Rep. David Hawk got into an argument with his wife and struck her while she was holding their baby. He grabbed her by the arm, struck her in the face, and knocked her to the ground. He took the baby from her and went to a neighbor’s house while she ran to another neighbor’s house. The police were called. He was arrested. He was later convicted of misdemeanor reckless endangerment. Despite his conviction, he won reelection and is still in the Tennessee House of Representatives and has been thinking of running for Congress.
Jud McMillin was reportedly a “rising star” in the Indiana Republican Party. He was elected in 2010 and quickly became the majority floor leader. He was considered the most ambitious in the caucus. That fell apart in 2015 when several suggestive and inappropriate texts were sent from his phone and sexual explicit video was also sent. This was followed by a message asking people to ignore what was sent because his phone was out of his hands and his control for several hours, but he had it back. But there was that sex video.
Curtis Hill was the Attorney General of Indiana after serving as a prosecutor for many years. When the legislative session ended in 2018, folks went to an area bar to celebrate. Four women came forward with complaints about him touching them inappropriately, including sliding his hands under their clothes and groping them in two cases. Additional women complained of him telling them they need to show more skin. There was an investigation, but it was centered on what liability the government might have which was none since it was an unofficial event and the women did not work for him.
Charles Schwertner was accused of sending an explicit text message and a photo of his genitals to a University of Texas graduate student — telling her, “I just really want to f**k you.” He denied it. He alleged that a third party to whom he gave his log-in information used his Linked-In and Hushed account (a phone spoofing account) to send the message. He refused to name that person and refused to cooperate with the investigation. Nonetheless, the University said his explanation was plausible. Schwertner said that that closes the case.
The Univesity said it is clear the student received the text and was justified in believing Schwertner sent them. The report did not clear Schwertner, despite his claims otherwise.
Matt Manweller was a Republican representative in Washington and a professor at Central Washington University which is where he got into trouble. In 2017, the Seattle Times printed a story reporting that he has faced sexual misconduct allegations from students. Students alleged he hit on them, promised good grades for sex, and so on. His first wife was a high school student who said he began courting her when she was 16 and still his student. The Seattle Times timeline listed 12 separate allegations against him. CWU investigated and fired him citing a pattern of inappropriate behavior. He refused to resign from the legislature but said he would not run again. However, after he was fired, his caucus asked him to resign.
Scott Bundgaard was the Arizona Senate Majority Leader. He was dating Aubry Ballard. While on the way home from an event, they got into an argument. He pulled over to the side of the freeway. He claimed she was hitting him and throwing his clothes out of the car. He claimed she had a gun. He was seen dragging her on the side of the road and she had cuts and scrapes on her legs. The police arrested her. They would have also arrested him but he claimed he had legislative immunity and could not be arrested while the legislature was in session.
Of course, this led to more scrutiny of his past and the discovery that he had been accused of domestic violence in the past by his then-newlywed wife who left him on their honeymoon after calling police to escort her to their rental so she could pack her things and leave. She had the marriage annulled.
He reached a plea deal on the reckless assault charge and pled no contest to a misdemeanor with no jail time. He resigned when the Senate took up an ethics investigation.
Matt Chandler is the spiritual leader of a multi-site church known as The Village Church. It is one of the largest Baptist megachurches in the country. When Karen Hinkley’s husband confessed he was a pedophile, she divorced him. Her church punished her for divorcing her husband when he confessed and not seeking reconciliation. Her husband, Jordan Root, the pedophile they did not punish because he repented and was in counseling. The couple had been on a mission in East Asia when he was dismissed for violating their child safety policy. (How is not explained.)
Bob Coy was the pastor of a the largest megachurch in Florida. In Fort Lauderdale, Coy’s Calvary Chapel had 25,000 in regular attendance. He hosted George W. Bush and Benjamin Netanyahu and was a frequent guest on religious radio and television. He was sought out by Republicans for endorsements. His standards were so low he endorsed war criminal Allen West. Then he resigned, admitting to having several affairs and being addicted to pornography. He went to work for a dance club.
The police got a call from a woman asking them to talk to her daughter about what Bob Coy had done to her. They heard a very graphic, detailed story of sexual abuse beginning when the girl was four and continuing for ten years. So what happened after that? The police did nothing. They did not question Coy. Coy’s attorneys persuaded a Republican judge to seal Coy’s divorce records so they could not be used to investigate the church. The church has an unsavory history of lax supervision and pedophile pastors being fired and rehired elsewhere without the police being informed of their actions
C. J. Mahaney co-founded the Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, MD with Larry Tomczak in 1982 Tomczak left in 1997 leaving Mahaney at the top. It was a successful megachurch that grew into a religious conglomerate known as Sovereign Grace Ministries. SGM formed churches all over the US, as well as in Mexico and the Philippines. That had 28,000 members around the world.
A three-year-old girl was rapped by a 15-year-old boy who was babysitting her during a church activity. When her family went to the police, the pastors intervened pressuring the family to forgive the rapist and let it go. After two years of pressure, the girl’s family quit the church. That was the first known occasion of the church organizing a cover-up. The mother wrote it up in a blog post for SGM Survivors, where until then people talked more about how controlling the community was. Her post opened the floodgates.
There are several cases of someone coming forward with an abuse allegation and being told to reconcile with the abuser. Children who reported sexual abuse by a parent were not helped but rather hurt because the church told the parent who only abused them more. There is a case of a man raping his adopted daughter. When his wife learns of this she wants a divorce and the church told her not to do it. She got out, and reported it to the police. He went to jail, but SGM lobbied for his early release and has him doing work in contact with children
Cardinal Raymond Burke was only a bishop when he made this list for protecting pedophile priests. He wielded the power of excommunication to attack a local church board and pastor over a church governance conflict. He has excommunicated women who dared to call themselves priests. He has not excommunicated convicted pedophiles.
He blamed women for the rampant pedophilia problem in the church. All those women volunteering at the church make manly men uncomfortable. Then altar girls do their job too well so there are few manly boys taking up church duties. Yes, he thinks the pedophiles are gay.
Burke advanced so far in the church because he appeared to be running his diocese better than the rest. Other diocese were finding about 4% of their priests molested children but his diocese was running at about 1.5%. But that was deceptive. He had fewer pedophile priests removed from service because he let them stay where they were. Burke kept a higher percentage of priests with allegations of child sex abuse in their ministry than any other in the United St
