Pastor Used Scripture Trying to Coerce Congregants Into Sexual Relationships, Prosecutors Say

Pastor Used Scripture Trying to Coerce Congregants Into Sexual Relationships, Prosecutors Say

I’m not sure if this guy is married or not, as the articles don’t seem to say. If he is, you know my take: contrary to Al Mohler and other marriage idolaters, marriage doesn’t make anyone more godly, ethical or mature, as they often claim.

Also, you don’t have to achieve holiness or perfection to merit a spouse from God, as some Christian dating advice books used to say.

Lastly, “equally yoked” is a waste of your time, Christian single ladies, and, tied in with that point, contrary to what my well-meaning Christian parents taught me, church is not a good or safe place to meet single men to date or marry, since the few that attend turn out to be perverts.

(Link): Pastor Used Scripture Trying to Coerce Congregants Into Sexual Relationships, Prosecutors Say

April 1, 2022

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor

A pastor charged with inappropriately touching multiple women tried to use Scripture to coerce female churchgoers into sexual relationships, Delaware’s Department of Justice has claimed.

Bishop Major Foster, a former pastor at Philadelphia Pentecostal Holiness Church of Ellendale, faces pending charges of unlawful sexual contact. Prosecutors are asking women to contact local law enforcement if they’ve been abused by the pastor as they now have “reason to believe that additional victims may be unidentified.”

In a statement Thursday, Delaware authorities say that reports made to law enforcement allege Foster “attempted to use scripture to coerce female parishioners into sexual relationships, made inappropriate comments, and instigated prolonged hugs during which he made inappropriate sexual contact with his victims.”

Southern Baptist Executive Committee Agrees to a Resolution with Jennifer Lyell

Southern Baptist Executive Committee Agrees to a Resolution with Jennifer Lyell By Bob Smietana (via Roys Report)

So long as SBC members continue to conflate being pro-sexual-abuse victim and anti-complementarianism with being “woke,” far left, and secular feminist, they will never eradicate, or make much of a dent into, their problems with sex abuse cover ups.

An individual can be in support of sexual abuse victims, reject complementarianism, and yet, also be opposed to progressive positions, politics, and secular feminism. (I for one, remain a conservative, though I rejected complementarianism years ago. I am not liberal, leftist, or “woke.”)

(Link): SBC leaders apologize for mishandling Jennifer Lyell’s sex abuse case

(Link): Southern Baptist Executive Committee Agrees to a Resolution with Jennifer Lyell by Bob Smietana (via Roys Report)

February 22, 2022

Southern Baptist leaders announced Tuesday that they had reached a resolution with a sexual abuse survivor whose story was mishandled when she came forward in 2019.

Jennifer Lyell, a former publishing executive for Lifeway Christian Resources, told Baptist Press in 2019 that she had experienced abuse for years at the hands of a former Southern Baptist seminary professor. She made her story public out of concerns her abuser was still in ministry outside the Southern Baptist Convention.

Instead, the abuse was characterized in a news story as a “morally inappropriate relationship.” As a result of the backlash from that news story — for which Baptist Press, the official SBC news service, later (Link): apologized —Lyell (Link): lost her reputation, her job and her health.

Ravi Updates: Ravi Zacharias Hid Hundreds of Pictures of Women, Abuse During Massages, and a Rape Allegation

Ravi Zacharias Hid Hundreds of Pictures of Women, Abuse During Massages, and a Rape Allegation

I first blogged about the perverted shenanigans of his months ago.

This goes to show (yet again!) that being married and part of a “nuclear family” does not make a person more godly, ethical, mature, or responsible, as so many marriage-promoting Christians like to argue.

The “nuclear family” also doesn’t improve society as so many Christians argue – note I am not opposed to the nuclear family, only I don’t hype it to a degree that is unwarranted as do so many other conservatives.

(Link): Evangelist Ravi Zacharias accused of rape, spiritual abuse by own church

(Link): Law firm details sexual misconduct by global ministry leader

NEW YORK (AP) — Ravi Zacharias, who died in May after a high-profile career leading a global Christian ministry, engaged in sexual misconduct with massage therapists and carried on many amorous extramarital relationships via text message and email, according to a scathing, in-depth report from a law firm hired by the ministry.

Five of the therapists said Zacharias touched them inappropriately, and one said she was raped, according to the report. It said investigators searching Zacharias’ mobile devices found more than 200 photographs of younger women, including nude images of a salon employee in Malaysia.

(Link): ‘Criminal, sociopathic, satanic’: Christian leaders react to Ravi Zacharias sex abuse report

(Link): Famed Evangelist Ravi Zacharias engaged in sexual misconduct, his ministry says

(Link): Ravi Zacharias Hid Hundreds of Pictures of Women, Abuse During Massages, and a Rape Allegation

Excerpts:

His ministry, preparing to downsize in the wake of a new investigation, expresses regret for “misplaced trust” in a leader who used his esteem to conceal his sexual misconduct.

by DANIEL SILLIMAN AND KATE SHELLNUTT|FEBRUARY 11, 2021

A four-month investigation found the late Ravi Zacharias leveraged his reputation as a world-famous Christian apologist to abuse massage therapists in the United States and abroad over more than a decade while the ministry led by his family members and loyal allies failed to hold him accountable.

He used his need for massage and frequent overseas travel to hide his abusive behavior, luring victims by building trust through spiritual conversations and offering funds straight from his ministry.

A (Link): 12-page report released Thursday by Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) confirms abuse by Zacharias at day spas he owned in Atlanta and uncovers five additional victims in the US, as well as evidence of sexual abuse in Thailand, India, and Malaysia.