By Bob Allen
A 74-year-old former Southern Baptist youth pastor pleaded guilty Dec. 1 to six charges of sexually abusing minors in Jefferson County, Ala. Mack Allen Davis, former youth minister at Lakeside Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., still faces charges involving the same victims in two other counties, according to the Birmingham News.
Davis is accused of molesting two boys over the course of a decade from the late 1970s to the late 1980s in various locations including his church office and a Christian camp. One of his accusers claimed in May that the pastor at the time — now director of missions at an association of Southern Baptist churches — knew about the abuse in the 1990s but kept it quiet to protect the church’s reputation.
Leaders of the Birmingham Baptist Association investigated DOM Mike McLemore’s handling of the matter in 2010 and reported that that no one “has seen any information to support the charge that Dr. McLemore knowingly protected a pedophile during his tenure as pastor of Lakeside Baptist Church.”
Davis came to Lakeside Baptist Church in 1977 as minister of youth and recreation and the following summer was also named director of the church’s camp. He retired in 1999 at age 59 after his wife filed for divorce.
McLemore said this summer he handled the matter discretely at the family’s request. A state law requiring the reporting of suspected child abuse wasn’t amended to include clergy until 2003, and the current law exempts ministers if someone seeking spiritual advice asks them to keep it confidential.
Sentencing for Davis is scheduled for April 9.
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Old abuse accusations resurface with recent arrest
SNAP leader says police should investigate alleged abuse cover-up by DOM