Glen Uselmann was a youth pastor at Calvary Gospel Church led by John Grant. He groomed and then raped a child, Rebecca, when she was just twelve. He continued to rape her until she was eighteen when they were married. They had two children. Ten years later, she came forward alleging the church fostered a culture of abuse and tolerated child sexual abuse in an article at Capital Times.
As a child, Rebecca wrote to her pen pal about Uselmann. Her pen pal showed the letter to her older sister, Lucy, who thinking to protect Rebecca went to Rev. John Grant. This led to Lucy being kicked out of choir and Rebecca being forced to apologize to the women of the church and getting kicked out of school.
Rebecca decided to file a criminal complaint of child rape against her ex-husband. When she brought charges, she had no idea whether the police would take them seriously, but just telling her story was cathartic and validating. To her surprise, police arrested her husband and he was convicted in 2022. He was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison and will be a registered sex offender for life.
- Capital Times: Charges filed in sexual assault case linked to Madison’s Calvary Gospel Church
- Wisconsin Circuit Court: Case Number 2020CF001760
- Wisconsin State Journal: Former Madison church leader sentenced to prison for decades-old sex abuse of child
- Surviving Church and Childhood: Victory
Madison, Wisconsin · Wednesday, July 22, 2020
Just to clarify, I had divorced Glen years before he was arrested. I was not kicked out of the school, as my story went public when I was older. However there was a similar situation with an underage girl around my age and an older man, and she was removed from the school. The pastor told her friends to not speak to her or risk being kicked out themselves.