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Kentucky Southern Baptist leaders among hundreds accused of sex abuse
By Andrew Wolfson
Six Kentucky men are among roughly 380 Southern Baptist church preachers and volunteers accused of sexual abuse and misconduct over the past 20 years, two newspapers have reported. The Kentuckians named include a pastor, an associate pastor and four youth ministers, according to a database compiled by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News. There are 2,400 Southern Baptist churches in Kentucky. The newspaper report said the more than 300 named either were convicted or credibly accused, leaving behind more than 700 victims, many of them shunned by their churches or urged to forgive their abusers or to get abortions. About 220 offenders, including Sunday school teachers, deacons and pastor, were convicted or took plea deals, and dozens of cases are pending, the report says. Nearly 100 are still held in prisons across the U.S., more than 100 are registered sex offenders, and some still work in Southern Baptist churches today. Curtis Woods, co- interim executive director of the Kentucky Baptist Convention, said in a statement that “as a Christian leader and former child abuse prevention social worker, I grieve with thousands of Kentucky Baptist churches over the devastating effects of immorality in any sphere of human existence, especially when children are victimized by predatory adults." Woods, who also is an assistant professor of applied theology and biblical spirituality at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, added that "in any child abuse case, the best interest of the child should be the first line of defense. God-fearing Christians must see themselves as mandated reporters. There is no excuse.” The Kentucky church leaders identified were: • Joseph Niemeyer, a youth pastor at the Banklick Baptist Church in Walton, who was convicted last year of sodomy and sexual abuse and sentenced to 20 years in prison. According to press accounts, a prosecutor said Niemeyer raped and sexually abused a 5-year-old in his custody over four years. • Gordon H. Lunceford, a former youth minister at First Baptist Church in Lawrenceburg, who pleaded guilty in 2010 to an unlawful transaction with a minor and sexual misconduct many years earlier. He was sentenced to five years of probation. • David Glenn Boyd, pastor of Wheelwright Baptist Church in Floyd County, who was sentenced last year in federal court to 10 years in prison on child pornography charges. • Timothy Scott Richerson, a former youth pastor at Freedom Baptist Church in Campbellsville, was convicted in 2008 of enticement of a minor female and sentenced to 10 years in federal prison. He was released in 2016. • Jacob Allen Conder, a youth director at Wing Avenue Baptist Church in Owensboro, who was sentenced in 2017 to three years in prison for sexual misconduct there and during a field trip to Letcher County. The Daviess County charge stemmed from a sleepover at the church after which a 15-year-old girl accused Conder of fondling her, which led to two other girls coming forward with similar charges. • John Wayne Diehl, an associate pastor at Piner Baptist Church in Kenton County, who was sentenced in 2010 on four sodomy charges involving 17- and 15-year-old victims, according to a West Virginia sex-offender registry. He served roughly eight years before he was paroled. Spokesmen for the Kentucky Baptist Convention did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Texas newspapers reported that at least 35 church pastors, employees and volunteers who exhibited predatory behavior were still able to find jobs at churches during the past two decades. In some cases, church leaders allegedly failed to alert law enforcement about complaints or to warn other congregations about allegations of misconduct, according to the report. The news organizations found that many of the victims were adolescents who were molested, sent explicit photos or texts, exposed to pornography, photographed nude, or repeatedly raped by youth pastors. Some victims as young as 3 were molested or raped inside pastors' studies and Sunday school classrooms. A few were adults — women and men who sought pastoral guidance and instead say they were seduced or sexually assaulted. The investigation found that 250 people have been victimized since 2008, when Debbie Vasquez, who said she had been molested and impregnated decades earlier by her pastor, asked Southern Baptist officials and its 47,000 churches to track sexual predators and take actions against churches that harbored them. The newspapers said the Southern Baptist Convention rejected that and other reform measures in part because Baptist churches operate independently and the committee didn't have the authority to force them to report sexual abuse to a central registry. The newspapers quoted August "Augie" Boto, the committee's executive director, saying he was sorry to learn about the findings but that "what we're talking about is criminal" and "it's going to happen." He added: "That statement does not mean that we must be resigned to it." The newspaper said Vasquez implored Southern Baptist leaders to consider preventive measures like those adopted by the Roman Catholic Church. In 2002, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops approved the "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People that established zero tolerance of sexual abuse; required reporting of child sexual abuse to authorities; and prescribed a policy of transparency and promoting a safe environment for children." On Friday, Catholic Church leaders in Louisville released a list of 48 priests and members of religious orders credibly accused of sexual abuse, many of them previously disclosed in lawsuits and criminal prosecutions. The report released by the Archdiocese of Louisville was prepared by an independent reviewer who examined archdiocese files involving minors who were sexually abused by diocesan priests. It marked the first time Louisville's archdiocese has published such a list from its files. That 48 included: • 22 archdiocese priests with substantiated abuse allegations, • 14 priests and others who are members of various religious orders such as Franciscan Friars, and • 12 priests with allegations considered credible but in which there was insufficient information to fully investigate or confirm the report.
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