By Bob Allen A Texas Baptist youth minister was arrested March 19 on charges of aggravated sexual assault of a child. Gary Welch Gary Welch, 42, minister of students at Northside Baptist Church in Corsicana, Texas, was arraigned and held…
Seminarian expelled after arrest on sex charge
By Bob Allen A Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary student arrested March 17 and charged with sexual assault has been expelled and removed from student housing, officials of the school in Wake Forest, N.C., said March 21. A special chapel service…
Seminary student charged with sexual assault
By Bob Allen A student at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary was arrested Saturday, March 17, and charged with second-degree sexual offense against another male student in a campus apartment. William Birch William Watson “Billy” Birch, 43, was arrested after admitting…
Former teacher, youth pastor indicted on sex charges
By Bob Allen An Alabama grand jury indicted a former teacher and Southern Baptist youth minister March 6 on eight counts of sexual abuse 20 years after he avoided firing from his school-teacher job for similar allegations. Daniel Acker, who…
Pastor found guilty of abuse
By Bob Allen A Southern Baptist pastor was sentenced to five years in prison Feb. 28 after a jury in Texarkana, Ark., found him guilty of sexually assaulting a 3-year-old girl inside his church last April. South Texarkana Baptist Church…
Baptist association asks church with sex-offender preacher to leave
By Bob Allen A Florida Baptist church that recently opened its pulpit to a registered sex offender has been asked to withdraw from its local association of Southern Baptist churches. Jacksonville Baptist Association leaders said March 2 that conversations with…
Children turned away from church while sex offender preaches
By Bob Allen A Baptist church in Florida is barring children from attendance where a registered sex offender has been preaching since the end of January. Jacksonville television station WJXT quoted a woman Feb. 19 who said she was turned…
Pastor’s killer still unfit to stand trial
By Bob Allen An Illinois judge ruled Feb. 10 that a man accused of murdering a Southern Baptist preacher in his pulpit nearly three years ago is mentally unfit to stand trial. Madison County Circuit Judge Richard Tognarelli said there…
Former minister pleads guilty to abuse
By Bob Allen The former pastor of a Southern Baptist church in Maryland pleaded guilty Feb. 7 to sexually abusing a girl in his congregation. Joe Nix Ivey, 74, of Walkersville, Md., confessed to a second-degree sex offense in a…