Keenan Hord was the youth pastor at the First Baptist Church in Bentonville, Arkansas, and before that, he served two years at Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, Tennessee. Both churches are infamous for anti-gay organizing. Sen. Bart Hester, a deacon at FBC Bentonville, advocated for the 2015 law that banned local anti-discrimination ordinances that could protect LGBTIQA people. Bellevue Baptist in Cordova’s pastor Steve Gaines testified in opposition to an anti-discrimination lawsuit raising the specter of a childcare worker being a man in a dress – coming from a man who admitted to covering up for an child molester in his church (in addition to Keenan Hord.)
Hord was arrested in August 2022, suspected of molesting as many as thirty people, at least one under fifteen. He initially pled not guilty, but reached a plea agreement that had him plea guilty to thirteen counts of sexual assault. He was sentenced to sixty years, but will be eligible for parole in fifteen.
- 5News Online: Former Bentonville youth pastor sentenced to 60 years in prison for sexual assault
- Baptist Press: Former student pastor arrested for sexual indecency with a child
- Commercial Appeal: Former Bellevue youth pastor pleads guilty to 13 sex crimes involving children in Arkansas
Memphis, Tennessee · Sunday, October 02, 2022