Hello, Moral High Grounders! I took a week off from the Friday newsletter for the Fourth, because the holiday was ON Friday this time, and I figured you’d forgive me. Hope your day was wonderful if you celebrated, despite how difficult it might be to trumpet American “independence” at this particular moment.
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Because it really never is drag queens or LGBTQ+ people, is it?
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If you’ve been studiously avoiding the news, you might have missed that MAGA is having a wee tiny upset over the Trump regime’s sudden unwillingness to share all the dirty secrets on Jeffrey Epstein and his purported list of rich and powerful clients for whom he sex-trafficked children. MAGA has always had fantastical conspiracy theories about who’s on that list, conspiracy theories that fulfill emotional revenge fantasies for them, the same way QAnon sex trafficking conspiracy theories fill those needs.
They’ve been holding out forever for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and, um … Tom Hanks And Beyoncé? Sure, Tom Hanks and Beyoncé, and so many more! … to be exposed for imaginary crimes against children that deranged MAGA people claim without a shred of evidence those people have committed.
It never occurs to them that maybe the reason Donald Trump suddenly doesn’t want the Epstein dirt released — and why Attorney General Pam Bondi, one of Trump’s number one personal hack lawyers currently violating an office that’s supposed to serve the people, might be furiously trying to pretend she never said she had the goods sitting on her desk — might be that the truth is that the real abusers of kids, the people who could be in that Epstein file, are their people.
Powerful MAGA people.
People they trust.
It could be anyone!
Why, it could even be guys who appear in multiple pictures with Jeffrey Epstein, dancing with their top rows of teeth over their bottom lips, their combovers already so fucking embarrassing it’s literally painful to look at …
Elon Musk has certainly made some suggestions, not that he’s exactly a reliable narrator. Alan Dershowitz says he knows who’s in there, now THERE’S a reliable narrator, just kidding.
I think part of the reason white MAGA types, conservative Christians especially, construct these elaborate fantasy worlds is that it creates a structure for them to hide from the obvious fact that the monster is under their own very beds, in their churches, their youth groups, their church camps, their Christian schools, it’s their pastors, their priests, their youth leaders. They know these monsters, and they know them intimately, because it’s the (mostly) men they have been indoctrinated to trust the most. The ones in positions of spiritual and practical authority over them, who have placed themselves there, who tell them that if they question that authority, their very salvation is at risk.
The Republican party obviously has a long and sordid history of the most disgusting sex scandals, including those of the child abuse and rape variety. And that certainly forms a tight Venn diagram with the rot inside the conservative Christian church, protestant and Catholic, rich, poor and everything in between.
It’s as if there’s something about these ideologies that lends itself to abusing minors, and that attracts and shelters those who’d like to do that.
Since January I’ve been tracking all the current news stories I can find of Christian pastors, priests, youth leaders, teachers, gymnastics coaches, and more — anyone in a spiritual position of power — who’s accused of, sued or arrested for, tried for, and/or convicted of sex crimes against minors. Because there are so fucking many of them.
(Meanwhile, similar stories about drag queens, trans people or LGBTQ+ people in general just don’t show up in the news very often! But yet we’re supposed to attack LGBTQ+ people as groomers and predators while we drop our kids off at church, where the bad guys are. Well, guess what? Fuck you.)
I’m not the only one who’s ever tracked this stuff. I compile my list by using other people’s lists and tips y’all leave me on social media, and also just my own searching. But I’m particularly interested to see exactly which churches, and which denominations, are producing/aiding/hiding/harboring the most child sex predators, alleged and confirmed.
Because quite frankly, when these Christian conservative MAGA fascist Nazi motherfuckers try to impose their will on the rest of us, try to control our lives, I think one of our first questions should be “Oh yeah? And which white fascist Christian tradition are you from?”
And when they tell us, one of the FIRST things that comes to mind should be our knowledge of what a haven for kidfuckers that place may or may not be.
Now that we’re six months in tracking this, and we can start putting together some preliminary data, the word that comes up the most?
Baptist.
Both the Southern Baptist variety and the independent fundamentalist Baptist variety, as well as a couple other varieties. Is there something about those churches that makes them inherently unsafe for kids? And should children be allowed in those churches without parental supervision?
Just asking!
I have a full update on my tracking list below, but you should know that the grand total of distinct stories I’ve tracked in the first six months of this year is ONE-HUNDRED FUCKING TWENTY-FIVE. Almost all are from the United States. A ridiculous percentage come from the South.
For fairness, I’m also tracking how often it happens at more liberal and mainline Christian churches. SPOILER: Not very.
And right now, anything with “Baptist” next to its name is far and away leading the pack, accounting for fully 39 out of the 125 stories.
Out of those, 21 are Southern Baptist congregations and/or schools. That shouldn’t be a shock, since the SBC is kind of the Home Of The Christian Sex Abuse Scandal Cover-Up, at least among protestants.
But hey, y’all, the SBC just overwhelmingly voted to criminalize porn!
And to call for the overturning of Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized marriage equality!
At least they’re paying attention to the important stuff, like God Hates Fags, right?
Scumbag motherfuckers, literally every one of them is going to hell.
Ten more are from independent fundamentalist Baptist/King James churches, the extreme backwoods kinds that think only the King James version of the Bible is the real one, I guess because they think Jesus was a white man who spoke the King’s English. (It’s funny that they love that translation so much, considering how little formal education so many IFB/King James church leaders have.)
The other eight are Baptist churches that were harder to easily categorize. A few are historically Black congregations. One or two are just much more obscure sects under the “Baptist” umbrella.
Here are some more numbers on which churches, denominations and movements are represented in the big conservative Christian kid-toucher report, and how much so far:
Assemblies of God/Holiness/Apostolic/generally otherwise pentecostal or charismatic (some of these might better belong in the regular nondenominational/megachurch category below or vice versa, I’m doing my best to categorize them) — 16
General nondenominational evangelical/Christian nationalist (this is a big tent, but there’s a lot of “undefined” out there in the world of evangelicalism, also see just above) — 15
Catholic — 8
Conservative Presbyterian (PCA, EPC, etc.) or anything calling itself “Reformed” — 4
Seventh Day Adventist — 4
Lutheran (regular/Missouri Synod) — 3
Methodist (the conservative, backwards types, NOT the nice United Methodists) — 2
Vineyard USA — 2
Nazarene — 2
Wesleyan — 1
Anglican (NOT Episcopalian, these tend to be the ones that left the Episcopalians in a huff for being insufficiently gay-hating) — 1
Evangelical Lutheran (these are the liberal Lutherans, despite what the name might sound like) — 1
Mormon (LDS) — 1
Church of Christ — 1
Disciples of Christ — 1
Episcopalian — 1
United Methodist — 1
Now obviously, I can’t call this scientific, because for one thing there’s no way of knowing if I missed a bunch of stories, since stories of child sex abuse in the conservative Christian church really are so constant. (I literally gather new sources every month.) Plus, as I alluded to several times, the categorization isn’t always going to be perfect, considering the uneven lines between some of these evangelical/charistmatic/nondenominational movements, and their overlap with the more pentecostal side of things, etc.
But I’m trying my best to categorize them fairly!
Also it’s entirely possible I miscounted something. (Whoever wants to volunteer to turn this into a spreadsheet, well, you’ll be doing God’s actual work.)
But we can look at these patterns.
And when we see somebody like that sneering, satanic-eyed little prig Speaker Mike Johnson claiming moral superiority and authority over how the rest of us should be allowed to live our lives, we can go yeeeeeeeeah go fuck yourself, you Southern Baptist creep, and we can know exactly why we’re saying it.
So without further ado, below is July’s update.
(As always, trigger warning for all the obvious reasons. You may not want to physically read all of it. You might want to search it to see how often “King James” and “independent Baptist” come up [a lot]. Just see it as the resource it is.
The newest updates to this ever-updating list are at the top, so you don’t have to scroll down through the whole list.)
The List.
UPDATE, JULY 11, 2025
Lewisville, Texas. Jim Mustain, extradited from North Carolina on child porn possession charges. Mustain is a former community pastor at Preston Trail Community Church in Frisco, and volunteered at elementary schools. Non-denominational evangelical megachurch shit.
Midland, Michigan. Scott Haught, 54, former associate pastor at Midland Baptist Church, and a former deacon and director of the bible school at Grace Baptist in Coleman. Sentenced to prison for sexually abusing his own daughters. These are Baptist churches of the independent, King James variety, which we’ve talked about a lot here.
Mount Holly, New Jersey. Shawn Tracey, 44. Arrested on multiple charges related to raping a child under 13. (The news article uses the phrase “having sex with,” which does not exist WHEN THE VICTIM IS UNDER 13.) Tracey is a deacon at the Burlington Seventh Day Adventist Church.
Middleburg, Florida. Joshua Dice, 35. Felony charges in the “To Catch A Predator” mold. He taught at Calvary Christian Academy, and was affiliated with Calvary Baptist Church. The local news notes that a teacher at the same school was arrested for sexually abusing a ninth-grader in 2022. Hey look, independent fundamentalist Baptist King James shit again.
San Juan Capistrano, California, but these are some huge federal charges. Jacob Melvin Hart, 45, a former youth pastor, was arrested at the Miami airport coming back from Haiti with an absolute shitload of CSAM on his phone. Plus a ton more, of the AI variety. In the past, he was the youth pastor at the First Baptist Church in La Grande, Oregon, during which time he was arrested for putting a camera in the girls’ showers at Christian camp. Affiliated with the Venture Church Network, formerly called the Conservative Baptist Association of America, which split from the Northern Baptist Convention, because they weren’t fundamentalist enough. Naturally.
Holly Hill, Florida. David McKeown, 47, a sixth-grade Christian school teacher, arrested on 19 counts of possession of child porn and six counts related to bestiality with his own family pet. He teaches/taught at a school called UBIC Academy, and according to the police, “law enforcement believes he utilized artificial intelligence technology to create CSAM with real children, some of whom may have attended UBIC Academy.” UBIC stands for United Brethren in Christ, and there’s an associated church with the same name. This small denomination is conservative, evangelical, and is descended variously from Mennonites and the Holiness tradition. It’s not on the website anymore, but if you Google the church and the town name, it appears the pastor has the same last name as the accused here.
Tucson, Arizona. An 82-year-old pastor named Isaac Noriega has been arrested for failing to report child sexual abuse of young boys by 57-year-old Jose Mora, one of his parishioners. Mora was arrested several months back. Noriega pastors the Golden Dawn Tabernacle/Tabernaculo Emanuel. Interesting: “Twenty former members have accused” the church of “being a ‘cult’ that isolates its congregants from outsiders — including law enforcement. The former congregants say the environment puts children in harm’s way and encourages the cover-up of abuse.” MUCH more at that link. It’s part of a movement called The Message, which by our best read falls somewhere under the pentecostal diaspora.
Marshall County, Kentucky. Clarence Barry Hungerford, requested for soliciting pictures of an 11-year-old girl and then destroying his phone. That would be Pastor Clarence Barry Hungerford, and he was the girl’s pastor at Aurora Baptist Church. Aurora Southern Baptist Church.
Upper Allen Township, Pennsylvania. Roy Andrews, 77, is going to prison for just four months for molesting a nine-year-old girl, at a McDonald’s. He was a youth group leader at a Hispanic church in Harrisburg called Iglesia La Fuente, which he reportedly helped found. Not the first time on this list we’ve seen white-ass Americans preying on Hispanic church-goers. I might have been inclined to leave the description at that, but I Googled the church and it turns out it is … Southern Baptist.
Nakina, North Carolina. Devin Carroll, 22, arrested for sexually abusing a 13-year-old. Carroll is most recently the pastor of the Happy Home Baptist Church, but at the time was an in-school suspension aide at the local middle school, where the incident allegedly took place. Churches with 22-year-old pastors sound totally on the up-and-up, don’t you think? Happy Home is affiliated with the … Southern Baptists.
Indianapolis, Indiana. Torrie Lemon, a 23-year-old and a woman, was a Christian school kindergarten teacher at the Colonial Christian School, which is affiliated with the Colonial Hills Baptist Church. Unfortunately she was caught and charged for sexually abusing a 17-year-old female student. Colonial Hills is an independent fundamentalist Baptist type affair. Surprise, the Preacher Boys Podcast reports that the church’s pastor is a real teenage-rape-victim-shaming piece of shit!
The Preacher Boys also report that a guy named Carver Bowers — get this, a Christian influencer with DUGGAR TIES — was on June 13 “arrested on multiple counts of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor.” Specifically a minor under 12. A person with DUGGAR TIES being arrested for that? The fuck you say!
Richmond County, Virginia. Albert Wharton, the 88-year-old former pastor of Victory Baptist Church, took an Alford Plea on seven out of 30 felony charges, all related to sexual abuse of a child under 13. (Definition of Alford Plea. They don’t admit guilt, but they admit the state sure does have the goods on them.) This is related to reported crimes between 1981 and 1997 at the church’s Berachah Christian Academy in Warsaw, Virginia. Oh boy, he got around though: “Richmond County Sheriff Stephan Smith said Wharton worked as a pastor at churches in Virginia, South Carolina, Alabama and Florida during the last 40 years.” Victory Baptist = independent fundamentalist Baptist King James shit.
Ridgeland, Mississippi. Mark Wayne Williams, 60. Caught in an undercover sting trying to do “To Catch A Predator” shit to somebody he thought was an underage boy, on some type of gay dating app. Sentenced to 15 years, 10 suspended. He was a deacon at First Baptist Church in Jackson. That’d be Southern Baptist.
Spokane, Washington. A woman named Shelby McGee has filed a lawsuit, against: Faith Baptist Church, the school it controls, and two of its former leaders. Per the Preacher Boys, “she was groomed and sexually assaulted by then-principal Dan Kobernat between 2011–2013 while she was a student” at the school. Independent fundamentalist Baptist King James shit.
Soso, Mississippi. Justin Rhodes, 45 arrested for sexually abusing a child. He was the pastor of the Big Creek Baptist Church in Big Creek. (Southern Baptist.) Reportedly happened during a show choir trip to Disney World. (Y’all know how adults in churches so frequently send their kids off on trips alone with youth pastors and regular pastors and so forth.) Preacher Boys did some research and found another time when Justin Rhodes got fired from a church job for “unstated moral failure.” Surprise.
Pickaway County, Ohio. The Roys Report tells of Dominic Foor, 39, who was indicted at the beginning of June on multiple counts related to sexually abusing a minor. He was previously the pastor of Pathway Apostolic Church in Columbus, which Roys notes is part of the United Pentecostal Church International. Now he’s preaching at a new place called New Direction, which is close by and non-denominational. They believe he’s TOTALLY innocent.
Moorcroft, Wyoming. Charles Dean “Chuck” Massie, 64, confessed to his counselor that he had molested multiple young girls during church when he was between the ages of 49 and 53. How young? How about kindergarten? Don’t know what kind of churches, but it was multiple places in more than one state.
Mobile County, Alabama. John Penrod was arrested after forgetting to inform authorities he was volunteering on the Greeting Committee at church with two 13-year-olds. See, a while back in Michigan, Penrod was convicted of sexual misconduct with a 13-year-old, so he was definitely supposed to tell the authorities. The church in Alabama is the St. Elmo Seventh Day Adventist Church.
Albuquerque, New Mexico. Kelly McEachran, a teacher at Hope Christian Elementary school, charged with rape and criminal sexual contact of a minor, with the victim being 11. Hope Christian is a non-denominational Christian school.
Warminster, Pennsylvania. Richard Allen Adamsky, 65, was a teacher and coach at Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Elementary School. CSAM possession charges.
Berkshire County, Massachusetts. Eric Anderson, 80, indicted for criminal sexual abuse of a child that allegedly happened in 1980. He was big with the Greater Grace World Outreach evangelical non-denominational churches headquartered in Baltimore. Get this: “He’s been living with his son Jesse Anderson, who was convicted of molesting a boy in the church but escaped prison time for his felony offenses. They live in rural Red House, Virginia. Another son, Jonathan Anderson, has also been accused of abuse, though he has not been charged with a crime.” For fucks sake.
Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Kevin Wayne Koester, 32. A former pastor in Huron at the Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church. CSAM child porn charges. That’d be Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.
Orlando, Florida. Jared Andrew Tatum, 31, who taught engineering at the Bishop Moore Catholic school. Charged with criminal sexual misconduct, inappropriately touching a student.
Meridian, Idaho. Isaiah Teague, 24, arrested and charged on felony counts of “lewd and lascivious conduct” with a 15-year-old girl. Met her through the youth ministry at church. No other details on this one yet.
San Luis Obispo, California. Theodore Edward Gabrielli, 61, Catholic priest. Arrested for aggravated sexual assault of three minor boys from the same family over three decades ago. He reportedly assaulted them over the course of eight years.
Laverne, Oklahoma. Christopher Cassel, 66. Arrested for “forcible sodomy, distribution of narcotics, and furnishing alcohol to a minor.” The news is just calling him a “pastor in Laverne,” no further info.
Whew! This fucking update!
Oh by the way, Ryan McElrath (number 16 on this list) has been sentenced to 21 years.
This here from Beks on Bluesky — an excellent tracker of this stuff — is quite a visual:
UPDATE, JUNE 6, 2025
Sanford, Florida. Yersson David Solarte Basto, 34, pastor of the IPUL Pentecostal Church, which appears to be part of the United Latinamerican Pentecostal Church, though we don’t see the church name in its directory at the moment. Spanish-speaking, Pentecostal, which is a rapidly growing movement. Arrested after allegedly molesting two underage girls. Authorities think there might be more victims.
Goleta, California. Shaun Hertlein, 42. Arrested for felony child sex crimes, and again, authorities are seeking more victims. He was a youth pastor at SOUTHCOAST Church, which has the website of literally any conservative evangelical church where there are fucking guitars and praise and worship bands and all that garbage. Appears to be affiliated with the Assemblies of God, but it’s hard to find that on the website. Also was a freshman boys’ football coach at Dos Pueblos High School, and has been involved with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, which you might have heard of.
Jenks, Oklahoma, near Tulsa. Chaz Chinsethagid, a former youth pastor, sentenced to 14 years in prison for child porn possession and coercion of a minor. He was a youth pastor at Riverview Baptist Church in Bixby, a Southern Baptist congregation. Three Southern Baptist leaders wrote character letters for him before his sentencing, isn’t that nice.
Kissimmee, Florida. Daniel Lamppin, 40, faces 24 charges of sexually abusing foster children. One alleged victim was a six-year-old girl, who he’s said to have abused for several years. He was a youth pastor at The Connection Church in Kissimmee, and also worked at Chick-Fil-A, which reportedly also gave him access to kids. Authorities are looking for more victims. Marcos Lopez, the sheriff on the case — you’ll love this — said, “It's sad and It's sickening, you know, because you got a restaurant with a very good reputation, some real big Christian values, and then this guy infiltrates that, and now he infiltrates it as a youth pastor under a church blanket – these monsters exist.” Somebody should tell him about the correlation between “real big Christian values” and child sex abuse. The Connection Church has another one of those boilerplate guitars-for-Jesus conservative websites, and oh boy would you look at its patriarchal no-girls-allowed ministry staff. It appears to be a Converge Worldwide congregation, which is Baptist, but not Southern Baptist. That anti-gay asshole motherfucker John Piper is affiliated with Converge.
Greenville County, South Carolina. A pastor named Myron Chorbaijan from the 1st Southern Methodist Church, was arrested with his wife Kathleen. Charges related to abuse of eight children starting back in the 1980s, abuse that was reportedly sexual for all the girls. His charges include criminal sexual conduct with minors and incest, his wife’s are about placing children at risk. Yes, that would be the Southern Methodist Church, which is fucking fundamentalist and batshit and affiliated with the Holiness movement, as opposed to the United Methodist Church, which is different from all that. Holiness has now come up on this list three times. They haven’t taken Pastor Myron’s sermons off their Facebook page.
Wichita Falls, Texas. Nathan Roach, 31, arrested for child grooming. The alleged victim was 15. Roach was the youth pastor, and then the lead pastor, at First Baptist Church of Holliday. Southern Baptist, apparently.
Siler City, North Carolina. Nelson Chay, 57, arrested on child porn charges. A pastor at a place called Casa de Dios. The church doesn’t have much online presence to speak of, but I’m guessing it’s Spanish-speaking and some kind of evangelical or charismatic or pentecostal or some combo of all those.
Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin. James Lane, 53, a former youth pastor, sentenced to 10 years after pleading guilty to multiple sexual assaults of the same child. He was a youth pastor at Faith Reformed Church, which is part of the Alliance of Reformed Churches. (Search “reformed” on this page if you don’t already know what that signifies.) This church left the Reformed Church of America (RCA), SURPRISE SURPRISE! because the RCA was too loving and Christlike to gays. Ain’t that always the fucking way.
Mooresville, Indiana. Jacob Wessel, who taught robotics at Mooresville Christian Academy (non-denominational), accused of giving weed and Adderall to a 13-year-old student, and also “sending her sexually loaded texts.” He reportedly told the victim that they were “in love” and ugh, good God, just read it if you want to.
NBC News with a huge story on Joe Campbell, an Assemblies of God/Pentecostal preacher in Branson, Missouri, who according to five women sexually assaulted them repeatedly in the ‘70s and ‘80s when they were children. Campbell is the main pastor at Jim Bakker’s Morningside Church, but suddenly his info has been disappeared from all their websites. Shocker.
The Preacher Boys Podcast reports on the story of Tim Forgy, associate pastor of Liberty Baptist Church in Durham, North Carolina. Also was the middle school principal at the church’s affiliated Liberty Christian School. (It doesn’t appear to be Southern Baptist, but any other affiliations are unclear based on the website. Seems pretty conservative, though.) Anyway, Forgy died by suicide recently after being confronted in some way with allegations he sexually abused a teenage girl 15 years ago in Texas, and this was confirmed by the senior pastor of the church, who was also Forgy’s brother-in-law.
Rutherford County, TN. The trial is about to start for Benjamin Garlick and his estranged wife Shaantel on many charges of sexual abuse of children. These are the people in this viral tweet:
Garlick was a “traveling evangelist” who predominantly focused on the Hispanic community.
Little Rock, Arkansas. Reagan Gray has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a teenage boy when she was a church volunteer at the Immanuel Baptist Church. She also worked at Little Rock Christian Academy. She was 23, he 15. The unique thing about this story is that she is one of the few women on this list. The not unique thing is that Immanuel is a Southern Baptist megachurch.
Speaking of! Champion Forest Baptist Church, the Houston Southern Baptist megachurch, has settled in the case of former youth pastor Timothy Jeltema, who is currently in prison after admitting to sexually abusing around 25 young girls. Preacher Boys Pod notes that this is the second child sex abuse lawsuit Champion Forest has settled in the space of less than a year.
Gainesville, Florida. Christopher Whitehead, age 35, a now-former pastor of Mount Olive Primitive Baptist Church, accused of sexual battery of a minor. Historically Black church, not sure if it’s affiliated with a specific denomination.
Gainesville, Florida, once again. Casey Ashton Phillips, 32, former youth volunteer at the Northwest Baptist Church — Jesus, how many times can we type “Baptist” in today’s update? — charged with sexually abusing a young teenage girl of 14 or 15. He was 20 or 21 at the time. Southern Baptist, TA-DA!
As for updates and other miscellany, #72 Will Johnson, a peeping pastor type, will be going to prison for at least 68 months.
Gary Keesee, #29, just keeps getting hit with more child sex abuse charges.
The New Orleans Archdiocese will be paying almost $180 million to survivors of priest rape.
And OH MY GOD, this is not about child sexual abuse — I repeat not about child sexual abuse — but it’s about some motherfucking hypocrisy, and also alleged sexual abuse of adults.
If you grew up with contemporary Christian music in the ‘90s, the 2000s, basically any time in the past 25 or so years, you know about DC Talk and the Newsboys. Michael Tait was until recently the very MAGA lead singer of Newsboys, and before that, he was in DC Talk when they were huuuuuugely successful, the “Jesus Freak” days. (Here he is doing some fucking bullshit called Black Voices for Trump.)
Well, guess who’s being accused of sexual assault, grooming and substance abuse as far back as 2004, according to three men who were each 22 at the time of the alleged events? And now he’s suddenly stepped down from Newsboys? AYUP.
The Roys Report has the whole story. You can also read earlier reporting on what’s transpired in the last few months to get to this point with Tait.
It’s always the ones you absolutely fucking expect!
Meanwhile former DC Talk member Kevin Max is now an ex-vangelical and a huge supporter of LGBTQ+ equality. Much cooler than Michael Tait. Fuck that guy.
UPDATE, MAY 9, 2025
North Rome, Pennsylvania. Brad Swink, 40, facing child pornography possession charges after a sting. He’s a pastor at the North Rome Wesleyan Church. Here are some of the Wesleyan Church’s conservative beliefs about things like homosexuality, gender identity and abortion, because of course.
Fayetteville, Arkansas. Paul Scouten, 39, the office manager of the St. Joseph Catholic Church in Tontitown (that’s Duggar-land, by the way). Arrested for child porn possession.
Moosic, Pennsylvania. Robert Morgan, 76, pleaded guilty after trying to meet up with an undercover officer posing as a kid. He pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of requesting nudes from the person he thought was a minor. He was previously a reverend at the Moosic Assembly of God. Tongue-speaking Pentecostal situation. Not the first time Assemblies of God have shown up on this list.
Baldwin, Louisiana. Shane Wiggins, the pastor of the Baldwin Baptist Mission Church, arrested and charged with rape and child molestation. Baldwin Baptist Mission was reportedly part of the Gulf Coast Baptist Association, but seems to be missing from its website now. It’s a very small Southern Baptist congregation.
Outlook, Washington, near Yakima. Benjamin Guerra, 32, a youth pastor, charged with a number of accounts of child rape and molestation, with a 15-year-old victim. The police report doesn’t name the church.
Amarillo, Texas. Patrick Kenneth Farmer, 57. Boy, this guy has been everywhere and had so many chances, it seems. He taught at San Jacinto Christian Academy and Lakeview Elementary and worked with kids at Paramount Baptist Church. He has been arrested for the sixth time, this time for indecency with a child, stemming from something that happened in 2000. He was arrested in 2024 on similar charges, and apparently four other times in another county, again on similar charges. All events happened between 2000 and 2005, reports say. There was a civil lawsuit against the church too. Paramount Baptist is a Southern Baptist congregation.
Brighton, Michigan. Will Johnson, 38, peeping pastor type. Put cameras in a church bathroom, pleaded guilty to 15 charges including child sexually abusive activity and possession of child sexually abusive material, over the course of two years. He was a worship pastor at 2|42 Community Church, which appears to be some kind of non-denominational megachurch network in Michigan with seven campuses. They’re conservative, of course.
Delight, Arkansas. James Vincent Henry, sentenced to 110 years in prison on 11 child porn possession charges. He used to be the pastor of the Crossroads Assembly of God, oh look it’s Assembly of God again. The news says he had also served as a youth pastor at several other churches, including Newsong Church in Centerton, Arkansas, also Assembly of God. Delight is toward the southwest end of the state, while Centerton is northwest, near Fayetteville, so that’s the second time that area has shown up in today’s update.
Thurston County, Washington. Jeffrey Zizz, 47, arrested and charged with murdering an 82-year-old grandmother. Apparently it was just vile and gruesome. Zizz was formerly the pastor of Calvary North Thurston in Lacey, Washington, affiliated with the Calvary Chapel (charismatic, conservative, evangelical) movement. Why is he on this list? Well, as the Roys Report explains, “The former pastor was arrested in 2021 and booked on suspicion of nine criminal counts that included incest, rape of a child and molestation. Zizz pleaded guilty in Oct. 2022 to two counts of second-degree child molestation against victims ages 12 to 14 and one count of communicating with a minor under age 18 for immoral purposes, NBC reported.” That’s why he’s on this list.
Mountain Home, Idaho. Gregory Wayne Jones, a pastor, and a daycare, preschool, and after-school program director of operations, arrested for human sex trafficking and also "sexual penetration with a foreign object." They are looking for more victims. He’s in jail on $1 million bail. He’s reportedly the pastor/evangelist at the Liberty Christian Fellowship Church, which calls itself a “non-demoninational Five Fold ministry,” a term that is explained here.
Kaukauna, Wisconsin. Colin Killoren, 30, charged with seven counts of child sexual exploitation and seven counts of child porn possession. Teaches logic, philosophy and debate at St. Ignatius Catholic School.
Raleigh, North Carolina. Aaron Bradley, 30, was the minister for the Elementary Department at the First Korean Baptist Church in Raleigh. Charged with sexual exploitation of minors, accused of distributing child porn. First Korean Baptist is a Southern Baptist congregation that describes itself as orthodox and evangelical. Crazy how Southern Baptist just keeps coming up.
Collinsville, Illinois. Matthew Cuppett, 33, charged on multiple counts of grooming and sexual exploitation of minors. Reportedly “performed sexual acts” in front of kids. He was a mental health counselor at Pathways Counseling, which is part of Baptist Children’s Home and Family Services of Illinois (BFCHFS), whose website is all kinds of conservative Christian counseling hell. Surprise, they even have a fake abortion clinic, one of those places that lies to pregnant people and tries to lure them away from having abortions.
Kelowna, British Columbia. Art Lucier, charismatic pastor of Kelowna Harvest Fellowship, part of Harvest Ministries International. Accused in two lawsuits of grooming and sexually abusing two foster children over the space of years when he was the pastor of Kitimat Harvest Ministries in Kitimat. Because they have charismatic and prophetic and non-denominational bullshit in Canada too! Which means they’re likely to to end up on this list.
Kalamazoo County, Michigan. A woman is suing Ethnos360, a Christian missionary organization, alleging that when she was a child living with her missionary parents in Indonesia, between 2005 and 2010, she was repeatedly raped and sexually abused by another missionary, named as Nate Horling. Her lawsuit says Ethnos360, the sponsor for Horling, didn’t report what she told them, or investigate, or anything. Instead, says the Roys Report, they “subjected her to a traumatizing and biased internal inquiry process known as IHART, which she says was falsely represented as independent.” Also, says the Roys Report, “This is not the first time Ethnos360 has faced public scrutiny over sexual abuse of children on the mission field.” Huh, well look at that, what a surprise. Ethnos360 used to be called New Tribes Mission, and you can read all about their evangelical missionary shit on Wikipedia.
Roseville, Minnesota. Joshua Alirio Seeman, 50, charged with sexually assaulting four children ages four to six, at the King of Kings Lutheran Church and School, part of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, where he was a volunteer. The alleged events were from this year. But surprise! Roys Report: “According to the criminal complaint, police also have reports alleging that Seeman committed sexual assaults in 2001, 2006, 2014, 2015 and 2022.” Now here’s the thing. Apparently, according to the criminal complaint, Seeman is cognitively delayed. Clearly he needs help. But he got through the church’s background checks and was allowed around kids! Lutheran Church Missouri Synod is extremely conservative, and not to be confused with the larger, mainline Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
North Chesterfield, Virginia. Two sisters are suing the Bethany Place Church and its former youth group leader Gerald Thomas for $300 million — $150 million in two lawsuits — over sexual abuse they say happened when they were children. The church is not Southern Baptist anymore — and it’s not called Bethany Place anymore — but it was at the time. They say he did what he did to them (click on the link for details, I’m sick of reading this shit for today) happened literally in front of church leaders and employees. Thomas pleaded guilty back in 2010 to charges related to these sisters, and the Roys Report says he was convicted in 2021 on another sexual abuse case from around the same era at the church.
Big day for the Southern Baptists at the Moral High Ground. We’d say Pam Bondi should convene a task force to investigate all of this, but we wouldn’t want to distract her from snipe-hunting for “anti-Christian bias.”
In addition, there are updates on Gary Thomas Keesee in Ohio, number 29 on this list. He was arrested on two counts of child rape. The initial victim says it happened over 50 times when they were five and six years old. Two other victims have also come forward.
In other news, the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo has “agreed to a provisional settlement of $150 million with more than 800 victims of sexual abuse,” according to the New York Times.
UPDATE, APRIL 11, 2025
Bradley Colvin, 52, Rolla, Missouri. Pleaded guilty to child porn possession. Among his acts, he confessed to molesting a child at a Vacation Bible School pool party. None of the articles on this specify which church at he was a church youth ministry volunteer. Local journalists? You need to specify that information. It’s important.
Christopher Willett, Crystal Springs, Mississippi. Arrested for “statutory rape, sexual battery, intercourse (unnatural), computer luring of a person, and child pornography.” Willett is a minister at the First Presbyterian Church of Crystal Springs. First Pres is PCA, which I believe is the largest of the extremist right-wing Presbyterian denominations that had a temper tantrum and broke away from the normal Presbyterian church (PCUSA), because the normal Presbyterian church loves people too much. (Too loving to LGBTQ+ people, etc.) This author grew up in the PCA. It’s not a good place.
Jose Francisco Bernal. Fort Worth, Texas. The former pastor of the Tabernacle of Life Pentecostal Church (Tabernaculo de Vida) has been ordered to pay $124 million to a woman he reportedly sexually abused when she was a child. He was originally arrested in 2017 for allegedly sexually abusing two women when they were children, but that case ended in a mistrial. There are a number of churches with similar names in the area, but it appears to be affiliated with the United Pentecostal Church International. So, Pentecostal.
Christopher Hayes, 46, Spring Hill, Florida. Whole lot going on with this one. A realtor with Berkshire Hathaway, a youth lacrosse coach, a church deacon at the Idlewild Baptist Church in Lutz, Florida. Arrested on 90 charges involving not only child pornography but also bestiality, including his own dog. (His wife confirmed the dog’s identity, one article says.) The church no longer appears on his LinkedIn, but assuming this is the correct Idlewild — it’s a megachurch also in the Tampa Bay area — it’s a big ass Southern Baptist congregation.
Rodger Strong, 69, recently retired pastor from Orland, Indiana. He is charged with molesting a five-year-old girl a number of times. He was pastor of Orland Church of the Nazarene, which no longer exists due to Rodger Strong. Probably for the best. One less conservative church in existence.
Elvis Colenberg, Jefferson County, Mississippi, pastor and former school bus driver. Accused of repeatedly forcing two 14-year-olds to have sex with each other on his school bus. It appears we are talking about the Hollywood Missionary Baptist Church, in Fayette, Mississippi. Affiliated with the General Missionary Baptist State Convention of Mississippi. Damn, Mississippi comes up a lot on this list.
Tyler Selby, Ocean Springs, Mississippi. (AS I WAS SAYING!) Sentenced to 20 years for making child porn and sexually abusing a young boy. Selby was a worship leader at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Ocean Springs, and was fired as music minister at Robinwood Baptist Church in Harrison County upon his arrest. Both are Southern Baptist churches.
Joshua Lucero, 28, Thornton, Colorado. Arrested for multiple sexual assaults of juveniles from when he was a youth pastor at the Word Alive Church. The church refers to itself as “full-gospel” and non-denominational. Notably, his parents appear to be the pastors. That’s a scenario I’ve seen several times on this list.
Willie Leon Wright, Green Cove Springs, Florida. Arrested in an underage sex sting, and even brought his three-year-old son with him when he came to meet the fake 14-year-old girl. Nothing we’re seeing lists the church. In the same sting, ANOTHER Republican official was caught up, this one trying to meet up with a fake 14-year-old boy.
We’ll let the New York Times write this one: “Theodore E. McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington and the highest American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church to be accused of sexually abusing minors and seminarians — a charge that stripped him of his ministry, his place in the College of Cardinals and his priesthood, reducing him to the status of a layman — has died. He was 94.” Rest in hell, motherfucker.
Elmer Baca-Flores, Del City, Oklahoma. Accused of molesting an underage girl after he told her he spoke for God and that she was the “chosen one.” Lots of weird shit going on with this one, allegations of human and labor trafficking, etc. Sounds like some cult leader behavior. His church — the Ministerio Levantando Adoradores Para Cristo Inc. — “meets for services either in his home, at a park, or elsewhere,” says the local news.
Fr. Jaime Arriaga, 41. Priest at the Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Downey, California. Arrested and accused of raping a minor.
Village of Farwell, Surrey Township, Michigan. Harold Norman Cole, Jr., a former pastor of Farwell Trinity Baptist Church, sentenced to 365 days in prison after pleading no contest to aggravated assault of a child under 13. Details a bit scarce, but the original accusation was criminal sexual conduct against a child. Trinity comes up in the directory of KJV churches — King James — which tend to be independent fundamentalist Baptist churches that are both to the right of and even less biblically literate than the Southern Baptists. They believe only the King James version of the Bible is the real one, because God apparently only knows that version of English. These churches come up again and again on this list, and as the Preacher Boys Podcast explains, the real defining characteristic of these churches is control.
Britt Taylor, Horn Lake, Mississippi. (Memphis suburbs. Third Memphis appearance on this list!) Indicted for trying to send a sexual picture to an underage girl. Oops it was a cop. Taylor was the music minister at Calvary Baptist Church in Horn Lake. Calvary is a Southern Baptist church.
Finally, an update on Waymon Jordan, a pastor further down the list who was arrested for sex with a child under 15. He has died by suicide.
UPDATE, MARCH 14, 2025
Robert Morris. (SEE ABOVE.)
Bartlett, Tennessee. (That’s a Memphis suburb.) John Miller, 48, was a youth volunteer for years at Hope Church in the Cordova area of Memphis. Charged with rape of a child. The indictment says it happened in 2006-2007, and the victim was between three and 13 years old at the time. Hope Church is one of those megachurches that tries to act like it’s welcoming to everybody, and we’ve even heard occasionally of gays going there. Hope doesn’t like to lead with the fact that it’s affiliated with the severely bigoted Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC), but it is. I live in Memphis, and I tend to think Hope is fucking garbage.
Middletown, Delaware. Justin Lee Smith was the head of the St. Anne’s Episcopal School. Arrested for possession of child porn, featuring girls from six to 16.
North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Chadwick Branch, 55, arrested with “voluminous amounts” of child porn. He was apparently the former pastor of the Victory Baptist Church in Sutherlin, Virginia. Surprise, it’s one of those independent fundamentalist Baptist King James churches! Real quick, search the words “King James” on this page and see how many times they come up. It’s only March, y’all. I just started this project in January.
Derwood, Maryland. Ervin Alvaro-Lopez, 34, pleaded guilty to molesting four young girls, and was sentenced to prison. He was a teacher at the Elim Gaithersburg Church, which appears to be a Spanish language church of some kind. Surprise, a local Fox News affiliate headline on this was that he was an immigrant who had been previously deported. Really? Is that what makes him dangerous to children? Or does the rest of this list suggest perhaps it’s something else? Just curious.
Faith Life Church in Ohio seems to be a REAL charlatan operation. It’s a megachurch with multiple campuses, it looks grifty as hell, and as JoeMyGod notes, Drenda Keesee, one of the senior pastors (along with her husband Gary) is a conspiracy theorist who talks about things like “globalists, Democrats, the one world order.” They ascribe to Seven Mountains Dominionism (which is holyshitbonkers). Anyway, their son, Gary Thomas “Tom” Keesee, who has been an officer of the church, has been accused of molesting more than one person, including his own sister.
Granite Falls, North Carolina. Ashley Crouse, a former pastor at the New Vision Baptist Fellowship, sentenced to 10 years for child porn possession. He had it on his computer at church. New Vision is a Southern Baptist congregation.
Tupelo, Mississippi. Alexander Blackwelder, 28, was the youth pastor at the East Main Street Church of Christ, which is Church of Christ obviously, unless they’re trying to fool me. Sentenced to prison for 10 years for having an “inappropriate” sexual relationship with a 16-year-old minor girl.
Harris County, Texas. (Houston area.) Lance Hoffpauir, 42, nabbed in “To Catch A Predator”-type sting. Online solicitation of someone he believed was a minor. Initial reports said he was a church youth group volunteer and a former junior high history teacher, but didn’t say where.
Riverside, California. Matthew Johnson, 34, lately of Bryan, Texas, sentenced to 30 years in prison for making his own child porn, filming kids while working as a counselor at La Sierra (Seventh-Day Adventist) Academy in Riverside, and as a chaperone at a junior high Bible camp, hiding cameras in bathrooms and the like. If you are not familiar with the Seventh-Day Adventists, well, a lot of regular-type evangelicals believe they are a cult. They skew very conservative, though. The “seventh day” refers to how they observe Saturday as the Sabbath.
Fruitport Township, Michigan. Daniel Devries, a deacon, a Sunday school teacher, sentenced to four to 10 years in prison for child porn. He was a deacon at Unity Reformed Church in Norton Shores. Also, he “started and volunteered at an organization called Kids Hope Network, which runs a program with students at Churchill Elementary School.” Of course. Always note when you hear “Reformed” that you are probably talking about the same general neighborhood of extremely conservative Presbyterian churches as the type where Defense Secretary Christian Nationalist Pete Hegseth is involved, where Senator Josh Hawley has attended in the past, and many many many more of the most prominent Christian nationalists currently working to destroy America. That said, Unity’s denomination is the Reformed Church in America, which is conservative, but not so conservative that a bunch of churches didn’t split off in 2022 in a huff because the RCA isn’t viciously anti-LGBTQ enough.
Racine County, Wisconsin. Crystal Lachman, 30, a worker at a Christian daycare. Arrested for child porn. It was the Bright & Beautiful Christian Child Care Center, affiliated with Union Grove Methodist Church. Union Grove appears to be a regular old United Methodist church.
Cleveland, Tennessee. Richard Lee Sentell pleaded guilty and was sentenced to eight years in prison on child porn charges. He was the senior pastor of Cornerstone Church of God, which is some Holiness-Pentecostal shit. Holiness is a whole extremely conservative, pentecostal-adjacent movement. Those with experience in it should chime in, in the comments!
Yakima, Washington. David Franklin, 68, sentenced to 30 years in prison for making, transporting and possessing child porn. Franklin “was a former Assemblies of God pastor, a chaplain in the Civil Air Patrol, and a leader in the Royal Rangers, which is a Christian scouting-type organization for boys,” according to court documents. You know, just all the fucking things. Surprise, the Royal Rangers are suuuuuper anti-LGBT bigots.
Plain Township, Ohio. Jesse Santos, 59, pastor of the Canton Seventh-Day Adventist Church. Accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a minor 14-year-old girl on a camping trip.
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. John-Paul Miller, accused of raping a 15-year-old girl more than 25 years ago and then assaulting her again in 2023. Christian Post notes that this is coming not even a year after the suicide of Miller’s wife Mica Miller, which seems to be viewed suspiciously. The woman’s lawsuit names both Miller and his father Reginald Miller, plus all their affiliated churches, and says of the two men: "Behind their religious facade, John-Paul Miller and Reginald Wayne Miller engaged in sexual abuse and predatory conduct — often targeting minors. They used their positions of power to manipulate and exploit vulnerable victims while concealing their actions from the public." Miller was pastor at a church called Solid Rock at Market Common, which appears to have just been sold. It looks like it’s become Living Water at Market Common, and … I don’t fuckin’ know. Somebody in Myrtle Beach have a better understanding of this story? Chime in! Seems like some major evangelical megachurch drama.
Asheboro, North Carolina. Lucas Hunt, 25, not a pastor or youth group leader, but apparently originated the idea for a very popular (?) campaign of “Thank You Jesus” signs? Uh yeah, anyway, arrested for child porn possession.
Trenton, New Jersey. Charles Brinson, 64, pastor (“bishop”) of the Brinson Memorial Church on Brinson Avenue — really — “arrested and charged with aggravated sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child following separate incidents that, allegedly, happened earlier this year.” On their Facebook page, they call themselves “interdenominational.” Brinson was also arrested in 2008 for molesting a 15-year-old boy.
Bentonville, Arkansas. Andrew Apple, 27, was arrested after being accused of sexual abuse and rape involving two minor boys at the church where he volunteered with the youth program. The website, which looks very pentecostal-y and high-tech-y, says it strives to become a “21st Century Apostolic Church.” So … yeah, megachurch, charismatic, pentecostal, all that shit. There seems to be a book that uses that very same terminology.
Highlands Ranch, Colorado, near Denver. Richard Merskin, 42, convicted of sexually assaulting his own daughter, who was under age 15. Merskin was a minister at The River Church, and oh boy, just go to the website, you’ll see what kind of high-tech laying-on-of-hands speaking-in-tongues kind of place it is. Denominationally, the website says they “are involved with and have roots in the Vineyard movement and we also are part of the 400 Gathering and the Aspen Family of Churches in the Denver area.” Second time the Vineyard movement has shown up on the list. Merskin also founded something called Way Of Life Ministries International.
A former Southern Baptist pastor named Matt Queen, most recently pastor of a church in North Carolina, won’t do prison time for lying to the feds as part of the abuse investigation into the Southern Baptist Church, the one that came after that HUGE independent investigation. There’s a lot to it, but not easy to summarize, but I’m including it on the list to remind us how much cover-up is often involved in these situations.
Pueblo area, Colorado. Stephen Hutto, 45, is the pastor of Highlands Baptist Church in Boone, Colorado, and used to be the youth pastor at Fountain Independent Baptist Church in Fountain, near Colorado Springs. The charge is felony child sexual assault, stemming from incidents 15 years ago. “Grooming” is specifically mentioned. Both churches come up in the King James churches directory, which has come up a number of times already on this list. Seems like these independent fundamentalist Baptist churches who are convinced Jesus spoke the King’s English (AND NOT ANY OTHER LANGUAGES) have a pretty serious child sex abuse problem!
Waxhaw, North Carolina. Waymon Jordan, 79, the senior pastor at Greater Blessed Hope Baptist Church. Arrested for “statutory sexual offense” with a child under 15. The church’s website describes it as a “community Baptist church,” and elsewhere calls the church Greater Blessed Hope Missionary Baptist Church. Missionary Baptists aren’t a denomination, but rather a movement, largely of Black churches, at least in the South, however, you’ll see the terminology on some other churches too.
Salem, South Carolina. William Franklin Galbreath, 57, the pastor of Harvest Holiness Church. Arrested on “a dozen counts of criminal sexual conduct, multiple counts of criminal sexual conduct with a minor, and assault charges.” JoeMyGod says in January Galbreath shared a post on Facebook thanking Donald Trump for banning Pride flags and “ending the celebration of the abomination of homosexuality.” Yep. His Facebook appears to have gone bye-bye, though, surprise, and the church doesn’t have an online presence.
Brentwood, New York, Long Island. Jose Saez, 29, a pastor at Iglesia Cristiana Alumbrando El Camino, has pleaded guilty on child porn-related charges. And if you want more information than that, hit the New York Post, because we don’t even want to fucking type it, it’s so awful. The church is one of those strip mall Spanish language evangelical-type churches. Doesn’t seem to have a web presence. Moving on.
Port Orange, Florida. Jeffery Summers, 51, the pastor of New Hope Baptist Church. Charged with … basically everything you see on “To Catch A Predator.” It was a sting operation, and the pastor got stung. He also worked with special ed kids in Volusia County public schools, Horizon Elementary to be specific. The Roys Report notes that New Hope doesn’t have a working website and all the lines seem disconnected — imagine that — but that New Hope is part of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Florida & the Caribbean Islands.
Alpharetta, Georgia. Daniel Menelaou, 31, youth pastor at the Futures Church. Arrested on child porn-related charges. Futures Church describes itself as a non-denominational “multi-site megachurch” with campuses in the US, Australia and Indonesia. The website is so tacky.
South Beloit, Illinois. Anthony Dusso, 53, has been arrested on multiple counts of disseminating child pornography. South Beloit is on the Wisconsin border, and Dusso is the senior pastor of the Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Beloit, Wisconsin, which is part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. This is one of the not-so-common times when the clergy is associated with a non-conservative strain of Christianity. Trust us, it won’t happen that often.
Finally, two updates:
Firstly, UPDATE ON THE CPAC YOUTH PASTOR, Zachary Radcliffe, who has just been hit with 30 MORE felony child molestation charges. As this is the first time there’s been a duplicate on the list — an update — I’m putting this at the bottom of the update but being careful not to add a new number in the list, because I’m fair and honest. Here is my original entry if you don’t want to scroll down:
Augusta Township/Ypsilanti, Michigan. Update on Zachary Radcliff, a former youth pastor who is charged with 33 felonies for sexually abusing kids. He’s been denied bond because apparently he kept harassing an alleged victim who spoke out. He told this victim to “keep his … mouth shut.” An alumnus of Liberty University, Radcliff was the worship director and interim youth pastor at Oakwood Baptist Church in Augusta Township, where his daddy is the pastor. Oakwood is a Southern Baptist congregation. The alleged victims: 10 boys, one girl, one under 13. According to one alleged victim, who was 15 at the time, Radcliff called it their “cute little secret.” Radcliff has performed at CPAC, and oh boy, he’s a big Trump supporter. For a picture of him with Donald Trump Jr., Kimberly Guilfoyle and Jerry Falwell Jr., click here. Hemant Mehta AKA The Friendly Atheist has so much more.
Also, Samuel McCall, a youth group volunteer in Troy, Alabama, who had been arrested for child porn, soon after died by suicide.
UPDATE, FEBRUARY 7, 2025
Thiensville, Wisconsin. Daniel Rick, 36, charged with sex crimes against children. Rick was a teacher and athletic director at Christ Alone Lutheran School. Excerpt: “A criminal complaint accuses Rick of picking ‘favorite’ boy students each year and having some of them sit on his lap, where he would touch their stomachs or rub their backs and kiss them.”
Here is an interesting one. Former New York Yankees Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera and his wife Clara are named in a lawsuit for “covering up the sexual abuse of a minor in their home and at a 2018 summer camp affiliated with an Assemblies of God church they founded in 2009 known as the Refugio De Esperanza (the Refuge of Hope),” per the Christian Post. The church is in New Rochelle, New York, and obviously the Assemblies of God are a whole tongue-speaking pentecostal situation. The lawsuit says there were multiple perpetrators, including, surprise, a youth pastor named Ruben Tavarez.
Cleveland County, Oklahoma. James McMillan, a former pastor, was arrested for the third time in as many months, for texting a nude to a teenager in Kansas, a classmate of his son’s. Previous arrests were for child sex crimes. KFOR in Oklahoma City says McMillan “was a former pastor at a minimum of two churches in Slaughterville and Konawa. [Sources] confirmed McMillan left both churches under strange circumstances several years ago, and hasn’t preached at either location since then.” They didn’t say which churches, but the Christian Post identified them as Slaughterville Baptist Church and First Baptist Church of Konawa, both of which I think are Southern Baptist Convention.
Tehachapi, California. Adrian Daugherty, 41-year-old youth pastor at the Tehachapi Church of the Nazarene, arrested for alleged sexual assault of a teenager.
Eric DeJaeger, 77, a former Catholic priest in Igloolik, Nunavut — that’s Canada — sentenced to seven years in prison for sexually abusing seven children between ages four and nine between 1978 and 1982.
Augusta Township/Ypsilanti, Michigan. Update on Zachary Radcliff, a former youth pastor who is charged with 33 felonies for sexually abusing kids. He’s been denied bond because apparently he kept harassing an alleged victim who spoke out. He told this victim to “keep his … mouth shut.” An alumnus of Liberty University, Radcliff was the worship director and interim youth pastor at Oakwood Baptist Church in Augusta Township, where his daddy is the pastor. Oakwood is a Southern Baptist congregation. The alleged victims: 10 boys, one girl, one under 13. According to one alleged victim, who was 15 at the time, Radcliff called it their “cute little secret.” Radcliff has performed at CPAC, and oh boy, he’s a big Trump supporter. For a picture of him with Donald Trump Jr., Kimberly Guilfoyle and Jerry Falwell Jr., click here. Hemant Mehta AKA The Friendly Atheist has so much more.
Jackson, Tennessee. Former youth pastor Ryan McElrath, age 40, has pleaded guilty after being charged with “statutory rape by an authority figure, sexual battery by an authority figure, and aggravated statutory rape.” The victim was 17, and it happened at Fellowship Bible Church, which appears to be a nondenominational and extremely conservative, mostly white burgeoning megachurch. All the elders and pastors are men, and it takes about one second to find something homophobic on their website.
Longview, Texas. A “faith-based gymnastics coach.” (For fuck's sake.) Matthew Orban, age 52. Indicted for sexually assaulting a minor. Says he “intentionally and knowingly caused the penetration of the sexual organ” of the victim “by defendant’s finger.” The website for “Faith Flip” — yeah, really — appears to be offline now — surprise! — but the news article says it used to say that “God has put on our heart to reach out to those that might not be able to afford a gymnastics lesson or get to hear the word of God.” You see, they didn’t charge the kids. At least they didn’t charge money. Allegedly.
Mineola, Texas, just down the road from Longview. Timothy Nall, a former pastor at Mt. Pisgah Missionary Baptist Church. Arrested for sexual assault of a child, and this is not the first time or the first reported victim. He was also charged with sexual battery against a teen girl in 2013, and indicted in 2014 for molesting a six-year-old girl. This happened when he was pastor at Farmington Baptist Church, in Corinth, Mississippi. Farmington brags on its website that it’s the oldest Baptist church in north Mississippi. It’s another independent Baptist/King James church. On the website for Mt. Pisgah in Texas, the church lists as its affiliations the Baptist Missionary Association of Texas and Jacksonville College, a Christian junior college. Private Christian junior colleges are big with homeschoolers in East Texas. Ask me how I know this.
Welcome the Mormons to the list. Washington, Utah. Mark Stevens, 68, a former LDS bishop, charged with “one count of forcible sodomy, a first-degree felony, and two counts second-degree of forcible sexual abuse.” The alleged victim was 16 at the time, in 2006 and 2007.
Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Dwight Suttles, age 69, charged with rape of a child, plus five counts of sexual battery. Five alleged victims. All under 13. Suttles was the pastor of Liberty Baptist Church. This is another independent Baptist/King James church! Golly, at what point do we consider it endemic?
Troy, Alabama. Samuel McCall, a youth group volunteer, arrested for child porn. According to Beks, who monitors this stuff on Twitter and other places, the name of the church hasn’t been released.
Update on Mike Bickle, the predator founder of the Kansas City International House of Prayer, a pentecostal movement. A new 68-page report claims Bickle sexually abused “at least 17 females, including minors.” This reportedly started in the mid-1970s. One survivor says Bickle would make her read Psalm 51 after he abused her. (You have to read it to realize how fucked that is.)
Aaron Craig Gleason, Niceville, Florida, charged with “lewd and lascivious molestation of a child under 12.” He taught Bible and was the middle school soccer coach at Rocky Bayou Christian School, which is Southern Baptist. This one is just amazing, because Gleason has written for not only The Federalist but also Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire, where Matt Walsh and Michael Knowles work and attack LGBTQ+ people daily. (For The Federalist, he wrote a review of The Sound Of Freedom, that total bullshit right-wing movie about, you guessed it, child sex trafficking.) Here is an archived version of Gleason’s author page at Daily Wire. Commenting on Twitter on a drag march in New York City in 2023, Gleason said, “No grooming going on here, they’re just coming for our children.” The marchers in the video were chanting that, but it was a joke making fun of right-wingers who say things like that. Gleason is apparently pretty big on accusing LGBTQ people of “grooming” children. I have long hypothesized that Christian conservatives’ true objection to that is that it gets in the way of their own grooming, in all the forms that takes, including when it’s the Bible teacher at the Southern Baptist school. (Alongside that is my hypothesis that, to conservative Christians, LGBTQ+ “grooming” consists of any action that helps LGBTQ+ kids have access to information that will make them accept themselves and love themselves, rather than live in self-hatred or die by suicide.)
SO THAT HAPPENED.
INITIAL LIST, JANUARY 17, 2025
Arturo Laguna Camas, a pastor at Iglesia Casa De Adoración in Phoenix, Arizona. Affiliated with the Disciples of Christ. Accused of recording women in the bathroom. Not about children, but related because of the war on trans people using the bathroom.
Jackson Gatlin, former young adult pastor at the Duluth Vineyard Church in Duluth, Minnesota, has been named in nine civil lawsuits over alleged sexual abuse of minors, aged 11 to 16 at the time. He pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault of a minor in 2023, while taking Alford pleas on four other counts. Also named in the suits are his parents, Michael and Brenda, who are respectively the former senior pastor of the church and a former church leader. Vineyard USA appears to be somewhere between evangelicals and Pentecostals.
Michael Ronald Goble, a 76-year-old retired pastor of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Adrian, Michigan. Accused of molesting multiple young boys under 13. Various sources have listed the church as “Methodist” (but not United Methodist) and also Mennonite.
Michael Howard, a worship leader connected with Ken Ham’s Creation Museum in northern Kentucky. Confessed to sexually abusing a teenage boy over the course of several years, beginning when the victim was 15. Has been part of TrueSong, which is The Ark Encounter’s and the Creation Museum’s resident praise and worship band, because of course the Ark Encounter has one of those. Went to Florence Baptist Temple in Burlington, Kentucky, and was a worship leader there too. It appears to be an independent Baptist church, and is listed in this directory of KJV churches, AKA churches that are obsessed with the idea that the King James Bible is the only real Bible, because I guess God is only able to communicate in the King’s English, and cannot understand these newfangled slang Bibles like the NIV.
Frank Gough II, friar at the Resurrection Anglican Church in Shalimar, Florida, arrested for possession of child pornography. Resurrection is affiliated with the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), which stomped away from the normal Episcopal church in a huff because the Episcopalians are too nice to gay people.
Rodolfo Martinez-Guevara, former priest associated with Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic parish in Oxnard, California, among others. He “pleaded no contest to sodomy with a person under age 16 and a lewd act with a child age 14 or 15, according to court records,” and was sentenced to a year in jail. Also doing time concurrently for possession of child pornography.
Bernabe Leon-Alvarez, a former pastor in Racine, Wisconsin, has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for “attempted sexual exploitation by a therapist and child enticement.” Groping two teenage girls, in layman’s terms. His church, which no longer exists, was called Esperanza en Cristo, and he also worked at other churches in the Milwaukee and Illinois. I am unclear on what kind of affiliation this church had, if any.
Bruce Hollen, 63, a former pastor in The Woodlands, Texas, sentenced to two years for possession of child pornography. His former church was a Calvary Chapel. These are charismatic evangelical churches.
Lindsey Whiteside, Hernando, Mississippi. The first woman on this list. Former youth leader and coach at the Getwell Church. Charged with sexually assaulting an underage girl. Getwell Church Hernando, which appears to be a campus of Getwell Church Southaven (both are suburbs of Memphis), is non-denominational, and its website says they believe in biblical infallibility and ascribe to “orthodox” beliefs in the Wesleyan tradition. So conservative, evangelical.
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Hey! As someone raised in that cult - most “community” churches are independent Baptist churches of one stripe or another that figured out that “Baptist” in the church name actually made it harder to get new people in the door because it became equated with fundamentalism and hate. 😉
Though there are Baptist organizations (Southern Baptist Convention, General Association of Regular Baptist Churches, American Baptist, Freewill Baptist, etc.), these are usually kind of “loosely” organized, with every church being an independent entity and the organizations kind of a way to sort finer points of agreement and/or to have a larger group to support missionaries.
Mostly sharing to give you a heads up on the “community” churches probable denomination. 😉
The baptist announcement: he didn’t make adam and eve either, that was well before his time!