Jesurgislac’s Journal

June 8, 2010

Pastor Chuck Phelps has sincere love for rapists

In 1997, a 15-year-old girl in Concord, New Hampshire, became pregnant after being raped repeatedly by Ernest Willis, an older man she knew from the Trinity Baptist Church in Concord her family and the Willis family both attended. The girl told her mother after she was made pregnant: the mother told their pastor, Chuck Phelps.

The Trinity Baptist Church website has this careful message on its front page:

In reviewing the events of October 1997, the present leadership is seeking answers for the victim, our congregation, as well as our entire Concord community. The prayers of our entire church are for justice to be served to the alleged perpetrator, and that mercy and care will be extended to the victim.

Pastor Chuck Phelps had the rape victim go up for “church discipline” because, he told her, Willis may have been 99 percent responsible, but she needed to confess her 1 percent guilt in the situation, and that she should be happy that she didn’t live in Old Testament times because she would have been stoned.

A witness from 1997 remembers “I can still see the little girl standing up there with this smile on her face trying to get through this.” The next day the witness, Fran Earle, called Mrs Phelps, who said the victim had decided not to press charges for statutory rape. Earle, who left the church in 2001, said it was “regular” to see young girls who were pregnant called to the front of the congregation to be humiliated in this way.

Statutory rape has a statute of limitations of 22 years from when the victim turns 18 in New Hampshire, so the police are now investigating Ernest Willis. Chuck Phelps, now senior pastor at another Baptist church in Indianapolis (with no message on its website for the victims of its Pastor), says that he did not “participate in a cover-up”. He simply had the rape victim kept in a “prophet’s chamber” (a guest room over the garage used to host travelling ministers) at the Phelpses’ Concord home until she could be “relocated”. “I just know that they made me stay at their house, and I wasn’t allowed to see any of my friends or talk to anybody. I had to stay there until they shipped me away.” After she moved to Colorado, a minister there asked her to write a letter to Ernest Willis’s wife, apologising to her for “abusing her trust” by having sex with her husband. Church members there monitored her phone calls and didn’t allow her to be with people her own age. When she gave birth in March 1998, Chuck Phelps urged her to put her baby girl up for adoption. After about a year she returned to Concord for about six months, living with her mother, attending Trinity Church, and seeing Ernest Willis in church regularly: he was still a church member.

Chuck Phelps’ current church is Colonial Hills Baptist Church , 8140 Union Chapel Rd, Indianapolis, IN 46240. Phone: 317-253-5597. Fax: 317-254-2847. There’s a comments form.

They say “We’re interested in your comments and questions.” They also say: “Colonial Hills Baptist Church is a family of caring Christians, a place where people feel like they are coming home. Through fervent prayer, the passionate and practical declaration of God’s Word, carefully presented and God-focused music, and a sincere love for the individual, Colonial Hills Baptist Church desires to help you and your family grow in Christ.”

Presumably, Ernest Willis and his family were “helped to grow in Christ” by Pastor Chuck Phelps. Wonder how many other rapists he’s “helping” at his new church?

Update, Sunday 10th April 2011
If you live inside the United States, you may be able to watch a 20/20 documentary on the ABC website (20/20 4/8: Victim’s Forced Confession)

Chuck Phelp’s new church, Colonial Hills Baptist, now has a message up on its website:

ABC’s 20/20 has featured a documentary having to do with independent fundamental Baptists. What occured in Concord, NH while Pastor Phelps was pastor was a part of their focus. Pastor Phelps now has a website available to provide accurate information. Please go to www.drchuckphelps.com for more information.

This 20/20 program is what ABC describe in a news release as a “yearlong investigation” into “a religious subculture many Americans have never heard of, yet has thousands of churches across the country . . . churches that critics claim can foster physical and sexual abuse.” Anchor Elizabeth Vargas said yesterday the 1997 incident at Trinity is “a big part of our hour” but other churches are also examined. (Concord Monitor) It would certainly be interesting to do a follow-up with the church in Indiana, to find out how many rapists have received the benefit of Pastor Phelps’ spiritual support there.

40 Comments »

  1. I commented there, but I doubt it will do much good. What I find horrible and what the members of that church find horrible seem to be completely different.

    Comment by wealhtheow — June 9, 2010 @ 1:58 pm | Reply

    • I left a comment there too: I’m rather hoping that if they won’t find it horrible, they’ll at least find it embarrassing.

      Comment by jesurgislac — June 9, 2010 @ 2:55 pm | Reply

  2. So, let me get this straight this white trash “Ernest Willis” a church deacon in Concord, New Hampshire, at the time, rapes this child twice (15 years old, he was 38 at the time), gets her pregnant, he admits it is his child in front of the church, and this so called church (Trinity Baptist Church), and her parents, makes her stand up in front of this church congregation, as well, admit its her fault, because they believe its somehow her fault and to top it off her parents go to this same church to seek counsel on what to do with her and they both agree that she should be sent to another Baptist couple in Colorado, have the baby there and then force the child to put the baby up for adoption. You Baptists are real make me sick, is this your family values? I hope all of you involved get what’s coming to you.

    Trinity Baptist Church
    80 Clinton Street
    Concord, NH 03301-2287
    603-225-3999, info@tbcnh.org
    http://www.tbcnh.org

    Comment by Montana — June 25, 2010 @ 5:55 pm | Reply

    • I would have contacted Chuck Willis’s current church rather than his old one, actually. Also, “you make me sick” isn’t likely to change any minds…

      Comment by jesurgislac — June 28, 2010 @ 11:34 am | Reply

  3. A couple of things. First, this article is lacking in many of the facts and just plain wrong about others. I know the family and I can tell you that what appears in the papers is only a small part of the story. If all knew the whole story, your opinion might change.

    Comment by Patrick — July 7, 2010 @ 4:44 pm | Reply

    • Patrick, which of the families involved do you know? Ernest Willis’s family, or Chuck Phelps’s family, or Fran Earle’s family, or the family in Colorado who took the rape victim in for her forced pregnancy and forced adoption, or the family of the 15-year-old girl who was raped by Ernest Willis in 1997, or the family of the 28-year-old woman who decided finally to press charges against Ernest Willis?

      At count, I think that makes six families involved? Which of them do you think I would change my mind about if I knew “more details” than the paper printed?

      Comment by jesurgislac — July 7, 2010 @ 5:23 pm | Reply

      • I know Tina’s family, I know the Willis Family, I know the Phelps family, I know Fran Earle. In fact, I spoke to Tina’s mother and father just the other day. Fran Earle (while I think her husband Jack is a wonderful person) in my opinion has always been a whiner and complainer and frankly, was never happy at Trinity unless she was the center of attention. She gossipped about others on a regular basis and was never afraid to form, and then voice her opinion about anyone.

        Comment by Patrick — July 14, 2010 @ 7:55 pm

    • Thanks for clarifying. So you knew the rapist, you knew the man who shielded the rapist, and you think saying Fran Earle is a “whiner and complainer” somehow discredits her testimony that she witnessed the rape victim being forced to apologize in church – a fact which the church itself does not dispute.

      I don’t see how you could think your personal relationship with the rapist or the man who shielded him could possibly affect my view that raping a 15-year-old girl is a crime, and that shielding the rapist from the law (and laying blame on the victim) is a scummy thing to do.

      Comment by jesurgislac — July 14, 2010 @ 9:02 pm | Reply

    • So I am a bit confused. A 15 yr old girl is raped, caused to go before the church to apologise to the wife of the rapist in front of the church and then sent away? i am trying to figure this out. So a 15 yr old girl(lets get this straight-she was a girl, a minor, as probably happens quite a bit-maybe gossips and is really opinionated? So all of a sudden she is a whiner because she reported this? I am 37 and not married, so does this mean that when a 15 yr old girl in my church is a bit of a whiner and as an immature girl gossips-I can force myself on her now? What was that supposed to be, teaching the girl to be silent in the church? I am really trying to understand this convoluted logic that sees a young girl go in front of the church to confess her 1 % wrong and when exactly was the 99% wrong ever dealt with?)

      On this, if a woman is dressed seductively in a bar maybe drinking a little too much as she gets drunk and another drunk male sleeps with her never recieving permission because she is passed out drunk. I do not know what world you come from, but this is still rape. Now, an underage child is raped by a grown man and all you can say she gossiped and a bit opinionated?

      There is no rest of the story. A young girl is raped and am still trying to figure out a justification for raping a child-self centered, whining, and a gossip. Perhaps if this country is under Sharia law-that would perhaps at least make a little bit of sense-but come on!

      For me, I think of John 10 as Christ is the shepard and the pator is also a shepard-so instead of going out to seek the lost sheep-he puts her in front of the church and apologised to the wife of the rapist for being raped by her husband and now is with child? So much for the shepard protecting the flock when he coddle’s the wolf in sheeps clothing.

      Working around young ladies in a church, sometimes in the youth group and other times in other ministries-I am sure glad that pastor was not the pastor of my church and certainly if that happened-the question is not whether to have the young lady get in front of the church and apologise for being raped-I think in most instances, do you staright up kill the man or hurry and call the police before that happens.

      If I had to counsel a man for that stuff-spirituality is a crock-preaching repentance and throwing your life and body to submit to Christ for slavation.

      I have been a Baptist about 20 yrs now. I thought Baptist preachers were to preach against sin, not encourage it.

      I just do not get it except maybe the shepard is a ravenous wolf on the inside. In Matt 7, Christ warned we would know the false by their fruits, I would have an extremely hard time judging this pastor as a brother in Christ.

      Comment by David Emme — August 13, 2010 @ 12:10 pm | Reply

      • FWIW, Patrick’s condemnation of the woman as “gossipy and whiny” is directed at Fran Earle, the witness who says she remembers seeing this girl, like other pregnant teenage girls, being made to stand up in front of the whole church and apologize. I don’t think Patrick is saying anything about the rape victim.

        Comment by jesurgislac — August 13, 2010 @ 12:49 pm

    • Well let’s hear it. Tell us the rest of the story. Tell us what could justify a married man having sex with an underage girl. If anyone should have been forced to apologize it is the grown man who broke his marital vows

      Comment by incensed — July 5, 2011 @ 9:24 pm | Reply

  4. I prayerfully offer the following verse to the scriptural-pervert pastor Chuck Phelps, his enabling wife, the horrendous rapist and the guilty congregation for not rushing the stage to protect this young girl, oust the pastor and escort the rapist right to jail: “And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck.” Mark9:42
    This verse does not chastise the child for a 1% responsibility of sin. In fact Christ BLAMES the adult for CAUSING the sin and believes the life of the adult would be more honoring to God if it were immediately ended. Is it me, or is that the opposite of making a victim of rape apologize? Every pervert who ever claimed to be holy contends that the woman “tempted” him, and in this case even a child.
    In regards to the wife, I’m sure she is “gossipy and whinny” she is a woman married to a man who finds sexual satisfaction in children – her life is sick and twisted. In her gut, in her female mind, she knows. But for whatever reason she stays and searches for distraction. By staying she is a co-perpetrator and culpable with her husband for his sinister perversion of holy scripture.
    Now you, Reverend Perv, are welcome to disagree with the words of Christ and insist that your all-knowing God misunderstood his own creation and does not understand sin. By claiming spiritual authority while disagreeing with the words of Christ you admit what you truly are, the antithesis of what is holy and good – you are evil.
    Speaking of evil…it comes to my attention, Reverend-Rapist-Lover, that your own grown daughter and at least one child in recent years has accused you of sexual abuse. So here is the last piece of the puzzle – you justify in the rapist what you justify in yourself – you drink the same poison and call it good. You are a sick perpetrator of the worst kind of suffering.
    It further occurs to me that many individuals who victimize children were once victims of childhood sexual abuse. The abuse you likely suffered twisted your sense of sexuality. But, sirs, you are regardless 100% guilty of what you inflict on others – no matter what you have experienced.
    Mark 9:42 doesn’t add “unless they had a bad childhood, in which case just some church classes.”
    So boys, millstone it is. I feel sorry for the rock that has to bear the putrid sickness of being so close to your rotten necks.

    Comment by csusanna — February 10, 2011 @ 6:53 am | Reply

  5. in case aby reads this thread

    20/20 abc newsmagazine is doing a story on the pastor phelps this friday april 8, 9 central time

    Comment by robert — April 7, 2011 @ 3:54 am | Reply

    • I agree with Robert,watch this program so it will take the veil off your eyes.

      Comment by Jose O Desoto — April 10, 2011 @ 6:44 am | Reply

  6. Disgusting pig. Should be castrated. He will get his. Religious fanatics of the worst kind. Physcially abusing their young children and disrespecting the female race. This is not a religion. This is a group of weak, brainwashed group of people. I feel sorry for you all.

    Comment by Diane — April 9, 2011 @ 2:23 am | Reply

  7. I cannot bring mayself to call Mr. Phelps a pastor!!!! He should read the Devine revelations of Hell to see the possiblities of where the disciples of Hell will go!!!! He has a room already for him if it is God’s will!!!!! I recommend everyone to read this book “THE DEVINE REVELATIONS OF HELL” LOOK IT UP!!!!!!

    Comment by ? — April 9, 2011 @ 2:28 am | Reply

  8. Chuck Phelps is the spawn of Satin. For him to treat a fifteen year old girl the way he did, and to condone a grown man to have sex with her is totally inappropriate. He himself should be put in jail for basically allowing this to happen. If that was my daughter I would give my own form of discipline to them. The mother is just as guilty as the man who raped her and the pastor who doesn’t hold him accountable. May they all suffer for the rest of their lives with the fact that they are demons. May God not have mercy on their souls.

    Comment by Gerald — April 9, 2011 @ 2:34 am | Reply

  9. listen i am a child a god but this man has caused me to want to catch a case how dare he let that young girl get raped and then send her away so that she wont talk to the police he is not a man of god and he should be happy he don’t stay in the old times or he would be stoned i hope he rot in HELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Comment by keisha wells — April 9, 2011 @ 2:39 am | Reply

  10. parents never trust anyone without checking up on your children. the bible says if an angel or any other
    person preach a different gospel than the one we preach to you then let him be eternally condemned.
    never totally put your faith in any one person except Christ. By faith are ye saved and not through
    works lest any man should boast. He called anyone who preaches anything else a pervert. That they
    are perverts of Gods grace. So a child doesn’t earn salvation by being a victim and behaving
    according to some perversion of the Gospel. Children need to air out their uncertainties
    and feeling when they are teens not be coerced into suppressing them. And as far as
    forgiveness , should i forgive Satan for all he has done. If not then people who
    are preaching these false Gospels better consider who they are listening too.

    Comment by glen cook — April 9, 2011 @ 3:02 am | Reply

  11. Pretty much the reason I quit attending church. I find most of them to be just a variation of this one, although this fanatical church is a bit more extreme. They love to tell other folks how to lead their lives, but always manage to exempt themselves from having any flaws. People who follow these fanatics with such blind faith are the same kind of folks who would follow Hitler or any other power abuser. Just a herd of sheep looking for someone to follow. If they were told to jump off a cliff, they would do it without hestiation, simply because they were told to do so.

    Comment by John — April 9, 2011 @ 5:50 am | Reply

  12. CHUCK PHELPS YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF AND WHAT YOU ARE TEACHING TO INNOCENT
    PEOPLE. YOU WILL HAVE TO ANSWER TO GOD.

    Comment by CATHY — April 9, 2011 @ 3:53 pm | Reply

    • I so agree with your comment all i can say is i hope that the people he is pastoring now have there eyes opened WIDE to what he is!!!!

      Comment by dianne thompson — May 1, 2011 @ 4:17 am | Reply

  13. I just want to say that if I ever and I mean EVER come across anybody whom condones Mr. Phelps or anybody who has the thought ” we ” are better than you because that is what the bible says I will not to threaten you go after you with all of my verbal and if needed physical abuse

    Comment by Dutch — April 9, 2011 @ 5:43 pm | Reply

  14. Please try to see the story on 20/20 on april 7,2011, if you miss it you can go to the ABC website and watch it so you can find out what a bunch of pedophiles these pigs from the IFB are, you will see how they victimized Tina Anderson, how Pastor(?)Charles Phelps covered up the actions of this pig Ernie Willis,watch how Tina was abused by her Step Father Daniel Leaf, a convicted pedophile and her brothers,watch how Tina was later abused by Youth minister Edward Green like if she had already had not enough,(talk about puting the wolf encharged of the chicken),and the most disturbing fact is that Pastor Phelps is still Pastor in some other church,why is he not in the same Church?,do they shuffle all of these bastards from church to church just like the catholics pedophiles priests do?. Members of the IFB,if you do nothing to repudiate Pastor Phelps, then I have to come to one conclution:that you all are the same, if you want redemption from society,then you all cry out for the defrocking of this pedophile lover “Pastor Charles Phelps”,if you don’t take action against this pig then I will have to say that you are all feeble minded or you are all in the same train.
    durango50

    Comment by Jose O Desoto — April 10, 2011 @ 6:40 am | Reply

  15. I wonder how many other cases were covered up by Mr Chuck Phelps? I don’t know how his wife could support him at all? Especially when you yourself are a woman, you know rape is just right out wrong!!! Even if a fifteen year old girl is walking down a street naked she does not deserve to be raped. Mr. Chuck Phelps you and your family are all a bunch of brain washed sick people. I hope you all rot in hell!!!!

    Comment by Mary Ellen — April 11, 2011 @ 12:22 am | Reply

  16. Any man who has sex with a 15 year old is guilty of statuatory rape. It does not matter whether or not it is consenual or not. I was raped while my husband was attending a Baptist Bible College and never told him because he had told me that if I was raped I would be beaten because I “had asked for it” so on top of being raped I would be beaten by my husband! This is the type of stuff these churches teach. I have been in a church where church discipline was handed out. These people need to be stopped.

    Comment by Linda DeHaan — April 11, 2011 @ 6:30 pm | Reply

    • First of all i am deeply sorry for your suffering. Satan rules this world and people serve him
      with their actions. It says in the bible ” sin is a demon knocking at your door and you must
      be its master”. People are blind and don’t know the truth but if you do then you are free.
      Any one who would blame you for this needs help. You should do all you can to get away from these
      people and find peace in your mind. No one deserves that. Even when King David cut off Goliaths
      head he simply said so be it Lord. Execution was swift and without malice but only for the
      contempt the Philistines showed God. Seems to me he ought to go find the person who raped you and
      kick his ass. It’s possible for anyone to be forgiven for what they have done here on earth but i
      wouldn’t want to be in their shoes on judgment day without having have come to sincere repentance
      for what ever actions hurt someone such as yourself or anyone else. I hope you find peace and
      grace with God to move on. Some scars last a long time. I wrote this on another blog and i thought
      i would include it for you : people were antagonizing me for my faith and i almost responded in
      the flesh but left them with this :

      they made JESUS carry his own cross
      they spit on him and jeered at him.
      they called him king of the JEWS.
      they beat him with out mercy.
      they ripped the flesh off his bones.
      they hung him on a cross half naked to die.
      they thrust a spear in his side.
      they gave him a crown of thorns.
      they said save yourself if you are the son of god.
      they gave him water with vinegar to drink.

      he still looked at them who crucified him
      and said i died for you also.

      they left him to die with 2 thieves by his side.

      one chose eternal life , the other didn’t.

      Comment by glen cook — April 13, 2011 @ 6:09 pm | Reply

      • What the hell does this have to do with a Minister who publicly victimizes a rape victim and then tries to excuse his actions years later when he is called to answer for his actions? Satan didn’t rape this child a man did. And Satan didn’t then publicly humiliate this child. A so called man of God did.

        Comment by Rich Altman — September 7, 2011 @ 7:17 am

  17. here is my youtube video on ‘pastor’ Chuch Phelps who should be charged with
    covering up the rape of a child along with his Colorado associate

    Comment by baptistdeception — April 14, 2011 @ 8:31 pm | Reply

  18. This man is a sick pervert. It makes you wonder what he has done to his wife, children, or other young women in his life. He is going to have to answer for this. Alot of men think they can get away with this. We as women have to stand together and put a stop to this. He will see how he likes getting raped in jail.

    Comment by sharon — April 16, 2011 @ 5:48 am | Reply

  19. Fundamentalists (Christian, Muslim etc.) have much in common : rigid gender roles/stereotypes; obsession with human genitalia and bare buttocks; enthusiasm for whipping and humiliating; insistence on Master/slave relationships as divinely ordained. In short, these Patriarchs enable rape, violence, female subjugation. Their victims MUST have the guts to press criminal and civil charges.

    henry_westin@hotmail.com

    Comment by Henry Westin — April 19, 2011 @ 12:39 am | Reply

  20. Similar horror stories have come out of the Catholic Church for years. I actually met a priest in Salisbury, MD who was later identified as a molester. Transported boys over the state line, sodomized them, then said Mass.

    Father even attacked a 13-year old girl at a youth picnic. Got her alone, ripped her bathing suit, choked her (“This is power, Bitch”), and tried to rape her. A fellow priest rescued the victim but never reported his buddy. The shaken girl told her mother. Instead of protecing her daughter, the devout Catholic mother slapped the girl. “Don’t lie. No Priest would ever do such a thing.”

    So…. what is it about patriarchal religions that promotes this injustice? When will we DECENT people wake up, pursue these monsters to the ends of the earth, and punish them? After all, if these “men” can punish the innocent, DECENT people can surely punish the guilty.

    henry_westin@hotmail.com

    Comment by Henry Westin — April 19, 2011 @ 1:38 pm | Reply

  21. if this Phelps fellow never publically repents… then he should never be put in a shepherding position…. PERIOD!!!

    Comment by scott — April 21, 2011 @ 12:42 pm | Reply

  22. i am beside myself and hope tina be ok and wish her well and her family

    Comment by natasha — May 4, 2011 @ 1:56 pm | Reply

  23. Here’s what I don’t get: Trinity is supposed to be an Independent Fundamental Baptist church, and Chuck Phelps is supposed to be an IFB pastor. If you believe the IFB press releases, they are supposed to be the most pure form of Christianity, and they’re supposed to be the best Christians ever because they alone are properly teaching the word of God. I grew up in this and know the mentality well.

    So… when the police found Tina and she admitted to everything that happened, everyone who still supported Phelps/Trinity/the IFB has has nasty things to say about her. They never, however, say Willis wasn’t the sperm donor (I refuse to call that pervert a father) of her child. They admit he did what he did, even if they won’t acknowledge the rape part of it. IOW, it’s apparently OK for an older married man to go push himself sexually on minors, but not OK for the violated minor to ever come forward and actually press legal charges against him. Wow, that’s really perverted. What was it Paul said to the Corinthians? “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans…”

    Comment by LMcC — May 6, 2011 @ 3:32 pm | Reply

  24. I know Pr. Phelps personally. He has his flaws, but being a pervert is not one of them. Read his (verified) statements on his website (http://www.drchuckphelps.com/after-the-trial.html), and then read the girl’s (which contradict previous statements she has made) (http://www.tinaandersonfoundation.org/). If you have an open mind, then don’t use it to condemn IFB – the I stands for Independent, and that means that these churches are not even associated with each other! There is not a “network of IFB’s”… they don’t network! Sometimes some pastors from some of these churches might meet, but that is coincedental. They are independent of each other!

    Comment by Wraith Daquell — November 15, 2011 @ 9:35 pm | Reply

    • One of the most horrible things about any rape case is the people like Chuck Phelps who’ll defend and protect the rapist – and the people like you who’ll defend Chuck Phelps.

      Comment by jesurgislac — November 15, 2011 @ 11:15 pm | Reply

  25. RE: ‘Fundamentalists (Christian, Muslim etc.) have much in common : rigid gender roles/stereotypes; obsession with human genitalia and bare buttocks; enthusiasm for whipping and humiliating; insistence on Master/slave relationships as divinely ordained. In short, these Patriarchs enable rape, violence, female subjugation.’

    It’s not right to color a vast and varied group of people by the actions of a minority. The term fundamentalist only means that a person goes by the original basics of his/her beliefs. It has nothing to do with the extra ‘religious’ stuff that is added in by those trying to manipulate people. To equate fundamental baptists with beatings and other vulgarities is shameful. If I made a blanket statement like this against ‘liberals’, I would be considered a hatemonger, yet, you have no problem with accusing me and my church of these things when you don’t know anything about us. I am a Baptist, yet I have no tolerance for the abuse of women or their forced subservience. It is not what Jesus taught. I am a fundamentalist, but I do not belong to a church where you are told what to do, how to dress, what music to listen to – and it is appalling to my family, to our pastor, and to others in our church that things like this can occur. Our beliefs do not include hate because a person doesn’t believe like we do. There are many Baptist churches like ours – you don’t hear about them because they don’t make the news. We are quietly living our lives and trying to help those around us. I’m not interested in judging you – I have my hands full answering to my Lord for my own actions.

    If what is stated here happened in this church, it should be prosecuted and this man shouldn’t be pastoring. But this is not a result of being a Baptist. It is a result of weak, ungodly people allowing sinful, ungodly men into positions of power and trust and it happens in every walk of life. It is sickening. We must guard against it. But don’t blame me or my beliefs for the weaknesses and evil in other people.

    Comment by SRees — December 13, 2011 @ 5:08 am | Reply

  26. I know the Pastor personally and I know he did not do anyhting wrong. He called the police and they never did anything about it. He gave her and her family a place to stay, and constantly visited, making sure she was okay. She made up a website calling our faith an occult, and tried to get money from people. You and all the other creeps out there are writing about something which you know nothing about

    Comment by Abe — March 14, 2012 @ 3:46 pm | Reply

  27. Abe, if these church people are as honest as you claim, why did they bully the victim of rape? Why didn’t they talk to the media? If you are a Christian (which I am thankfully NOT), why do you call people “creeps” ?

    The term Independent Baptist sets off red warning flags. These people include assorted bullies like Westboro Baptist bunch, and “preacher” James Lyman who beats his kids, won’t work, slurps up handouts, and constantly preaches by yelling abuse and initiating street fights. Nice productive citizens, these xtian Taliban.

    henry_westin@hotmail.com

    Comment by Henry Westin — March 31, 2012 @ 1:18 am | Reply


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