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Monday, March 31, 2008

Youth Pastor Watch

posted by on March 31 at 9:30 AM

In other youth pastors…

West Virginia:

Last week, The West Virginia Record reported on the lawsuit filed by Hernshaw residents James and Debbie Green against Chesapeake Apostolic Church, Upper Kanawha Valley Christian School, P. D. Priddy and Timothy C. Edmonds. In their complaint and suit, the Greens alleged that Edmonds sexually abused their then 16-year-old daughter in 2006 while she attended UKVSC, which the church oversees.

According to court records, the Greens allege that CAC, and its pastor, Priddy, were negligent in hiring Edmonds as an assistant youth pastor. Specifically, they allege CAC and Priddy, who is Edmonds’ father-in-law, knew of his “prior sexually deviant behavior … at a previous congregation” but did not investigate the claims.

Ohio:

The associate [youth] minister at a local church and a former Toledo Public Schools board candidate was found guilty this morning on misdemeanor charges that he procured prostitution and disseminated pornographic materials to juveniles. He faces up to 1˝ years of local incarceration when sentenced.

According to Assistant County Prosecutor Tim Braun, a computer taken from Mr. Brown’s home during a search warrant last year showed several e-mails between Mr. Brown and male acquaintances. The e-mails [indicated] Mr. Brown was attempting to set up the men for sex with both men and women. Prices for specific sex acts were included in the e-mails, Mr. Braun said.

Also found on the computer was an abundance of pornography and Mr. Brown was convicted of allowing minor boys to view it. Mr. Brown met the boys through his volunteer work at Friendship Baptist Church.

New York:

Loyd and Paula Ramsey of Lubbock, Texas, announce the engagement of their daughter, Rebecca Michelle Wolf of Red Bluff, to Gary Alan Croniser II of Lyons Falls, N.Y….

The bride-elect is the assistant news editor of the Red Bluff Daily News. She graduated from Whittier College in 2002 with a bachelor’s in business administration. She is the daughter of Paula and the late Rev. George W. Wolf.

The prospective groom is the assistant/youth pastor at Lowville Baptist Church in Lowville, N.Y.

RSS icon Comments

1

Dan, it's all God's fault. You see, if He hadn't made teenagers so horny, none of this would be happening.

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty | March 31, 2008 10:02 AM
2

At quick glance, I thought the name of the pastor in the first story was P. Diddy.

Posted by Bont | March 31, 2008 10:08 AM
3

So New York bans transfat and not Youth Pastors? Where is the protection from this horrible problem? I demand answers Bloomberg.

Posted by Original Monique | March 31, 2008 10:33 AM
4

Is the third story supposed to shock me in some way? A youth pastor is marrying an adult woman... I don't get it. Why is this part of the Watch?

Posted by miss_ | March 31, 2008 10:57 AM
5

@4: Well, he is a little sketchy lookin'.

Posted by K | March 31, 2008 11:23 AM
6

@4: I think the item was included to highlight that although New York now recognizes youth pastor marriage it's still a very contentious issue.

Posted by saxfanatic | March 31, 2008 12:08 PM
7

@4: He's been doing that lately.

Posted by Jerod | March 31, 2008 12:08 PM
8

Porn & hookers from your youth pastor? Friendship Baptist Church indeed.

Posted by Mike in MO | March 31, 2008 12:14 PM
9

My take on the third story is that Dan is pretending (for the humour value) that it's remarkable news that a youth pastor could have an adult relationship.

Confirm/deny, Dan?

Posted by rhymeswithlibrarian | March 31, 2008 12:40 PM
10

Dan's repeated inclusion of the innocent third story in with the apparently guilty ones reminds me of the right-wing tactic of grouping homosexuality in with bestiality and necrophilia.

Posted by seattle mike | March 31, 2008 12:44 PM
11

9 and 10 are probably both right. Good luck to Ms. Rebecca Michelle Wolf, hope you picked one of those non-child rapist youth pastors to marry.

Posted by Hernandez | March 31, 2008 1:16 PM
12

Regarding the first story- To be fair, Dan, I get the point of these stories, but I wish you'd include only the ones tried by the court... ya know, that whole "innocent until proven guilty" thing. A teacher at my high school was accused by a female student of sexually abusing and using her, showing "evidence" of letters written between them. The teacher had to be fired-even after it was discovered the letters were written by the 15 yr old's boyfriend and the teacher was completely innocent.

His wife also divorced him, and he cannot teach for the rest of his life, even though he was one of the best social studies teachers I've ever encountered.

So, to summarize: I get the idea. Please stick with the guilty sickos.

Posted by Marty | March 31, 2008 2:02 PM
13

marty- he can't teach for the rest of his life even though he was proven innocent? what!?

Posted by ellarosa | March 31, 2008 6:54 PM
14

He wasn't proven innocent because there was no trial to prove he's innocent at. He could sue (didn't, far as I know) but no school system is going to hire him with a scandal attached. Imagine if he applied for, say, a youth pastor position... and Dan Savage got a hold of the old newspaper article from our small hohum town trumpeting the "molestation of innocent girls!"

Posted by Marty | April 1, 2008 3:02 PM
15

But it IS amusing that the sidebar to the engagement announcement lists "Sex Offenders Moving To Rural Counties" as the paper's #1 most viewed story in the last 12 hours. And the bride's town is nothing if not rural (been there... briefly...)

Posted by katwoman | April 2, 2008 9:08 AM
16

You need to make a category in the archives for Youth Pastor Watch so that bloggers can link to a list of all the youth pastor incidents you've reported.

Also, It would really be great if we could browse a list of post titles in the archives instead of having to page through entire posts. It would save bandwidth.

Posted by Luke Baggins | April 3, 2008 11:33 AM

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