Religion

Florida Youth Pastor Arrested On Child Porn Charges

Jacksonville’s NBC affiliate reports: A Putnam County youth pastor was arrested and faces charges of possessing child porn, according to the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office. Ed Wilds III, 45, is a youth pastor at Palatka Baptist Temple Church and a Middleton-Burney Elementary School teacher. Wilds’ father is the main pastor of the church and declined to comment on his son’s …

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Church Music Teacher Arrested On Child Sex Charges

Colorado Springs’ NBC affiliate reports: A Colorado Springs man has been arrested on sexual assault charges according to the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office and detectives are looking for more victims. According to deputies with the SVU unit of the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office 58-year-old Robert Henry Gordon was arrested on Wednesday, on charges of sexual assault on a …

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AZ Supreme Court: LDS Bishops Didn’t Have To Report Man’s Confession To Raping His Daughters, Child Porn

Salt Lake City’s ABC affiliate reports: The Arizona Supreme Court has ruled that the state’s priest-penitent privilege law exempts The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from revealing information from a confidential spiritual confession. The decision upheld a Dec. 15 ruling by the Arizona Court of Appeals, which also had ruled in favor of the church in a lawsuit …

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Mormon Leader Charged With Sexting Underage Girl

The Cache Valley Daily reports: A former local leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is facing criminal charges for allegedly sexting with a teenage girl in his congregation. Cortney Ted Andrew, a 38-year-old Trenton man is facing four counts of enticing a minor by internet or text, a second-degree felony. Cache County Sheriff’s Lt. Doyle Peck …

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Nevada Pastor And Wife Indicted On Child Sex Charges

Las Vegas’s CBS affiliate reports: A North Las Vegas pastor and his wife have been indicted by the Clark County Grand Jury accused of sexual assault and child abuse on or between 2012, and 2014, the Clark County District Attorney’s Office announced on Monday. Bobby Cornealius Smith, a pastor at New Beginnings Church in Las Vegas, was accused of sexually …

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Georgia Pastor Gets 25 Years On Child Sex Charges

Savannah’s ABC affiliate reports: A former Savannah pastor will serve 25 years in prison and life on probation for child molestation and statutory rape. Alfonza McClendon Sr. was convicted of molesting two children between 2013 and 2017. The molestation happened while McClendon was pastor of the First Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church. He will have to register as a sex offender …

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Archbishop: Very Sorry About All Those Child Rapists

Via press release from the Archbishop of Baltimore: Today’s report from the Maryland Attorney General is first and foremost a sad and painful reminder of the tremendous harm caused to innocent children and young people by some ministers of the Church. The detailed accounts of abuse are shocking and soul searing. It is difficult for most to imagine that such …

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Maryland AG Names 158 Catholic Clergy Child Abusers

Baltimore’s CBS affiliate reports: The Maryland Attorney General (AG) released a redacted report on child sex abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore Wednesday afternoon, detailing abuse within the church based on documents dating back to the 1940s. “The incontrovertible history uncovered by this investigation is one of pervasive and persistent abuse by priests and other Archdiocese personnel. It is also …

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California Youth Pastor Arrested On Child Sex Charges

The Modesto Bee reports: A Modesto man who has served in a leadership role over student ministries at his church has been charged with molesting a family member. Michael Sasser, 40, was charged last month with forcible sexual penetration, continual sexual abuse of a child and lewd and lascivious acts with a child. According to the criminal complaint, the first …

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Anti-Child Porn Crusader And Florida Sunday School Teacher Arrested While Downloading Child Porn [Video]

The Miami New Times reports: On the evening of March 15, FBI agents smashed open the door to the home of Michael Dolce, a West Palm Beach lawyer who had advocated for and represented sexual abuse survivors for the past 20 years. Armed with three warrants, the agents did not have to search long to find what they were looking …

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Pope Leaves Rome Hospital: “I’m Still Alive, You Know”

Reuters reports: Pope Francis left hospital and returned to the Vatican on Saturday after being treated for bronchitis, making light of his illness by saying: “I’m still alive you know”. The pope, 86, was taken to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on Wednesday after complaining of breathing difficulties, but responded rapidly to an infusion of antibiotics, his medical team has said. Looking …

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Bible College Ex-Student Leader Arrested For Child Sex

The Roys Report reports: A former student union president at a prominent Christian Bible school in Alberta, Canada, has been arrested and charged with sexual assault of multiple minors, after a two-year investigation. Derek Taplin, 43, allegedly abused four underage victims while he was student union president at Prairie Bible Institute, now Prairie College, in Three Hills, Alberta, from 2002 …

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California Youth Pastor Arrested On Child Sex Charges

Santa Barbara’s ABC affiliate reports: Former youth pastor Jeffery York, 53, at New Beginnings Community Church in Nipomo was arrested Wednesday for child molestation and sexual abuse over a three-year period, according to the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office. SLO Sheriff’s arrested the 53-year-old from Portland following an investigation into York for child molestation of a male victim in …

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Pope Francis Hospitalized For Respiratory Infection

NBC News reports: Pope Francis was admitted to a Rome hospital after complaining breathing difficulties in recent days, the Vatican said Wednesday after canceling his meetings for the next two days. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said medical checks had been carried out on the pontiff at the Gemelli hospital, where Francis underwent surgery in 2021. “In recent days Pope Francis …

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Indiana Pastor Charged With Child Sex Trafficking

Indianapolis’s Fox affiliate reports: An Indianapolis pastor who ran a non-profit to feed homeless people is now accused of rape and offering a 17-year-old $1000 to have sex with him. Tyree Coleman, 43, is charged with the promotion of child sex trafficking, rape, promotion of human sex trafficking and two counts of intimidation. According to court documents, a 17-year-old came …

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Former Catholic Priest Gets Three Years For Child Porn

WSAU Radio reports: A former Priest at a Wausau area Catholic Church will serve prison time for charges of possessing child pornography. Timothy Svea was found to have numerous images on his computer last winter. Officials immediately charged him with possession along with a modifier for lifetime supervision of serious sex offenders. He pled no contest to those counts on …

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Only 39% Call Religion “Very Important” In WSJ Poll

The Wall Street Journal reports: Patriotism, religious faith, having children and other priorities that helped define the national character for generations are receding in importance to Americans, a new Wall Street Journal-NORC poll finds. Some 38% of respondents said patriotism was very important to them, and 39% said religion was very important. That was down sharply from when the Journal …

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IL Catholic School Ex-Teacher Arrested For Child Porn

The State Journal-Register reports: A Petersburg man was arrested Wednesday on child pornography charges, bringing an end to a four-month investigation. The Athens Police Department said that Adam L. Power, 29, was charged with possession of child pornography, a class 2 felony. The investigation began in December when APD learned that someone was using an online platform in the area …

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CA Pastor Convicted On 18 Felony Child Sex Charges

Los Angeles’ NBC affiliate reports: A retired Orange County pastor has been convicted of sexually abusing two young girls he is related to, according to court records obtained on Thursday. Jose Andres Lopez, 70, of Mission Viejo, was convicted Wednesday of 18 felony sexual assault charges dating as far back as 1991 through 2020. On Aug. 21, 2020, one of …

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Christian College Professor Charged With Molestation

Abilene’s CBS affiliate reports: An Abilene Christian University professor has been accused of sexually abusing his adoptive children, including at least one incident that happened on campus. Charles Wadlington was arrested on a warrant for Sexual Abuse of Child and now remains held in jail on a $75,000 bond. Court documents state that in March 2023, a child came forward …

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