MARYLAND/KENTUCKY
The Courier-Journal
Posted on May 15, 2013 by Peter Smith
Church workers committed repeated acts of sexual and physical abuse on young children, conspired with their superiors to cover up such crimes and recruited juveniles to join in the abuse, according to a newly expanded lawsuit filed in Maryland against the Louisville-based Sovereign Grace Ministries.
The recently resigned chairman of the denomination, Maryland pastor John Loftness, is among those newly accused. Two plaintiffs — identified by name in the lawsuit, even as some plaintiffs remain identified by pseudonyms — allege that Loftness repeatedly sexually and physically abused them as young girls in past decades. A third plaintiff alleges that when he reported to Loftness that he was molested as a boy by an adult male member, Loftness allegedly told the boy to re-enact the alleged molestation, then later required the boy to meet with and forgive the abuser.
Loftness denies all allegations.
The 46-page lawsuit is the second amended version of one originally filed last year, seeking class-action status and accusing the denomination of systematically covering up sexual abuse in its ranks right up to the present. The church and its leaders allegedly permitted “the abuse of children to occur in church buildings, [a] school building and during church retreats and other events,” the lawsuit says.
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