This text is a part of “Pastors and Prey,” a collection investigating intercourse abuse allegations within the Assemblies of God.
The Assemblies of God is dealing with requires reform and repentance after an NBC Information investigation revealed many years of sexual abuse allegations and alleged cover-ups inside the world’s largest Pentecostal denomination.
The report final week recognized almost 200 ministers, church workers and volunteer leaders accused of sexually abusing greater than 475 folks, most of them kids, over the previous half-century. In dozens of instances, the investigation discovered, Assemblies of God church buildings returned accused offenders to ministry — releasing them to abuse once more.
In response, a number of Assemblies of God pastors mentioned they had been praying for a reckoning inside their ranks. One urged the denomination to enter a season of repentance; one other introduced he was leaving in protest.
“I can’t in good conscience stay credentialed with the Assemblies of God,” the minister, Trevor Walker, wrote in an electronic mail Wednesday to denomination leaders. “I pray that better mild and humility will sooner or later prevail in addressing abuse inside the church.”
Walker was considered one of 10 present and former Assemblies of God ministers who shared their views with NBC Information. Reporters additionally heard from a number of alleged victims and longtime congregants. Their reactions ranged from outrage and grief to deep disappointment. Some mentioned they hoped the reporting would immediate change.
“Possibly this would be the factor that turns the nook,” mentioned Krystopher Scroggins, an Assemblies of God minister who leads a school ministry in San Angelo, Texas. “You may’t have this quantity of sunshine shining in your darkish corners and never wish to clear your home.”
The Normal Council of the Assemblies of God, the denomination’s U.S. governing physique, launched a video assertion final week taking challenge with the NBC Information report and asserting its dedication to little one safety.
“The Assemblies of God grieves with anybody who has been harm by the actions of an abuser,” mentioned Normal Superintendent Doug Clay, the denomination’s prime nationwide chief. “The Normal Council of the Assemblies of God is dedicated to little one security and has a longtime observe report of management on this space.”
Standing beside him, Normal Secretary Donna Barrett defended the denomination’s insurance policies, reiterating that it requires background checks of credentialed ministers and screens out any discovered to have sexually abused kids.
‘Pastors and Prey’: NBC Information investigates intercourse abuse in Assemblies of God church buildings
Some pastors praised the Assemblies of God for vetting credentialed ministers however had been troubled by a major hole famous in NBC Information’ report: Beneath denominational coverage, solely a church’s lead pastor is required to carry ministerial credentials — that means different workers, corresponding to youth pastors or music ministers, could be employed with out nationwide oversight or background checks.
Jim Line, who leads a small church in St. Marys, Pennsylvania, mentioned he’s involved that this lack of supervision can permit people with troubling histories to return to ministry roles.
“In case you usher in someone who’s a minister of music or youth pastor they usually’re not credentialed, I don’t know what your background is,” mentioned Line, who added that he in any other case thought the Assemblies of God’s insurance policies are sturdy. “I do have an issue with that.”
NBC Information contacted every elected member of the denomination’s Govt Presbytery, which serves as a nationwide board of administrators, however none agreed to remark.
Not less than a number of of the Assemblies of God’s 66 district councils, which oversee church affairs on a state or regional degree, despatched emails to ministers responding to the reporting. One district workplace implored each pastor within the area to voluntarily undertake little one security insurance policies; one other referred to as the reporting “heartbreaking” and inspired ministers to look at the Normal Council’s response.
For some contained in the denomination, the video assertion fell quick, confirming fears that management is unwilling to confront what they see as systemic failures.
Anthony Scoma, an Assemblies of God pastor in San Francisco who beforehand served as a district chief in north Texas, mentioned failures that allowed intercourse offenders to return to ministry can’t be fastened with coverage adjustments alone. He referred to as for “churchwide, denominationalwide repentance” in response to the NBC Information report.
“So long as the Assemblies of God, led by our leaders, refuses to repent over a tradition of abuse, the media, the courts, public opinion will proceed to reveal all these items,” Scoma mentioned. “As a result of it’s not really them that’s exposing it — it’s God. It’s the spirit of reality that’s bringing these items to mild.”
Among the many most forceful reactions got here from Walker, the minister who resigned his credentials after twenty years within the Assemblies of God. Walker mentioned he had already left his church in Midlothian, Virginia, in 2023 over its dealing with of a member of the family’s abuse allegations however had maintained his credentials and hoped to sooner or later return to ministry.
The NBC Information report and the denomination’s response — which Walker described as “sterile,” “impersonal” and “devoid of accountability or compassion” — lastly satisfied him to step away for good.
“If they’d have mentioned, ‘Many individuals have been harm over time underneath our watch, and we remorse that, however we’re working towards making it higher,’ that will have been sufficient for me,” Walker mentioned.
Different ministers criticized a 2021 choice by the Normal Council to reject a decision that will have added language to the bylaws stating {that a} credentialed minister or church could possibly be expelled or disciplined for failing to implement safeguards like background checks and necessary reporting of abuse. Ministers declined to undertake the coverage after legal professionals for the denomination warned that it may expose the Normal Council to pricey lawsuits.
One senior official mentioned on the time that the authorized danger “outweighed the profit.”
That comment delivered to thoughts a passage from the E book of Matthew, mentioned Scroggins, by which Jesus warned that an individual can’t serve each God and mammon — or cash.
“When your guiding thought is, ‘We don’t wish to implement this coverage that may shield kids as a result of we don’t wish to lose some huge cash in potential lawsuits,’ that to me is, you’re worshipping cash,” Scroggins mentioned. “And that’s heartbreaking.”
Barrett, the Assemblies of God’s common secretary, defended the 2021 choice within the video response final week. She mentioned the denomination’s construction provides church buildings broad autonomy to control themselves, which she mentioned “makes it unimaginable” for the Normal Council to “give oversight” to native congregations.
“It’s absurd to assume that anybody at 2021 Normal Council was against little one security,” Barrett mentioned.
Former Assemblies of God pastor Dan Matlock referred to as that clarification hypocritical and “frankly, pardon me, bulls—.”
In 2020, Matlock’s church in Kyle, Texas, introduced it might affirm LGBTQ members and carry out same-sex weddings. Inside days, Assemblies of God district officers moved to revoke his ministerial credential and expel the church for adopting views “contradictory to historic Christian beliefs and our AG doctrinal positions,” in accordance with a letter reviewed by NBC Information.
Matlock mentioned the episode confirmed that the Assemblies of God can train management over native church insurance policies — when it’s essential to them.
“I’m not satisfied within the least that what they’re most involved about is congregants’ security,” he mentioned.
Amongst rank-and-file Assemblies of God congregants, reactions to the NBC Information report ranged from heartbreak to hope.
Charity True, a longtime Assemblies of God member in Illinois, mentioned “Jesus can be flipping tables” on the Assemblies of God’s nationwide workplace.
“If my native church didn’t have their act already collectively, then final Sunday would have been my final Sunday within an Assemblies of God church,” True mentioned in an electronic mail, referring to her congregation’s stringent little one security insurance policies. “I simply pray this can convey change at a nationwide degree.”
For survivors, the revelations had been deeply private, reviving painful recollections and exposing a sample of abuse, silence and cover-ups.
Cheryl Almond spent many years attending Assemblies of God church buildings in Oklahoma — even after she says her pastor, Joe Campbell, sexually abused her as a teen within the late Nineteen Seventies. After different kids got here ahead within the Nineteen Eighties to allege abuse, Campbell was allowed to maintain preaching for years earlier than the denomination lastly eliminated him in 1989, NBC Information reported in Might.
Almond mentioned she was devastated by the most recent report, which she mentioned confirmed a long-held concern: What occurred at her childhood church wasn’t remoted. “This has been allowed to occur to far too many youngsters, and for a lot too lengthy,” she mentioned.
In calling for change on the nationwide degree, Almond pointed to Jesus’ parable of the shepherd who leaves 99 sheep to rescue one which has gone astray — a lesson about valuing each life.
“The Assemblies of God isn’t doing that,” she mentioned. “They’re saying that safeguarding the 99 is extra essential than defending the one. ‘That weak little one can fend for themselves. We’ve acquired a church to guard from lawsuits.’”
“It’s incorrect,” she added. “It’s not biblical, and it’s disgusting.”
