TENNESSEE
The Tennessean
Written by
Bob Smietana
The Tennessean
A Franklin pastor known for promoting corporal punishment has been accused of physically abusing a woman for 25 years, beginning during her childhood.
The Rev. Larry Tomczak, an associate pastor at Bethel World Outreach Church in southern Davidson County near Brentwood, was named in a Maryland lawsuit filed against leaders of Sovereign Grace Ministries, a denomination he helped found in the 1980s.
The suit was originally filed in October by three alleged victims of abuse and was amended Friday to add five others. All eight were given pseudonyms.
It alleges that Tomczak, who lives in Franklin, and other church leaders covered up sexual abuse in the denomination and at a Christian school in Gaithersburg, Md., in the 1980s and 1990s.
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