By Bob Allen A mother who says her son was molested more than 20 years ago by a then-staff member at one of the Southern Baptist Convention’s largest churches says the congregation’s leaders need to come clean about what a…
No prison for molester termed unfair
By Bob Allen A former Southern Baptist music minister who will serve no time in prison after admitting to molesting children nearly 30 years ago demonstrates that America’s justice system isn’t always fair, a newspaper in Jackson, Miss., editorialized Jan….
Former minister pleads guilty to abuse
By Bob Allen John Langworthy, 50, former associate pastor of music and ministries at Morrison Heights Baptist Church in Clinton, Miss., pleaded guilty in Hinds County Circuit Court to five of eight felony counts of gratification of lust against young…
Clergy sex abuse and ‘the silence of the many’
By Christa Brown “True evil lies not in the depraved act of the one, but in the silence of the many.” On this day, I am contemplating these words, attributed to a black Baptist preacher, Martin Luther King Jr. In…
New charges filed in abuse lawsuit
By Bob Allen Five new anonymous plaintiffs have joined the three original litigants in a lawsuit alleging a cover-up of sexual abuse by a church-planting network with ties to Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. New allegations in an…
Sunday school worker charged with abuse
By Bob Allen Christopher Ryan Crossno, 22, a former Sunday school teacher at Spring Creek Baptist Church in Clarksville, Tenn., was indicted by the January 2013 Montgomery County Grand Jury on one count of aggravated sexual battery. A press release…
Former minister guilty of abuse
By Bob Allen Brandon James Carter, 34, accepted a plea bargain Jan. 9 that sentenced him to less than two years in prison for molesting a 13-year-old girl. He was arrested last March, while serving as youth and music minister…
Youth pastor charged with sex crimes
By Bob Allen The youth pastor of a Tennessee Baptist church was arrested Jan. 3 on charges of statutory rape and sexual battery by an authority figure. Joseph Todd Neill, 36, youth director at North Fork Baptist Church in Shelbyville,…
Accused child predator must stand trial
By Bob Allen A Mississippi judge ruled Dec. 18 that the state’s statute of limitations does not prevent prosecution of a former Southern Baptist music minister charged with molesting five boys in the early 1980s. Hinds County Circuit Judge Bill…