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Thursday, March 20, 2008

Youth Pastor Watch

posted by on March 20 at 10:00 AM

Oklahoma:

After more than two years of hiding from police, former Apache Junction teacher and youth pastor Bobby Kennedy was arrested by U.S. Marshals Tuesday in Oklahoma. Kennedy, 29, was a teacher at Morningstar Academy, a small charter school, in early 2005, when he was accused of molesting several teenage students….

According to police and court records, Bobby Kennedy was accused of inappropriately touching one 15-year-old student…. Several months later, two other girls told police similar stories. One of them, a 14-year-old girl, accused him of telling her and another student that he would fail them if they didn’t take pictures of themselves naked in the school bathroom with his cell phone….

Kennedy denied molesting the girls, claiming they had initiated contact with him.

Florida:

A church youth minister, charged in the strangling of a 13-year-old boy, asked a judge Wednesday to throw out some of the evidence against him. A set of nail clippers with the victim’s DNA evidence were seized illegally from Joshua Rosa, his defense attorney, Brian Gonzalez, argued….

On Dec. 8, 2005, [Stephen] Tomlinson was found dead in the woods of Logan Gate Park. A month later, deputies arrested Rosa, saying genetic testing had linked him to Tomlinson. DNA was found on the nail clippers and on a bloody pair of gloves Rosa was seen wearing.

RSS icon Comments

1

Dan, if you don't have three evil youth pastor stories, you don't need to use a non-evil youth pastor story as filler. Two evil youth pastor stories is fine.

Just because someone is a wrestler AND a youth pastor, it doesn't make them evil. An asshole? Probably. But not evil.

Posted by Catalina Vel-DuRay | March 20, 2008 10:02 AM
2

some high school kid wrestles and is a youth minister. so?

Posted by jon c | March 20, 2008 10:03 AM
3

I'm just trying to show that not all youth pastors are evil. I'm trying to be fair here people. And balanced. After all it's called "Youth Pastor Watch," not "Evil Youth Pastor Watch."

And come on, Catalina, wouldn't you wanna watch youth pastors wrestle?

Posted by Dan Savage | March 20, 2008 10:14 AM
4

Newsflash! Area youth pastor has a goatee, plays a guitar and wears a sweater vest! Details at 11.

Posted by gillsans | March 20, 2008 10:43 AM
5

is there a better way to legally feel young boys than wrestling them?

Posted by infrequent | March 20, 2008 10:47 AM
6

I'd watch youth pastors wrestle. Singlets are hot.

Posted by Chris | March 20, 2008 10:53 AM
7

okay, my last post was unfair and inappropriate. i'm sorry.

Posted by infrequent | March 20, 2008 10:56 AM
8

I don't know whether to believe you or not Dan (re: comment #3) but putting this wrestling kid who has done nothing wrong in your "Youth Pastor Watch" - a recurring feature that *always* highlights creepy, criminal youth pastors - is really, really, really weak. Really weak.

Look, you piss me off often, but this is wrong. If you're really trying to show that not all youth pastors are evil, do it in a different post and call it "Positive Youth Pastor News." I suspect that wasn't really what you were trying to do here. I suspect you bolded "wrestling" for a reason.

You're an adult, dude. And a journalist. You should really make this right.

Posted by trying to be honest and direct | March 21, 2008 1:25 AM

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