LOUISVILLE (KY)
Louisville Courier Journal
February 12, 2019
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.
Archdiocese of Louisville report:48 Louisville priests, others accused of sex abuse
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
Joseph Niemeyer (Photo: Kentucky Corrections Department)
• 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.
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