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.
Then, 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.
The revelations come at a sensitive moment for Calvary’s national network of about 1,800 churches, which have been riven by legal infighting and dogged by claims that bad pastors have been allowed to run amok. In fact, at least eight pastors, staffers, and volunteers in Calvary Chapel’s network around the United States have been charged with abusing children since 2010. In one case, victims claimed the church knowingly moved a pedophile to another city without warning parents.
Miami New Times:
Founder of Florida’s Biggest Megachurch Accused of Molesting a 4-Year-Old
According to the New Times, the police sat on the allegation without investigating for months until the girl requested they drop it as she was going abroad on a mission and had found “forgiveness through god.” To be clear, Coy was not cleared or exonerated. He was not even investigated. The girl simply asked them to drop the case after they did nothing about it.
- Miami New Times: Founder of Florida’s Biggest Megachurch Accused of Molesting a 4-Year-Old
- Miami Herald: Pastor Bob Coy of Calvary Chapel Accused of Molesting 4-year-old
- International Business Times: Child abuse case against megachurch founder dropped after girl ‘finds forgiveness through God’
8 April 2014
