A former campus minister serving an Assemblies of God organization on the campus of Baylor University was arrested May 23 on charges of continuous sexual abuse of two children in his charge.
Waco, Texas, TV station KWTX reported Christopher Hundl, 38, was released from the McLennan County Jail May 24 after posting a $50,000 bond.
He was not an employee of Baylor, a Baptist-affiliated university, but since 2019 had served as campus minister for the Waco chapter of Chi Alpha, whose website has since been disabled. (The image above is from an archived version of that website.)
Christopher Hundl
Chi Alpha is one of 19 registered religious organizations recognized at Baylor. Regulating chartered student organizations has been a hot topic at Baylor in recent years, not because of the threat of child abuse but because of university opposition to allowing a chartered organization for LGBTQ students.
Chi Alpha fits the traditional evangelical conservative model Baylor administrators have welcomed to a university with a strict moral code that says: “Baylor will be guided by the biblical understanding that human sexuality is a gift from God and that physical sexual intimacy is to be expressed in the context of marital fidelity. Thus, it is expected that Baylor students, faculty and staff will engage in behaviors consistent with this understanding of human sexuality.”
KWTX reported allegations that Hundl on multiple occasions encouraged and participated in masturbation with underage boys in saunas in Waco and Houston and in collaboration with an unnamed registered sex offender whom Hundl told police had been a “spiritual mentor” to him since college days.
Late on May 25, the Waco Tribune-Herald reported the two boys were related to Hundl.
The Roys Report identified the other man involved as Daniel Savala, who’s already at the center of a sex scandal involving Chi Alpha campus ministries elsewhere in Texas. Public records show Savala was convicted in 2012 of third-degree sexual abuse of a minor.
“Recently, a group of whistleblowers has alleged that, for decades, Texas leaders of several Chi Alpha chapters have allowed Savala to attend on-campus meetings and that leaders referred students to Savala for spiritual guidance,” according to The Roys Report. “Allegedly, Savala preyed on students, raping or sexually assaulting at least 13 men, which often occurred at Savala’s in-home sauna.”
According to police descriptions of the alleged activities, two patterns were cited that have been common in other church-related sexual abuse scandals: The abuse occurred in a sauna, and the minors were told they were engaging in a “spiritual” activity.
This exactly mirrors years of sexual abuse of underage boys at Kanakuk Kamp in Missouri, perpetuated by camp counselor Pete Newman, who is now serving time in Missouri State Prison. The account also parallels allegations made against Houston judge Paul Pressler, a key figure in the “conservative resurgence” in the Southern Baptist Convention who is currently being sued by one of his alleged victims.
The alleged abuse of the two minor boys — one of whom was 11 at the time — by Hundl and Savala began in 2021 and continued into 2022, the police report states.
While the SBC has been rocked over the past two years by investigations of sexual abuse in its churches, the Assemblies of God has not often made similar headlines. However, the emerging Chi Alpha scandal could change that.
Hundl also was lead pastor of Mountain Valley Fellowship in Waco, an Assemblies of God church plant.
Baylor officials said they had suspended Chi Alpha operations on campus in early May.
“Baylor University is aware of serious allegations of impropriety among leaders of the independent organization Chi Alpha,” a university statement said. “Like all Chi Alpha college-based chapters, Baylor’s organization is led by the assigned Chi Alpha ministers and staff. These individuals are NOT Baylor employees.
“We are deeply disturbed and grieved by these serious allegations against Chi Alpha’s leaders, and we will continue to examine Baylor’s affiliated student organization to ensure our students have a healthy and safe co-curricular environment.”
In Texas, conviction of continuous sexual abuse of a child carries a minimum of 25 years in prison without parole to a maximum of life in prison without parole.
Related article:
Pedophilia at Kanakuk: Power, lies and evangelical values that cover up abuse