By Bob Allen An associate pastor at a Southern Baptist church in Muscle Shoals, Ala., is being held on a more than $1 million bond after reportedly telling police he sexually abused so many children that he could not remember…
Peeping preacher’s prison sentence stands
By Bob Allen A Mississippi judge on Wednesday refused to reduce a 10-year prison sentence he handed down to a former Southern Baptist traveling evangelist and popular youth speaker convicted of video voyeurism in 2012. “I think basically I got…
SNAP leader terms $12.5 million abuse award against Florida Baptist Convention historic
By Bob Allen The head of a group that fought for changes in the Catholic Church in light of the pedophile priest scandal termed a $12.5 million judgment against the Florida Baptist Convention historic. David Clohessy, director of the Survivors…
Lawyer: Abuse verdict possible game-changer
By Bob Allen The attorney for a man awarded $12.5 million by a Florida jury for childhood sexual abuse suffered at the hands of a Baptist minister says the verdict could be a game-changer for how Southern Baptists handle credible…
Florida Baptists to appeal abuse award
By Bob Allen The Florida Baptist Convention plans to appeal a jury’s decision to award $12.5 million in damages in a lawsuit claiming Baptist officials didn’t check far enough into the background of a church planter convicted in 2007 of…
SNAP urges Baptists to speak out on abuse
By Bob Allen A victim support group held signs outside a Houston megachurch Jan. 9 calling for greater transparency about the reporting of child sex abuse in Southern Baptist churches. Representatives of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests…
Texas minister helps bring abuser in Kenya to justice
By Ken Camp When Calvary Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, commissioned Chris Pillsbury to serve in Kenya a year and a half ago, he expected to help women market fair-trade handcrafts, work with a humanitarian medical program and maybe start a…
Abuse trial delayed for accused pastor
By Bob Allen The trial of a Missouri Baptist pastor charged with sexual child abuse scheduled earlier this month has been postponed. Moniteau County Circuit Judge Kenneth Hayden granted a continuance Dec. 2 in the case against Travis Smith, pastor…
Trial gets underway for accused pastor
By Bob Allen A Southern Baptist pastor charged with sex crimes stands trial this week in a county court in California, Mo. Travis Smith, pastor of First Baptist Church of Stover, Mo., faces felony charges of sodomy and statutory rape…