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Fundy Walk of Shame: Scandals and Crimes


Bethella

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1 minute ago, Bethella said:

It's fine, I just figured you'd get more responses posting in the main thread. This Fundy Walk of Shame thread doesn't get a lot of activity.

I'm going to look over there to hopefully fill in the gaps of what I know about  this Andy Savage situation. So thank you!

It not only hit a personal chord when I read that woman's call out of Savage and what he did but even when I read things such as that, my first thought these days is "FJ!" haha. Y'all hold these people accountable in so many ways and I'm thankful to be a tiny part of a community who does something so important.

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  • 2 weeks later...

From HuffPo: 

Women Accuse Evangelical Pastor Of Abuse Years After Being Told To Keep Silent    The accused pastor is now a top candidate to be the senior leader of a Southern Baptist church.

It's the usual Youth Pastor scenario; two different 18-year-old young women approached him for counseling after difficult breakups with boyfriends so he thought, why not hit on both?  He had sex with one and didn't get quite that far with the second.  The women are speaking up now that Wes Felter is applying for a job as lead minister of a large congregation. 

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Megan Frey and Jo Anna Hendrickson claim that back then, the church’s leader tried to sweep the reports under the rug. The 18-year-olds were allegedly blamed for getting “duped,” their families were pressured to keep quiet, and the accused pastor, Wes Feltner, went on to establish a solid career in ministry.

and this, of course there's this: 

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“They accuse me of ‘pastoral abuse’ based on events that occurred 17 years ago when I was a single young man working as youth leader in a church in Indiana. They have widely circulated statements of two women whom I dated with the permission of their parents when they were 18 years old,” Feltner told HuffPost.

He said he and his family have been facing a “withering barrage of online attacks and personal threats,” and that he would respond to the women’s allegations after his current church wraps up an investigation into the matter.

“I agree with some of the facts alleged in the statements and deeply regret the hurt I may have caused them. But some of the allegations are not accurate,” he said.

 

 

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Not sure if the Common Room family have their own page, I did look but couldn't find one.  I believe the Head Master has been committing adultery according to a brief update on his Facebook page.  He changed his description to Cheating Husband and then an update from his wife to his FB page to say that his FB account would be closing and anybody trying to message HM should message her instead.  Then his FB was locked down.  They were my gateway fundies back in the day when all the kids lived at home and they homeschooled in a tiny house.  I read their blog until the FLDS thing hit the news and the DHM blogged about that exclusively for what seemed like ages!  I've been checking in sporadically, the kids have mostly married / moved out and the older two girls are definitely QF.  HM and DHM have been doing missionary work abroad and are meant to be off to Malaysia just before Christmas.  

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Thank you, @Kjaugust05 - it's been a long time since I've read anything from or of the Deputy Head Mistress. She was a loyal leghumper  of VF and its affiliates, like Carmon Friedrich (now Flanagan). 

Did this all happen recently? Went to her blog, which was updated fairly regularly through last month, at which time it still sounded like she and the "Head Master" were heading to Malaysia. 

 

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I noticed his Facebook admission about a week ago, then it disappeared and everything was locked down so I’m assuming it’s happened in the last two weeks. 

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11 hours ago, Kjaugust05 said:

Not sure if the Common Room family have their own page, I did look but couldn't find one.  I believe the Head Master has been committing adultery according to a brief update on his Facebook page.  He changed his description to Cheating Husband and then an update from his wife to his FB page to say that his FB account would be closing and anybody trying to message HM should message her instead.  Then his FB was locked down.  They were my gateway fundies back in the day when all the kids lived at home and they homeschooled in a tiny house.  I read their blog until the FLDS thing hit the news and the DHM blogged about that exclusively for what seemed like ages!  I've been checking in sporadically, the kids have mostly married / moved out and the older two girls are definitely QF.  HM and DHM have been doing missionary work abroad and are meant to be off to Malaysia just before Christmas.  

Who are these people and why do we care that he had an affair? 

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8 hours ago, Bethella said:

Who are these people and why do we care that he had an affair? 

They are old school fundies, loyal VF followers and generally quite unpleasant people.  The mum, Deputy Head Mistress kept a blog called the Common Room.  They homeschooled, using the Charlotte Mason curriculum, their six children in a tiny 2 bedroom house before building and moving into a larger house on the DHM family land.  Very proud of the fact that they had been / were poor and also that they'd adopted a special needs child.  Very scathing of anybody that needed to use the welfare system and quite patronising of a single mother who's children they looked after.  Quite boastful that their eldest girls never dated, only courted, and are still QF.  The younger children (also now grown up) appear to be more worldly.  They are very much out of the fundie royalty now but I still follow them from time to time as they were my gateway fundies.  

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  • 2 weeks later...

If anyone is surprised by this it sure as hell isn't me.

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An anti-gay Anglican minister in Florida resigned last year after admitting to sexual harassment and “undesired physical displays of affection.” Now an investigative report found that many of his victims were young men and aspiring priests he had power over.

Dudley was a pastor at a different Episcopal church for ten years. In 2005, he left that church to found his own, citing the Episcopalians’ increasingly pro-LGBTQ stances, and his new church – St. Peter’s – was associated with the Anglican Church of Uganda.

Dudley resigned last year and was given one year’s severance pay. A letter from a bishop at the time said that he was stepping down due to “inappropriate treatment of others, abuse of alcohol, and anger issues,” but it did not say that the victims were men.

This detail is significant because Dudley’s homophobia ran deep. He left the Episcopal Church in 2005 to start another church because Gene Robinson, a gay man, became bishop in New Hampshire. Afterwards, Dudley continued to speak against LGBTQ rights.

 

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Bowen pleaded guilty

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An Alabama evangelist pleaded guilty this morning in an Etowah County courtroom to 28 counts of sexual abuse involving six victims.

Paul Acton Bowen, charged in both Jefferson County and Etowah counties, was facing criminal charges, including enticing a child for sexual act, sodomy, traveling to meet a child for sexual act and sexual abuse involving at least six different victims between the ages of 13 and 16.

Bowen entered a blind plea, meaning he could face the maximum for each offense, including up to life in prison. Circuit Judge Debra Jones will set a hearing for sentencing later, where Bowen’s lawyers could present mitigating evidence toward any sentencing. Bowen has been charged with several classifications of felonies, with lesser counts carrying sentences of up to a year and up to 20 years

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 12/2/2019 at 10:12 AM, 47of74 said:

Bowen was sentenced on December 20  to 1008 years, the combined maximum for his 28 guilty pleas. He may face another trial involving additional victims as well, though that does seem maybe redundant at this point. He said in his defense that he had been molested himself at age 12, by a coach, and that his crimes were the result of PTSD from that experience.

Bowen accessed the boys he raped through his work as a youth pastor. He also used to bill himself, among many other things, as Justin Bieber's spiritual adviser. And there's this:

image.png.1e2b6dc7403bd3ecec0dfc2f44e8a4fc.png

https://www.al.com/news/anniston-gadsden/2019/12/alabama-evangelist-acton-bowen-sentenced-in-abuse-cases.html

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  • 4 weeks later...

disturbing story out of Pennsylvania. 

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A Luzerne County woman drove into the path of an oncoming vehicle as a way to test her faith, then exhibited no concern about the people who were injured in the crash, state police said. Bail was revoked this week for Nadejda Reilly, 31, of Drums, who is charged with aggravated assault and other offenses over allegations she purposely caused the wreck on Route 93 near Weatherly on Jan. 7.

An investigator said Reilly told him she had been driving around for a few hours, waiting for a calling from God, when she decided to drive through the oncoming vehicle.

“Reilly related God took care of her by not having her injured,” wrote Trooper Bruce Balliet in an arrest affidavit. “Reilly expressed no concerns or remorse for the victims. Reilly also stated she did not care if the other people were injured because God would have taken care of them.”

Two people in the other vehicle were taken to a hospital for treatment of injuries, Balliet wrote.

I hope she gets locked up for a long time.  No concern at all for others.  How long til the orange butt plug pardons and offers her a job? 

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Ugh

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The New Orleans Saints are going to court to keep the public from seeing hundreds of emails that allegedly show team executives doing public relations damage control for the area’s Roman Catholic archdiocese to help it contain the fallout from a burgeoning sexual abuse crisis.

Attorneys for about two dozen men suing the church say in court filings that the 276 documents they obtained through discovery show that the NFL team, whose owner is devoutly Catholic, aided the Archdiocese of New Orleans in its “pattern and practice of concealing its crimes.”

“Obviously, the Saints should not be in the business of assisting the Archdiocese, and the Saints’ public relations team is not in the business of managing the public relations of criminals engaged in pedophilia,” the attorneys wrote in a court filing. “The Saints realize that if the documents at issue are made public, this professional sports organization also will be smearing itself.”

The Saints organization and its attorneys emphatically disputed any suggestion that the team helped the church cover up crimes. In a statement Friday, the Saints said the archdiocese sought its advice on how to handle media attention that would come from its 2018 release of its list of more than 50 clergy members “credibly accused” of sexual abuse.

I hope the Saints get taken to the woodshed if this is proven true both by the courts and the NFL. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Has anyone heard anything about Hannah and Campbell Sproul?  He's disappeared from instagram, she's changed her handle back to her maiden name, and none of the Sproul sisters follow her anymore (nor does she follow any Sprouls now).  She's also been tagging another guy in a bunch of pictures.  Her account is private, otherwise I'd link to it.  

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 2/4/2020 at 11:10 AM, punkiepie said:

Has anyone heard anything about Hannah and Campbell Sproul? 

The last thing I found (2016) here on fj, Hannah and Campbell had moved to Reno, NV and were doing a lot of weightlifting. 

His LinkedIn (R. Campbell Sproul) shows that he's a "Branch Sales Manager at LaborWorks, Inc." with  "a history of success in sales, operations, profit & loss management, and service"   which sounds very much like a regular job-type job. 

He lists an MA from Southern Evangelical Seminary in North Carolina in 2018 and sounds like he still travels the Jesus path. 

Is Hannah even 30 yrs old yet?

I think she is Hannah Sproul (Hannah Hawks) on fb, but there are a surprising number of Hannah Hawks. 

Edited by Howl
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  • 1 month later...

Joy Ryder has filed a lawsuit against Dave Hyles (FBCHammond & HAC) for over 50 instances of sexual abuse or rape in the late 70s. 

https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/ct-ptb-hyles-lawsuit-st-0329-20200327-qhcr4b7utbbatna2io7e2j7j5q-story.html?fbclid=IwAR3u-nyUQPju5mYkQktT1LRnS9uUwUPsUnx03DORHKuym_fbleQJ4aQzENQ

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Ryder said she is not asking for money in the lawsuit, but if there is a judgment in her favor it will go toward her non-profit.

By filing the lawsuit, Ryder said she is showing survivors of sexual assault that she’s done “absolutely everything that I can do to seek justice," and hopefully inspire them to speak up.

“If I can give somebody hope, that’s what I want to do,” Ryder said.

 

Hephzibah House has closed after 49 years of operation. Stated reason is inability to have liability insurance. (I hope this image posts correctly).

91109018_10220052762456830_6256124405022195712_n.jpg.d3e2560ea7885e6a51268fb439db003a.jpg

Edited by apple1
ETA- These are 2 unrelated events. I wish the auto merge hadn't put them together in one post.
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  • 1 month later...

Another youth pastor... At the time of his first arrest he was a daycare teacher for Pioneer Drive Baptist Church in Abilene, Texas

https://www.foxnews.com/us/wanted-fugitive-captured-mexico-returned-texas

 

https://www.reporternews.com/story/news/crime/2020/04/15/u-s-marshals-add-former-abilene-youth-minister-jeffrey-jeff-winston-forrest-forest-most-wanted-list/5136243002/

In 2015, charges were filed against Forrest when four victims came forward and accused him of sexual assault. The victims stated Forrest repeatedly assaulted them from the ages of 8 to 15, the release said.

Investigators believe he used his position as a youth minister at several different churches to gain access and groom his victims, the release said.

 

And it turns out, per Wartburg Watch, that this wasn't the church's first experience with trusting the wrong guys:

http://thewartburgwatch.com/2019/11/01/pioneer-drive-sbc-baptist-church-abilene-under-fire-for-response-to-jeff-berrys-arrest-john-piper-doesnt-get-real-life-sovereign-grace-churches-leaving-the-fold-and-acting-weird-when-called/

Edited by older than allosaurs
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On 3/28/2020 at 8:28 AM, apple1 said:

Joy Ryder has filed a lawsuit against Dave Hyles (FBCHammond & HAC) for over 50 instances of sexual abuse or rape in the late 70s. 

David Hyles and his wife are going to visit their kids. But they have dogs and donkeys and goats (oh, my!), at Hyles' hideaway for fallen preachers, https://fig.care/. Who is going to goat-sit? Gary and Becky Hawkins, that's who.

Haymayun!

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I did a search for Matt Baker and couldn't find anything. Baker is a Baylor graduate and former Baptist pastor who has been charged with his wife's murder (Kari Baker). It's a fascinating story, partially because he came so very close to never being suspected - the police took the typed suicide note at face value, and the justice of the peace (who apparently serves as coroner) didn't even go to the scene as required by law! He declared her dead and put the cause of death as overdose of sleeping pills without seeing her.

The initial evidence pointing to murder was not found by the police, but by Kari's parents and friends, who conducted their own investigation. 

You will be vastly surprised to learn that Baker, now in his 30s, has a long string of sexual accusations against him that go back as far as his college days. They were quickly and quietly dismissed by Baylor and different churches - it was said that this victim made it up to get attention, that victim misinterpreted a friendly hug, at least two victims had a history of making false claims, and so on. It was just Baker's bad luck to run into all these crazy females. Because each situation was kept hush-hush, the next situation was treated as though Baker had never been accused before. 

This is long but worth a read to see how he got away with things again and again, until he figured he could get away with murder. It's fascinating to see what people will justify and explain away so that they don't have to admit someone they've admired is, in fact, not a good Christian or a Godly person. https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/the-valley-of-the-shadow-of-death/

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Another classy guy. His sins seem to be mainly financial -- instead of killing people himself he used a deadly tragedy to grift money. Now he's sad because we just don't understand how hard it is to step away from your life's work for Jesus. Jesus wept, to coin a phrase.

https://www.heraldnet.com/news/appalled-judge-sentences-pastor-for-theft-from-oso-victims/

On 5/24/2020 at 9:17 AM, katilac said:

I did a search for Matt Baker and couldn't find anything. Baker is a Baylor graduate and former Baptist pastor who has been charged with his wife's murder (Kari Baker). It's a fascinating story, partially because he came so very close to never being suspected - the police took the typed suicide note at face value, and the justice of the peace (who apparently serves as coroner) didn't even go to the scene as required by law! He declared her dead and put the cause of death as overdose of sleeping pills without seeing her.

The initial evidence pointing to murder was not found by the police, but by Kari's parents and friends, who conducted their own investigation. 

You will be vastly surprised to learn that Baker, now in his 30s, has a long string of sexual accusations against him that go back as far as his college days. They were quickly and quietly dismissed by Baylor and different churches - it was said that this victim made it up to get attention, that victim misinterpreted a friendly hug, at least two victims had a history of making false claims, and so on. It was just Baker's bad luck to run into all these crazy females. Because each situation was kept hush-hush, the next situation was treated as though Baker had never been accused before. 

This is long but worth a read to see how he got away with things again and again, until he figured he could get away with murder. It's fascinating to see what people will justify and explain away so that they don't have to admit someone they've admired is, in fact, not a good Christian or a Godly person. https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/the-valley-of-the-shadow-of-death/

I went way down that rabbit hole. He was eventually convicted, helped along by bombshell testimony from his mistress, who it turned out knew about the murder all along. Then his parents fought for custody of the kids, on the grounds that he was actually innocent and their mom's parents said mean things about him. Then people turned up to allege that his dad had molested some of his many foster children.

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18 minutes ago, older than allosaurs said:

I went way down that rabbit hole. He was eventually convicted, helped along by bombshell testimony from his mistress, who it turned out knew about the murder all along. Then his parents fought for custody of the kids, on the grounds that he was actually innocent and their mom's parents said mean things about him. Then people turned up to allege that his dad had molested some of his many foster children.

Holy Toledo! I'd only read the initial Texas Monthly story linked above.

Send ferrets! :ferret::ferret::ferret: And wine and chocolate! ?:tw_chocolate:

Edited by hoipolloi
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5 hours ago, older than allosaurs said:

 I went way down that rabbit hole. He was eventually convicted, 

Thank you, I could not for the life of me find a result for that trial!

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5 hours ago, older than allosaurs said:

Another classy guy. His sins seem to be mainly financial -- instead of killing people himself he used a deadly tragedy to grift money. Now he's sad because we just don't understand how hard it is to step away from your life's work for Jesus. Jesus wept, to coin a phrase.

https://www.heraldnet.com/news/appalled-judge-sentences-pastor-for-theft-from-oso-victims/

I went way down that rabbit hole. He was eventually convicted, helped along by bombshell testimony from his mistress, who it turned out knew about the murder all along. Then his parents fought for custody of the kids, on the grounds that he was actually innocent and their mom's parents said mean things about him. Then people turned up to allege that his dad had molested some of his many foster children.

I just looked up the oldest daughter and from the few things I found, it looks like she has loved being raised by her mother’s parents although her grandpa died in 2014. But she still has grandma and her aunts. I’m glad they got custody because anyone who would raise a piece of shit like Matt Baker shouldn’t be raising his kids. I was so not surprised to see that Matt Baker’s father was also a sexual predator. 

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  • 1 month later...
On 11/18/2019 at 3:27 AM, Kjaugust05 said:

Not sure if the Common Room family have their own page, I did look but couldn't find one.  I believe the Head Master has been committing adultery according to a brief update on his Facebook page.  He changed his description to Cheating Husband and then an update from his wife to his FB page to say that his FB account would be closing and anybody trying to message HM should message her instead.  Then his FB was locked down.  They were my gateway fundies back in the day when all the kids lived at home and they homeschooled in a tiny house.  I read their blog until the FLDS thing hit the news and the DHM blogged about that exclusively for what seemed like ages!  I've been checking in sporadically, the kids have mostly married / moved out and the older two girls are definitely QF.  HM and DHM have been doing missionary work abroad and are meant to be off to Malaysia just before Christmas.  

I am positively gobsmacked by this news! (She was my gateway to Charlotte Mason’s method, which is now so important in my life.)

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  • 2 months later...
2 hours ago, Howl said:

From Christianity Today

Ravi Zacharias’s Ministry Investigates Claims of Sexual Misconduct at Spas

Providing a link:

Quote

 

https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2020/september/ravi-zacharias-sexual-harassment-rzim-spa-massage-investiga.html

The three women knew Zacharias as the owner and a client as well as a Christian leader and famous author. Some of his books were sold in the store, and the employees read them so they could talk about them when he came in.

Zacharias was kind and took interest in their lives, according to the people who worked there. But over time, in the small private treatment rooms, Zacharias would make unwanted sexual advances, the three women each said independently. At first, they tried to ignore it, too embarrassed to call out a famous Christian minister. By their accounts, his inappropriate behavior only escalated.

“He would expose himself every time, and he would touch himself every time,” one of the women told CT. “It was where he went to get what he wanted sexually.”

Zacharias masturbated in front of one of the women more than 50 times, according to her recollection. He told her he was burdened by the demands of the ministry, and he needed this “therapy.” He also asked her to have sex with him twice, she said, and requested explicit photos of her.

 

 

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