at the Bob Jones Academy by a university faculty
member who came into his shower stall in a gym at a nearby Bob Jones
affiliated church. Hoffman says his molester offered to counsel him to
overcome his same-sex attraction in what seemed both a come-on and a
threat. Hoffman did not tell anyone what had occurred until years later, afraid
he wouldnt be believed.
On three occasions, the Prospect requested interviews with Bob Jones
leadershipspecifically requesting to speak to Berg and President Stephen
Jonesbut was refused. Bob Jones University will not participate in an
interview, replied university spokesperson Randy Page, adding, We do not
want BJU to be mentioned in the profile you are writing about GRACE. (Shortly
before press time, Page sent a link to the universitys online statements about
GRACE.)
By this January, when they announced that the final report would likely be
ready for release in March, GRACEs investigators had conducted more than
100 interviews. Then days before GRACE was set to conduct its final
interviews, school administrators sent it a termination notice. The letter was
full of praise and thanks for GRACEs work but said that changes at the
universityStephen Jones had just announced that he would retire in the
springhad convinced the institution to sever the contract. The university
asked to meet with GRACE as soon as possible to draw up a new contract,
18

writing, We think that it is in the best public interest of both GRACE and BJU
to meet and reach a new agreement that will enable us to accomplish our
objectives. The letter specified no reason for firing GRACE and gave no
indication of what new terms the school wanted to negotiate.
GRACE e-mailed the interviewees to let them know what had happened. Then
it posted the termination notice online, and the story went viral. When the
relatively small and separatist ABWE had fired GRACE, few people outside the
worlds of fundamentalism and conservative Christianity knew or paid attention.
But this was Bob Jones University, Americas fortress of fundamentalism. The
story was reported in The New York Times and The Washington Post, and the
firing was condemned on websites from the liberal Wonkette to The American
Conservative. Bob Jones University will not get away with this cowardly move
thank God! wrote American Conservativecolumnist Rod Dreher, who derided
the schools decision as a textbook example of institutional cover-up.
Bob Jones had long grown accustomed to dismissing its secular critics and
ignoring its alumni detractors; the school has endured decades of bad press
and protests over policies like the ban on interracial dating. But officials
seemed unprepared for the fury of their loyalists, who flooded the schools
Facebook page with denunciations and calls to reinstate GRACE. Rumors
proliferated online: that Stephen Joness hand had been forced by a more
conservative board; that a recent South Carolina Supreme Court ruling, which
expanded institutional responsibility for sex abuse, could mean that GRACEs
findings would expose the school to lawsuits; that certain stories had been so
horrible the school felt it had to suppress them.
In a speech to students, Stephen Jones offered only a vague explanation,
saying that GRACE had diverged from our original understanding. The
termination, he said, was a means to sit down with the GRACE team and get
the process back on track. Bob Jones, he insisted, was committed to finishing
the investigation, either with GRACE or another group. More quietly, some
people associated with the schools leadership wrote on social media that
GRACE had been heavy-handed with victims and that there may have been
breaches in victim confidentiality. However, the eight Bob Jones alumni or
former staff with whom the Prospect spoke said the process had been positive
the best Ive ever been treated by Christians, in Cathy Harriss words.
For those who had participated in the GRACE investigation, the termination
sparked more than outrage. Three witnesses told the Prospect that the move
had thrown them into depression or panic attacks; one said she had
contemplated suicide. Two others worried that it was their testimony that had
caused the trouble when Bob Joness leaders somehow got wind of it. I
wanted so badly for this to come out, but not because I hate Bob Jones, Katie
Landry says. She expects that her nieces and nephews will one day attend the
school. If something happens to them, and they seek help, I want them to get
actual help, she says, and not more shame.
In February 25, a month after firing its investigators, Bob Jones announced an
19

about-face. The university was rehiring GRACE under its original contract. In
subsequent statements on its website, school leaders told survivors they were
sorry for surprising them with what they now described not as a termination
but a temporary suspension.
Its uncertain when GRACE will issue its report. In early April, the group said it
had been contacted by new complainants after Bob Joness firing and rehiring;
the group now expected to finish new interviews and begin writing up findings
in early May.
This much is clear: The findings will have implications far beyond Greenville.
Just as GRACEs New Tribes report sparked calls for investigations at nine other
New Tribes schools, so too does each new headline storyabout Patrick
Henrys poor handling of campus sexual assault, about Sovereign Grace
Ministries alleged culture of abuseprompt more survivors to come forward,
from myriad ministries and churches. Even if all implicated institutions decided
to trust GRACE to investigate them, the workload would be far more than the
group could handle.
Thats one reason Tchividjian wants to establish a National Grace Center at a
Christian college, possibly Californias Pepperdine University, where he says
conversations have been ongoing for months. The center would not only
expand GRACEs capacities but also equip a small army of investigators to take
on the work GRACE cannot do. Tchividjian also envisions the Grace Center
serving as a resource for churches and groups and for prosecutors working on
cases involving religion. It would launch a research institute producing childadvocacy and abuse-awareness curricula for seminary students, and a training
center to educate future church leaders on prevention. I want the church to
become one of the safest places for children and abuse survivors, Tchividjian
says, and sadly today, its one of the least-safe places.
Complicating that objective and underlying the tensions that have surfaced in
GRACEs investigations is the long and sometimes bitter split between
fundamentalists and evangelicals. Some abuse survivors see speaking out as a
step in their religious evolution, moving from rule-based forms of Christianity
to grace-oriented churches. Many of GRACEs supporters see the groups
work as a challenge to fundamentalisms legalistic culture. That could be a
recurring problem with the investigations: Fundamentalist institutions may
view GRACEs work as rooted in a core theological difference, as yet another
example of evangelicals criticizing their estranged cousins.
Tchividjian rejects that critique. I dont like terms like evangelical and
fundamentalist, he says. Im not even sure I know what they mean. The
mishandling of sex abuse stems less from theology, he says, than from an
authoritarianism that can develop in any culture, elevating leaders beyond
accountability, leaving victims rights to their whim, and sidelining critics who
challenge their rule. He points to the abuses that allegedly took place at Jesus
People USAthe Chicago-area evangelical commune, which was no bastion of
stringent rulesas an example. Whether we label it fundamentalist or
20

evangelical, Ive seen it span the spectrum, he says. I never thought of New
Tribes as fundamentalist. But Id say there was that concentration of authority,
and often that concentration morphs into legalism. But Tchividjian says GRACE
doesnt exist to challenge legalism, either. Our job is not to go and assess the
theology of the groups weve been asked to investigate. Our job is to
investigate the alleged abuse and, obviously, as part of that investigation, you
assess the culture and assess whether that culture plays at least a part of the
problem in determining whether the abuse is systemic. But Id never say our
mission or role is to address legalism.
However, the New Tribes report explicitly criticized the missions legalism, as
did New Tribes leaders themselves in their initial mea culpa. Tchividjian
consistently argues that a less legalistic culture would help groups deal with
the sins of their past. It would mean a church is OK with being transparent,
and acknowledging failure, Tchividjian says. As a Christian, I tell institutions,
your value and your reputation arent based on your accomplishments. If it is
what youve communicated to the world through the gospel, your reputation
has been secured for you by Christ. That should liberate you to be transparent,
to acknowledge failure.
To survivors, that logic is clear. GRACE is not hired by the weak, the selfprotective, the blasphemous institutions who invoke the name of Jesus in their
cover-ups, says Kari Mikitson, founder of Fanda Eagles. There are very few
Christian organizations out there who want the truth at all costs. If you as an
organization are not brave enough to retain GRACE when your survivors
request them, then you are a disgrace. And you arent fooling anyoneyou are
hiding skeletons.
Thats a hard case to make to churches and missions facing lawsuits and public
scrutiny. One of the dynamics of any institution is to survive, to protect itself,
Diane Langberg says. There is no question that GRACE poses risks to the
institutions that hire it for investigations. The publication of GRACEs findings
the first gesture of repentanceensures that not only will damaging accounts
appear in the media but that some supporters and donors will flee.
Over the next few years and decades, Protestant institutions of every kind
fundamentalist, evangelical, and mainlinewill be increasingly faced with a
stark choice. One option is to follow the example set by the Catholic Church
more than a decade ago: Fight back fiercely, not giving an inch when it comes
to admitting you may have been wrong. Everyone knows how well that has
worked. The other option is represented, thus far, by GRACE alone: Churches,
schools, and groups can heed Tchividjians call to make themselves vulnerable,
to admit what theyve done wrong, andhardest of allto allow that truth to
come to light.
As Bob Jones University learned this February, allegations are bound to become
public no matter what the institution does. The findings of GRACEs report will
make news, and the news will be ugly. But if the school forthrightly confronts
the findings and pursues repentance and reform, it could not only save itself
21

but revive itself. Working with GRACE has given the university an opportunity
to transform its national reputation as the quintessence of all that is pinched
and patriarchal about fundamentalist Christianity. That would make Bob Jones
a different kind of modela positive one for Protestants hoping to avoid the
reputational devastation the Catholic Church is still bringing down on itself.
GRACEs evangelical truth commission could also help ease the financial hits to
come. Most abuse survivors, Tchividjian says, dont want a settlement. But
when they are confronted with institutions that lawyer up at the first hint of
allegations, and that refuse even small gestures of acknowledgment or
repentance, lawsuits often result. Usually the lawyers are the last offices they
go to, he says.
Even so, following GRACEs path will be painful. That is whats so audacious
sometimes to the point of being unrealisticabout it. GRACE is challenging
Christian institutions to live up to their teachings, to expend themselves, even
to the point of death, to demonstrate love for a very hurt soul, as Tchividjian
says.
If you think about it in the Christian context, he continues, God did
his most powerful work when Jesus, his son, was at his most
transparent and vulnerable, on the cross. So why do we approach all
these things differently?
If you think about it in the Christian context, he continues, God did his most
powerful work when Jesus, his son, was at his most transparent and
vulnerable, on the cross. So why do we approach all these things differently? If
Im a Christian, why am I not driven by the fact that if we mess up as an
institution, then when were most transparent and vulnerable, thats when God
can do his most powerful work? Ive seen that in churches: When they do
respond that way, its pretty powerful what results in the lives of survivors.
Theres a quixotic quality to Tchividjians crusade. Surely hes tilting at
windmills to think powerful institutions, which reap hundreds of millions in
donations and employ thousands of Christiansan entire faith-based economy
will willingly jeopardize their own survival. But the persistence of Tchividjian
and GRACE is itself a statement of deep faith: the belief that churches,
schools, and missions will imperil their existence for the sake of doing right
radical sacrifice through radical truth. So far, it still amounts to faith in things
unseen. But whether in Cape Town, or as Tchividjian might say, on Calvary,
such things have manifested before.
http://www.miadhu.com/2010/08/local-news/islamophobe-pastor-terry-jonesarrested-for-child-pornography/
Islamophobe Pastor Terry Jones arrested for child pornography
Sunday, August 29th, 2010

22

An American Islamophobe, Dove World Outreach Center Pastor Terry Jones,

known recently for his Burn a Quran Day campaign has been arrested for
pedophilia.
Pastor Terry Jones was arrested for sharing pictures of children in various
states of nudity over the popular file sharing network Limewire.
Jones, who is renowned for his terrorist ideologue has also written a poorly
researched book against Islam Islam is of the Devil.
Jones Church, Dove World Outreach Center also sells coffee mugs and shirts
featuring the phrase.
Elsewhere, religious leaders in Gainesville, Florida, have planned a Gathering
for Peace, Understanding and Hope, in response to Joness campaign.
We feel compelled to raise our voices to proclaim that the action the Dove
World Outreach Center is proposing is absolutely wrong and counter to the life
and teaching of the Jesus whom we love, follow and call savior and Lord,
Senior Minister Dan Johnson of Trinity United Methodist Church said, in a note
posted on his churchs website Wednesday.
The Christian radical Church, Outreach Center said it will host the Quranburning event on the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The group said it will remember 9/11 victims and take a stand against Islam.
Wednesday, the city of Gainesville denied a burn permit to the center, said Bob
Woods, City of Gainesville spokesman.
It was a question of public safety, said Woods. The Gainesville Fire
Department has notified the center through a letter, he said.
The Gainesville Sun reported that, in an e-mail newsletter sent out Wednesday,
the terror mongering church announced: City of Gainesville denies burn
permit but we will still burn korans
Gene Prince, the interim chief of Gainesville Fire Rescue, told the Sun on
Wednesday that under the citys fire prevention ordinance, an open burning of
books is not allowed. He said if the church goes ahead with its plan, it will be
fined.
The Islamic advocacy group Council on American-Islamic Relations called on
Muslims and others to host Share the Quran dinners to educate the public
during the month-long fast of Ramadan beginning in August. In a news
release, the group announced a campaign to give out 100,000 copies of the
Quran to local, state and national leaders.
American Muslims and other people of conscience should support positive
educational efforts to prevent the spread of Islamophobia, said CAIR
spokesman Ibrahim Hooper in the release.
23

The National Association of Evangelicals, the nations largest umbrella

evangelical group, issued a statement urging the church to cancel the event,
warning it could cause worldwide tension between the two religions.
http://www.dreamindemon.com/2008/09/26/pastor-steve-richardson-isgirlpedolover/
Pastor Steve Richardson Is Girlpedolover
September 26, 2008
Royse City, TX
After a year-long investigation in which seasoned task force agents said Holy
crap a lot, Methodist minister Steve Richardson was arrested Wednesday on
child pornography charges. For the last two years, Richardson has been the
pastor of First United Methodist Church in Royse City, Texas, a town just east
of Dallas. He is married and a father of three two boys and an infant girl
adopted from Ethiopia during the investigation into his online activities.
Read more at http://www.dreamindemon.com/2008/09/26/pastor-steverichardson-is-girlpedolover/#Gd8YStc09Wp5OPqR.99
Pastor Steve is not the brightest bulb in the socket, Southern Methodist
University degree or no. I really am at the point where I think that the divinity
schools need to launch a new course in their curriculum: How Not To Disgrace
Your Entire Religion For Dummies. Richardson is such a tool that he actually
traded child erotica and child pornography under the email addresses
girlpedolover@yahoo.com and girlpedolover@hushmail.com Why?
Because Steve Richardson is the worst kind of assclown pedophile ever. His
flock will say that he was sick, that he wanted to get caught. I say he thought
nobody would ever suspect him, and he got lazy.
Its a good thing, too, with that new baby in the house. Because some of the
images Richardson was trading involved sexual activity on infants. INFANTS.
So far, it does not appear that Richardsons own children were in any of the
pictures traded by him, which is a small blessing, I suppose. Then again, the
investigation isnt over yet. The Immigration Customs Enforcement bureau is
still going through stuff.
The investigation into Pastor Steve Richardson started a year ago, when a child
porn investigation kept turning up the name cowboysspades. That name is
Richardsons Google Hello photo trading user name. The email address
associated with that account was girlpedolover@hushmail.com. A man who
was arrested in the September 2007 bust said that cowboysspades had sent
him homemade child pornography images during the three months prior to
his arrest. The ICE put an agent on Richardson, and waited. In December
2007, cowboysspades sent one kiddie porn pic to the undercover agent,
along with five other images of what is classified as child erotica meaning
24

that its not dirty enough to be porn, but it showed a clothed child in sexual
poses.
In February 2008, the same undercover ICE agent got another five images of
child erotica from cowboysspades. Again, the photos showed clothed children
in sexual situations. However, there was no doubt about intent Richardson
was clearly using the photos as teasers for other, more explicit pictures to
follow.
From the US Attorneys Office statement on this case: Further forensic
investigation revealed additional chats between cowboysspades and others. In
one, cowboysspades received and distributed dozens of images of child
pornography including several images of infants engaged in sexually explicit
conduct.
Investigators dotted their is and crossed their Ts, matching up Richardsons
user names and email addresses with Google records, e-mail servers and IP
addresses. It was pretty easy to link cowboysspades and the girlpedolover
email accounts to a Steve Richardson of Royse City, Texas, the U.S. Attorneys
office said. Especially since one of the IPs used came from the church.
On Wednesday, Pastor Steve was arrested as his office at the church. After his
arrest, Richardson admitted to an ICE agent that he used the name
cowboysspades. He also admitted to trading child pornography on his work
computer, according to the U.S. Attorneys office.
So.. wait. He was trading kiddie porn FROM CHURCH? Of course he was. Right
after Childrens Church, no doubt.
Immediately upon hearing of Richardsons arrest, the North Texas Conference
of the United Methodist Church suspended him, saying, The church holds the
sanctity of the pastoral office and the place of the church as an environment of
safety and security for all an absolute value.
Before taking over the ministry at First United Methodist of Royse City,
Richardson pastored for five years at the First United Methodist Church in
Boyd, Texas. I know the Methodists like to move em around every so often,
but it makes one wonder if there was a little red flag somewhere, doesnt it?
The investigation into Pastor Steve Richardson is ongoing. Currently, he is
charged with transporting child pornography. Other charges may be
forthcoming.
Unamused Cat is disgusted in our forums.
http://newsone.com/1448665/georgia-pastor-arrested-after-molestationallegations/

25

Georgia Pastor Arrested After Molestation Allegations

Aug 8, 2011
CLAYTON COUNTY, GA. A Decatur, Ga., pastor is being held without bond on
molestation charges.
Samuel Walsham Chapman, 58, a pastor at Riverdale Seventh-Day Adventist
Church in Jonesboro, was arrested after a 15-year-old boy alleged that
Chapman took him to a parking lot and performed a sexual act in front of him.
http://edition.channel5belize.com/archives/62329
Oct 24, 2011
Church Pastor accused of molesting a male minor
Two weeks ago, a US pastor was charged for sodomizing three brothers. And
tonight, there is very disturbing news coming out of the community of Roaring
Creek of the sexual abuse of another minor. A pastor, thirty-seven year old
Jason Neal of the New Jerusalem Christian Mission has been charged with two
counts of indecent aggravated assault of a minor. The boy, reported to police
that in June of this year he was asleep at Neals house and when he woke up,
Neal was touching his private parts. The minor also told police that in July his
pastor again touched him inappropriately. Today News Five spoke with Richard
Smith of My Refuge Christian Ministries who said when the story first came to
light, they approached the pastor to discontinue service and get counseling.
Neal, however, didnt follow up on the sessions and he moved church services
to his house.
Richard Smith, Director, My Refuge Christian Ministries
When this come out my first thing was I hope its just an accusation but I
personally did my homework; went and visit the minor, who confirmed it is
true and so because it is true we believe strongly that a crime has been
committed. I would say later end of the September month, probably like
around twenty-fourth of September and there was strict response to him to
say urgently get some help.
Andrea Polanco
Richard Smith
But Mr. Smith why wasnt this incident reported from the end of September?
Was it ever reported when it first came to light?
Richard Smith
Yes, it was reported from then, as a matter of fact, we have a professional
26

counselor dealing with it. We have an organization thats very much dealing
with the situation and it was reported to him right away. A crime had been
committed and so there was a walking through of what needs to happen.
Andrea Polanco
Was it taken to the police though?
Richard Smith
At that time it wasnt taken specifically to the police.
Andrea Polanco
Any specific reason why?
Richard Smith
Well the reason for that is because the victim per say was one; concern that
when he goes to jail the wife and kids. And so you cannot go and report if
nobody wont gonna and testify if nobody about it. So those were some of the
procedures and that really held us back. We cant go to court if the victim is
not willing to testify otherwise you gonna look bad.
Andrea Polanco
How many boys involved in this incident as far as youre aware?
Richard Smith
At least two.
According to police reports, Neal was charged with two counts of aggravated
assault. We learned today in Roaring Creek that Neal has been in the
community for about three to four years. Residents say that he was once a
pastor in Hattieville, where he was accused of a similar incident. From all
accounts, Neal was popular among the youth population of the community.
Be Sociable, Share!
http://www.abpnews.com/ministry/people/item/8459-jailed-minister-accusedof-abuse-in-uk#.UtoSJ_v8Jkg
Jailed minister accused of abuse in UK
Seven British men allege that they were raped as teenagers by a pedophile
Baptist minister currently in prison for sex crimes in the United States.

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By Bob Allen
A former British Baptist pastor serving time in prison in the United States for
child sex crimes now faces similar allegations at home.
Robert DandoLondons Daily Mirror reported April 28 that seven men claim
they were raped as teenagers by Robert Dando, 48, who is serving an eightyear prison sentence in Virginia. Dando pleaded guilty in November 2010 to
four counts of sexual battery involving two U.S. male victims under the age of
13.
Alan Collins, a partner with the British law firm Pannone Solicitors, confirmed
May 1 he is acting on the alleged victims behalf and pursuing a case to obtain
compensation. He declined to comment on details, saying he does not want to
run the risk of his clients being identified.
The Daily Mirror cited a High Court of Justice writ that alleges multiple rapes
and sexual assaults between 1996 and 2008. Dando resigned as senior
minister at Worcester Park Baptist Church in suburban London at the time of
his arrest in Oakton, Va., on July 24, 2010.
Previously, he was the minister at Orchard Baptist Church in Bicester from
1995 until 2006; Grangetown Baptist Church in Cardiff from 1990 until 1994
and associate minister at Ararat Baptist Church from 1988 until 1990. From
2005 until 2007, Dando served as a volunteer traveling assistant to David
Coffey, who at the time was president of the Baptist World Alliance.
According to British media, Dando also had personal contact with boys through
work with the Boys Brigade, a popular Christian youth organization that
involves 60,000 children in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and that he also
worked for a children's charity in India.
Dandos arrest in the U.S. came after two males, ages 17 and 21, told police
that the minister sexually abused them over a period of five years, beginning
when they were ages 7 and 8, during visits to a family friend. According to the
Daily Mirror, a police investigation involving Dando is underway in Britain.
Collins is one of the countrys best known solicitors in the field of child-abuse
law. He acted in high-profile cases including Jimmy Savile, an English disc
jockey and television personality accused after his death in 2011 of sexual
abuse of an unprecedented 450 alleged victims.
Collins also represented nine victims at Green Field House, a childrens home in
Berkshire, who settled out of court for more than 300,000 British Pounds,
equal to about $467,000 in U.S. currency. They claimed abuse by a pedophilia
ring between 1964 and 1970. The case was widely considered one of the worst
to come to public notice.
http://ffrf.org/legacy/books/betrayal/
28

Betrayal of Trust: Clergy Abuse of Children

By Annie Laurie Gaylor
Case, 1982: A Louisville, Kentucky pastor convicted of sodomy and sexual
abuse of young boys testified anonymously before a Senate subcommittee in
April, 1982, about hunting boys for sex. He recounted how he had cruised
areas where teenaged boys congregate in St. Louis, Cincinnati, Indianapolis,
Cleveland and Louisville. He received a suspended sentence in March 1982 of
10 years in prison and was given five years' probation. (Source: Lexington
Herald, 4/2/82)
Case, 1983: Rev. Wilbert Thomas, pastor of the Christian Alliance Holiness
Church in Trenton, New Jersey, was indicted on charges of conspiring to control
his congregation through criminal acts, including sexual assault, lewdness,
involuntary servitude and beatings of women and children. He was convicted in
1985. (Source: Trenton Times, 2/83; 1985)
Case, 1984: Denouncing the "high degree of viciousness and cruelty" in the
crimes, a judge sentenced Rev. Lawrence Gerard Smith, a priest, to eight
months in prison. Smith, who was convicted of molesting Vietnamese boys he
worked with in Hayward, California, was accused of taking advantage of their
inability to speak English. (Source: [Lehighton, Pennsylvania] The Times News,
3/1/84)
Case, 1984: Rev. James E. Wynn, pastor of Mount Pisgah Baptist Temple in
Asbury Park, New Jersey, was sentenced to 22 years in prison for sexually
assaulting two young girls who were members of his congregation. Wynn was
diagnosed as a "compulsive, repetitive sex offender" by doctors who examined
him. The girls ranged in age from nine to 13 at the time of the assaults, which
occurred at church or in the minister's home. The pastor steadfastly
maintained his innocence. His attorney Charles Frankel told the judge at the
time of sentencing that his client "stands before your honor with a clear
conscience head unbowed." The church fired him from his duties a month after
his conviction. Superior Court Judge James Kennedy stated that "these
offenses involved the most drastic breach of trust anyone can imagine."
(Source: Newark Star-Ledger, 10/13/84)
Case, 1985: Rev. P. Henry Leech, one of three Roman Catholic priests in
Rhode Island accused in 1984 of having sex with children, pleaded no contest
in August 1985 to eight counts of sexual assault, including sodomy and
battery. (Source: Newark Star-Ledger, 8185)
Case, 1986: Baptist Rev. Bobby Harold Epps of Starke, Florida pleaded guilty
in May, 1986 to performing a lewd and lascivious act in the presence of a child
under the age of 16. He was convicted of fondling a girl in a church office, and
masturbating in her presence when giving her a ride home following a church
activity. (Source: Gainesville Sun, 5/28/86)

29

Case, 1987: Father Robert William Klein of Brainerd, Minnesota, was found
guilty on December 18, 1987 of third-degree sexual conduct involving children.
Klein possessed a collection of 650 photos of boys modeling underwear or
wrestling, and was described as "on the spectrum of what it means to be a
pedophile." The priest/child molester used treats such as cookies, trips to Dairy
Queen, and a treehouse in his backyard to lure youngsters. County Attorney
Stephen Rathke said Klein might be a good, generous man, but "unfortunately,
he's also a child molester." (Source: Brainerd Daily Dispatch, 12/18/87)
Case, 1988: Rev. William S. Barrett, a rector of Episcopal churches in Moreau
and Fort Edward, New York, pleaded guilty to providing alcohol and drugs and
showing pornography to two 14 year old boys with whom he engaged in oral
sex. Barrett's crimes were particularly shocking to those who knew him since
he had made a 20-year volunteer career of supposedly helping troubled
youths. He was a certified foster parent for eight years, and had founded
Project STRIVE in the late 1960s, a program for troubled youths. Barrett was
known as a very religious man, who offered prayers during class reunions.
(Source: Schenectady Gazette, 1/15/88)
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/261-politics/67219739
Iowa pastor rapes boys to cure their homosexuality. Won't go to
prison
Posted 9/11/2013
By now, weve all undoubtedly heard of and been outraged by a Montana judge
sentencing a former teacher to a mere 30 days in prison for raping one of his
female students. But have you heard of the Iowa youth pastor who is walking
free after confessing to raping boys to cure them of homosexuality?
Well, thats precisely what happened in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Brent Girouex, 31,
was arrested on 60 counts of suspicion of sexual exploitation by a counselor or
therapist.
According to KRMG in Oklahoma, Girouex confessed to police that he had sex
with at least four youths, but eight more have since come forward claiming
that they were also violated by the now former pastor of Victory Fellowship
Church.
Girouex told detectives that his actions were meant to help with homosexual
urges by praying while he had sexual contact with [them] in order to keep
them sexually pure for God. He then allegedly told police that when they
would ejaculate, they would be getting rid of the evil thoughts in their mind.
Victims say Girouex took them to his own home to violate them. Its the same
home Girouexs wife and four children resided in.
You would think Girouexs crimes would send him to prison for the rest of his
30

life. Outrageously, thats not the case. The judge in the case sentenced Girouex
to 17 years in prison last week, and then immediately suspended the sentence
in favor of sex offender treatment and five years probation. All Girouex has to
do is avoid violating his probation and hell NEVER spend a single minute in a
prison cell.
The victims and their families are understandably outraged. After all, Girouex
raped boys repeatedly. One would think a court would throw the book at him
instead of setting him free upon the community. Even his wife, Erin Girouex,
thinks he should be sent to prison and doesnt want her children anywhere
near him.
This rape away the gay idea is nothing new. Last year, a radio personality
told a father that he should have one of his male friends rape his daughter
until she turns straight. This pastor was at the very least using it as an excuse
to justify his pedophilia. If the pastor really does believe thats what he was
doing, then its a prime example of how hatred leads to insanity. Either way,
its disgusting, and the judicial system has once again failed to do its job to
protect the community and give justice to the victims. This kind of
punishment only encourages rapists and pedophiles. Because courts are not
taking rape and pedophilia seriously, more women and children are likely to be
violated because the consequences of committing such crimes are slim to
none. Its just another sign of the worsening rape culture that has been
running rampant in America.
http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/10/24/51615.htm
Church Blamed the Pastor's Victim, Boy Says
By KEVIN KOENINGER
ShareThis
Mt. CLEMENS, Mich. (CN) - After a pastor at Antioch Baptist Academy
repeatedly raped a student, the church called the boy a liar and the "instigator
of his own rape," the boy claims in court.
John Doe claims he was younger than 14 when he was repeatedly raped
and sodomized in 2009-10 by defendant Christopher Settlemoir, a "29-year-old
serial pedophile who was posing as a man of God, a church pastor and a
parochial school principal of the defendant Antioch Baptist Church dba Antioch
Baptist Academy."
Doe also sued Settlemoir's wife, who is or was a teacher at the academy,
other employees and the 10 members of the church's board of directors, who
allegedly knew about Settlemoir's molestations but failed to stop them.
According to the complaint in Macomb County Court: "Defendant Antioch
hired the pedophile Christopher Settlemoir as a teacher, pastor and principal
even though defendant Settlemoir, while still in college, began showing signs of
sexual perversion by racking up $100 in gay porn charges on the cable at the
apartment where he was staying as part of the pastor internship program.
"Defendant Settlemoir was eventually kicked out of the internship program
31

for not adhering to the rules, which included bringing teen-age boys to his
apartment and being along with the boys for 'Movie Night.'"
In his own case, Doe says: "For a period of 14 months, the pedophile
Christopher Settlemoir openly and freely vetted, targeted and then sexually
abused, exploited and raped John Doe in his office during school hours as well
as in defendant Christopher Settlemoir's house and/or within the domains of
other property under the control of defendant Antioch Baptist Church and/or its
agents.
"John Doe was a boy, a student and a parishioner of the defendant Antioch
when he was routinely and inappropriately abducted from classrooms during
class time by the pedophile Settlemoir, or by other staff members of the
defendant Antioch who delivered the boy to the pedophile Settlemoir, who
thereafter would rape the boy."
Doe claims Antioch knew or should have known of Settlemoir's "overt
sexual aggression" and "sexual misconduct" with male students. He claims
Settlemoir raped him "dozens of times" while the staff turned a blind eye to
the crimes.
By February 2009 or earlier, Settlemoir "initiated contact with John Doe and
other male students requesting that these children forward pictures of their
erect penises to defendant Christopher Settlemoir via cell phone images,
pretending that this conduct was just a 'game,'" the complaint states.
"Defendant Christopher Settlemoir also sent, via text, pictures of his own
erect penis to minor children, including plaintiff John Doe."
After singling him out, Doe says, "Settlemoir would routinely take John Doe
to his office, a room with only one door.
"Defendant Christopher Settlemoir would have to pass other teachers as
well as his secretary, Ms. Boggs, when bringing John Doe, or other minor male
children, to his office where he would lock himself and the child alone in the
officer for long periods of time. ...
"Defendant Christopher Settlemoir's conduct became so flagrant that
another minor child was solicited by the defendant Christopher Settlemoir for
pornographic images in exchange of [sic] 'monster drinks' aka energy drinks,
another 'grooming' technique commonly known to be used by pedophiles. ...
"Although members of the staff at the defendant Antioch were aware that
defendant Christopher Settlemoir was engaged in overt sexual misconduct
and/or witnessed this pedophile systematically engaged in 'grooming' specific
students as targets, the defendant Antioch's staff never reported the conduct
to legal authorities."
When he finally did report the rapes, Doe says, the church "lashed out" at
him: "After John Doe and his mother came forward and reported to police that
Christopher Settlemoir was molesting and raping him, defendants, through
their employees and agents, lashed out at John Doe, disparaging him, his
mother and his father, through accusations against John Doe. After being raped
by Christopher Settlemoir, John Doe was publicly accused by the defendants'
staff of being a liar and the instigator of his own rape, by the very people who
failed to protect him from the pedophile defendant Christopher Settlemoir," the
complaint states.
Doe claims that Eunice Settlemoir, the pastor's wife, "attempted to conceal
and later recruited other members of the defendant Antioch to destroy a laptop
32

belonging to her husband to prevent police from obtaining evidence of the

molestation and rape of John Doe."
Settlemoir is serving a prison sentence of 7 to 15 years for the rape John
Doe, according to the complaint.
He seeks punitive damages of $10 million for assault and battery and
negligence.
He is represented by James Simasko, of Simasko, Simasko and Simasko,
and John Perrin.
http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2011/02/anti-gay-pastor-arrested-formasturbating-near-childrens-playground/
Anti-gay pastor arrested for masturbating near childrens playground
Monday, February 28, 2011
METAIRIE, La. A conservative, anti-gay pastor who has staged protests
against New Orleans Southern Decadence Festival, calling the predominantly
gay event perversion, has been arrested for allegedly masturbating in a park
adjacent to a childrens playground.
Grant Storms
The Rev. Grant Storms was arrested for obscenity after two witnesses told
police they saw him touching himself while watching children on the
playground at Lafreniere Park in Metairie, La.
Storms, 53, claims he was urinating in a bottle on his lunch break.
Storms responded to the allegations by saying, I am not a child pedophile and
no children saw me. I had my hands in my pants, but I was not exposed.
A self-proclaimed Christian patriot, Storms is especially known for arming
followers with bullhorns, Bibles and picket signs to protest Southern
Decadence, a three-day gay festival held annually in the French Quarter over
Labor Day weekend.
In 2003, Storms grabbed national attention with his failed attempts to shut
down what Southern Decadence organizer Chuck Robinson called a peaceful
festival that celebrates gay and alternative lifestyles. Storms called the event
nasty and depraved.
His bail was set at $5,000 but he was released due to overcrowding at the
Jefferson Parish Correctional Center jail.
http://www.wkbw.com/news/local/A-Niagara-County-pastor-charged-withchild-sex-abuse-was-back-in-church-Sunday-234009701.html
33

Church Stands Behind Pastor Accused of Child Sex Abuse

By Kendra Eaglin
December 1, 2013
WKBW)
Town of Hartland, NY
The parking lot of the Community Fellowship Church in the Town of Hartland
was packed Sunday.
One the worshipers attending service was the reverend of the church, 70 year
old Roy Harriger Sr. That may not seem unusual except that Harriger is
accused of sexually assaulting two children and is fresh out of the Orleans
County Jail after being bailed out by members of the community Thursday.
The news spread fast in the small town and angered one resident who didn't
want to be identified.
"I think that it is just absolutely outrageous that people around here who have
children with children could possibly support this kind of monster," the man
said.
Harriger was arrested Wednesday on felony sexual conduct, incest and sodomy
charges stemming from incidents in 2000 and 2001.
His victims were reportedly his son and daughter who were between 7 and 9
years old. Harriger's legal troubles don't end here, at least 10 other victims
have come forward in Michigan and Pennsylvania with abuse claims dating
back to 1974.
Despite this news, members of the church heading in to service Sunday told us
they support their pastor 100 percent.
Harriger will be back in front of a judge on Tuesday, December 3, 2013.
http://www.gainesville.com/article/20130325/ARTICLES/130329690#gsc.tab=
0

34

Deputies: Local pastor turns self in, admits molesting teen boy
By Morgan Watkins

Published: Monday, March 25, 2013

A Gainesville man who serves as a local pastor turned himself in to the Alachua
County Sheriffs Office on Saturday, saying he had molested a 16-year-old boy
who goes to his church.
Richard S. Hurlston, 45, drove to the Alachua County jail and told deputies he
had molested the victim in December, according to a report from Sheriffs
Office spokesman Art Forgey. He agreed to go to the Sheriffs Office and write
a sworn statement.
Once there and after being read his Miranda rights, he admitted to molesting
the victim on Dec. 7 while they were sitting in his truck at the parking lot of a
Publix near Jonesville, according to the report. Hurlston, who is the victims
pastor, apologized afterward.
Hurlston is a pastor at the Church at Steeplechase in Newberry, and he stated
this was the first and only time he had molested the victim, according to the
report.
Hurlston said he had struggled with homosexuality throughout his life and
developed feelings for the victim over the course of several years, deputies
reported.
He was arrested and charged with sexual battery of a victim 16 or 17 by a
person 24 or older. He was booked into the Alachua County jail and was
released on $10,000 bond.
Contact Morgan Watkins at 338-3104 or morgan.watkins@gvillesun.com.
http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/January-2013/Let-Us-PreyBig-Trouble-at-First-Baptist-Church/
Let Us Prey: Big Trouble at First Baptist Church
A string of assaults and sexual crimes committed by pastors across the country
have one thing in common: The perpetrators have ties to the megachurch
in Hammond, Indiana.
By Bryan Smith
Published Dec. 11, 2012
Nine of the offenders, from top left: (first row) A. V. Ballenger, Christopher
35

Settlemoir, Chester Mulligan; (second row) William Beith, Jack Schaap, Tedd
Butler; (third row) Joseph Combs, Craig Sisson, Russell Overla
http://bossip.com/834403/smh-pedo-pastor-who-sexually-assaulted-boys-tokeep-them-pure-will-not-face-any-jail-time/
Pastor Will Not Serve Jail Time For Sexually Assaulting Boys
Via Alternet reports:
Iowa pastor and youth counselor Brent Girouex, who claimed with a straight
face that he was trying to cure teenage boys of their homosexual urges by
having sex with them, has had his sentence reduced from 17 years in prison to
sex offender treatment and probation.
Since Girouex confessed to having sex with four underage boys, eight
additional young men have come forward saying they were sexually violated by
the 31-year-old pastor. Girouex, who is not longer a pastor at the Victory
Fellowship Church, believed that he could rape away the gay by praying while
he had sexual contact with the boys, all in an effort to keep them sexually
pure for God.
According to reports, he told police that when they would ejaculate, they
would be getting rid of the evil thoughts in their mind.
Girouex, a married father of four, has had a fair share of backlash since he
publicly made his disturbing practices known. One of his most ardent
opponents is his wife Erin, who has spoken out against both him and the
reduced sentence he received after the initial 17 years he was to serve in
prison.
I dont want [my children] anywhere near him, Erin Girouex said to KCII local
news. She stated that she has plans for divorce, but that her husbands
wanting to see their kids has complicated matters. Currently, he has a courtordered, twice-per-month visitation schedule, where he must be supervised by
his own mother.
- See more at: http://bossip.com/834403/smh-pedo-pastor-who-sexuallyassaulted-boys-to-keep-them-pure-will-not-face-any-jailtime/#sthash.n08wbRR3.dpuf
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=9265583
Pastor arrested on indecent liberties charge involving child
Sunday, September 29, 2013

36

FAYETTEVILLE (WTVD) -- A pastor in Fayetteville has been accused of violating

a child.
Kong Sok Namkung, 53, was charged Thursday with taking indecent liberties
with a child.
According to the arrest warrant, the child was between 11 and 14 years old.
Namkung is the pastor of St. Matthews United Methodist Church in the 200
block of Hope Mills Road.
At last report, he was in the Cumberland County Jail on a $5,000 bond.
(Copyright 2014 WTVD-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)
http://fox43.com/2013/12/04/former-lancaster-co-youth-pastor-coachcharged-with-sexual-abuse-of-a-13-year-old-boy/#axzz2qitbc5zI
Former Lancaster Co. youth pastor, coach charged with sexual abuse
of a 13-year-old boy
A trusted youth pastor and coach is charged with sexually abusing a child in his
care. Jonathan David Masteller, 23, of Paradise Township, Lancaster County, is
in the Lancaster County Prison on $250,000 bail. State troopers arrested
Masteller Tuesday morning.
Mastellers former employers at the Gap Community Church are distraught.
Hes accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy on at least six different
occasions at his home at 50 North Kinzer Road.
The victim is a child Masteller met through the church.
Its very disturbing to see any child victimized, especially in this situation
where the child had gained trust in an adult and his trust was taken advantage
of and he was abused, said Trooper Philip Strosser of the Pennsylvania State
Police.
Gap Community Church released a statement which reads:
We are shocked and saddened to learn of the charges filed against Jonathan
Masteller. Mr. Masteller is no longer employed nor has any official
responsibilities at Gap Community Church. Our thoughts and prayers are with
those who have been affected by Mr. Mastellers actions. As this is an on-going
criminal matter, the Church will not be making any further comments.
A church employee contacted police Friday after finding explicit images on a
work computer used by Masteller. The images allegedly show Masteller and the
teen engaged in sex acts.
37

Im sure its very disturbing to him, especially that he had known, Jonathan
Masteller and the 13-year-old, Trooper Strosser said.
Masteller left his job at the church after he was hired by the Pequea Valley
School District about two weeks ago. He served as the boys head basketball
coach at the junior high, a classroom assistant and a substitute teacher.
Pequea Valley Superintendent Dr. Erik Orndorff sent this statement to FOX43
News:
The School District intends to fully cooperate with the PA State Police in their
investigation of this matter, if requested to do so. In the event that Mr.
Masteller posts bail and is released from prison, the School District will not
allow Mr. Masteller on school grounds while this criminal matter i proceeds and
he has been suspended from all duties effective immediately. The School
District is not aware of any allegations of inappropriate conduct by Mr.
Masteller that purportedly occurred on school grounds or during any schoolsponsored activities.
A forensics team is searching other computers and cell phone Masteller used to
ensure that there are no other victims. At this time, Strosser said theres no
indication of other victims.
Its actually a relief that they did discover this rather quickly and reported it
so that this trend didnt continue, he said.
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_22003749/former-highlands-ranch-youthpastor-arrested-child-sex
Former Highlands Ranch youth pastor arrested in child sex assault
case
By Kieran Nicholson
The Denver Post
11/15/2012
A former church youth pastor in Highlands Ranch is suspected of sexually
assaulting a child.
Matt Capranelli, 41, of Pueblo, formerly a youth pastor at Mountain View
Community Church in Highlands Ranch, is accused of sexually assaulting a
youth group member, according to a Douglas County Sheriff's Office media
release.
Capranelli was arrested Tuesday in Pueblo. An investigation into the allegations
began in June and the case has been filed with Douglas County District
Attorney's Office, the sheriff's office said.

38

The suspect faces eight felony charges including sexual assault on a child by
one in a position of trust, according to the release.
He is free on a $50,000 bond.
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822, knicholson@denverpost.com or
twitter.com/kierannicholson
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2011/05/16/italian_pastor
_jailed_in_sex_abuse_case_cardinal_tells_parishioners/
Italian pastor jailed in sex abuse case, cardinal tells parishioners
Associated Press / May 16, 2011
ROME Italys top cardinal, in a message read yesterday at Mass, informed
shocked faithful in a Genoa suburb that their longtime pastor has been jailed
for investigation of pedophilia and giving drugs to a minor.
Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, archbishop of Genoa, also heads Italys bishops
conference. He had unexpectedly shown up at Saturday evening Mass in the
church to express his shame. Yesterday, his message denouncing the alleged
immoral behavior of the Rev. Riccardo Seppia was read to parishioners in
Holy Spirit church in Sestri Ponente.
The message followed the cardinals stern rebuke of the 51-year-old Seppia,
which Bagnasco delivered personally a day earlier.
While we renew our full trust in justice and its task of ferreting out the truth
of the affair, I have come here, dear friends, to share your shock and
heartache, together with shame and total disapproval if the grave accusations
end up being confirmed, Bagnasco said.
Italian news reports said the priest, who had served as Holy Spirits pastor for
14 years, was arrested Friday night on charges of abusing a 16-year-old boy
and giving him cocaine.
Bagnasco told parishioners Seppia was suspended from all ministry duties.
Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.
http://freakoutnation.com/2013/12/02/pastor-founder-of-church-arrested-fordistributing-and-possessing-child-porn/
Pastor, founder of church, arrested for distributing and possessing
child porn
December 2, 2013
39

By Anomaly
A pastor in Anchorage was arrested on child pornography charges, and police
are asking anyone with information about further abuse to come forward.
Ronald Paul Rathbun, Sr., is a minister for Eternal Love Ministry. The 57-yearold pastor was arrested on separate counts of distributing and possessing child
pornography.
According to the police, an investigation began this summer after an Alaska
State Trooper was working undercover and received images depicting sexual
exploitation of children.
The investigation was handed over to the Anchorage Police Department Cyber
Crimes Unit when police discovered the suspect was based in Anchorage.
KTUU reports, APD detective James Estes received additional files from
Rathbun over the past few months that further depict sexual exploitation of
children.
A search warrant was subsequently obtained, then served on Nov. 26th.
Rathbun was remanded to the Anchorage Correctional Facility, where he is
being held on $15,000 bail.
The churchs website reads, Eternal Love Ministry is a young ministry
founded, through the leadingof the Holy Spirit, in 2005, by Pastor Ron Rathbun
Sr. who was ordained in the same year.
Its listed as a charitable non-profit and the site adds, We pray you will find
this site and this ministry a blessing.
KTUU tried to reach out to Sister Mila Rathbun of Eternal Love Ministry but she
declined to comment on the charges and said, Please stop talking, Im
contacting my lawyer.
According to police, Ronald Rathbun has access to children and they believe
there could be additional victims of sexual exploitation in the community.
Anyone with information is asked to contact APD at 786-8500.
H/T: Good guy @ComgenKDT who you can follow on Twitter here.
Image: WTUU
http://www.clutchmagonline.com/2012/02/wtf-church-bans-children-to-keeppedophile-pastor/

40

WTF: Church Bans Children to Keep Pedophile Pastor?

February 21, 2012 by Britni Danielle
A church in Jacksonville, Florida is coming under fire for its controversial
decision to ban children from its church services.
According to a local Jacksonville news affilate, Christ Tabernacle Missionary
Baptist Church has banned children from attending Sunday services because
their new pastor, Darrell Gilyard, is a registered sex offender and cannot have
contact with children.
In 2009 Gilyard plead guilty to lewd conduct and lewd molestation of two
underage girls. While he was the pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church Gilyard
molested a 15-year-old girl and sent a lewd text message to another. Under
the conditions of his plea agreement, Gilyard cannot have
unsupervised contact with children under 18 years old, and his new church
has taken extraordinary steps to help Gilyard stick to the terms of his deal.
Despite the seriousness of his offense, Gilyards return to the pulpit was swift.
After being released from jail on December 28, he resumed preaching in
January, and told reporters he hopes he can move past this incident and
continue with his work.
Somehow I will prove that life isnt over when one has committed a crime for
which he receives this heinous label, Gilyard told a reporter, ironically through
text message. You dont have to languish on the fringes of society.
While I believe in forgiveness, banning children from church in order to
welcome a pedofile into the fold is not only creepy, but its downright shameful.
What do you think? What kind of message is Gilyards church sending to its
youth?
http://cdn.mediatakeout.com/65289/christian-minister-receives-no-jail-timeafter-molesting-dozens-of-confused-boys-the-pastor-told-them-he-would-rapethe-gay-out-of-them.html
October 01, 2013: A 31 year old Iowa pastor named Brent Girouex will not
serve ANY jail time after he confessed to police that he had sex with at least
four boys. Since Brent's confession, at least eight OTHER young men claim to
have been violated by the the now-former pastor of Victory Fellowship Church
in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
So why won't he spend any time in jail . . . you WON'T BELIEVE THIS. Police
say that Pastor Brent thought he could rape away the gay by praying while he
had sexual contact with his victims in an effort to keep them sexually pure
for God. He then allegedly told police that when they would ejaculate, they
would be getting rid of the evil thoughts in their mind.
41

Pastor Brent, a married father of four, was sentenced to five years probation
and mandatory sexual offender treatment. He is not expected to spend ONE
DAY in jail.
http://stopbaptistpredators.org/scandals/trinity
Baptist Scandals:
Trinity Baptist in Jacksonville, Florida

42

Trinity
Baptist
Church in
Founding pastor Bob Gray is jailed on child
Jacksonville,
sex charges. Church service makes no
Florida
mention of arrest or accusations.
(photo by
"She said the church knew what happened in Dwayne
Walker)
Gray's office decades ago, years that the
victims suffered silently."
Woman says "the church has known about the allegations
against the pastor for years." She reads her email to
pastor Tom Messer. (video)
Woman claims "church leaders knew of the
sexual abuse but covered it up."
Tom Messer
Tape recording said to show Trinity cover-up.
"The victims are vindicated. The kids are vindicated. Tom
(Messer) knew and covered it up for years."

Who knew what and when did they know it?

Bob Gray reported to have molested kids as

far back as 1949, before he left the Southern
Baptist Convention. Did SBC leaders know?

Founding
pastor, Bob
Gray

Leaders reported to have known for years

that pastor Bob Gray was a pedophile.

Jerry Falwell says serial sex-abuse case at

Trinity is a mere "bump in the road."
Former Southern Baptist president Jerry
Vines sings the praises of Trinity Baptist Church even while
numerous allegations of child sex abuse and cover-ups are
being reported.

Tony Denton
ANOTHER Trinity leader, Tony Denton, is
charged with child sex crimes dating to when he was music
minister in North Carolina. He was doing counseling for a
brain-injury support group at the time of his arrest.
Don Boys says pastor Tom Messer knew. "I have observed
a cover-up mentality in many large Baptist churches that
seems to be systemic."
Civil suit claims Trinity Baptist covered-up Gray's sexual
abuse of kids.
More of the documents from the civil suit and more of the
testimonies
Bob Gray dies just before his criminal trial is set to start.
The civil suit against Trinity Baptist goes forward. Suit
proceeds despite statute of limitations challenge.
"Truth will come out," says Don Boys, "and expose the
43

disingenuousness, deviousness and dishonesty -- all

euphemisms for a simple word -- cover-up."
Bob Gray talked openly with police. "Gray told the officer
he did it because he was having problems with his first
wife." Read Bob Gray's own words.
Trinity graduate and Christian School Confidential blogger,
Dwayne Walker, hosts event for clergy victims to seek
healing and speak out.
Former Trinity leader, Tony Denton, pleads guilty to child
molestation charges in North Carolina.
Listing of First Coast News articles on the Trinity saga.

Note: Trinity Baptist Church is not an SBC-affiliated church.

However, one of the many reported victims is alleging abuse
dating to a time before Bob Gray left the Southern Baptist
Convention. Also, since Southern Baptist leaders Jerry Vines and
Jerry Falwell chose to sing Trinity's praises at a time when
leaders should have been calling for accountability, this is a
scandal that carries an additional connection to Southern
Baptists.
http://www.wivb.com/news/crime/alleged-pedophile-rev-pleads-not-guilty
Alleged pedophile Rev pleads not guilty
By

George Richert

Reverend Roy Harriger returned to court Wednesday night. The pastor is facing
charges of molesting children.
Some of the members of his assembly refuse to believe the allegations against
him. About eight members of the Community Fellowship Church in the Town of
Hartland accompanied the 70-year-old pastor into Town of Yates Court where
he pleaded not guilty to charges of incest and sodomy of a young boy and girl
about 12 years ago.
Harriger is free on bail after posting a quarter million dollars bail last
week. His supporters have a hard time believing the charges against him.
Donna Kidney said, "He'll bend over backwards to help people and I think
these charges are ridiculous. I know he did not do it. He's innocent. I know in
my spirit that he's innocent."
Christina Hare added, "All I want is just for everybody to pray who believes
that the truth comes out. We stand behind our pastor 100 percent."
But News 4 spoke to Teresa Harriger, who identified herself as the mother of
children she says were identified by the pastor, and Teresa says the charges
are justified.
44

"I don't think it's right that they're believing a preacher who they say is a good
man, which I thought he was a good man too until I found out he wasn't two
months ago," she said. "He did this. I'm not going to let him get away with
hurting my kids."
In all, at least nine people have come forward from WNY, Pennsylvania and
Michigan alleging Roy Harriger molested them. They are all members of his
family.
State Police say many of the cases are years old, and the statute of limitations
has run out. George Harriger, Roy's son, says his father molested him back
in the 70s.
Neither the pastor nor his attorney had any comment Wednesday night. Yates
Town Justice Donald Grabowski issued an order of protection for the two
accusers who are now in their late teens.
"They're both upset that he's not in jail," Teresa said. "They don't want him
out; they're scared."
Reverend Harriger is due back in court January 15.
Copyright WIVB.com
http://www.wivb.com/news/crime/pastors-son-says-his-father-abused-him
Pastor's son says his father abused him
By

George Richert

LOCKPORT, N.Y. (WIVB) - A local pastor was arrested Wednesday and

charged with sexually abusing two young relatives. At least eight more
have come forward with their own stories of abuse.
George Harriger finally called police a few months ago to report his own father,
70-year-old Reverend Roy Harriger.
"It was just one of those things that everybody thought they were the only
one," George said.
For the past few years, Harriger has been pastor of Community Fellowship
Church in the Niagara County Town of Hartland. He's been charged with two
counts of incest, four counts of sodomy and two counts of course of sexual
conduct.
Police say Harriger molested a 7-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl about 12
years ago, when he was pastor of the Ashwood Wesleyan Church in
Lyndonville.
45

George says his father molested him when he was a child back in the 1970s.
"We were threatened growing up and we always thought we were the only
one," George recalled. "He said that, 'I'm a pastor, no one's going to believe
you.' That's what we were taught our whole life."
But what changed is when he recently brought it up to family members.
"Now all of a sudden my family members are calling me and the stories that
are just throwing me for a loop. I never even imagined that it went this big,"
George said.
At least 10 of Harriger's relatives have a similar story.
State Police Lt. Kurt Schmitt said, "The statute of limitations has expired on
several, unfortunately, and several of the cases are in Michigan and
Pennsylvania."
Harriger lived in Michigan and Pennsylvania in years past.
"If anyone has any information about any of these cases or was a victim in the
past, even if it was a long time ago, we need you to come forward and tell us,"
Lt. Schmitt said.
George added, "You need to tell no matter what. I mean, I look back now and
what it's done to my life and it's left a pedophile on the street. It's huge. This
is just not something that somebody should keep inside."
After being arraigned Wednesday in the Town of Yates, Harriger was taken to
the Orleans County Jail on $250,000 bail. He's due back in court December 7.
If you have any information in this case, call State Police in Albion at 585-5894244.
Copyright WIVB.com
http://www.sott.net/article/251228-Pedophile-US-pastor-sentenced-to-330years-in-prison
Pedophile US pastor sentenced to 330 years in prison
Press TV
Sat, 15 Sep 2012 02:32 CDT
A US Christian pastor has been sentenced to a 330-year prison term for
sexually assaulting five children between the ages of nine and 15 at his Los
Angeles home.
46

The 69-year-old priest, identified as Oscar D. Perez, was sentenced Friday in a

California court for abusing the children at his apartment near Los Angeles
between 2007 and 2011, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Perez, an Apostolic pastor and bishop at a Laguna Hills Episcopalian Church,
befriended various families at the church, recruited children to help with church
services and invited his victims to his apartment, according to prosecutors.
He was detained and initially charged with assaulting two of the victims in
September 2011 after one of the children told his mother of the abuse.
Ensuing probes by police investigators led them to three more victims.
According to the report, the Christian preacher was found guilty in July on 22
felony charges of lewd acts upon a child under 14 years of age, among other
felony counts of vulgar behavior against multiple victims.
http://aattp.org/breaking-tea-party-pastor-arrested-for-child-pornography/
Tea Party Patriot Pastor Arrested on Child Pornography Charges
Posted by: Nick Goroff
December 18, 2013
Brian Schwanke is a civil war reenactor and self described Tea Party Patriot
who on his Facebook claims that, this country WAS founded on a CHRISTIAN
foundation, and the progressive, atheist left is running us into the ground to
create a Socialist country that will fall like all the others. However amid his
fear of godless Marxism and in between firing replica cannons at civil war role
players, he seems to have failed to recognize that owning, trading and
distributing child pornography over the internet is both a crime and a sin.
The 46-year-old Michigan resident was named today in a federal criminal
complaint, after an August search of his home and computers turned up
considerable amounts of child porn and communications related to the sexual
abuse and exploitation of children. Using the email alias
hornypastor@outlook.com, Schwanke engaged in extensive communications
with what he though was another child abuser, but who turned out to be an
undercover detective working to root out and expose pedophiles on the
internet.
During the August raid, Schwanke admitted to federal agents that he sent,
received and possessed sexually explicit materials featuring children, and that
he had been doing so for a decade.
Throughout his public profiles which include a Linkdin and Facebook account,
Schwanke proudly proclaims his allegiance to the Tea Party and his enthusiasm
47

for civil war history, which included he states, giving talks on the civil war to
school groups.
The naming of Schwanke as a defendant in the ongoing child pornography
case, comes just a day after a homophobic Catholic Arch-Bishop from
Minnesota, who railed against immorality and liberalism in much the same way
as Schwanke, stepped down from his position with the church amid allegations
of inappropriate touching of young boys in his congregation and a series of
complaints he aided in the cover up of other abusive pedophile priests.
h/t: FreakoutNation
http://www.vaticancrimes.us/2013/01/evangelical-pastor-convincedfollowers.html
Monday, January 28, 2013
Evangelical Pastor convinced followers his penis contained HOLY MILK,
arrested
BRAZIL - January 28, 2013 - Religion is a virus. The world is quickly finding
out the damage and crimes that the Vatican and its little harlots - all other
religions - have caused worldwide. (See summary report of over 10 million
crimes by priests and nuns)
Just when you think you had heard it all, another malicious and alarming crime
committed by a criminal priest, nun, minister or pastor, surfaces. This one has
to be one of the most shocking yet...an Evangelical Pastor managed to abuse
victims after convincing them that his penis contains HOLY MILK. The criminal:
Valdeci Sobreni Picanto of Brazil.
Valdeci Sobrino Picanto is a Brazilian Evangelical Pastor. He has been
arrested after deceiving the faithful using the name of the "Holy Spirit", by
using these foolish lies. This criminal pastor claimed that the Holy Spirit would
secrete from his penis in the form of "sacred milk". This pastor said that his
penis was blessed and that "the Lord had consecrated him with divine milk of
the Holy Spirit" and, of course, he had to release it in order to "evangelize".
"He has convinced us that only God could come into our lives through our
mouth and that's why he would do what he did". Often, after worship, pastor
Valdeci would take us to the where the funds were kept at the back of the
Church and asked us to have Oral sex with him until the Holy Spirit would
come through ejaculation". This is the testimony of one of his victims. This
pastor is already in jail where, he said when they arrested him, that he intends
to continue watering his cellmates with his sacred milk. Note: This news
article was originally reported today in Spanish by Que.es The great
news is that the Protect Your Children Foundation in collaboration with Vatican
Crimes Exposed Organization will continue to expose these evil and perverse
men who utilize the name of Christ to gain trust and commit crimes. We will
not stop until the very last door of the criminal organization known as the
Catholic Church is closed forever. Visit: http://www.jh.to/organizedcrime to
48

learn of the organized crime implemented by the Vatican around the world
against millions of children.
We thank Dr. Jose Luis De Jesus (The Man Christ Jesus) for making his
global media network available to expose these truths and alert the nations.
http://www.stufffundieslike.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=4847
Baptist Pedophile Pastors Still Staying Busy
http://abpnews.com/ministry/congregation...ama-church
"An Alabama Baptist church fired its new pastor after his recent arrest on
sexual abuse charges in Texas, but it isnt the pastors first time in jail.
Mark Allen Green
Mark Allen Green, 41, in jail under a $500,000 bond in Waxahachie, Texas, has
a long criminal rap sheet, including nearly a decade in the Texas state prison
system before his release in 2007, according to WAFF television in Huntsville,
Ala."
http://new.exchristian.net/2010/02/church-still-paying-youthpastor.html#.UtoITPv8Jkg
Church still paying youth pastor convicted of pedophilia
2/09/2010
VANCOUVER -- A British Columbia youth pastor convicted of pedophilia in
Mexico is still being paid by his parish.
Brad Firth, the former supervisor of youth activities at St. David's Anglican
Church in Tsawwassen, has been receiving "compassionate pay" since being
arrested on the Baja peninsula, about an hour south of Tijuana, in 2004.
"He is suspended with reduced pay," said Rector Rev. Paul Woehrle. "We are
giving something to support him and his son."
Woehrle said the money -- $1,000 a month -- goes toward buying additional
food and water and for physical, mental and emotional counselling for Firth and
his adopted Haitian son.
The parish is also covering his legal fees.
Asked about how the parish justifies paying a convicted pedophile, Woehrle
said: "We had a plan that says until the appeal process is exhausted we would
49

continue this financial support.

"The appeal process has not been exhausted yet. That's our rationale."
The decision to continue paying Firth was based on and supported by a parish
council vote, he added.
Neale Adams, spokesman for the Diocese of New Westminster said he didn't
know the current status of Firth's employment.
"He is employed, or was employed, by the parish and not by the diocese," said
Adams.
Firth was convicted in June of sexually abusing a 14-year-old Mexican boy who
attended a Bible camp at the Ensenada church in 2001.
He was sentenced to 11 years, minus four years served for the time he has
spent in La Mesa penitentiary since being arrested on July 15, 2004.
On Oct. 14, Firth appeared before a Mexican tribunal of three judges to appeal
the conviction. The results are expected in the next weeks.
The church has posted a prayer since the conviction, asking parishioners to
pray that Firth's appeal goes well and for the well-being of his lawyer.
Since being incarcerated, Firth has continued his pastoral work by ministering
to fellow inmates and holding Bible studies.
Firth had been going on twice-yearly missionary trips to Mexico for eight years
when he was arrested.
If and when Firth returns to Canada he will be greeted by police.
Firth is wanted on an outstanding Canada-wide warrant by Delta Police for one
count of possession and one count of accessing child pornography.
He faces up to five years in prison on both charges.
http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1029998/pg1
PROTESTANT MINISTER PEDOPHILES
Why are there so many Protestant minister pedophiles when they are allowed
to marry?
Eddie Thomas, pastor of St. Luke Baptist Church in Ringgold, LA., is arrested
and charged with indecent behavior with a juvenile, aggravated incest and
pornography involving a juvenile. (the Shreveport Times, July 17, 2003)
50

Police seize videotape alleged to show sex with child

NEWARK, N.J. A convicted sex offender who was named pastor of a city church
several weeks ago has been removed from the post. Shiloh Baptist Church
leaders had hired the Rev. Chavalis T. Williams in mid-March, even though they
knew he had pleaded guilty in Florida to charges of child abuse and using
children in a sexual performance. (Newsday, May 7, 2003)
Convicted sex offender removed as pastor of Newark church
Tinley Park, IL. For the second time in two weeks, a Baptist pastor from New
Lenox has been charged with molesting a child and prosecutors said they
are looking for more victims. Dennis Larry Shaw, 53, of the 2100 block of
Sanford Drive, New Lenox, was charged Monday with aggravated criminal
sexual abuse of a 16-year-old girl, according to the Will County state's
attorney's office. On Jan. 31, Shaw was arrested on similar charges after a
parishioner's 12-year-old daughter alleged she was fondled by the pastor
inside the church between October and December, prosecutors said. (Daily
Southtown, February 11, 2003)
Minister again charged with molestation
Lyons, NY. Former Lyons Minister Sentenced to 1 1/3 -3 years in State Prison.
The retired minister of the Mount Zion Baptist Church in Lyons was sen-tenced
to 1 1/3 to 3 years in state prisonon Tuesday (1/14). Grady O. KempSr., age
65, ofWadley, Georgia, pled guilty to a reduced crime of Course of Sexual
Conduct Against a Child in the 2nd Degree-a Class D Felony on December 12,
2002, sparing the step-daughter from testifying. Kemp, when completing his
prison term, must regis-ter as a sexual predator. He had been indicted by a
Wayne County Grand Jury in July of last year, for one count of Sexual Mischief
in the 1st Degree, 4 counts of Rape in the 2nd Degree, 2 counts of Rape in the
3rd Degree, 4 counts of Sex Abuse in the 2nd Degree, 2 counts of Sex Abuse
in the 3rd Degree and one count of Sodomy in the 2nd Degree, involving a
step daughter. Grady had been arrested on July 31, 2002. It is alleged that the
sexual activity with a step daughter began when the girl was 9 years old and
continued until she was 14. "He had sexual contact with the girl hundreds of
times," said Wayne County District Attorney, Rick Healy. The incidents came to
light when the girl, now 16 years old, began fidgeting and praying. The next
day the girlbegan crying and screaming at a family gathering and said she
could not hold it back any longer. The girl's mother and Kemp's former wife,
Lynda Kemp, said she and her daughter now live in Panama City, Florida.
According to Healy, Grady had served as pastor of the church for almost 20
years. "He just retired last year and moved to Georgia," said Healy. Grady still
owned a house at 122 Ford Street in Newark, where the alleged crimes took
place. (Times of Wayne County, Jan. 27, 2003)
Fort Pierce, FL. Pastor Kenneth Johnson, recently convicted of having sex with
a minor, and Friendship Missionary Baptist Church -- where he reportedly
continues to minister -- were named in a sex-abuse lawsuit filed Tuesday.
Johnson, 39, is scheduled to be sentenced Friday on one count of unlawful
sexual activity with a minor. He faces up to 15 years on the second-degree
felony. (The Tribune, January 22, 2003) .
51

Johnson to be sentenced Friday on 1 count of unlawful sexual activity with

minor
Bryan, TX. A pastor was arrested and released from jail Monday night after he
was charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child. Ford was indicted
earlier this month based on an allegation he had sexually assaulted a teenage
boy who went on a trip with the pastor to the Texas Panhandle more than two
years ago. Ford was pastor from the New Zion Missionary Baptist Church in
Bryan where he had served for 17 years. (Bryan-College Station Eagle, Dec.
24, 2002)
pastor accused of assaulting Bryan boy arrested
TEMECULA, CA. Six years ago, Becky J.'s life revolved around Temecula Valley
Baptist Church. She worshipped there, went to school there, and even worked
after hours two days a week at the school to earn pocket money. That's where
she met 40-year-old Pastor Kerry Clyde Martin. But at 14, Becky didn't
understand the concept of street smarts, she said. She didn't know when the
man befriended her what the future held. "He listened to my problems and
would tell me how right I was if I had a fight with my parents," she said. "I
always thought he meant it in a pastor way, or like a father." Little did Becky
know that as a cleric at two previous churches -- one in Maryland and one in
Orange County -- Martin had already been accused of sexually molesting at
least three other girls, all 14. Little did she know the friendly, charismatic
minister was taking the first steps that would culminate in his repeatedly
raping the girl over the next two years. (The Californian, Dec. 8, 2002)
Child sex abuse reaches far beyond Catholic Church, experts say.
ANDERSON, S.C. Youth Minister William Bell of Mount Tabor Baptist Church
pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal sexual conduct with a minor 2nd
degree, four counts of lewd acts upon a child under sixteen and one count of
contributing to the delinquency of a minor. An investigation revealed two male
victims, the youngest was 10 years old. (WASV TC, Nov. 14, 2002)
Youth Minister Pleads Guilty To Sexual Conduct With Minors
Man Had Illegal Contact With Boys At Anderson Church
DETROIT, MI. A minister at an east side Detroit church admitted Friday that he
had sex with a 15-year-old girl, leading to her pregnancy. Prosecutors accused
Delton Benson of having sex with the unnamed girl in August 2000. A warrant
was issued for his arrest last March charging the 32-year-old minister at
Straight Street Baptist Church with two counts of third-degree criminal sexual
conduct. (sexcriminals.com, Nov. 1, 2002)
Minister arrested
Detroit Pastor Has Dropped Out Of Sight
First Baptist is a congregation that reveres its pastor. And so a dozen church
elders decided unanimously that pastor Rev. Lawrence French, who says he is
innocent, should remain as pastor. Convinced that the 72-year-old pastor could
not have committed the alleged offenses, they also concluded that it would be
unfair to French to notify other members of the church about the allegations.
(The Boston Globe, November 1, 2002)
52

Paster Convicted by Synod, but Congregation doesn't believe Pastor is guilty

Congration wants Paster to Remain
OLNEY, Ill. If things had gone as planned, 35-year-old Leslie Mason would have
preached the keynote sermon at this year's annual meeting of the Illinois
Baptist State Association Nov. 7. Instead the former pastor of Olney Southern
Baptist Church faces 10 counts of criminal sexual assault involving two teenage
girls who attended his southeastern Illinois congregation. (October 24, 2002,
ABP)
Baptist Pastor charged with criminal sexual assault of two teenagers
http://www.baptiststoday.org/btns11_8b.html
Lawrenceville, GA. A Brookwood High School junior says her youth minister
touched her sexually two years ago when she was 14. He insists he didn't. Now
a Gwinnett County jury must decide whether Shannon Rhodes, 33, is guilty of
child molestation while he worked as youth minister at Sunrise Baptist Church
in Lawrenceville. The girl detailed her relationship with Rhodes during more
than two hours on the witness stand Tuesday. She said there were three
separate incidents during which he exposed himself to her, tried to French kiss
her and placed her hand to fondle him. (The Atlanta Journal and Constitution,
10-23-2002)
Grand jury hears molestation case against ex-youth minister
Austin, TX. A former youth minister faces up to 20 years in prison after he was
convicted of nine counts of child sexual abuse. Charles Richard Willits, Jr., 44, a
former youth minister at Great Hills Baptist Church, was convicted Saturday.
Sentencing was scheduled for Monday. (October 18, 2002; Abilene ReporterNews)
Youth Paster Convicted in Criminal Court
Fresno, CA. A southwest Fresno pastor has been arrested on suspicion he had
a four-year sexual relationship with a teenage boy nearly 20 years ago, Fresno
police confirmed Monday. Calvin Eugene Moore, 45, a pastor at King Solomon
Baptist Church, was arrested for an alleged sexual relationship he had with the
boy, police said. Moore remains in the Fresno County Jail in lieu of $550,000
bail. (The Fresno Bee; October 16, 2002)
Paster Arrested
HENRYETTA, OK. -- A former Dewar First Baptist Church music director worked
briefly at another Baptist church before his arrest on sexual battery complaints
last week. Aaron M. McDonald, 23, was hired in June at the Calvary Baptist
Church in Sulphur, said the Rev. Brent Parsons. Asked if the hiring came after
June 11, Parsons said, "Yes." McDonald is accused of touching the genitals of a
15-year-old boy who, with another friend, was staying the night at McDonald's
mobile home in Henryetta on June 11, according to an affidavit for McDonald's
arrest. (Tulsa World, 08/03/2002)
Accused Dewar minister had been hired in Sulphur
Walker County, AL. John Anderson, a Carbon Hill First Baptist preacher charged
with three counts of first-degree sexual abuse of juveniles under the age of 12,
53

pleaded guilty to all charges in a Walker County court. Earlier the same day
Anderson also entered a "best interest" guilty plea in another court on charges
stemming from that area. During his tenure as a minister, he had also
reportedly been a pulpit preacher at Southside Baptist in Russellville, Natural
Bridge Baptist, West Blocton Baptist, Hartselle Baptist and other churches in
Mississippi. (Daily Mountain Eagle, Aug. 2, 2002)
COLUMBUS, GA. An associate pastor in Columbus has been sentenced to 10
years in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of child molestation and one
count of aggravated child molestation. Michael Krug, an associate pastor at
Calvary Baptist, pleaded guilty to the charges at the Muscogee Superior Court.
(The Augusta Chronicle, July 28, 2002).
Minister gets 10 years for child molestation
Butler County, PA. A pastor faces charges for allegedly aiding and abetting a
parishioner accused of sexually assaulting a 5-year-old Allegheny Township
girl. Jeffery F. Cox, pastor of the Fellowship Baptist Church in Allegheny
Township, obtained airline tickets for accused molester Jeremy James
Whitmire, and helped Whitmire enroll in a home for troubled young men in
Texas, court documents said. (Butler Eagle, 07/16/02)
Pastor charged with aiding abuser
RALEIGH, N.C. A Southern Baptist missionary who was fired for abusing
children in Indonesia is working at a Raleigh church where the minister knew of
his past. (June 28, 2002; AP)
Molester Paster Knowingly Hired by another Church
Gastonia, SC. A local youth minister has been charged with three counts of
taking indecent liberties with a minor, police said Thursday. Marty Eugene
Meadows, 34, worked as a minister at the Sunset Lane Baptist Church in
Bessemer City, police said. Meadows appeared before a magistrate and a judge
Wednesday, and was released after posting a $3,000 bond. "There are multiple
victims," said Capt. Tony Robinson, a spokesman with the Gaston County
Police. "He was touching them in an inappropriate manner." (June, 14, 2002,
The Charlotte Observer)
Youth minister faces sex charges
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/states/north_carolina/coun
ties/gaston/3466742.htm

Gastonia, SC. On Wednesday, Lincoln County pastor Dewey "Eddie" White was
found guilty in district court of propositioning a 15-year-old girl, prosecutors
said. The charge was soliciting to commit a crime against nature, said Kay
Killian, a Lincoln County prosecutor.(June, 14, 2002, The Charlotte Observer)
Pastor of Heavenly View Full Gospel Baptist Church
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/states/north_carolina/coun
ties/gaston/3466742.htm

54

JACKSONVILLE, FL. A businessman and deacon of First Baptist Church already

accused of molesting a minor was arrested Thursday on charges he molested
two other youths. Stephen Lee Edmonds, 44, was charged with five counts of
lewd and lascivious assault, said David Sembach, Jacksonville police assistant
chief of detectives. The victims were 14 and 15 years old, authorities said. He
had been free on $50,000 bond following an arrest April 15, when he was
charged with molesting a 16-year-old and sending him Internet messages
discussing sexual practices. The 16-year-old alleged that Edmonds improperly
touched him twice in 2000. (Naples Daily News, April 26, 2002)
Former Jacksonville deacon facing multiple molestation charges
A former Burlington pastor charged with sex crimes has left his Danville, Va.,
church after reportedly admitting to deacons there that he acted
inappropriately with a child. Many members of the Danville church pastored by
the Rev. James Preston Tyndall were shocked Sunday to learn that he had been
charged with six felony sex crimes Thursday and had resigned Friday evening.
I would say our people were shocked. But some of them had heard about his
arrest on TV prior to the Sunday service, Bruce Hutcheson, chairman of the
deacon board at Stokesland Baptist Church, said Monday of Tyndalls
departure. Hutcheson and other deacons who met with Tyndall after his release
from the Alamance County Jail have said that he admitted to them that he
engaged in inappropriate conduct with the child. Burlington authorities said the
girl, now 14, was 8 and 9 years old when the alleged offenses occurred in
Burlington. (4/10/2002, Alamance County Times-News)
http://www.thetimesnews.com/2000/00-04/00-04-11/news-1.html
WEBSTER COUNTY, IL. Investigators with the Sheriffs Department are
searching for a Baptist minister charged with five counts of statutory rape.
Officials say the Rev. Steven Rear, 40, pastor of Westport Baptist Church in
Springfield, has been on the run since the charges were filed against him on
Monday. Rear is charged with raping a girl under 14 years old. According to
court documents, the abuse allegedly occurred throughout the 1990s. The
victim, now 20, said Rear had sexual intercourse with her about every other
day when she was between the ages of 13 and 16. Members of Westport
Baptist, where Rear has preached for the past 10 years, refuse to believe the
charges. The church is behind our pastor all the way, said deacon Billy Elliott
of the 75-member congregation. (The Springfield News-Leader, March 21,
2002)
Pastor of Springfields Westport Baptist Church accused of sex with girl under
age 14.

Syracuse, NY. David Gardiner, the Pastor of Liverpool Baptist Church, was
arraigned on sexual abuse charges on Wednesday. Gardiner, 43, eluded a
police swat team and dozens of sheriffs deputies for more than eight hours
from around 5:00 pm Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. Sheriff Kevin
Walsh says Gardiner is accused of having sexual contact with a girl who is
under age 11. Court documents show the allegations do not involve anyone
outside the Gardiner home. According to Sheriff Walsh, the investigation began
55

when Gardiners wife Deborah contacted his department. Gardiner also taught
Bible study and economics classes at the Baldwinsville Christian Academy; he
has been fired from the job in the wake of the sex abuse allegations. (March 8,
2002, WTVH news)
Minister flees law after sex abuse charges
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/news/0501story115953_news.shtml
NEW ORLEANS, LA (CHARISMA) -- The music minister at a large New Orleans
church has been charged with intentionally exposing a teen-age boy to the
AIDS virus. Phillip Britton--music minister at Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel
Baptist Church, led by Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship founder Bishop
Paul Morton--denied the charge brought last week, "The Times-Picayune" said.
Britton, 38, was charged earlier with having sex with an underage male. A
police report said that Britton met the boy from another church through choir
activities, and the two had sex more than 100 times in a year, the newspaper
said. (Maranatha Christian Journal, Feb. 23, 2002)
The former minister of a southeast Kansas Baptist Church has been charged
with molesting a teen-age girl. 37-YEAR-OLD KYLE GUENTHER of Iola was
charged Wednesday in Allen County with five counts of aggravated indecent
liberties with a child, and four counts of aggravated sodomy. County Attorney
Nanette Kemmerly-Weber says the charges stem from 15 alleged incidents
between Guenther and the girl. The girl was 14 in November 1999 when the
alleged assaults began. (MSNBC.com, Jan. 31, 2002)
A survey of SBC pastors published in the Winter, 1993 edition of The Journal of
Pastoral Care, done by Jeff Seats, an SBC pastoral counselor, revealed that
14.1% of ministers surveyed admitted to "engagement in sexual behavior
which was judged by the individual pastors to be inappropriate for a minister."
RIDDLE Gary John, 50 Geelong Baptist churchgoer, youth leader and primary
school teacher. Receives maximum 5 year jail sentence in VIC Appeals Court
after pleading guilty to 14 sex offences, including indecent assaults, gross
indecency and sexual penetration, against 9 girls, aged 10 to 16, between
1971 and 1989 at Geelong, Hawthorn and Port Campbell. Court hears Riddle,
of Bell Post Hill, Geelong, continued offending despite church pastor
confronting him about behaviour in 1983. Originally charged with 52 offences
against 11 victims. (Victoria, Australia, 2002).
Oakland, CA. A warrant has been issued for the arrest of Reverend Charles
Thomas of the Foothill Missionary Baptist Church. Thomas is accused of having
sex with a 15-year-old girl from his congregation during a month-long period in
the fall. Thomas reportedly called a special meeting with church members last
week and admitted that the charges were true. If convicted, he could face up
to eight years in prison. (12-11-2001; KPIX TV)
Reverend sought in crime
KPIX report
Marietta, GA. A 30-year-old former church martial arts instructor at Eastside
Baptist Church in Marietta was sentenced today to 90 years in prison. Cobb
56

County Superior Court Judge George Kreeger also sentenced Gunther Fiek
today to 90 years on probation. Fiek showed no emotion when Kreeger
announced the sentence. A jury convicted Fiek of 18 counts of child
molestation and three counts of aggravated child molestation in September.
(WSB-TV, October 19, 2001)
Fiek gets 90 years for child molestation
Beginning at age 11, Esther Combs was regularly sexually abused by her
father. She said he told her that King David had concubines, so this behavior
was condoned by the Bible. Esther, her three brothers and two sisters were
home-schooled. No visitors were allowed into the home not even
parishioners. A later search of the property found it was filthy, garbage and
rat-infested and inhabited by caged cats and dogs. The pungent odor was still
faintly there last fall when the detective took me and our cameras on a tour of
the place. Richmond pointed out the basketball floor where, she says Esther
Combs "was beaten with ropes, chains, whips, umbrellas, bats." (ABC News,
Oct. 18. 2001)
In November 1998, Joe and Evangeline Combs were indicted on multiple
charges of aggravated child abuse, assault and kidnapping; Joe was further
charged with rape. Last spring, both were found guilty and sentenced to prison
terms that will likely keep them behind bars for the rest of their lives.
How Esther Combs Finally Escaped a Lifetime of Abuse
http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/primetime/2020/primetime_esthercomb
s_feature.html
ABC released excerpts, including Heche's revelation that she spent the first 31
years of her life suffering from mental illness triggered by sexual abuse by her
father. Heche says she was sexually abused by her father from the time she
was a toddler until she was 12. Donald Heche, a choir director in a Baptist
church who frequented gay bars, died of AIDS in 1983. (USA Today; Sept. 4,
2001)
Anne Heche sexually abused by father, a Baptist choir Director
http://www.usatoday.com/life/2001-09-04-heche.htm
DELRAY BEACH -- An associate pastor is behind bars, accused of molesting a
young girl and possibly fathering her child. Police say that Lyndon Howell, who
served at the Community Missionary Baptist Church, befriended the victim's
family when she was 11 years old. For the next four years, police believe that
Howell had sex with her. Howell faces several charges. He is being held without
bond at the Palm Beach County Jail. 6/26/01
TAMPA - A one-time Baptist church deacon was sentenced to 21 months in
federal prison for what the FBI called "cyberterrorism"that targeted young
women on the Internet.
Robert Harvey Alexander, 52, had assembled a list of 100 e-mail addresses
of high school and college students and demanded they have sexually explicit
conversations with him or he would ruin their reputations, court records said.
57

Alexander, who was a deacon at First Baptist Church in Tampa at the time of
his arrest, also taunted his victims by telling them that police couldn't find him.
FBI agents arrested him last Nov. at a computer terminal at a Tampa public
library.
Alexanderuilty to 6 counts of extortion. His attorney argued that Alexander
suffers from bipolar disorder and didn't fully understand what he'd done. AP
10/7/2000.
Cyber-Extortion Results in Prison Sentence
(http://net4tv.com/voice/story.cfm?storyid=2931)
CHURCH DEACON FACES MULTIPLE CHARGES
(http://faculty.csumb.edu/mountfordcarolin/world/cst371/history.html)
FRESNO - A former minister and police officer has been sentenced to 21 years
in prison for killing his lovers husband.
A Fresno County jury had cleared Paul Hurth,44, of murder but convicted him
of manslaughter in the Feb. shooting of car salesman Ralph Peter Gawor.
Giving Hurth the maximum term for voluntary manslaughter, the judge said
that Hurth had violated his trust as a police officer.
The four-year police officer and department chaplain claimed he killed Gawor,
43, in self-defense with his service weapon after going to Gawors house to tell
him of the sexual affair he had been having with Nancy Gawor.
Hurth, the former pastor at Heritage Baptist Church, was arrested more than a
week after the killing and fired from the force.AP 8/15/2000
BISHOP, GA. A wounded Oconee County church is trying to pick up the pieces
this week after the shattering news that its pastor had been jailed on felony
child molestation charges. Larry Michael Holmes, 53, who was minister of the
Bishop Baptist Church until he abruptly resigned two weeks ago, remained in
the Oconee County jail without bail on Monday, charged with child molestation
and one count of aggravated child molestation. Holmes had been highly
regarded by the members of Bishop Baptist Church. He had been pastor of the
church, which is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, for about five
years. ''He had led the church so strongly" said one member, Jean Holcomb.'He
had done a real good job," said church deacon Dean Johnson. "They are very
upset, just having a hard time accepting it." said Gene Dellinger, chairman of
the church's board of deacons. (onlineathens.com, July 23, 2001)
Molestation charges leveled against pastor
CLINTON, IL. - A state district judge levied a total of $20,000 in fines against a
minister charged with two counts of molestation of a juvenile.
Rev. William Thomas Rose III, 51, pleaded guilty on April 24 to molesting
two girls in Wilson while he was pastor of the First Baptist Church of Wilson in
1986. The girls are now ages 19 and 23, according to court records.
58

Unless you come to grips with the fact that you molested two little girls,
youre in trouble - because it could happen again, District Judge Wilson
Ramshur told the defendant. Contrition is one step toward salvation, the
judge added.
Ramshur also sentenced Rose to two consecutive 10-year prison terms, but
suspended the sentences and placed him on probation for 10 years. As a
condition of probation, the defendant is prohibited from being alone with
anyone younger than 18. Advocate 6/28/2000
GREENWOOD, SC. - A minister and former school library aide has been
charged with 16 more counts of sexually molesting children after police
identified more victims from homemade videotapes.
Fernando Garcia - held on a $4 million bond - is now charged with a total of
44 counts of sexual misconduct with at least 15 victims, police say.
Investigators probably still have several weeks of work left to do - more
charges are likely, said the police chief. Garcia was charged with two counts of
criminal sexual conduct with a minor and 14 counts of lewd acts on a minor.
The latest charges accuse him of fondling children at an elementary school,
where he worked for two years, and at the Abbeville Baptist Association, where
he was pioneering a Hispanic ministry. The Chihuahua, Mexico-native is a
husband and father of two teen-age children.AP 6/28/2000
Tales of horror: Sex crimes victimizing children rock community's foundations
http://www.angelfire.com/journal/indexjournal/01Jan25A.html
Bartow, FL. Accompanied by family and parishioners, the Rev. Kenneth Baxley,
pastor of Central Baptist Community Ministries in Lakeland, was sentenced
Thursday to a two-year prison term for failing to register as a sex offender. The
failure-to-register charge originated with a crime committed by Baxley in 1983
but confessed to seven years later. He served 15 months in prison for
attempted sexual battery on a child younger than 12. Baxley has served
several churches in various capacities in the Lakeland area since his release.
(The Ledger, June 1, 2001).
Minister not registered as sex offender gets 2 years

LARGO, FL. Randy Morrow, 40, street minister with Countryside Baptist Church
in Palm Harbor, was charged with molesting three teenage boys. (St.
Petersburg Times, October 18, 2000)
Authorities say they have a taped phone call in which pastor Morrow apologizes
to one of the reported victims
Authorities Youth minister sentenced for sex
EASTON - A pastor will stand trial on rape and child-abuse charges, a judge
ruled yesterday. The Rev. Andrew Roy Tilghman, 32, was ordered to stand trial
in circuit court on charges of first-degree rape and first-degree sexual offense
against two girls.
59

Tilghman is pastor of the United Missionary Baptist Church. District Judge

William Adkins III also ordered him to stand trial on nine counts each of
second-degree rape, second-degree assault, child abuse and third- and fourthdegree sexual offense and two counts of second-degree sexual offense. His
wife, Great Elizabeth Tilghman, 33, was ordered to stand trial on charges of
child abuse and second-degree assault. Easton Police Detective Brandon
Bobbick testified in a hearing that a 10-year-old revealed she had been beaten
by Great Elizabeth Tilghman and that she and her sister had been sexually
abused by Andrew Roy Tilghman. - AP May 24, 2000
Easton pastor's abuse trial on
AIKEN. SC. - A former youth minister who admitted to molesting church
members on camping trips and manipulating neighborhood boys with money
and gifts during 3 decades has received a 30-year prison sentence.
Robert Dorsett, 65, pleaded guilty to 15 sex crimes involving children during
an emotional hearing in which the offenses were read in detail to a hushed
courtroom. Some of Dorsett's victims - who range in age now from 9 to 43 attended the hearing and asked the judge to keep Dorsett from abusing more
children. Friends and family members of Dorsett attended the hearing, lining
up to speak on his behalf. Many were neighbors or co-workers who called him
a father figure and hard worker.
Dorsett met many of his victims while he was a training director at First Baptist
Church in Aug.a years ago. During trips in a church program, he would
organize shaving cream fights and have the youths shower together, police
said. He encouraged them to go streaking.
During a search of Dorsett's home, sheriff's officers found a brown suitcase
containing X-rated videotapes and magazines along with candy, cookies and
other items he gave the children, police said.
Investigators found notebooks where Dorsett kept track of neighborhood boys
and their telephone numbers. Publicity about his arrest last year led to new
allegations by victims who had tried to forget the abuse, police said. Augusta
Chronicle, 11/30/99
Molester pleads guilty
http://www.augustachronicle.com/stories/113099/met_124-3417.shtml

TAMPA - A church deacon already accused of Internet sex crime against a

teen-age girl faced more sexual extortion charges for allegedly terrorizing 5
other high school and college students. Robert Harvey Alexander, 41, a
deacon at the First Baptist Church in Tampa, was being held in lieu of
$150,000 bond after an appearance in federal court to advise him of the 5
additional charges.
Three 21-year-old students at Georgia Tech in Atlanta and two students at
Plantation High School in Florida were the latest alleged victims of attempts to
60

engage them in telephone and cybersex, federal agents said. Frank Gallagher,
head of Tampa's FBI office, said the new charges grew out of interviews with
people named on a "Victim's List." Agents seized the list with 99 names and email addresses on it when they arrested Alexander for using the Internet in an
attempt to extort a 16-year-old girl.
All of those on the list received virtually identical messages threatening to
destroy their reputations unless they engaged in phone or computer sex with
the sender. Gallagher called it "cyberterrorism" because of the fear created in
the recipients. One women told her father, an assistant federal public defender,
about the message. Another contacted university officials.
Investigators are trying to reach other women included on the list. So far, have
traced 17 of them, and are continuing their search. Prosecutors said they hope
the new charges will bolster their claim that Alexander is a methodical and
dangerous sexual predator. AP, 11/11/99
FAIRBANKS, AK. - A Baptist pastor from an interior village was arrested on
charges he molested his adopted teen-age daughter, State Troopers said.
Richard Cook, 46, is accused of having sex with the girl twice and touching
her genitals often during the past 19 months, according to court documents.
He has been charged with one count each of first- and second-degree sexual
abuse of a minor.
Troopers said Cook first sexually touched the victim, then 13, in Oct. 1997.
Four months later, the molestation became an "almost daily" event despite the
girl's protests, according to court documents.
The girl's adoptive mother, who had started working outside the home,
suspected something was amiss because Cook "changed his behavior and
demeanor," according to the documents. But when she questioned her husband
and daughter, both denied anything was going on, troopers said. The girl
attempted suicide before she reported what happened.
Troopers said Cook has since admitted to the sexual contact, stating he knew
his actions were wrong but that he "just got mixed up a bit," according to
documents.
He was arrested at a Fairbanks motel. Cook and the women had traveled to
town to seek help, said police. AP 4/27/99
MASCOTTE, FL. - A Baptist preacher was charged with molesting three foster
children left in his care. Pastor William Nathan White, Jr., 50, was being
held at the county jail on $45,000 bond, charged with three counts of sexual
battery of a child under age 12, a capital offense, jail officials said.
Following his arrest, 8 foster children and 3 adopted children were removed
from his home and placed in other foster homes according to a spokeswoman
for the state Dept. of Children & Families. State records show that White and
61

his wife, Susan, have taken in at least 20 children since they were licensed by
the state to become foster parents in 1995.
White first was accused of sexual battery when a 7-year-old girl, who lived with
the family for two weeks, told her natural mother during a visit monitored by
social workers that White had molested her a sheriff's spokesman said. The girl
told investigators that while sitting on White's lap, the minister asked her if
anyone had ever touched her "private area." White then placed his hand inside
her clothing and fondled her, reports said.
In a videotaped interview, a 10-year-old told authorities White had repeatedly
molested her since she came to live with him in Aug., according to reports. An
11-year-old, who lived with the Whites from Aug. into Nov., said the pastor
often had her sit on his lap while she played computer games, and he once
fondled her, records said.
Investigators plan to question every child the Whites have had in their custody
since 1995. State social workers are also reviewing their files to determine if
there were any concerns raised about the Whites' home in the past AP 3/5/99
DUBUQUE, IA. - A woman is suing her former pastor and the Baptist church for
which he worked. Sheldon D. Stotmeister is accused of having exploited the
woman in order to have a sexual relationship when Kim Deutmeyer came to
him for counseling. He is also alleged to have encouraged her to divorce her
husband and to not tell anyone about the relationship.
Two weeks earlier, her ex-husband Darrell, filed a similar suit.
Stotmeister resigned in March and was arrested in Aug. on charges of sexual
exploitation by a counselor as a result of his relationship. Telegraph Herald,
4/15/99
FORT WORTH - Five women agreed to drop their sexual-misconduct lawsuits
against the founder of a Baptist church in exchange for his admission to some
of the affairs, according to court papers.
The lawsuits against Ollin Collins, founder of Harvest Baptist Church and a
former board chairman of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, were
dropped after Collins acknowledged that he "engaged in an adulterous
relationship" with three of the women. But all five women retained the right to
sue Collins again their attorney said. "We had asked him to apologize to the
church and agree not to be in the pulpit until Sept. of 2000, and he refuses to
do that," he said.
Four women and the family of another filed lawsuits in state district court
contending that Collins had used his position to force them into "lewd,
lascivious, obscene conduct."
Harvest Baptist Church, with 3,500 members, fired Collins in Nov.
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The church and the women agreed to a settlement in which the church and its
insurance company would pay $400,000 to the women and their families, the
Star-Telegram reported. The church has paid about $100,000 of the settlement
and will sell a piece of property to cover the cost said an attorney for the
church. AP 4/22/99
An Ardmore youth minister has been charged with child molestation. Everice
Daniel Johnson appeared in district court Tuesday for initial arraignment on one
count of lewd acts against a child under 16. Johnson, a youth minister at
Mount Zion Baptist Church, was released following the court appearance on a
$2,000 personal recognizance bond. According to charge information filed by
the district attorney's office, Johnson allegedly touched the girl "in a manner
relating to sexual matters or sexual interests." (The Daily Admoreite, January
14, 1999)
Tampa, FL. Dan Earl Allmond, Youth Pastor of Tampa Baptist Church, a
Southern Baptist Church, and a married man, suddenly resigned on December
9, 1998 and disappeared off the scene when the police were called in
concerning a complaint made by a female high school student that she was
having sex with the pastor as a minor. Senior Pastor McCormick of Tampa
Baptist Church denied all knowledge about the sexual activities and ordered
the staff of Tampa Baptist Academy to stay silent on the whole matter and not
to discuss Dan's previous sexual escapades with no one! McCormick's own
daughter was sexually promiscuous and had to leave school for a while for fear
of being pregnant. (Tampa Tribune, December 9, 1998)
Dan Earl Allmond faces two counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor
SAN FRANCISCO - A minister already facing theft and arson charges was sued
by 10 parishioners who allege he convinced them to take out mortgage loans
for church improvements and then stole the money.
Rev. Thomas McCall allegedly used the loan money, totaling more than
$850,000, to buy real estate in San Francisco and Southern Calif., according to
the lawsuit. The members of the Concord Missionary Baptist Church are
seeking damages for breach of contract, breach of good faith and fair dealing,
fraud and negligent misrepresentation.
McCall had been under investigation since last Jan., when 7 parishioners
claimed the pastor convinced them and others to mortgage their homes to
finance $1.1 million in church renovations.
Records show church members raised a total of $2.9 million in equity,
donations and construction loans - about $1.1 million more than was necessary
for the work.
In addition to 4 counts of grand theft for allegedly taking $2.5 million in church
funds, including the $850,000 mentioned in the suit, McCall also faces an arson
charge for allegedly trying to destroy financial records by setting his apartment
on fire. He has been dismissed from the church and the trial was scheduled to
begin Jan. 25. AP, 10/14/98
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WASHINGTON, DC. - A Baptist minister in Texas who had sex with two women
while counseling them about their marriages lost his appeal to the Supreme
Court. He now must pay each one $115,000.
The court, without comment, turned away Rev. Shelby Baucum's argument
that a federal jury violated his religious freedom by deciding he had committed
malpractice and breached his fiduciary duties. Baucum had sexual relationships
with two women who were church members and employees in 1991. One
woman was fired from her job as the church receptionist and the other lost her
job as his administrative secretary when they disclosed the relationships.
Baucum was asked to resign, which he did.
The women then sued him in federal court, and each won awards of $30,000 in
compensatory damages and $85,000 in punitive damages. Baucum appealed,
contending the jury had punished him for what he said was a mixture of
secular and spiritual counseling - the equivalent of "clergy malpractice."
But in upholding the awards, the Court of Appeals ruled that the religiousfreedom difficulties posed by such a finding were not present in Baucum's
case. The appeals court ruling added: "The First Amendment does not
categorically insulate religious relationships from judicial scrutiny, for to do so
would necessarily extend constitutional protection to the secular components
of these relationships To hold otherwise would impermissibly place a religious
leader in a preferred position in our society." AP, 10/5/98
APOPKA, FL. - A minister who molested third-graders at his church school
couldn't promise that he wouldn't molest again, and so was sentenced to
prison for 7 years and 4 months, followed by 10 years of probation. The judge
acknowledged the remorse of David Joe Rich, 55, and that he took
responsibility for his crimes, but said she wanted to ensure he would not harm
anyone again.
Rich, former pastor of Springs Community Baptist Church, pleaded guilty to
molesting 2 girls and trying to molest a third during the 1995-96 school year.
He fondled the girls, ages 8 and 9, at his desk while other students were in the
classroom, said the prosecutor. The desk concealed the probing.
Rich apologized and made no excuses for his conduct but could not explain it.
With God's help and counseling, he said, he hoped never to molest again. But
he said he would be foolish to make a "100 percent" guarantee. He had
resigned when confronted about the abuse 2 years after it ended.
While on probation, Rich must get counseling. He cannot be alone with children
younger than 18 or live near a school or other place where children visit. The
judge told Rich he should bring his ministry to prison. "There are people in
prison who could use your services," she said. Orlando Sentinel, 12/4/1998
NORRISTOWN, PA. - A clergyman was charged with murdering a 4-year-old
boy whom he and his wife had agreed to look after as a favor to the child's
impoverished mother, authorities said.
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Rev. Javan McBurrow , 47, beat Michael Davis across the back of his legs as
many as 10 times with a two-foot metal mason's level, and then forced the
child to march the length of the family's squalid suburban home until he
dropped, police said. They said the boy was being punished for wetting his
pants and for looking at one of the couple's daughters in the bathroom.
McBurrows and his wife, Jane, took the boy to the hospital, telling doctors he
had fallen in the bathtub. They then fled with their own five children to
Georgia. The boy died soon after and an autopsy showed he had been beaten
over a prolonged period.
McBurrows, pastor of the Third Christian Church was arrested for child
endangerment in Georgia and returned to Philadelphia.
The 4-year-old, his 7-year-old sister and 5-year-old brother had been living
with the McBurrows for about a month because their mother, who also has 3
other children, could not care for them.
After being charged with first-degree murder, McBurrows was remanded to jail
with bond set at $500,000. Police who searched the family's home described
the two-story house as a "squalid, uninhabitable" dwelling with only one bed.
The property has since been condemned. Reuters 1/15/99
NORRISTOWN, PA. - A clergyman was charged with murdering a 4-year-old
boy whom he and his wife had agreed to look after as a favor to the child's
impoverished mother, authorities said.
Rev. Javan McBurrow , 47, beat Michael Davis across the back of his legs as
many as 10 times with a two-foot metal mason's level, and then forced the
child to march the length of the family's squalid suburban home until he
dropped, police said. They said the boy was being punished for wetting his
pants and for looking at one of the couple's daughters in the bathroom.
McBurrows and his wife, Jane, took the boy to the hospital, telling doctors he
had fallen in the bathtub. They then fled with their own five children to
Georgia. The boy died soon after and an autopsy showed he had been beaten
over a prolonged period.
McBurrows, pastor of the Third Christian Church was arrested for child
endangerment in Georgia and returned to Philadelphia.
The 4-year-old, his 7-year-old sister and 5-year-old brother had been living
with the McBurrows for about a month because their mother, who also has 3
other children, could not care for them.
After being charged with first-degree murder, McBurrows was remanded to jail
with bond set at $500,000. Police who searched the family's home described
the two-story house as a "squalid, uninhabitable" dwelling with only one bed.
The property has since been condemned. Reuters 1/15/99
65

RICHMOND, VA. - Former Mayor Rev. Leonidas B. Young has agreed to plead
guilty to 4 of 19 felony counts alleging he sold his influence as mayor and, as a
pastor, defrauded members of his congregation, according to a newspaper.
The Times-Dispatch said Young is likely to face 2 years to 2 1/2 years in prison
at sentencing. Young will lose his City Council seat automatically if he pleads
guilty. He became pastor of Richmond's Fourth Baptist Church in 1990 and was
elected to City Council 2 years later and appointed mayor in 1996. Last fall,
Young was indicted on charges of racketeering, fraud, filing false tax returns,
suborning perjury and money laundering. The charges carry prison terms
ranging from five to 30 years.
Authorities allege Young peddled influence as mayor and cheated members of
his church out of money he used to help pay for an expensive secret life of
extramarital affairs. AP, 1/27/99
Cherokee County, GA. A Cherokee County church deacon was convicted
Saturday of molesting a 14-year-old girl who attended his church. Jurors
deliberated about 14 hours Friday and Saturday before finding John M. Eatman
guilty of child molestation and enticing a minor for indecent purposes. He is to
be sentenced in several weeks. Prosecutors said he showed the girl an adult
magazine and made sexually explicit comments to her in August, then touched
her buttocks during Sunday morning services Sept. 27 at South Cherokee
Baptist Church. (The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, 12-13-1998)
Deacon convicted of molestation: Man fondled teen in Cherokee church
KANSAS CITY - A minister who participated in a school program to counsel
troubled youths has been charged with rape and other sex offenses involving 3
teen-age girls. Rev. Gregory Robertson, 40, was accused of using his
affiliation with the Kansas City School District to befriend families of students
outside of school, said a spokesman of the police sex crimes unit. Robertson
convinced parents to allow some children to temporarily move into his home to
"give them guidance," he said.
Robertson has pleaded innocent and is free on $15,000 bond. He faces charges
of statutory rape, 2 counts of statutory sodomy, attempted statutory sodomy
and 4 counts of sexual misconduct. The charges involve 3 girls ages 12 to 14.
The girls told police the incidents occurred between Feb. 1996 and Dec. 1997
at Robertson's home.
Police said Robertson met at least one of the girls through his work with the
school district. They were not sure how he met the other two. The three girls
did not know each other.
Robertson was part of a Ministers Alliance, a group formed last school year by
a former superintendent to counsel troubled students. The program no longer
exists, and Robertson was banned from the schools after officials heard about
the investigation, said a district spokeswoman.

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Police began investigating Robertson in Sept. 1997 after a girl told officers she
had lived in Robertson's home in 1996. No charges were filed. The
investigation was reopened in Jan. after a 12-year-old girl made new
allegations. Detectives then found 3 other girls who had lived in Robertson's
home, including one who said Robertson offered to buy her a pair of shoes in
exchange for a sex act.
Robertson was ordained at Zion Grove Missionary Baptist Church about 6 years
ago, but has since left the church, police said. AP, 10/28/98
BOONE, NC. - A long-standing pastor and high school teacher accused of
raping a 15-year-old student two years ago was sentenced to spend up to two
years in prison as part of a plea arrangement.
Rev. Larry Edward Elliott, 50, pleaded guilty to 3 counts of taking indecent
liberties with a minor. He entered his plea just before the jury was to be
selected for his trial. A judge ordered Elliott to serve time for one of the 3
counts, the others suspended and the district attorney dropped 3 other
charges of statutory rape.
Elliott, a Baptist pastor for 20 years, resigned after the accusations surfaced.
He had worked as a substitute math teacher at the school where he met his
victim. (9/15 Watauga Democrat)
TIERRA AMARILLA, NM. - The Chama First Baptist Church has been sued by
a man who claims the church should have stopped the pastor, Rev. Louis
Day, from wrecking his marriage. Eileen Dement began counseling soon after
he became pastor in 1993, but she testified that she never considered him a
psychological counselor, and began an affair which included lovemaking
sessions in the church. She left her former husband for Day, whom she
married in 1996, and has a 7-month old son by him.
She testified it would have taken "an act of God" to save her marriage to the
plaintiff, Richard Hurd. He testified that Day told him to try to add some
romance to their marriage. (8/29/98)

TAMPA - The president of the National Baptist Convention USA pleaded not
guilty to federal fraud charges and was allowed to remain free on a $125,000
bond. Rev. Henry Lyons, 56, was indicted by a federal grand jury on grounds
that he had used the organization of black churches to steal millions of dollars
from corporations and activists.
Lyons was indicted on 56 counts including fraud, extortion, conspiracy and tax
evasion. At the hearing, 8 friends of his pledged to cover the bond. He said
that all of his assets were frozen by the government.
Prosecutors charge that Lyons fraudulently solicited contributions for charitable
causes, including the rebuilding of black churches destroyed by arsonists. The
67

indictment said he used the donations to support a lavish lifestyle, buying cars,
jewelry, country club memberships and homes throughout the country.
Lyons already faced state charges that he used his position to bilk millions of
dollars from companies doing business with the church group. A federal grand
jury also indicted a convention employees Bernice Edwards and Brenda Harris.
Both are free on bond also. (7/7/98 Reuters)
Atlanta, GA. The Rev. Danny B. Moody may have slipped in the eyes of the law,
but he hasn't fallen from grace in the hearts of his followers. Moody, 52, who
has served as Pastor of Mount Carmel Baptist Church in Douglasville for 24
years, was arrested May 29 on a felony Peeping Tom charge. Atlanta police
allege Moody aimed his Camcorder beneath the skirts of females while riding
escalators at Hartsfield Internationa Airport. Moody was released under $5,000
bond the same day. Almost three weeks later, Moody's wife, Brenda, said his
congregation still supports him. "The church has been told about the charges
against him, but the church stands behind him by an overwhelming vote,"
Brenda Moody said. (The Atlanta Journal and Constitution 06-19-1999)
Minister faces felony Peeping Tom charge
HARTFORD - A former Baptist deacon who fathered a child with a young
parishioner was sentenced to 18 years in prison for raping her and another girl
as well.
Edward Brown, Jr., 39, asked for forgiveness in court. The young woman was
6 years old when Brown began molesting her. He raped her several times and
she became pregnant in 1994 at age 14. She hid the pregnancy, giving birth
alone in her room. When the baby died shortly thereafter, she threw away the
body, which has never been found.
Six months later, she had a nervous breakdown. Doctors would not believe she
had been pregnant until a medical exam proved it.
After Brown pleaded guilty to the rape, one of his family members came
forward to accuse him of molesting her since age 5. 4/4/98

ORLANDO - A minister surrendered to faces charges of molesting two

elementary-school girls and sheriff's investigators were seeking more possible
victims. Rev. David Joe Rich, 54, who resigned his post at Springs
Community Baptist Church in Apopka, was arrested after confessing to the
assaults. He was charged with four counts of lewd and lascivious acts and
released on bail.
The two girls, whose parents confronted Rich, said they were fondled during
classes while standing behind the pastor's desk. Other girls were also called to
stand there, according to a detective. (2/14/98)

68

DALLAS - A pastor convicted of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl

wassentenced to 12 years in prison following testimony that he agreed to let
her graduate early from the church's school in exchange for sex. Rev. Jerry
Wayne Power, longtime pastor of Irving Baptist Temple and principal of the
church's school, was convicted of two counts of sexual assault of a child.
Power, 51, hopes to be released on bond while appealing the decision, his
attorneys said. The jury of 11 women and one man deliberated 31/2 hours
before deciding to punish Power with 12 years on one count and 11 years on
the other. The jury fined him $10,000 on each count. He will serve both
sentences simultaneously and will first be eligible for parole in six years.
Power's attorneys argued that the girl should be held accountable because she
testified that she and her friend initiated the deal with Mr. Power.
A former student testified that Power fondled her, placed his foot in her crotch
and masturated in front of her. The woman said he told her that he would kill
her parents and her horse if she quit his school. (4/17/98)
COPPELL, TX. - Monte Ray Freeman, 68, a former Baptist deacon and school
board member, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined $750 after
pleading guilty to aggravated sexual assault of a 4-year-old girl last year. He
had been alleged to be molesting girls over a decade ago, but church officials
persuaded the accusers' parents not to pursue criminal charges. (2/27/98)
http://www.opengovtcoppell.com/file/news/1998/8227dmn1.htm
Report: church leaders persuaded parents to drop sex abuse complaints
DALLAS - A Baptist pastor awaiting trial on a sexual abuse charge involving an
11-year-old girl is now accused of molesting a 3-year-old girl at her mother's
home.
Police arrested Rev. Ronroyal Owens at his church office after a mother
reported finding him nude in bed with her daughter. She told police she and
Owens had gone to sleep in the living room but when she awoke shortly later
and checked on her daughter, she discovered Owens with her, touching her leg.
Her panties had been pulled down. An officer of the child exploitation unit of
the Dallas PD said it did not appear that the child had been harmed.
Owens was being held on a $300,000 bond. (2/11/98)
BUENA PARK, CA. - A controversial Southern Baptist paster known for his
support of a boycott of the Walt Disney Co. was sentenced to 1,500 hours of
community service for violating city building codes by sheltering the homeless
at his church. However, the judge also credited Rev. Wiley Drake, 53, with
the same amount of time for his past efforts to aid the homeless. (10/23/98)
ELGIN, IL. - A former associate Baptist minister has been found guilty of
aggravated criminal sexual assault involving two girls aged 4 and 9 in 1995 in
an encounter in which the girls' mother participated. Juan Wyley, 39, faces 12
to 60 years in prison. Sentencing was scheduled for Dec. 3. Wyley testified that
69

he had accepted lodging from the woman while he pursued a reconciliation

with his ex-wife, but that the girls' mother was "crazy" causing him to leave
after a stay of only 5 days. Investigators were alerted by the mother's
psychiatrist and later learned that she was involved in the incident. (1998)
When he was 5 and 6 years old, the boy explained when they got home, he
was abused by Robert D. Tardy, a deacon at Peace Baptist Church on 18th
Street NE. This month, Tardy was sentenced to two to 10 years in prison for
molesting the boy, plus 100 days for abusing a girl at the church. Tardy
pleaded guilty to molesting the boy and in the second case entered an Alford
plea, in which he did not admit guilt but conceded that there was enough
evidence to convict him. (Washington Post, 1998)
Sex Abuse at Church Shatters a Family
BUENA PARK, CA. - A pastor convicted for violating city zoning rules by
operating a makeshift homeless shelter has won the support of several of the
jurors who voted against him. Four jurors attended services at Rev. Wile
Drake's First Southern Baptist Church. Two declined comment but two others
said they were impressed with the sermon and will donate money after touring
the patio and parking lot where some 40 homeless people now live. They said
they were forced by the law to convict, and Drake said he understood and
thanked them for coming. He faces up to $4,000 in fines and 6 months in jail.
Sentencing was scheduled for Aug. 22 (8/9/97)
BROKEN ARROW, OK. A resigned youth minister at Arrow Heights Baptist
Church apparently killed himself early Tuesday after police told him late
Monday that he would be charged with molestation and related offenses. John
Priddy, a Tulsa assistant district attorney, said the charges stemmed from
allegations that Randol sexually abused a teen- age girl who attended the
church. The alleged incidents began when the girl was 13 and ended when she
was 15, Priddy said, adding that the incidents allegedly occurred at the church.
Randol was the youth minister at the church until he resigned in April. A church
secretary said Randol had worked for the church for one year, but she refused
to comment further. Pastor Bob Green was unavailable for comment. (Tulsa
World, 07/24/1996)
Broken Arrow youth minister dies of a bullet wound hours after being told he
would be charged with sex offenses

REYNOLDS John Claude, 60 Launceston Christian youth group leader and Care
and Rehabilitations Ministries (CARM) director. Receives 3 year jail sentence in
TAS Supreme Court after pleading guilty to 5 gross indecency charges,
including 2 counts of committing unlawful sexual intercourse, against boy, aged
7, between 1967 and 1973 while head of CARM drop-in centre, Launceston,
TAS. Court hears Reynolds took boy to popular fishing spot and attempted to
have anal sex with him in kombi van. CARM described as Christian organisation
with links to Memorial Baptist church and St Aidan's Anglican church,
Launceston. (Tasmania, Australia, 1996).
70

North Charleston, WV. North Charleston Baptist Church youth leader Gerald
Mollohan, 47, was convicted by a jury on 2 counts of rape and received
consecutive sentences of 15-35 years for each assault. The teen, 16, testified
that Mollohan, a 28-year postal employee, befriended several brothers through
a church youth group and bought 1 of them gifts and took him on a trip to
Disney World. The victim said he resisted Mollohan's sexual advances several
times before the youth leader raped him at knifepoint on 2 separate nights at
the leader's home in December '93. (The Charleston Gazette 11/7/95)
Isaac Park, IL. A popular preacher from Lawrence County was convicted of
sodomy and sexual abuse, including 9 felony counts for molesting 4 boys in his
rural farmhouse. Gallie Isaac Sr., 78, was recommended by jury to serve 25
years in prison for his sexual crimes. The pastor of Isaac Park Free Baptist
Church was indicted in '94 on charges of molesting 8 boys from 1984-94. Four
of the boys, ages 11-14 at the time of the incidents, testified saying that he
engaged in masturbation and oral sex with them. "He was saying stuff like,
'God's watching you, and you're doing good,' and 'All the boys do this,' " the
witness, now 18, said. One of the victims said Isaac played a Halloween tape
before having sex with him and told him that having sex was okay. "He began
to touch me and he would whisper, 'I will protect you . . . from the house,' "
another alleged victim, now 25, told jurors. Formal sentencing for Isaac, father
of 6 and former county clerk, is scheduled for Dec. 14. Isaac is free on bond
until sentencing and faces a second trial on charges relating to the 4 other
alleged victims. (Lexington Herald-Leader 11/4/95, 10/31/95)
Tulsa, OK. A Tulsa County minister accused of molesting a teen-age church
member was sentenced Friday to five years in prison. Steve Lamberson, 35,
pleaded no contest April 3 to two molestation counts. Lamberson, a resident of
the Mounds area, was pastor and principal of Liberty Heights Free Will Baptist
Church and academy in south Tulsa County when the offenses occurred, said a
report by Sheriff's Deputy Gary Ross. Lamberson was charged in 1994 with
molesting a girl -- now 18 years old -- in December 1991 and March 1992,
when she was 14 and 15. (Tulsa World, 05/27/1995)
Lamberson Sentenced for Molestation
Ottowa, CA. A Baptist lay minister, Walter Howe, was sentenced to 3 months in
jail for sex crimes since the 60s. Howe, 85, admitted to abusing 8 girls
between ages 5 and 15 at the time of the abuse. (The Ottawa Citizen, 9/2/94)

BAPTIST MINISTER CONVICTED OF SEXUAL ABUSE. A married minister, who

worked at Tiverton-Freeport United Baptist Church from 1976-1981, was
convicted of 21 charges of indecent and sexual assault involving 13 boys in
Digby County between those years. Floyd Delano Gale, 46, had written a letter
of apology to the family of one of his victims. According to the family's
testimony, he sat in their living room and admitted he was a pedophile, and
had sexual relationships with boys, including their son, then 12, but claimed
they were of legal age and consented. Gale claims to be a victim of childhood
sexual abuse himself. Gale's assaults included oral sex and fondling of the
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boys, some in their own home while their parents slept. During the trial one of
his victims punched Gale in the head outside the courthouse. When the judge
denied a request for Gale to be set free until sentencing, the courtroom
applauded In 1988 Gale resigned from the Church of Christ in Garnet
Settlement, New Brunswick, amidst rumors of his sexual misconduct. (The
Chronicle-Herald (Nova Scotia) 5/17,18,19,20,26/94, 6/7/94.)
WEST VIRGINIA. MINISTER INITIATES SEX WITH INCEST VICTIM. A girl, 14,
who sought help from a Baptist minister because her father was sexually
abusing her was then sexually abused by the trusted pastor during counseling
sessions. Gary Hackler Kendall, 40, pastor of North Hills Baptist Church,
pleaded guilty. The victim's father also pleaded guilty and received a 5-15 year
prison term. (Charleston Gazette_ 6/1/94.)
BOBO SENTENCED. A Baptist deacon accused of fondling several girls has been
sentenced to 3 years in prison for the molestation of a female student. Wallace
Bobo, Jr., 57, was a high school teacher and coach at Meridian High in Mound
City. The father of one victim, who shot Bobo 5 times, awaits trial, while Bobo
is out on bail pending an appeal. (Philadelphia Inquirer_ 4/9/94.)
GEORGIA. BAPTIST MINISTER ACCUSED. For being accused of sexually
molesting several male teens between Sept. 1992-93 while serving as youth
minister at Western Hills Baptist Church in Cobb County, Kevin DeRosa, 33, of
New Jersey is being held at the Paulding County jail on similar charges in that
county. (Atlanta Journal_ 3/94)
PASTOR MOLESTS. Former associate pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church and
parent representative at Pittsburgh's Margaret Milliones Middle School, Rev.
Rudolph B. Walls, 43, was a defendant in a lawsuit filed in May 1992 by a male
teen and his mother. Walls was accused of sexually molesting the teen, now
18. Also involved in the suit were the principal, school board, and Pittsburgh
Public Schools. They settled for $425,000. In August 1991 Walls was sentenced
to 1-5 years in prison for indecent assault. Walls was on probation for a North
Carolina molestation at the time he began assaulting the teen in this lawsuit.
(Pittsburgh Post- Gazette_ 2/24/94.)
BAPTIST MINISTER SENTENCED. For sexually abusing 2 boys who were
members of his Community Baptist Church near Lake Lavon, Gene Allen
McDonald, 55, of Nevada will serve a minimum of 2 years in Collin County Jail
before parole. He was sentenced to 2 concurrent 5-year sentences. (Dallas
Morning News_ 2/8/94.)
Miami, FL. CHURCH TO PAY MILLIONS FOR MINISTER'S ABUSES. Wayside
Baptist Church in Miami received a $6.7 million judgment for negligence in
hiring and retaining Keith Geren as youth minister. The church did not do
background or reference checks, nor did Geren even fill out a job application,
though Geren did admit urges to molest boys. He sexually molested nearly a
dozen teenage boys. Church officials say they had no idea Geren was a
pedophile. All of the money is going to one victim, Daniel Artis, for emotional
pain, treatment, and punitive damages. (Sarasota Herald-Tribune 2/6/94)
72

MINISTER ADMITS SEXUAL MISCONDUCT. A Baptist minister and social

activist, Rev. Donovan Cook, has been under investigation for sexual
misconduct involving 3 women. It has been recommended that his ordination
be suspended. Cook is popular for his work helping Central American refugees,
and allowing homosexuals to be church members. One member said, "If we
can't get justice for the women, how are we going to ask for justice in Central
America?" Supporters of Cook say the American Baptist Church's political
conflicts with Cook's work make their judgments "hardly impartial". (Seattle
Post-lntelligencer_ 1/31/94.)
ASSAULT CASE SETTLED. A man, 28, who was recovering from epileptic
seizures in his apartment when he was attacked, will receive $300,000 in
damages from the Sierra Vista Baptist Church for the sexual assault by John
Adams Marshall in April 1991. Marshall performed oral sex and fondled the
weakened man while pinning him down. The jury found the church 40% liable
for Marshall's assault and negligent in retaining him as minister. Marshall did
not lose his ordination to be a minister elsewhere. (Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
1/15/94)
KENDALL, FL. They're more suspicious of people today at Wayside Baptist
Church in Kendall than they were before the 1994 trial that convicted Keith
Geren, one of their popular youth ministers, of molesting nearly a dozen boys,
ages 13 to 16. He was sent to prison for 15 years and cost the church $4.2
million in damages.
''It used to be we just trusted everybody,'' says the Rev. Gary Johnson,
Wayside's present pastor. ``We don't trust anymore. We take precautions.''
Today, Wayside gives new employees criminal background checks. It has
installed windows in every classroom. At least two adults run every children's
class. Men may not change diapers. (1994, Miami Herald)
Gwinnett, GA. A 22-year-old woman has accused a Southern Baptist minister
from Gwinnett County of sexual abuse saying he touched her improperly
several times over a period of almost 10 years. The Rev. Franklin, now pastor
of Northbrook Baptist Church in Lawrenceville, could not be reached for
comment, but his attorney said Tuesday that he denies the allegations. (The
Atlanta Journal and Constitution, 03-10-1993)
Parishioner claims pastor sexually abused her
Deacon A.V. Ballenger was convicted of fondling a 7-year-old girl in Sunday
school class and sentenced to 8 years in prison. A.V. Ballenger, a deacon and
bus route driver at Hyles' First Baptist Church Hammond, was convicted in
March of 1993 (and sentenced in July of 1993 to five years in jail) of molesting
a seven year old girl. (This crime occurred in a Sunday School room of the
church! Incredibly, after conviction, but prior to sentencing, Ballenger was
allowed to resume his FBCH bus route!) The highlight of the sentencing
hearing was the testimony of three young women. Each was molested by
Ballenger when she was a child, and in each case, before age seven. Jack
Hyles, who testified in Ballenger's behalf, defiantly declared the outcome of the
73

trial null and void, claiming that the courts had no jurisdiction in this matter.
Hyles told the girl's parents, "Deacon Ballenger just likes little girls."
MORE CHARGES DISMISSED AGAINST BAPTIST. Washtenaw Co. Dist. Judge
Thomas F. Shea threw out 2 charges of 1st-degree criminal sexual conduct
against Baptist deacon Mark Foeller, leaving 6 counts of criminal sexual
conduct. The deacon and bus driver at North Sharon Baptist Church is accused
of raping a boy, 9, twice, at the church, which has a campaign to bus lowincome children from 4 counties to its Sunday school and church camp. The
dismissals follow earlier dismissals against assistant pastor Timothy Lee
Leonard, 33, originally charged with 12 similar counts. Judges dismissed all his
charges, saying the alleged victims were either too young to testify or that
their testimony was too vague. At least one family will file a civil lawsuit
against the North Sharon Baptist Church and Leonard, according to Ann Arbor
attorney Mark A. Hopper. "We will sue the church for negligent hiring and
negligent retention of those workers." Leonard has been invited back to the
church and is directing its music programs. A mother told a reporter she was
"stunned" and "numb" by the judge's decision. Shea ruled that a 9-year-old
could not testify about being raped in the church nursery, because she couldn't
say on which day it happened. Source: _Jackson Citizen Patriot_ 2/5&18/93.
BAPTIST PASTOR GOES TO TRIAL. Indicted for 6 counts of aggravated sexual
battery & 5 counts of sexual battery was Rev. George Walker, 64, of New
Tazewell, who has pastored a number of area Baptist churches. He is accused
of victimizing a female piano student instructed by his wife for 4 years. Source:
_The Daily News_ Middlesboro, 12/24/92.
CHURCH EVANGELIZERS PREYED ON LOW-INCOME KIDS. Men from a rural
Baptist church known for its aggressive evangelizing of children are suspected
of molesting as many as 22 boys & girls. The associate pastor, volunteer bus
driver & a third church member are believed to have fondled some & raped
others, ranging in age from 3 to 10, on church buses & property. Charges
involving 10 victims were brought against Associate Pastor Timothy Lee
Leonard, 32, of North Sharon Baptist Church near Grass Lake, & volunteer
Sunday school bus driver, church deacon Mark Foeller. Three other church
members are being investigated. The suspects went to low-income housing
projects or trailer parks in 4 counties, telling parents they would "take the
children to church & teach them about God", according to Det. Robert
Fitzpatrick, Jackson Co. Men would walk up to children in their yards, coaxing
them with treats to come to weekend services or summer _Bible_ school.
Leonard was relieved of church duties involving children in August, after police
started investigating him when a doctor reported suspected abuse in a child
with a sexual disease. He also worked as instructor & gym teacher in the North
Sharon Christian School, enrolling about 65 students. Church members were
not informed, even after the arrests. In November, Gail Ganger, who lives 5
houses from the church, organized a Sunday morning picket after learning that
the church secretary knew about the allegations, yet still recommended
Leonard as a babysitter for her children. He & his wife Nadine had babysat for
her 3 children 7 times since Oct. 1. About 2 dozen protesters carried signs
saying "Close It Down." "The church knew about the allegations of child
74

molesting, but nobody told me about it. This church should not be able to carry
on business as usual," she said. "What a wonderful thing it is to be part of a
church where adversity happens," said Rev. Bill Wininger, senior pastor. In
January, Leonard was released after 72 days in jail after 10 charges were
dropped over the objections of the DA by Washtenaw Co. Dist. Judge Thomas
Shea, saying victims were either too young to testify or could not pinpoint the
time of their assaults. Leonard still faces 2 2nd degree criminal sexual conduct
charges. Although he resigned from the church, church funds are being used to
help support his family & pay his legal expenses. The pastor said if he is
acquitted, "I'm sure he would be welcomed back with open arms." Sources:
_Ypsilanti Press_ 11/12/92, _Detroit Free Press_ 11/12/92, _Toledo Blade_
11/18/92, _Jackson Citizen Patriot_ 11/16/92, 2/1/93.
WRIGHT Keith Webb, 51 Rockhampton Pentecostal born again Christian,
Baptist church member, preacher, evangelist, school teacher and Labor MP.
Receives 8 year jail sentence in Brisbane District Court after being convicted on
6 child sex charges, including 5 counts of indecent dealing and 1 of committing
unlawful sexual intercourse, against girl, aged 11, over 3 year period. Court
hears Wright sexually molested girl in parliamentary suite while Leader of
Opposition and masturbated girl in flat in Brisbane while watching pornographic
video. In 1994, Wright receives additional 12 month jail sentence in Brisbane
District Court after being convicted on 3 further charges of indecently
assaulting girl, aged 11, over 6 year period between 1984 and 1990.
(Queensland, Australia, 1993).
BAPTIST VOLUNTEER PREYED ON GIRLS? Thomas Road Baptist Church in
Phoenix failed to screen churchvolunteer John Herman Kuiper for a criminal
record when it permitted him to drive a church bus & volunteer at youth
events. Kuiper, who had been convicted in 1991 of a felony charge of 3rd
degree sexual assault, was arrested in Phoenix for molesting 5 girls. As a
church bus driver in Fort Collins, Colorado, he had received a deferred
sentence for molesting a little girl, 5. Rev. Ken Adrian, church pastor,
complained to media that the publicity was not good for his Phoenix church.
Source: _Arizona Republic_ 11/4/92.
MINISTER PLEADS GUILTY TO ABUSING NIECE. Baptist minister Rev. Ernest
Lee Rowsey, 51, of Wharton Missionary Baptist Church in Bim, pleaded guilty
to 1 count of 1st degree sexual abuse, involving his niece. Originally, he was
charged with molesting 2 nieces between 1976-1982, but they agreed to drop
all but one charge against their uncle. The kids were molested for 6 years
starting from ages 5 & 7. Rowley's sister also said he molested her as long ago
as 1969, but at that time, child sexual abuse was a misdemeanor, & the
statute of limitations has expired. Source: _Charleston Gazette_ 11/1/92.
BAPTIST CHARGED WITH INDECENCY. Charged with indecency for fondling a
preteen girl in 1991 was Norman "Buddy" Wilcoxen, 60, former pastor of
Calvary Baptist Church in Bastrop. Source: _Austin American-Statesman_
10/17/92.

75

BAPTIST VOLUNTEER CONVICTED. Granite State Baptist Church volunteer

David Kirsch, 39, of Salem, was convicted of sexually assaulting 6 young girls
through the church from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s. Source: _USA
Today_ 9/25/92.
BAPTIST CONVICTED OF RAPING BOY. A jury convicted Baptist minister
Edward Quakenbush, of New Testament Baptist Church, town of Wyoming, of
raping & molesting a teenage boy in his church over a 4-year period, starting
when he was 12. Members of his church & family sobbed & shouted at jurors &
a police detective who testified that the pastor had confessed to the
molestations. Quakenbush later denied confessing. Source: AP/_Daily
Telegram_, Adrian, Ml 9/12/92.
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) - A Southern Baptist minister's conviction for child
molestation has led to five lawsuits seeking a total of $10 million in damages
against the minister, the Southern Baptist Convention and three other Baptist
groups. Each is named in a $2 million suit. They are Donald McCary, minister
of music and youth at Chattanooga's Central Baptist Church of Hixon for 17
years until his arrest; the church itself; the Tennessee Baptist Convention; the
Hamilton County Baptist Association; and the denomination. McCary was
convicted last April of 13 counts involving aggravated sexual battery, assault,
sexual battery, rape and statutory rape of four boys, then aged 12 to 15. He
was sentenced to a maximum 72 years in prison. Attorneys for the
denomination and congregation voiced certainty they would be dismissed from
the suit. The suits allege that Central's pastor, Ron Phillips, failed to investigate
McCary's activities after complaints about him in 1989. Phillips also is also
chairman of directors of one of the denomination's major agencies, the Home
Mission Board. (Tulsa World, 08/23/1992)
Minister convicted of molesting 4 boys: 2 brothers already in prison for abuse
lawsuits allege that pastor, Ron Phillips, failed to investigate McCary's activities
after complaints about him in 1989.
$10 MILLION SOUGHT FROM BAPTISTS. Five civil lawsuits asking for $10
million in damages were filed against the Southern Baptist Convention for
sexual assaults by convicted minister Donald McCary, of Chattanooga,
sentenced in April to 72 years in prison for assaulting 5 boys. James Guenther,
general counselor for the SBC in Nashville, shrugged off the suits: "We've
probably had a dozen of these cases where a plaintiff has undertaken to show
that SBC controls a minister." He says no SBC agency beyond the level of the
congregation has legal or disciplinary authority over pastors. McCary's twin
brother is also in prison for abusing children; their older brother is on parole
for similar charges. Source: _Birmingham News_ 8/21/92.
BAPTIST YOUTH PASTOR NABBED. Youth minister-Sunday School teacher
William Speaker, 21, of First Baptist Church in Excelsior Springs, was charged
with a felony for sexually molesting a boy, 14, while chauffeuring him to church
activities. Source: _Kansas City Star_ 8/21/92.
PASTOR GETS 13 YEARS FOR INCEST. Springfield Baptist Church pastor Jon L.
Walker, 43, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for molesting a relative for 276

1/2 years, beginning when she was 13. Twenty persons pleaded for leniency,
including the local NAACP president. Walter's defense was to accuse his wife of
concocting the charges to get even with him because he had an affair with a
young church member! Deputy DA Karen Gray said the letters of support were
"a sad testimony to the fact that Mr. Walter's life has been a fraud". Source:
_San Luis Obispo Telegram Tribune_ 8/5/92.
ACCUSED PASTORAL COUNSELOR A PHONY. Port Charlotte church school
principal Albert Joseph Clerico Jr., 47, charged with sexual misconduct by a
psychotherapist by means of therapeutic deception, claims to be licensed by a
nonexistent "scripturally based" group, National Christian Counselors
Association & to have attended the nonexistent Carolina University of Theology.
State investigator Robert Ford charged that Clerico "did cloak himself in the
guise of Christianity & did represent to the female defendant that sexual
contact" was part of the treatment. Clerico maintains his position as "pastoral
counselor" exempts him under state law from charges. Police miked the victim
& recorded Clerico making sexual advances, soliciting her comment on his
graphic fantasies & telling her to perform oral sex. He was arrested after the
75-minute "counseling session". He has been suspended as principal of
Community Christian School of First Baptist Church in Port Charlotte, & as
minister of First Baptist Church, which operates the school. Source: _Sarasota
Herald-Tribune_ 8/4/92.
VICTIM SUES CONVICTED MINISTER. Rancho Cucamonga pastor John
Marshall, convicted of sexually battering an ill man, 25, is being sued for $1
million by victim Kirk Judy, along with his church, the American Baptist
Churches of USA & of the Pacific Southwest. The 6'2", 200-lb pastor
overpowered the 5'6", 140-lb victim at a bedside counseling visit. He got only
2 years of probation. The suit alleges that Marshall had committed other
crimes, & that the 2 Baptist groups should have known about them. Source:
_Ontario Daily Bulletin_ 7/29/92.
MOLESTING MINISTER CONVICTED. Youth minister Don McCary, 48, was
sentenced to 72 years of prison for molesting 4 boys at his Baptist Church in
Chattanooga, Tenn. Explains sex offender therapist Deloris Roys, Don McCary
"had a perfect camouflage ... For the person who uses religion as a
camouflage, it gives them the mantle of being an OK or holy person. We all
imbue religious people with the idea they wouldn't hurt us. They have instant
authority, a power we don't have, a mantle of respect." Don McCary had been
youth/choir director for 15 years at Central Baptist Church of Hixson, Tenn. He
recorded lewd conversations with young boys and gave copies to his brother
Ron in jail. Source: _Birmingham News_ 5/9/92.
MOLESTING MINISTER. The twin brother of Don McCary, Ron McCary, a
Christian comedian and pastor, is in prison after committing aggravated rape
on a boy, 6. Source: _Birmingham News_ 5/9/92.
MOLESTING MINISTER. The older brother of Ron and Don McCary, Richard
McCary spent 2 years in the California prisons in the 1980s after conviction on
6 charges of child molestation. Explains sex offender therapist Deloris Roys,
77

Don McCary "had a perfect camouflage ... For the person who uses religion as
a camouflage, it gives them the mantle of being an OK or holy person. We all
imbue religious people with the idea they wouldn't hurt us. They have instant
authority, a power we don't have, a mantle of respect." Don McCary had been
youth/choir director for 15 years at Central Baptist Church of Hixson, Tenn. He
recorded lewd conversations with young boys and gave copies to his brother
Ron in jail. Source: _Birmingham News_ 5/9/92.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Oklahoma County courts have given a seven-year
suspended sentence to former Del City minister Rev. Roy E. Jones, 56, who
pleaded guilty to molesting young girls in his congregation. In 1986, Jones
molested several young girls in his congregation at the First Baptist Church of
Del City, where he was pastor for 35 years, authorities said. (Tulsa World,
05/09/1992)
Sentence Suspended For Molesting Minister
DEACON ACCUSED OF ASSAULTING 8 GIRLS. Victory Baptist Church deacon
Daniel Eaves, 34, was arrested for sexually assaulting 8 girls, ages 3 to 14, at
his Springfield home and during youth groups last year. Source: _Philadelphia
Inquirer_ 4/25/ 92.
AIR FORCE CHAPLAIN RAIDED. Deputies raided the home of Veterans
Administration chaplain Rev. Donald G. Phillips, of Butler County, seizing 500
video tapes, movie equipment and restraints following a tip that he produced
pornographic movies with young girls. The Baptist minister recently received
the highest recognition awarded a VA chaplain, "the Award for Excellence in
Chaplain Service". Source: _St. Louis Post-Dispatch_ 2/19/92.
SETTLEMENT SHROUDS BAPTIST CASE. A secret settlement was reached just
before a civil suit went to jury against Moffett Road Baptist Church minister
Henry Hobson, Mobile, for sexually abusing a girl, 14. Hobson admitted having
sexual intercourse with the girl he referred to as an adopted daughter, once
when she accompanied him on church "visitation". He admitted she "wanted
out", but called her a "pleasant diversion". At first he denied her accusations
and asked her to say she had lied, for "damage control". He resigned in April
1991 after a suicide attempt when the girl confided in the youth pastor about
him. Attorney Robert Cunningham, Jr. told jurors that many church members
shunned the 9th grader, blaming her. His attorney argued, "It certainly was not
part of his job to have sexual intercourse with her, and therefore the church is
not responsible," adding: "He thought it was better she learn about sex from
him rather than some young boy at school." Source: _Mobile Register_
2/12/93.
The arrest of Rev. Jack Law, a Baptist minister, was heralded by a headline,
"Girl, 5, Raped Under Pew." He was accused not only of that, but of molesting
and raping her two sisters. These crimes took place at the family home as well
as during an outing arranged by him so the girls could help him distribute
religious tracts. The girls had tried to tell their parents, but were not believed.
"Being a preacher," the father said of him to local media, "we thought he was a
good man." Law killed himself that year rather than face trial. (The Scandal of
78

Pedophilia in the Church By Annie Laurie Gaylor 1992)

Pastor molests 5 year old
Baptist Minister Rev. Robert Burton charged after admitting long-term serious
sexual abuse of his six and eight year old stepsons. (1991, England)
Baptist Minister Larry Bernard 45, sentenced to 7 years for molesting a boy of
14. (1991, England)
1991, England. Baptist Minister Ashby Breneman jailed for molesting 6 boys at
his Christian Youth camp.
Cobb County, GA. A Minister pleaded guilty Tuesday to child molestation and
cruelty charges and was sentenced to 20 years in prison for having
sex with a 11-year-old girl who attended his church's vacation Bible school.
The Rev. James Calvin McCurry, 38, a former pastor at the Greater Zion Hills
Baptist Church in Smyrna, had been charged with forcing the girl to have sex
three times in 1985 and 1986. (The Atlanta Journal and Constitution 05-301990)
Minister sentenced to 20 years in sex case: Cobb preacher pleads guilty to
molesting child
GARY HAMBRIGHT, a Southern Baptist minister accused of molesting dozens of
children at the Presidio daycare in San Francisco, died of AIDS Nov. 8. Between
60-102 tots were suspected victims of child sexual abuse by Hambright and
others, but 2 investigations led to dismissal of charges. Five children had
contracted chlamydia, a sexually transmitted disease. The Army daycare was
closed. Parents have filed more than $60 million in claims against the Army
alleging negligence led to sexual abuse of kids. The claims haven't been heard.
Hambright died maintaining his innocence, leaving an obituary rife with
references to " my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ." A Presidio spokesperson said
none of the children have shown signs of AIDS. (San Jose Mercury News,
1/5/90; Orange Co. Register, 1/6/90)
Rev. Gary Willard Hambright, a Southern Baptist, was charged as a daycare
worker with sexually abusing 10 little boys and girls at the U.S. Army preschool
at its Presidio base. Four of the tots had contracted the sexually transmitted
disease of chlamydia. A grand jury spent 10 months investigating charges.
(Source: San Francisco Chronicle, 11/5/87; Wall Street Journal, 11/16/87)
Baptist minister HENRY BAZIL WATERS, 49, was convicted of fondling 3 young
boys and untold others at the Grace Baptist Temple Church in Statesboro, Ga.,
and in his home and car. Waters' testimony that he " saved" youth through "
sex instruction " matched testimony of the victims. Waters admitted fondling
boys in Latin America, saying " I have no idea " how many children he had
abused. Waters was given permission to attend church while free on bond.
(Atlanta Journal, 2/18/89)
REV. THOMAS V. COSSAIRT, 72, retired former pastor of First Baptist Church,
Carter Lake, received a suspended 1 year jail sentence and 2 years' probation
79

after pleading guilty to indecent contact with a child. A charge involving a 2nd
child was dropped. He lives in Commerce, Okla. (Omaha World Herald)
REV. WILLIAM MURRAY HENDRICKS JR., 50, pastor of Clay Hill Baptist Church,
pleaded guilty to 2 counts of lewd & lascivious assault on a minor. The victim:
a girl, 7, molested at the church, parish house in 1988 where he pastored for
15 years. As a plea bargain he agreed not to perform pastoral duties until his
probation ended. (Florida Times-Union, 9/19/89)
Baptist minister Henry Waters, convicted of sexually abusing young boys
whose souls he claimed would be 'saved' through his 'sex instruction'. (1989,
England)
Six girls who were sexually abused by REV. FRANCIS G. HAIGHT, head of exBaptist Christian Academy, Monroe, WI, were awarded a total of $57,440 in
court settlements. Haight is serving a 20 year term for molesting children; He
is eligible for parole in 4 years. (8/14/89)
Rev. Francis Guy Haight, principal of the Baptist Christian Academy in Monroe,
Wisconsin, pleaded guilty to a reduced number of charges of sexually
assaulting four young girls at his church school. He had had sexual contact
with up to 11 girls at his school on an almost daily basis. Haight admitted the
abuse was "happening pretty near everyday" and that he could not "even begin
to estimate how many times this occurred." Most of the abuse took place in his
office. A five year old girl said she was molested in her preschool program at
the church. An 11 year old was abused when Mrs. Haight sent her to the office,
telling police that it "kind of hurt." She didn't tell, she said, because she was
scared. A 12 year old said the contact began when she attended summer bible
school, where the minister molested her once or twice per day. One former
student said she left the school after the eighth grade to avoid the constant
abuse. Two victims said the minister would molest them by touching them
under their dresses. As principal, he required that all girls wear dresses as part
of the school dress code. Haight had been asked to leave a previous job under
mysterious circumstances. Apparently the school had not made inquiries.
Haight's attorney William Lansing said Haight plea-bargained in order to spare
the children from testifying in court. "He's a very religious man," Lansing said.
Haight's views on religion and compassion toward children obviously did not
preclude constant sexual exploitation of them. (Sources: Wisconsin State
Journal, 11/12/87; 1/9/88)
Cobb, GA. A Baptist preacher who established a Cobb County ministry after
leaving two other churches amid allegations of sexual misconduct was arrested
in Marietta Monday on charges of child abuse, police said. Cobb police arrested
the Rev. Tony McGowan, pastor of the New Grace Baptist Church in Powder
Springs, Monday on two counts of cruelty to children and one count of child
molestation in connection with alleged fondling incidents involving a 12-yearold and a 17-year-old he met through his ministry. The allegations came to
light after the youngest girl, now 14, told her mother that the minister, 43,
fondled her in a church van. (The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, 08-021988)
80

Preacher Charged With Child Abuse

Baptist Minister is Guilty of Molestation, Sexual Assault
Oreste Victoriano Lopez, 60, was ARRESTED by Miami police for sexually
assaulting male and female teenagers he met through his business, community
and church activities. Victims said they were wooed by Lopez's kindness and
financial generosity and his use of bible verses to justify his actions. He met
youth at his church, West Flagler Park Baptist Church. Police found
pornography, comic books, bibles, toys and children's clothes at his home, as
well as 1000 files detailing children's lives. On his wall was a letter thanking
him for his work with youth. (Miami Herald July 17, 1988)
Rev. James Anthony Colyn, 39, former pastor of the Glendale (Az.) Bible
Baptist Church, received a sentence of seven and a half years in prison. Colyn
was described by police as a "sexual predator" who molested a teenage girl
who asked him for counseling because she was being abused by her stepfather.
Colyn PLEADED GUILTY to a charge of attempted molestation as a plea
bargain. He moved to Phoenix 12 years ago after resigning as youth pastor of
Temple Baptist Church in Albuquerque, N.M. after admitting sexual
involvement with a teenage member of that congregation. The Glendale church
said they were not aware of that when Colyn was hired. (Phoenix Gazette
7/1/88)
Rev. J.D. Henderson, 51, of Russellville, Ark., was convicted of molesting twin 6
year old girls, and sentenced to 4 years in prison. Henderson is an ordained
Free will Baptist minister. (Little Rock Arkansas Gazette 6/10/88)
A Duval county minister, Rev. Roy Lynn Gaskins of Edgewood Heights Baptist
Church, was accused of forcing a 13 year old boy at gunpoint to have sex.
(Florida Times-Union 5/13/88)
An American missionary and her daughter were stabbed to death near
American Bible College in Yapeka, Liberia by Baptist seminary graduate
Benjamin Moley Morris. He confessed, saying he killed the pair after the
mother had caught him trying to molest the child. (Source: Sacramento Bee,
11/30/87)

Rev. Jack Law, a Baptist minister in Nashville, was accused of molesting and
raping three small sisters during church outings and visits, once raping a five
year old girl under a church pew. He was also accused of molesting and raping
the sisters at their family's home and during an outing arranged to help him
distribute religious tracts. The girls had tried to tell their parents, but were not
believed. "Being a preacher," the father said, "we thought he was a good man."
Law killed himself in July 1987 when facing trial for abusing the three sisters.
(Sources: Nashville Banner, 7/26/86; Tennesseean, 7/10/87)
Deacon James Nordgren, a Sunday School teacher at Sherwood Park Baptist
Church in Irving, Texas, was indicted for aggravated sexual assault of three
81

boys under age 14. He was charged with assaulting the boys at his home after
showing them a book with a cover resembling a bible but which contained
pictures of nude people. (Source: [Irving, Texas] Daily News; 5/21/87)
Baptist minister James Luttrell, Bible Baptist Church, Bend, Oregon, was
convicted of raping a six month old baby boy. The evidence was
incontrovertible, yet another minister outspokenly defended him and paid for
his legal help. (Source: Corvallis Gazette-Times, Oregon, 5/8/87)
The Rev. Clyde L. Johnson, pastor of the largest Baptist church in Petersburg,
Virginia and a popular city council member for 14 years, was convicted of the
rape and sexual battery of four girls, aged nine to 16, in his congregation.
Despite the conviction, and Johnson's cruel and slanderous statements about
the young girls made in an effort to protect himself, he received continuous
religious support, including prayers, rallies, money and special services. "The
bottom line is that all of us . . . has [sic] some skeletons in his closets. That's
not our job to judge. It's the Lord's job," said clergy supporter Rev. Kenneth
Arrington of the Union Fellowship. One church member, Melvin Harwell, who
was angered by this widespread support of a child rapist, commented: "Some
people worship preachers." (Source: Washington Post, 4/24/87)
Church youth minister Timothy J. Ganzel was spared a flve-year prison
sentence (receiving one year in jail and probation instead), because the judge
said he took into account a courtroom full of relatives, friends and church
members. Ganzel molested a teenage boy in Wisconsin Grace Baptist Church,
Racine, Wisconsin. (Source: Capital Times, 4/21/87)
Wilson A. Mears, Jr., convicted of sexually assaulting his 14 year old
stepdaughter, later became a Baptist pastor, and was granted a full pardon by
the Florida cabinet. He sought the pardon for his 1977 crime in order to be
allowed to serve as a chaplain for the state prison system. He had served 15
months in prison. "If I stood before my God and answer for my crimes, I can
certainly stand before my governor and my Cabinet seeking their grace and
mercy . . . I've tried to help men with the same crimes I had." He received an
appointment as pastor of Pine Grove Baptist Church in Quincey. What does this
favoritism say to rape and incest victims, and to imprisoned sex offenders?
(Source: Florida Today, 3/8/87)

Brazenly abusive behavior reportedly went unchecked for more than a year
when Pastor Charles Brown of London Baptist Church, in Evergreen, Alabama,
latched on to a teenaged boy and initiated a sexually abusive relationship by
telling the boy he had a mental problem Brown could cure. The pastor's
prescription: to get "closer," ply the boy with drugs, and move him into his own
home and his own bedroom (the pastor's wife was relegated to their
daughter's bedroom). Brown was convicted of a reduced misdemeanor charge
in 1987 and was given a suspended sentence, although he was fired from his
position as a public school teacher. (Source: Evergreen Courant, 9/25/86;
1987) Gary R. Martin, who had served as a minister and was a volunteer
82

chaplain for the Indian River County Sheriffs office as well as the Vero Beach
Police Department, was charged with molesting 13 boys. He had trusted
positions in the community, including an appointment to the school district's
sex education committee. His modus operandi was to tell victims he was
researching children's growth for a doctoral thesis at Trinity Theological
Seminary in Indiana. He pleaded no contest to sexually mishandling three of
the 13 boys. In October 1987 he was sentenced to seven years in a state
prison with an additional 13 years probation, and ordered to receive treatment
for his pedophilia. (Source: Florida Today, 3/1/87; 10/31/87)
The grandmother of a minister who abducted an 18 year old woman for 24
days and raped and molested her, could only comment, "If you had seen him
when . . . he preached, his face was just shining like an angel." This diabolical
crime involved kidnapping Maria C. Smith from a shopping mail in Hattiesburg,
Mississippi on July 9, beating her with belts and raping her, and imprisoning
her bound-and-gagged in the trunk of a car for what a judge later termed a
24-day reign of "terrorism." On August 2, the assailant Rev. Karl Strahan and
his father purported to discover the missing teenager, and were touted as
heroes. Two days later police realized Strahan was the abductor. He had
threatened Smith's life if she had not backed up his story. On February 6, 1987
he pleaded guilty to kidnapping and armed robbery in Forrest County, where
he received a 25-year concurrent sentence. The same day in bordering
Covington County where he had taken his victim, Strahan pleaded guilty to
rape and sexual battery. He received a sentence of life imprisonment on the
rape charges and 30 years on sexual battery to run consecutively. Strahan was
a licensed Mississippi Baptist minister. (Sources: Jackson Mississippi Daily,
8/6/86; 8/8/86; Hattiesburg American, 2/6/87)
Baptist Rev. Bobby Harold Epps of Starke, Florida pleaded guilty in May, 1986
to performing a lewd and lascivious act in the presence of a child under the
age of 16. He was convicted of fondling a girl in a church office, and
masturbating in her presence when giving her a ride home following a church
activity. (Source: Gainesville Sun, 5/28/86)
Church deacon Harley Francis of Powers Drive Baptist Church in Orlando was
convicted of molesting six girls, ages six to 13, whom he met through his
Sunday School class. The elderly deacon bribed them with gifts and told the
court he couldn't understand how people could misconstrue his "kindness
toward children." (Source: Florida Today, 4/26/86)
Rev. John Janney Sr. pleaded guilty to molesting three male foster children,
following a wild attempt to elude authorities by fleeing to another state, during
which time he tried to murder his wife and commit suicide. Ironically, as a
pastor of the Calvary Bible Baptist Church, Bridgeton, New Jersey, he had been
an outspoken opponent of humanist literature which he said would "corrupt the
morals of youths." (Source: Bridgeton Evening News, 12/26/85)
JAMES CLIFTON NALLEY, a volunteer at Bible Baptist Church in Fernandina
Beach, Fla., was charged with fondling 2 church girls, ages 9 and 11.
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Flint, MI. Eight women claim they were molested by Gerald E. Ney insuch
places as the pastor's home, a bakery in Metamora and in the Liberty Baptist
Church. Most of the victims told police of single incidents that dated back to
1978. Ney, 73, was charged with 1 count of 1st degree criminal sexual
conduct, 4 counts of 2nd degree and 1 count each of 3rd and 4th degree
criminal sexual conduct, as well as a criminal misdemeanor of allegedly being a
sexually delinquent person. An investigation began after allegations from a girl,
16, were reported to police. Ney reportedly molested the parish member from
1993-94. The teen said she would sleep over at the pastor's home on Sundays
and clean his house for money. She said he would sometimes molest her when
his wife left on errands. (The Flint Journal)
Rev. James E. Wynn, pastor of Mount Pisgah Baptist Temple in Asbury Park,
New Jersey, was sentenced to 22 years in prison for sexually assaulting two
young girls who were members of his congregation. Wynn was diagnosed as a
"compulsive, repetitive sex offender" by doctors who examined him. The girls
ranged in age from nine to 13 at the time of the assaults, which occurred at
church or in the minister's home. The pastor steadfastly maintained his
innocence. His attorney Charles Frankel told the judge at the time of
sentencing that his client "stands before your honor with a clear conscience
head unbowed." The church fired him from his duties a month after his
conviction. Superior Court Judge James Kennedy stated that "these offenses
involved the most drastic breach of trust anyone can imagine." (Source:
Newark Star-Ledger, 10/13/84)
Three sisters from Okanogan County -- Juanita Funkhouser, Sheri Lewis and
Janelle Larson -- alleged they were molested between 1969 and 1980 by Orin
Wilson, a one-time deacon of their church, Calvary Baptist Church in Twisp.
Wilson admitted to the abuse in letters before his death, according to court
records. But the sisters claimed the church and its governing body, the Calvary
Baptist Conference, were aware of Wilson's alleged abuse of other young girls
and failed to warn or protect them.

84