The Black Collar Crime Series relies on public news stories and publicly available information for its content. If any incorrect information is found, please contact Bruce Gerencser. Nothing in this post should be construed as an accusation of guilt. Those accused of crimes are innocent until proven guilty.
I previously posted a story about the arrest of Evangelical evangelist Acton Bowen’s arrest on sex crime charges. You can read that story here. Bowen, of course, denied doing what he is accused of, and his father made a strong he-didn’t-do-it defense of his son. However, two days after Bowen’s arrest, his wife filed for divorce, stating that she “fears for her immediate safety from (her husband) and any third parties that may attempt to contact (her husband) as a result of the crimes for which he has been alleged to have committed.”
Last Friday, two of Bowen’s ministry board members, Trenton Garmon and Josh Dodd, resigned.
Al.com reports that Bowen was required by his board to install the Covenant Eyes porn-blocking software on his computer. Why? That’s a rhetorical question, by the way. A daily report was sent to his accountability partner. No mention is made of how board members ensured Bowen was not accessing pornography on other devices.
What stood out in the AL.com report is the following statement by Garmon:
We requested that he never be alone with any female other than his wife. And we requested that he never be alone with a male minor which I considered to be someone under 16 years old. I was told that these minimums were being followed. Yet, in light of the allegation, it appears that the Guardian Policy was not always honored. This is not to imply criminal guilt by any means, yet our policy was not abided by. As you may be aware he has publicly denied the criminal allegations.
Why did Bowen’s board specifically require him to never be alone with boys under the age of sixteen and never be alone with females regardless of their age, other than his wife?
I suspect I am not alone in my suspicion that Bowen has unseemly behavior in his past. Garmon admits that the evangelist did not abide by the minimums of what the board called the “Guardian Policy,” and that this behavior may not have been criminal. This leads me to believe that perhaps Bowen had an affair or some sort of sexual relationship with someone other than his wife.
Note
The Stranger website details several other interesting tidbits about Evangelist Acton Bowen. The one I found most interesting was the gift Bowen gave his wife for their wedding anniversary:
Nothing says I LOVE YOU like an AR-15.
