Convicted Sex Offender Is a Deacon at Brentwood Church

By Alecia Reid
KRON 4
July 1, 2016

http://kron4.com/2016/07/01/video-convicted-sex-offender-is-a-deacon-at-brentwood-church/

[with video]

An East Bay deacon is the center of a lot of outrage right now.

Andrew Wright, from the Power of Living Ministries, is a convicted sex offender. Now, some members of his church are defending him.

Andrew Julius Wright is a convicted sex offender. He is also an ordained deacon at Power for Living Ministries.

“He was convicted of continuous sexual abuse of a child…,” Child Predators Most Wanted spokesman Alex Zabel said.

This topic touches home for Zabel, who is a survivor. He joined forces with a few friends, and together, they run the California Child Predators Most Wanted Facebook page.

Wright’s mugshot made its way to the page after he lagged on updating his registration requirements on the Megan’s Law website.

The group tells KRON Wright personally reached out and asked them to remove his photo.

“The first words he said to us was, ‘Could you please remove my picture because this is a private matter’,” said Gary Richards, who is also associated with Child Predators Most Wanted.

The photo was shared hundreds of times, and people reached out to the church and shared their outrage on social media.

“As a father, I can’t stand the thought of going to church and another man that touched another child is praying with my (children)…,” Richards said.

The church did respond and said in a statement:

“We remain resolved to the alignment of the scriptures. We have done our due diligence and find no fault in Deacon Andrew Wright based on our review. We would not Ordain someone if we believed he was a harm to our church, family and especially our children.”

“They’re using scripture to justify hurting a child, harming a child sexually,” Richards said.

Power for Living Ministries claims to be standing by their deacon, but all photos and comments of Wright have been removed from the church’s Facebook page.

Since the post that started it all, Wright has updated his status on the Megan’s Law site.

KRON reached out to the church multiple times, and they have yet to respond.