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Tag: Religious Leader

1055: Michael Coleman

Solicitation of a Minor
Cajsa LilliehookLeave a comment

Michael Wayne Coleman was a Mormon bishop in Mesa, Arizona. In 2014, he was arrested and charged with soliciting minors for sexual exploitation. The LDS church suspended him when he was investigated. He was working for a company that arranged foreign exchanges for students to come to the United States and had online conversations with the students. He asked them for nude photos, for a kiss, etc. A student complained to the company, they seized his company laptop and informed the police who arrested him.

1048: John Perry

Child Molestation
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John Perry is a rightwing author who wrote hagiographic biographies of Confederate traitor, blames the Scopes Trial for the mockery of creationists, and co-wrote books with Roy Moore and Mike Huckabee. He’s also a co-founder of Covenant School, the site of a mass shooting in March 2023. The school was sued in 2013 for covering up child sexual abuse by John Perry, but the suits were dismissed with the exception of an assault charge

1047: Johnny Hunt

Sexual Assault
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Johnny Hunt was once the president of the Southern Baptist Conference and pastor a the megachurch First Baptist Church Woodstock. He was forced out after the Guideposts report on sexual abuse in the SBC was released. In the report, he was included for the alleged sexual assault of fellow pastor’s wife. He admitted to “kissing and awkward fondling'” but claimed it was consensual.

1018: Frank Pavone

Grooming, Sexual Battery, Sexual Harassment, Sexual Misconduct
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Frank Pavone founded Priests for Life, an anti-abortion group, and chaired Catholics for Trump. The Vatican laicized or defrocked him without appeal for blasphemous communications on social media and disobedience of his bishop. He placed an aborted fetus on the altar and made a video. He is also an election denier.

985: John Blanchard

Solicitation of a Minor
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John Blanchard is the pastor of Rock Church in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He is an ardent Trump supporter who editorialized on behalf of Trump. He remains the pastor despite his 2021 arrest for soliciting a minor. He was talking to an undercover officer. He was told he was meeting for sex with a 17-year-old girl. He arrived at the spot with money for the transaction and was arrested by the police.

966: Mark Aaron Griffin

Abuse of Power or Authority, Assault, Coercion, Rape, Sexual Assault
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Mark Aaron Griffin was a Messianic Rabbi in Saginaw, Texas. Messianic Judaism is a syncretic form of evangelical Christianity that incorporates some elements of Judaism. The call themselves Jews, but that is not accepted by mainstream Jews. After he was charged with sexual assault, the Texas school board that banned Anne Frank book invited him to open their meeting with prayer.

He was charged with abusing his influence as a “rabbi” to pressure a woman into consensual and nonconsensual sex. He told her she was God’s gift to him and that she would be his “second wife.” When she told him no, he assaulted her.

He reached a plea deal, pleading guilty to indecent assault and was given two years deferred adjudication which means after two years, if he doesn’t offend again, he will have no conviction on his record. He and his lawyers are claiming he was vindicated by this plea deal.

940: Samuel Rappylee Bateman

Child Abuse, Child Molestation, Child Rape, Kidnapping, Trafficking
Cajsa LilliehookLeave a comment

Samuel Rappylee Bateman leads a Fundamentalist Mormon cult that practices polygamy. He has twenty wives, including a nine-year-old wife. The FBI believes one of his wives his own daughter. He was arrested in December 2022 and was not released on bond as he is perceived as a flight risk.

934: Bill Gothard

Child Molestation, Organizational Cover-Up, Sexual Abuse, Sexual Battery, Sexual Harassment
Cajsa LilliehookLeave a comment

Bill Gothard founded the Institute in Basic Life Principles which some people call a conservative Christian cult. It has very strict gender roles that circumscribe women’s lives, forbidding higher education, choosing their spouse, ordering what clothing they wear, and prohibiting cutting their hair. The Duggars are part of this ministry.

897: Warren Jeffs

Child Molestation, Child Rape
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Warren Jeffs is the leader of a reactionary Mormon cult that defies the official church by continuing to practice polygamy. He raped multiple children, fathered children by children, and married several children. Twenty-four of his 78 marriages were to children under seventeen. One was as young as twelve.

877: Leticia McCormack

Murder
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Leticia McCormack was an elder and, soon-to-be-ordained at The Rock Church, an anti-gay archconservative FourSquare Evangelical church in San Diego. She and her parents were charged with child abuse and the murder of her adopted daughter. McCormack’s husband killed himself when sheriff deputies’ contacted him.