Nicolas Vasquez, assistant pastor of Asamblea Apostolica Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, pleaded guilty today to molesting three girls and was sentenced to twenty-four years in prison.
A former assistant pastor pleaded guilty Wednesday morning to molesting three young girls.
A judge sentenced Nicolas Vasquez to 24 years in prison.
Vasquez was arrested in February 2016 when the three victims came forward and a concerned family member went to police.
Detectives said the victims knew Vasquez as either an acquaintance or through his former east Charlotte church, Asamblea Apostolica Church.
Investigators also revealed the victims were between the ages of 9 and 12 at the time of the assaults, which took place for a few years.
Prosecutor Leslie Stephens told the judge that two of the victims were family members and the third was a girl he knew at the church.
All three were younger than 12 years old, and Vasquez had bribed the girls to keep them from telling on him, Stephens said.
“Your honor, this plea encompasses three different victims,” said prosecutor Leslie Stephens. “He said that he bought all three victims food and clothes so that they wouldn’t tell anyone.”
Police said they searched Vasquez’s home and found pictures and videos showing assaults, and when they confronted him with that evidence, he confessed.
“In these pictures, you can see all three of these girls in these pictures performing various sex acts on him,” Stephens said.
Last July, Christopher Trent, youth pastor at Bellingham Baptist Church, an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) congregation in Bellingham, Washington, was arrested and charged with sexually abusing a church teenager.
The Bellingham Herald reports:
A former youth pastor at Bellingham Baptist Church has been arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing a teenage girl over the course of two years.
Christopher L. Trent, 37, a pastor at the Orleans Street church for the past three years, rubbed his face with his hands and wiped away tears with the collar of a green inmate uniform, as a deputy prosecutor read from a Bellingham detective’s report in court Tuesday afternoon, July 19.
The alleged victim reported she was under the age of 14 when the relationship turned inappropriate.
About two years ago, Trent started driving the girl home from church, said Deputy Prosecutor Christopher Quinn. Sometimes he showed her physical affection by giving a “side hug,” she reported, and over time they started hugging chest to chest. Eventually he told her he wanted to kiss her, that he was falling in love with her, and that he wanted to marry her when she turned 18, according to her report to police.
He texted inappropriate photos over phone apps, and she sent him photos of herself, too, according to the charges. He gave her a purity ring and told her he did not want to ruin her for marriage. Over the next two years, however, she estimated they engaged in sex acts more than 100 times — so often, she lost count. She reported she was sexually abused at the church at 2501 Orleans St., at a satellite church in Ferndale, at the girl’s home, and at the defendant’s home, according to her report.
He told her not to tell anyone, because he would lose his job and family, Quinn said. Police logs show someone reported the relationship on the night of July 11.
Trent, a married father of seven children, was educated at Heartland Baptist Bible College in Oklahoma City, said Deputy Public Defender Jane Boman. He moved here three years ago, and he is no longer employed, she added.
Trent has no prior felony record.
Police booked him into jail Monday on four counts of child rape in the second degree. At his first appearance in court Tuesday, Superior Court Commissioner Martha Gross set bail at $100,000. If he posts bond, he can’t have contact with girls under 18, she ruled.
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Recently, Trent pleaded guilty to “four counts of third-degree child rape.”
KGMI reports:
A former youth pastor at Bellingham Baptist Church is going to prison for raping a teenager.
Christopher Trent plead guilty to four counts of third-degree child rape.
He was sentenced to 5 years in prison.
The girl says she was 13 when Trent started sexually abusing her.
Matthew Tague, family pastor at North Coast Calvary Chapel in Carlsbad, California, was arrested today and charged with “at least 16 counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor.”
Deputies with the San Diego Sheriff’s child abuse unit arrested 43-year-old Matthew Tague, of San Marcos, and charged him with at least 16 counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor.
The charges against Tague, a pastor at North Coast Calvary Chapel in Carlsbad, are not related to his duties or position at the church, according to a release from SDSO Lt. Karen Stubkjaer.
Stubkjaer said there is no indication there are other victims at this time. The investigation is ongoing.
Tague is being held in Vista Detention Facility on $1.9 million bail. He’s due in court on June 2.
Anyone with any information that may be related to this case is asked to call the Sheriff’s Department at 858-974-2310.
North Coast Calvary Church said in a statement they reported Tague to the Sheriff’s Department “immediately” and terminated his employment with the church after learning of the accusation.
“We are deeply grieved to share that early this week we learned that a pastor at North Coast Calvary Chapel, Matthew Tague, was reported to have acted inappropriately with a minor, off church property, and outside of church ministry activities,” the church said.
Tague taught the “whole parenting” class at North Coast. Tague has already been scrubbed from the church’s website, but I was able to find a description of Tague’s class via The Wayback Machine:
Come be a part of “Whole Parenting” taught by Pastor Matt Tague. This class integrates the best of ancient wisdom with modern research on love and attachment to your child, regardless of their age or stage. This once-a-month class is designed to build your parenting as you think through the values and priorities that form a central part of your life and family. This class will grow to become a community of people, interested in their children, who desire the best for the next generation and for their community. Learn more about your child, your own parenting philosophy, and how God wants to grow you as a person AS you parent. Whether your child is 2 or 22, this class is for you. Whole Parenting happens the second Sunday of every month in the Chapel building, Room C105, at the 10:45am service.
North Coast released the following statement: (link no longer active)
With Regards to Matthew Tague
We are deeply grieved to share that early this week we learned that a pastor at North Coast Calvary Chapel, Matthew Tague, was reported to have acted inappropriately with a minor, off church property, and outside of church ministry activities.
When our staff learned of the allegations, we immediately reported the accusation to our Sherriff’s Department and terminated Mr. Tague’s employment. On Wednesday May 31, Mr. Tague was arrested on suspicion of the offense. The investigation of the accusation is now in the hands of law enforcement.
We ask you to please pray for the victim, as well as the family involved in this tragic matter. Please pray for law enforcement as they determine the facts. We also ask you to pray for justice and restorative healing to take place for all involved.
We are utterly heartbroken by these events. We have strict requirements and procedures in place for hiring pastors and staff including professional background checks and exhaustive interviews. In this case, Mr. Tague had no previous record of arrest or criminal charges. It goes without saying that we are cooperating fully with law enforcement.
As we as a church family process this tragic event, we know that you will have questions. Please meet with our pastors, all of whom will make themselves available to you, or contact Executive Pastor, Bob Mackenzie: bob@northcoastcalvary.org; 760-929-0029 ext. 104.
Prior to coming to North Coast, Tague pastored Rancho del Rey Church in Carlsbad,California for ten years. Tague was also the assistant pastor of Carlsbad Community Church in Carlsbad for six years.
An assistant pastor at a large Carlsbad church pleaded not guilty on Friday to multiple counts of molesting a child over the past year, charges that upon conviction could send him to prison for more than 100 years.
Matt Tague, 43, was arrested Wednesday, after calling sheriff’s investigators Monday to report the crime himself, authorities said.
It wasn’t a sense of guilt that drove him, according to Deputy District Attorney Patricia Lavermicocca. She said Tague’s wife caught him last week molesting a 13-year-old relative.
Tague has been charged with 14 separate counts of child molestation under duress “because he used his position of power and trust over the minor victim to get her to do things he wanted her to do,” the prosecutor said. She said the victim was made to manually stimulate Tague numerous times, starting in 2016 when she was 12.
On Friday, Vista Superior Court Judge Cynthia Freeland refused to lower Tague’s bail, keeping it at $1.9 million.
Defense attorney Raymond Gomez asked for a lower amount, noting that Tague has close ties to the North County area and has no criminal history whatsoever. He also said the only time Tague has been out of the country was on church-related matters.
The judge said bail will remain as set out of safety concerns for the victim.
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In February 2018, Tague pleaded guilty to “two counts of lewd act on a child.” Tuesday, according to an ABC-10 report, Tague was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for his crimes:
A Carlsbad pastor whose wife caught him molesting a female family member was sentenced to 15 years in prison Tuesday afternoon.
Matthew Tague stood in Superior Court in Vista to read a statement of apology; taking 100 per cent responsibility for hurting those closest to him and saying he’s getting counseling for his sex addiction.
“For all these things, I am and will be truly and profoundly repentant and in light of my terrible and reprehensible actions. I would like to share why I’m grateful that I was discovered on May 5, 2017.”
His wife stood then, talking about rehabilitation and forgiveness. “This sentence my husband faces, we all know is indeed lifelong; no matter what number of years is decided, these events will follow him for the rest of his life.”
Deputy district attorney Patricia Lavermicocca hammered on Tague’s role in the community, as pastor of North Coast Calvary Chapel. “This isn’t just a father; he is a pastor who teaches the community the morally right thing to do.”
Judge Daniel Goldstein noted Tague’s selfishness and aggression, calling his acts outrageous and heinous. “I do consider that you never had a criminal history but you stepped off the deep end.”
Tague, 44, pleaded guilty in February to two counts of lewd act on a child.
John Rice [a Fundamentalist Evangelist, editor of the Sword of the Lord, and author of such titles as The Home and Bobbed Hair, Bossy Wives, and Women Preachers] wrote this about this topic. “A man is like God in a sense that a woman is not like God…God is always in the Bible, called He, never Her. He is called Father, not Mother, Christ is called the man Christ Jesus, not the woman…I do not mean that Christ is not the Saviour every woman needs, not that He does not know her every longing, feel her every sorrow, meet her every need. But God would not have had the Bible so full of it if He did not want us to notice that Christ was a Man, not a woman, and that man is therefore made in the image of God in a sense that cannot be true of women. So, in the home, man is deputy of God, and should lead the home for God.”
I love the fact that Christ was a man since men are our protectors. They are bigger and stronger. They are not led by their emotions and feelings as easily. They are more steady. I am happy that I am not the protector and provider of my family. Men have a much bigger responsibility than women have been given and a man’s nature is created for this and woman’s is not. Most men wouldn’t want to worship a female god. They want a strong and masculine God like the One we have been blessed with. He is perfect in every way!
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The only reason women have so much “power” today is because men have given it to them. They could have never gotten it if men didn’t allow it because men are mightier in strength than women. God originally created man to have power and dominion over the earth. He never has given this responsibility to women. He made men the Kings, Prophets, Priests, Disciples, Apostles, and Elders for a good reason and His purpose. This is His plan.
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Most women today would despise this teaching. It doesn’t bother me in the least because I love being a woman and I love God’s ways. God created men to be the leaders and women the followers, just our body makeup proves this point. We are the weaker and softer sex so we should be the more gentler one. Women are the more lovely of the sexes, especially when we wear some make up, fix our hair, and wear prettier and more colorful clothing. Men are highly attracted to women. Godly, good women bring a lot of beauty to this earth. We make our homes places of loveliness. We bear and raise godly offspring. As we do all of this, we bring honor and dignity to our husbands and to the Lord.
— Lori Alexander, The Transformed Wife, Woman is the Glory of Man, May 26, 2017
Ruven Meulenberg, a youth mentor at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California — part of Rick Warren’s megachurch empire — was arrested today and ” booked on suspicion of lewd and lascivious acts on a child.”
A youth mentor at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest has been accused of acting inappropriately with two teenage boys while he volunteered there, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department said Friday.
Ruven Meulenberg, 32, was arrested Thursday and booked on suspicion of lewd and lascivious acts on a child and is being held on $100,000 bail, authorities said. Jail records show he is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in a Santa Ana courtroom.
Detectives were alerted to the situation after a 14-year-old boy told his parents that Meulenberg had molested him, Lt. Lane Lageret said. The parents told the church’s youth pastor, who called the Sheriff’s Department, Lagaret said.
Another 14-year-old boy turned up during the detectives’ investigation, Lagaret said.
Meulenberg is a Lake Forest resident who had been volunteering at the church for six years, and during that time, he developed relationships with the two boys, Lagaret said. Some of the conduct allegedly took place on church property, officials said.
Today, Kevin Boyd Sr., pastor of The Church at New Orleans in New Orleans, Louisiana, entered a no contest plea to reduced charges of ” obscenity and second-degree battery.” Boyd received no jail time and does not have to register as a sex offender.
Ken Daley, a reporter for the Times-Picayune, writes:
A New Orleans East pastor whose first trial on child molestation charges ended with a hung jury in 2015 closed his case Thursday (May 25) with a plea agreement that allowed him to avoid jail time.
Kevin Boyd Sr., the 47-year-old “presiding bishop” of The Church At New Orleans, had faced 5 to 10 years in prison had he been convicted as originally charged with molestation of a juvenile. A jury of three men and three women deadlocked on the charge after four hours of deliberations on Nov. 17, 2015.
Boyd was awaiting a new trial on two molestation counts, but through his defense attorneys Kerry Cuccia and Kimya Holmes accepted a plea agreement offered by District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro’s office. Boyd entered a no contest plea, referencing Alford v. North Carolina, whereby a defendant in a criminal case does not admit to the criminal act and asserts innocence. Boyd entered the plea to the reduced charges of obscenity and second-degree battery.
“Mr. Boyd steadfastly maintains his innocence,” Cuccia said.
Boyd received a suspended five-year sentence on the battery count, a suspended three-year sentence on the obscenity count and five years of active, supervised probation.
Ad hoc Criminal District Judge Donald Johnson of Baton Rouge, sitting in for Judge Camille Buras, said the plea agreement also does not require Boyd to register as a sex offender.
One of the two men who accused Boyd of sexually assaulting them while they were members of his flock expressed disappointment with the plea agreement.
“I didn’t come this far to give him a slap on the wrist,” said the man, a Mississippi resident who testified against Boyd at his 2015 trial. “It’s a shame, your honor. I’m not going to sit up here and lie to you and say it don’t hurt.”
Authorities accused Boyd of sexually assaulting that member of his flock over a span of at least five years, starting in 1999 with the boy was about 12. A second accuser later emerged as well, but he was not in court Thursday and issued a brief statement professing to forgive his church leader.
The victim who was present told the judge of “being raped from the age 12 to age 23 by the hand of Kevin Boyd Sr.,” and said his life had been irreversibly affected. He said he lost his marriage of seven years, several friends and his spiritual community over the accusation against Boyd and the years of courtroom drama that followed. The pastor first was charged by the DA’s office in August 2012.
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“I’ve been called a liar for years,” the man said. “I’ve been told I’m being used by the devil by church members and preachers. The plea deal here is not enough for me. Every sin has its reward, that’s what we are taught as Christians. He committed not just a sin, but he committed a crime. But with no jail time? Kevin Boyd needs to sit down and feel the pain, the struggle, the hurt and the shame I’ve had to feel.
“But he’s able to go live his life and everybody still praises him. He preaches it, but he don’t live it. … Kevin Boyd doesn’t deserve today to go home and feel like he won.”
Wednesday,Cameron Banks, pastor of The Abundant Faith Lighthouse of Jesus Christ in Conway, South Carolina, was arrested and charged with burning down his church.
The leader of a Conway church was arrested Wednesday for intentionally burning down his church.
Cameron Julius Xavier Banks, 32, of Georgetown, is charged with obstructing justice, second degree arson, burning personal property to defraud insurer and making a false insurance claim to obtain benefits for fire or explosion loss.
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The fire was determined to have been intentionally set, by means of an open flame and combustible material.
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Banks was the pastor of the church, but there had only been one church service held at the location in approximately 2 years.
Banks said that the church was being renovated and that he purchased the building from The Refuge at First Pentecostal Holiness Church for $328,400.
The pastor of The Refuge acted as the “bank” on the mortgage, according to the affidavit.
Banks was notified on May 25, 2016 that the lender was going to start foreclosure proceedings after Banks defaulted on his loan.
In early July 2016, Banks purchased an insurance policy for the church for $1.6 million.
On July 14, a church member reported to Conway police that an “unknown person” was supposedly sleeping in the church. The incident report states the report was made for insurance purposes, in the event of a fire.
On July 25, one day after the fire, a Conway police officer tried to reach Banks to get a statement about the fire and who had access to the church. Banks would not return any of the phone calls. Lionel Lofton, Banks’ attorney, later told the officer that Banks would not be meeting with police.
On Jan. 12, 2017, Lofton contacted the officer and said he had very important information regarding the fire. According to a report done by the attorney’s investigator, a woman claimed there were text messages between a dentist and an unknown person that showed the dentist offered to pay $10,000 to the unknown person to burn down the church.
When the officer investigated the claims and got a warrant for the dentist’s phone, there were no calls or text messages between him and the unknown person.
According to the affidavit, there were dozens of calls between the woman making the claims and Banks on two different cell phones.
Police say the entire claim was fabricated in an effort to cast the blame for the fire onto the dentist.
On March 1, 2017, police searched Banks’ home and cars. Computers, cell phones and several hundred documents were seized, including a “rough draft” of the investigative report provided to his attorney.
There were also notebooks where Banks had “written several dozen questions that would possible be asked by law enforcement during the course of an arson investigation.”
The woman admitted to police that she gave them false information regarding the text messages because she was in love with Banks.
Banks was arrested on May 24.
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Banks is also known as Reggie Staggers, according to an affidavit with Banks’ arrest warrants.
A Georgetown pastor accused of burning down a Conway church last summer is now facing federal health care fraud charges.
According to a press release from U.S. Attorney Beth Drake, Cameron Banks, 32, was charged in a seven-count federal indictment connected to an alleged scheme to submit fraudulent loan applications for dental services.
The maximum penalty the suspect could receive for each count is 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
In April of 2015, Francisco Moran, pastor of The Good Samaritan Church in Old Lyme, Connecticut, was arrested and charged with “sexually assaulting a juvenile and an adult female who were members of his church.” Today, Moran was found guilty on all counts.
On Thursday, Francisco Moran, 59, of Clinton was found guilty of all charges following a criminal trial in which he was accused of sexual assault.
Moran, a Pastor with The Good Samaritan Church in Old Lyme was found guilty of second degree sexual assault, two counts of fourth degree sexual assault, three counts of risk of injury to a minor and two counts of coercion.
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Upon reaching the guilty verdict, the court ordered Moran to forfeit his passport and he was remanded into custody of the Department of Corrections.
Moran is being held on $2 million bond and at this time a date for his sentencing is unknown.
Heritage Academy, an Evangelical institution located in Hagerstown, Maryland finds itself the center of attention due to its punishment of a high school senior who had sex outside of marriage and got pregnant. CJ Lovelace, a writer for The Herald-Mail, reports:
As children played outside just before noon Tuesday, two police vehicles were parked in front of Heritage Academy.
Inside, officers took reports from school officials about harassing emails and phone calls coming in to the small Christian school west of Hagerstown.
“Some of them are calling me names, but when somebody is in a leadership position like I am in, it’s going to happen,” Heritage Principal Dave Hobbs said. “The other issue that we’re having is we’re getting a lot of encouragement. We’ve gotten lots of emails, thanking us for taking a stand in regards to what is right and what is wrong.”
The independent, nondenominational school has been the target of criticism since news broke that one of its students, 18-year-old Maddi Runkles, had been barred from “walking” in her upcoming graduation because she is pregnant.
But, according to Hobbs, the punishment had little to do with Runkles’ pregnancy and everything to do with her conduct that violated school code.
“Certainly, we are a pro-life institution, and certainly we are pleased that Maddi has chosen to keep her baby,” Hobbs told Herald-Mail Media. “Her choice broke that standard of abstinence. It is a clear standard in the Bible. It is a clear standard in our handbook.”
Hobbs first learned of Runkles’ pregnancy in early February when her father, the former president of the school’s board of directors, Scott Runkles, came to him with the news.
An emergency meeting followed and administrators began formulating disciplinary action, which was finalized Feb. 20 in a binding decision after appeals made by the Runkles family, Hobbs said.
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“We have to look at every individual situation on a case-by-case basis,” Hobbs said.
When the pregnancy first came to light, Runkles, a 4.0 student who will still receive her diploma, was suspended from school for a couple days and removed from her position on the student council while the board decided what to do.
Since then, she’s been permitted to continue attending classes and school functions at the institution of about 175 students — including 15 in this year’s senior class.
Scott Runkles, who resigned from his position on the school’s board in a result of the punishment, has said that he agrees his daughter deserved to be disciplined, but not by banning her from graduation.
“Maddi is a great kid,” her father said Monday. “She just happened to have a lapse in judgment.”
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Heritage Academy has removed everything from their website (typical of Fundamentalist schools and churches who find themselves in the public spotlight) except for a statement by Principal Dave Hobbs. Hobbs wrote:
Dearest Heritage Family:
As I begin, please understand that my wife and I have fallen in love with the people of Heritage Academy. Therefore, it is for Heritage’s protection that I write this.
The main reason I have been silent to this point is because in disciplinary situations, each Heritage family deserves confidentiality. The conduct of your children is not everyone’s business. This perspective would have been the best way to deal with Maddi Runkles’ disciplinary situation. However, her family has chosen to make her behavior a public matter. Before sending this letter, I contacted Scott Runkles who gave me permission to discuss this publicly. In my thinking, these were the two to protect: first Maddi, then Heritage, in that order. Unfortunately, both are now being hurt by those who do not know or understand the situation. For this sole reason, I am now willing to comment publicly.
Let me clarify some facts. Maddi is being disciplined, not because she’s pregnant, but because she was immoral. The Student Pledge which every student from 5th grade through 12th grade signs states that this application of Philippians 4:8 “extends to my actions, such as protecting my body by abstaining from sexual immorality and from the use of alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drugs”. Heritage is also pleased that she has chosen to not abort her son. However, her immorality is the original choice she made that began this situation. Secondly, she will receive her diploma that she has earned.
Much has been said about grace. I believe that there are two kinds of grace: saving grace and living grace. One is concerning spiritual birth “once and for all” (Hebrews 9:12, 10:10) which demanded no effort on my part, because my Savior Jesus, finished this on His cross and from His empty tomb. The other kind of grace is spiritual growth that does demand my effort (2 Peter 3:18). It also includes discipline (Hebrews 12:5-11). A wise man told me that discipline is not the absence of love, but the application of love. We love Maddi Runkles. The best way to love her right now is to hold her accountable for her immorality that began this situation.
As I conclude, I have two concerns. First, I am concerned that my Heritage family feels that the Board and I are harsh, cruel, hard-hearted men. Nothing can be further from the truth. We have spent countless hours in prayer and discussion. The Board has listened to three appeals from the Runkles family and compromised all three times. Secondly, I am concerned about our graduation ceremony on the evening of June 2nd . That night, I want God to be glorified in a dignified manner. Please enable us to do this.
With deepest sincerity,
David R. Hobbs, Administrator
You can view a Wayback Machine cached version of Heritage’s website here. You can view the school’s 2016-17 student handbook here.
When stories such as this one make the national news, non-Evangelicals are often outraged over such Puritanical, backward thinking and behavior, thinking that schools such as Heritage Academy are few and far between. However, there are scores of Heritage Academies scattered across the United States, each with harsh rules and discipline meant to keep students from drinking, cussing, smoking, fornicating, and listening to rock music. These schools not only regulate what students can and can’t due while at school, they also regulate what they can and can’t do at home and with their friends. One Fundamentalist school I am very familiar with expelled several high school students because they were caught drinking alcohol at a private party. These types of schools tend to legislate behavior both on and off campus, and that is certainly the case with Maddi Runkles.
There’s no greater sin for a Christian school girl to commit than to get pregnant. Boys can whore around and schools are none the wiser. But, when a girl has unprotected sex (and my money is on the school’s sex education class being abstinence only) and finds herself pregnant, well her S-I-N is exposed for all to see. This, of course, is a public embarrassment for Evangelical schools, leading to jokes and gossip about their morality codes and the inability of students to keep them.
Heritage Academy, choosing to not do as Jesus did with the adulterous woman in John 8:1-11, decided to publicly punish and humiliate Maddi Runkles. Perhaps someone needs to do as Jesus did in John 8 and do some writing in the sand detailing the sins of Principal Hobbs, the school board, teachers, and everyone else associated with the school. Believe me, everyone has behaviors they wouldn’t want anyone to know about it. In Runkles’ case, her “sin” grew inside of her, exposing for all to see her “immoral” behavior. I am sure more than a few other high school students at Heritage were glad that their secret sexual “sins” were not exposed. Does anyone doubt for a moment that there are other fornicating students — doing what is healthy and normal for sexually aware teenagers and young adults to do?
Maddi Runkles is eighteen years old. She is most certainly old enough to decide whether to have sexual intercourse. That she had unprotected sex is unfortunate, but there is nothing in this story that merits anything more from the school than, Maddi, what can we do to help?
Other Heritage students and parents are paying attention to how Principal Hobbs and the school board dealt with Runkles’ pregnancy. Perhaps in the future, an unintended consequence of the school’s actions in this case might lead another pregnant girl to get an abortion instead of making known her pregnancy. School officials said they prayed long and hard over this matter, but since there is no God to hear their prayers, what we are left with is the moral beliefs of the nine men (no women) who decided Maddi Runkles’ fate. I wonder if all of these men were virgins when they walked the aisle on their wedding day. If not, and I highly doubt all of them were, perhaps they should heed Jesus’ words — he that is without sin, let him cast the first stone.
Having been an Evangelical pastor for twenty-five years and now a card-carrying member of Satan’s atheistic horde, I have gained a bit of notoriety that attracts people doing studies about clergymen who have left the ministry and lost their faith. I am a rare duck in one respect: most men and women who leave the ministry do so when they are younger. In my case, I was fifty years old before I turned in my ministerial union card. My counselor told me that it is rare for pastors my age to walk away from a lifetime of ministry, even if they no longer believe. (Please read Leaving Christianity: Why I Was an Old Man Before I Deconverted.)
When asked to give interviews or participate in studies, I always say yes. Ever the preacher, I want to tell the good news of atheism far and wide. I want doubting and unbelieving Evangelicals to know that there can be life — good life — after breaking up with Jesus. Last year, Dan Delaney — who was working on his Master of Arts in Sociology thesis at the University of Louisville — contacted me and asked if he could interview me for a study he was conducting. I gladly said yes, and now Dan’s completed study has been published.
Dan recently emailed me to let me know that his study had been published. Here is some of what he had to say:
A lot of very interesting concepts came out of it that I never anticipated. I also had the good fortune of being able to present portions of it at the Association for the Sociology of Religion conference last August, and at the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion conference last November, and it was very well received. Everyone at both conferences was extremely interested in the results. I’m now going to start the arduous process of trying to break this thing down into small chunks to get published as journal articles.
Dan’s thesis is available on the internet. You can read it here. Dan used pseudonyms in his study, so my name is Stephen.
Secular but not Superficial: An Overlooked Nonreligious/Nonspiritual Identity Abstract:
Since Durkheim’s characterization of the sacred and profane as “antagonistic rivals,” the strict dichotomy has been framed in such a way that “being religious” evokes images of a life filled with profound meaning and value, while “being secular” evokes images of a meaningless, self-centered, superficial life, often characterized by materialistic consumerism and the cold, heartless environment of corporate greed. Consequently, to identify as “neither religious nor spiritual” runs the risk of being stigmatized as superficial, untrustworthy, and immoral. Conflicts and confusions encountered in the process of negotiating a nonreligious/nonspiritual identity, caused by the ambiguous nature of religious language, were explored through qualitative interviews with 14 ex-ministers and 1 atheist minister—individuals for whom supernaturalist religion had formed the central core of identity, but who have deconverted and no longer hold supernatural beliefs. Te cognitive linguistics approach of Frame Semantics was applied to the process of “oppositional identity work” to examine why certain identity labels are avoided or embraced due to considerations of the cognitive frames evoked by those labels.
Through the constant comparative method of grounded theory, a host of useful theoretical concepts emerged from the data. Several impediments to the construction of a “secular but not superficial” identity were identified, and a framework of new theoretical concepts developed to make sense of them: sense disparity, frame disparity, identity misfire, foiled identity, sense conflation, and conflated frames. Several consequences arising from these impediments were explored: (1) consequences of sense conflation and conflated frames for the study of religion; (2) consequences of conflated frames for religious terminology; and (3) consequences of the negation of conflated frames for those who identify as not religious, not spiritual, or not Christian. Additionally, four types of oppositional identity work were identified and analyzed: (1) avoidance identity work, (2) dissonant identity work, (3) adaptive identity work, and (4) alternative identity work. Finally, the concept of conflated frames was applied to suggest a new interpretation of the classic Weberian disenchantment narrative.
Having been an Evangelical pastor for twenty-five years and now a card-carrying member of Satan’s atheistic horde, I have gained a bit of notoriety that attracts people doing studies about clergymen who have left the ministry and lost their faith. I am a rare duck in one respect: most men and women who leave the ministry do so when they are younger. In my case, I was fifty years old before I turned in my ministerial union card. My counselor told me that it is rare for pastors my age to walk away from a lifetime of ministry, even if they no longer believe. (Please read 