Tag: allegations

Categories
News

NIFB Pastor Steven Anderson’s Son Alleges Years Of Domestic Abuse + ‘My dad used the same electrical cord on her that he used on us’

Following our story of controversial NIFB pastor Steven Anderson’s son Isaac alleging years of violent abuse and beatings against them as children, including kicking and stomping on him, another of his sons, John, has come forward to corroborate the claims of vicious beatings, as well as allege years of domestic abuse towards his mother.

Anderson is the firebrand KJV-Onlyist from Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, AZ. He’s known for his rigorous Independent Fundamentalist Baptist theology, hatred of Calvinism, the infamous “pisseth on a wall” clip, and open glee at the thought of homosexuals being killed; at one point, he had the dubious distinction of being banned from 34 countries, including every English-speaking developed country.

You don’t get to say things like, “If I had a button right here on this pulpit, I could just push this button and every fag would just fall over dead. I would push it until it breaks,” without raising a few eyebrows.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Dead Domain, John Anderson, Steven’s second oldest son who has completely cut off from the family after reporting them to Child Protective Services, outlines life in the Anderson household, alleging further beatings, a hypocritical and violent mother, and instances of domestic abuse (the two former will be featured in an article tomorrow)

He begins by telling of having discovered his father would hit and whip his mother with a cord.

“I’m pretty sure all my siblings know about this, they weren’t very good at hiding it. My dad used the same electrical cord on her that he used on us. And it was like, they would be screaming, they would be fighting whatever. And then it’d be like, ‘kids go out in the backyard’ or ‘kids go to your room.’

And then you would hear the sound of BAM BAM beating sounds. My mom’s screaming. Um, there were times when I would see like the mark (because) the electrical cord, it would leave this “C-shaped” mark on you, like the tip. And it was scabbed up red and inflamed.

It was like, I don’t know, it was like a bruise, right? But then the ring where it was, was like this bloody mark in the shape of it, and I would see those on her. So it was very, very clear what was happening.

My parents kind of hid it from us. It was always like a thing like all of us knew about. And then finally, after like a year, I talked to my siblings, I talked to my brother, Isaac,… I was like, ‘dude, like, am I tripping, or is dad beating mom? ‘ He’s like, ‘no, like, yeah, I’ve known too. that’s what’s happening.'”

He continues:

“But I know there were a couple of outbursts where he would just like, bam, hit her in a fight…there were a couple instances that I know where he just like, hit her. It wasn’t like the scheduled, like, beatings, or it’s like a system (in the) same way it was with us.

So my mom decided that she was done with him. And she wanted to leave him and get sole custody of the kids. And she wanted to basically so she came out better on the divorce, because then she’d be single parenting 12 kids, she wanted to get him put away for domestic abuse so she could get the house while he’s off in prison.

…And I was like, ‘you were 10 times more abusive than dad ever was. So if you go press charges and I get called in as a witness, I’m not going to lie under oath and say he never did anything, but I’m also not going to sugar coat or hide anything you did as well.”

Categories
News

Breaking: IHOPKC Leadership Address Mike Bickle Scandal ‘One Allegation From 26 Years Ago Has Some Credibility’ + See Statement

The leadership of IHOPKC issued a new statement this morning about the sexual assault allegations against Mike Bickle, saying that at least one of the claims from 26 years ago has “some credibility “while urging people to have patience with them as they sort it all out.

IHOPKC Executive Director Stuart Greaves, speaking at Forerunner’s Church, announced:

“Our executive leadership team and Mike Bickle agree that out of the best interests and integrity of IHOPKC, Mike will step away from public ministry for an indefinite time. up to and including and until we complete a thorough examination of the allegations and inquiry of the circumstances.

Mike has agreed to not engage in public ministry, our platform, attend our prayer room, nor engage in social media messaging.

As previously disclosed, there have been several allegations raised and we are taking this process very seriously. Firstly, to the women who have anonymously communicated allegations, we want to say that we value you and we pray you feel safe to come forward.

We have received a mix of artificial deadlines and ultimatums that have not been helpful as we seek the truth.

Regarding the allegations, so far there has been one allegation from 26 years ago that has some credibility. There are other allegations that have been more difficult to ascertain due in part to the fact that they are either anonymous or represented by third parties. Some of the alleged events predate the founding of IHOPKC.

Additionally, some of the women that were named in the allegations have publicly refuted that they were ever victims of abuse, and even denounced the representatives of the alleged victim group for using their names without permission.

But due to the variety of the nature of the allegations and our desire that all women involved would be well and fairly represented in this process, we have decided to bring an outside law firm in accordance with the best practices for evaluating accusations like these, the ELT has retained a national law firm Stinson LLP, to conduct an impartial examination of these allegations, with the goal of assessing their merit and advising the ELT regarding appropriate steps to take.

To be done with proper thoroughness and deliberation, this work will start immediately, but it will take time to complete. When this examination is completed, and based upon the findings, we will be able to determine what next steps should be taken towards healing.

As this continues to unfold, we want to be clear that our leadership team is open and not in any way opposed to getting even more additional outside independent help in the future.

We are starting first with this step to help initially assess the situation but plan to continue to pursue the truth with integrity guided by care for the alleged victims.

,See the full statement below:

Categories
News

Johnny Hunt Publicly Comments on Sex-Assault Scandal. Did He Fess Up?

Six months ago, First Baptist Church of Woodstock formally suspended Pastor Emeritus Johnny Hunt, 69, after being accused of sexually assaulting another pastor’s wife a decade earlier.

You can read more about the details here, but 12 years ago, while on vacation with another pastor and his wife, Hunt is accused of making inappropriate comments about her body, such as her tan lines. He then maneuvered himself into her room, where he is alleged to have pinned her to the couch, got on top of her, forcibly removed her clothes, groped her, and put his hands and mouth on her breasts and body.

She describes it as a sexual assault, and he says it was consensual. This is how he describes it:

The church was never told, and it was only revealed after a Guidepost Investigation.

Recently, his friends restored him back into ministry and he’s been making the preaching rounds since. He’s thoroughly rejected the notion that his actions have in any disqualified him from the ministry, all the while refusing to state plainly which parts were true and which parts false.

I’m trying to just not overthink this message. I’m trying not to come in prepared to say this or that. There’s parts I’ve just left to say, ‘God, wherever you lead.’ I don’t know why, but I am consumed with the thought (as) I’m laying in bed in my home here in Panama City Beach.

Some false allegations broke against me. They were some allegations that weren’t false. But the ones that were false were the damaging. The other would have been easier to survive.

I’m in bed and I‘m awakened by a cry, and my wife is weeping. And I wake up and I say, ‘Honey, I’m sorry. Are you okay?’ And she said. ‘They’ve ruined your life’. Just put a letter, they’ve ruined your life.

‘What are you trying to say?’ My soul was feigning. It was, I felt consumed. I was overwhelmed. I needed divine intervention. I found it even hard to pray.

Here’s what it means; the hour is urgent. The crisis is clear. God, don’t you see how great this is? It’s a great need. But yet- look at me, look at me- but not without hope….

h/t The Dissenter

Categories
News

Perry Stone Called ‘Nasty Perv’ During Church Service

During his Tuesday service, prophet Perry Stone was greeted with one unhappy congregant who, while he lamenting the fact that so many people had left their faith in recent years, shouted out from the back where the whole church could hear, according to the CFP:

“Probably because you keep touching them, you nasty perv! Why don’t you tell them the real reason why they left? Because you kept touching them.”

She’s not wrong. In July of 2020 took a sabbatical after 11 letters were sent to the Voice of Evangelism board of directors, as well as to the Chatanooga Free Press , all from women who worked for him They alleged that Stone would frequently engage in sexual harassment, including groping, making comments about their breasts, kissing them on the lips and on their necks, asking for massages, and texting them asking for pictures.

Stone would soon admit that he had “acted inappropriately with (women), and with words and sometimes actions” telling a small group of people in leaked audio:

“I confess at times I’ve been inappropriate in all this weariness of just non-stop ministry. I let my guard down and I’ve asked, of course, God to forgive me for that. I sat down with my family, with my beautiful, precious wife Pam, the love of my life. I asked her to forgive me. And I very humbly and very sincerely ask those who have been hurt or offended by my actions to, please, also forgive me for those things.”

ChattTimesFreePress · Perry Stone audio message about behavior with female employees

To the rest of his church, he and his board told a different story, saying that he took time off to be with family and work on a project of sorts, as well as for health concerns, not mentioning the allegations or his private confession.

The deception comes naturally to Stone, a radical charismatic ‘prophet’ who regularly claims to be receiving fresh words from God and apocalyptic prophesies on the daily. He oversees the Voice of Evangelism (VOE) Empire that brings in tens of millions of dollars a year, but is perhaps best known within discernment circles for checking his phone while speaking in tongues.

In response to the woman’s comments he sicced his security guards on her, shouting at her, as reported by the CFP.

“Ma’am, I’ll have you arrested, and I’ll bring a lawsuit against you for making statements like that! You’ve talked to people who told 16 lies on my wife and I! That’s who you’ve been talking to.

He then told the crowd:

“I am not a perfect man. People have taken me hugging and kissing them on the cheek wrong. I quit that. I’m Italian. My whole family holds hands, rubs backs. I didn’t know you can look at somebody and say, ‘Hey, how you doing?’ and they can take it wrong.”

Categories
Breaking Charismatic Nonsense Featured Scandal

Breaking! Hillsong Boston Pastor Alleges She Was Sexually Assaulted by Carl Lentz

One of the lead ‘pastors’ at Hillsong Boston, Leona Kimes, has come forward and claimed that she was sexually assaulted by disgraced NYC Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz back when she was his nanny in New York City, a claim which Lentz denies.

Kimes, who served as Lentz’s personal nanny for 7 years before moving to Boston and becoming a ‘pastor’ there [Editors note: That is a weird transition], explains in a Medium post that:

Before we moved to Boston, I worked in the lead pastors’ home for seven years. I was responsible for cleaning their house, running their errands and ensuring that everything within the walls of their house was as perfect as possible. It was also my responsibility to take care of the pastors’ children, which, in order to protect their privacy, I won’t talk about.

While there were joyful moments during that time, no one knew that I also experienced a great deal of pain. During the years I spent serving them, I was subjected to manipulation, control, bullying, abuse of power, and sexual abuse. Having told almost no one before this, I am just now able to share what I experienced in their home as the result of intense therapy.

Describing the first few years of working for the Lentz family and being part of their home as “exhilarating but also exhausting,” she quickly became attached and felt like she had to care for their entire family, being part of it almost. But then things began taking a dark turn.

The abuse of power started small. Hours would increase beyond belief. Often I would work from 7 am to 11 pm. Schedules were switched last minute without even attempting to confirm my availability. Tasks kept getting added and added to my load. They made fun of me constantly, even calling me Cinderella, which they said was their way of loving me. My husband was frequently criticized as a group sport. Gossip was constant. If I didn’t join in or if I disagreed, I was the odd one out. Classic bullying.

The sexual abuse started small, too. My pastor would look at me and say, “Gurl, you’re looking good. You’ve been in the gym?” There was a lot of flirty teasing like this. I had been around long enough to know that’s just how he was with women. But after a while, the comments started to escalate. I remember being told, “after you have kids, we’ll buy you a boob job.” Looking back, I know I felt embarrassed, but I didn’t know it was wrong then. It hadn’t occurred to me that I had a right to not be spoken to like that, by my pastor or anyone else.

Kimes describes how Lentz would frequently comment on her body and would make flirtatious comments towards her. At one point, “he took my photo while I was laying out in the sun once. He then cropped out his wife, edited it with a black and white filter, and texted it to me, saying “sheesh girl looking good.”

After a while, the asks began to get more intimate. As part of her duties as their nanny, he began asking her for massages, to rub his feet or shoulders and sore muscles after he came in from basketball.

While he never had intercourse with me and never kissed me, I was physically violated by his unwanted and repeated sexual touching of my intimate areas. I froze. Every time, I froze.

He offered to accompany me to the doctor with his sick son once and he touched me while I was driving, both hands on the wheel. Again, I froze.

He suggested accompanying me to a movie with the kids and sat next to me and touched me in the dark, even though we were surrounded by people. Again, I froze.

After a while, Kimes could not take it anymore. Nearly 5 years in she finally confronted both Carl and wife Laura regarding the inappropriate touching and suggestive text messages. The first time was in the summer of 2016. Instead of apologizing profusely, they choose to “blame and silence her,” but enabled her to keep her job. When things didn’t get any better, she confronted them a year later.

[Carl] sat me down and said he took full responsibility for taking advantage of me and putting me in a situation that was so heavy for me. He told me that I should feel “free” from him and the shame I’d been carrying around. He said he’d thought about confessing to leadership, but after talking it through with his wife, they decided they didn’t have to because it wasn’t necessary, and we could just move on. I was told that if his reputation was ruined, my reputation would be, too. He said his wife would come and talk to me about the boundaries we would have moving forward.

When his wife sat me down, she told me that I should repent and dismissed me from all of my duties in the house. I’d been fired from their family, but not from their staff. I felt like it was my fault, leaving me full of shame. I wasn’t given another role, and thought we could resolve it, though I wasn’t sure how. I just knew we were all going to keep quiet.

Soon after she left New York and she and her husband Josh became ‘pastors’ of Hillsong Boston, where they’ve been leading the congregation there since. After Lentz’s affair was revealed and he was fired from the church and she felt “safe,” she told her husband and Hillsong head honcho Brian and Bobbie Houston about it. She says she was “met with compassion” by the both of them and has now chosen to go public after a time in therapy and self-reflection.

The knowledge of this alleged victimization is likely the cause of Houston blasting Lentz by saying in leaked audio months ago that “It was more than one affair, they were significant. And at least some bad moral behavior had gone back historically.”

In an exclusive statement to RNS, A legal representative for Carl and Laura Lentz has responded to her allegations and told RNS that they “vehemently deny the allegations, and in addition to that, have irrefutable proof the events did not happen as they are being described.”

Categories
Featured News Scandal

Longtime RZIM Staffer Describes how Senior Leadership Obfuscated Ravi Sex Scandals for Years

A longtime employee of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) has released an Op-ed in the Christian Post detailing how the Board of Trustees and Senior leadership obfuscated, covered up, and/or swept under the rug accusations and information about the late apologist’s perverse appetites.

Carson Weitnauer, who has worked at RZIM for the last seven years and functions as their their “Innovation and Ministry Partner Specialist” describes a history of close ties and a sense of honor he felt by interacting with Zacharias and other apologists, and now the sick feeling of betrayal he has after the team investigating the allegations confirmed that the rumors were true.

In August 2017, the ministry team at RZIM was informed that a greedy couple in Canada had identified Ravi as a target for extortion – and felt no scruples in falsely accusing Ravi. Taking advantage of his friendly, even naïve, approach to people, they had conspired together to defraud him of millions of dollars. Through prayer meetings and regular updates on these “Satanic attacks,” we managed to get through this trial with renewed unity and commitment to our mission.

As we sometimes heard troubling details that suggested Ravi was guilty of what he had been accused of, it was a relief to hear that his incriminating emails were taken out of context, that exculpatory material had been reviewed by the board, and that his courageous RICO lawsuit had put an end to their falsehoods with a non-disclosure agreement.

We gave thanks that Ravi’s bold leadership had freed us to focus once more on the ministry God had called us to. Convinced of this narrative, I served at RZIM with great passion and joy, and then wept and grieved for weeks when Ravi’s health unexpectedly declined, followed by his death in May of 2020.

Though Weitnauer says he was relieved to hear the emails were taken out of context, we wonder what “proper context” would possibly justify Ravi threatening to kill himself if Lori Ann Thompson told her husband about their relationship?

Weitnauer states that he became convinced in Sept 2020 that “Ravi had personally and repeatedly lied to me and others in the ministry about his relationship with her” and confesses that like others, his “longing for the approval of others” kept him from “asking hard questions and accepting the painful truth much sooner.”

As he was coming to the understanding, the bombshell report that we first published exploded in the public. These were new allegations that Ravi was importing masseuses into his spas and was sexually molesting them, a story uncovered by Steve Baughman.

Weitnauer continues:

As I discussed these revelations with colleagues at the ministry this fall, I have often felt discouraged. A senior leader took the initiative to email me, saying, “While I agree that we should remain transparent with the truth, I don’t think repeating potential lies or passing on judgment are qualities we want to embody at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.”

And despite an obvious conflict of interest, members of the family have actively spoken out in Ravi’s defense, while Ravi’s daughter has guided us through this crisis with the unwavering support of the board and senior leadership. Yet the day after I asked her a series of questions about the non-disclosure agreement between the Thompsons and the Zacharias estate, two senior leaders challenged me on the propriety of my questions. Unfortunately, I have heard similar stories from other colleagues within the ministry. It is only a matter of time before their voices are heard.

While I believe most of my colleagues are not only talented but earnestly committed to serving God, we have been badly misled by our secretive board and senior leaders. If the damage to our witness can be repaired at all, it will take a humiliating acknowledgment of our complicity and shame, as well as an earnest and sacrificial repentance. We will need to implement new processes and learn how to build a culture that cherishes accountability, transparency, and humility.

We could not agree more that the board acts in secrecy and has no transparency whatsoever, being a major part of the problem. What have they done to this point, other than hide cover-up, and lie?

After we broke the story about the allegations, RZIM sent us a statement saying that it was virtually impossible to investigate the claims. This was strange, given that his accusers were still alive, including his business partner who has made the accusation, and in fact still lived in the same city as RZIM headquarters.

Consequently, the ability to investigate was not “virtually impossible” but rather “imminently doable.” They just didn’t want to, and it was only when a larger news source like Christianity Today picked up the story three weeks later that they were forced to do so.

One of the challenges with this organization is that the Senior Leadership of RZIM and the Board are staffed with several of Ravi’s family members, but we have no idea which ones or how many, as RZIM does not make this public, recommending a drastic overhaul of the apologetic organization. This is why it’s not sufficient to investigate just Ravi but rather the board that helped hide and conceal his potentially criminal misdeeds.

Weitnauer agrees.

…RZIM must change its name, remove Ravi’s material, repent for its many failures, and provide a restorative response to the harm that Ravi’s victims experienced. The depth of complicity by the board and senior leadership in this cover-up must be clearly established. Finally, an organization with credibility in the survivor community must be hired to do a thorough assessment of the organization and its culture, and their proposals for reform will need to be implemented.

Categories
Charismatic Nonsense Conspiracy Featured Heresies News Scandal

2018 Sex Scandals at Hillsong NY were ‘Mostly True’ Say Church Officials

Hillsong has responded to allegations made in 2018 about widespread and pervasive sexual promiscuity and sexual contact between certain church staff members and interns and parishioners at Carl Lentz’s old stomping grounds at Hillsong NYC, acknowledging that much of the scandals were true, but that they had been dealt with and action was taken.

The report, in a nutshell, claimed that “Hillsong staffers used the church like a seedy dating service, ‘sleeping around’ with volunteers and asking them to send nude pictures.”

In a statement to the Christian Post, Hillsong officials explained in part:

In February of 2018, Hillsong Church received a letter with serious allegations regarding specific members of the Hillsong NYC volunteer and staff teams. We were very concerned to learn that any church member, volunteer or staff member would feel unsafe. Immediately, we launched a comprehensive three-month inquiry into the claims made in the letter.

Sadly, we learned that some of the allegations were true. In response, our team took immediate action to address those allegations. Though some of the letter’s allegations were found to be inaccurate, we realized that those situations required care and concern as well…

We created a Team Code of Conduct, which now serves as the standard of ethics for every volunteer who serves at any Hillsong East Coast locations. We also created a team relations department to help us examine any future allegations of volunteer or staff misconduct that violate our Code of Conduct…”

The response from Hillsong comes in light of new allegations of sexual impropriety from their former pastor Carl Lentz. We revealed last week that a longtime employee of the Lentz family walked in on him and a young pop star “making sex sounds” and emerging disheveled from a bedroom where they were alone and didn’t realize anyone was home.

Lentz has reportedly recently been dropped by his PR firm and is in counseling for “pastoral burnout.”

Categories
Breaking Evangelical Stuff News World Headlines

New Testimony in Ravi Zacharias Sex Scandal: Exposed as Pervert and Molester

Christianity Today brought wide attention to a story we’ve had at Protestia for weeks now, which is the allegations of sexual misconduct against the late famed Christian apologist and RZIM founder, Ravi Zacharias against members of his staff at Jivan Spa, a business he owned with partner Anurag Sharma.

We’ve been attesting for years now that Zacharias has been involved in some truly debauched behavior, writing as far back as early 2018 about allegations of sexual misconduct, and how Zacharias’ sexting scandal story simply did not make sense to anyone paying attention. Since then we have periodically updated with whatever new findings we gained.

In fact, we were roasted over the coals and widely condemned for including this paragraph in his obituary: “The final years of Zacharias’ ministry were marred by credible accusations of a cyber affair between he and a female follower of his ministry and the discovery that RZIM had inflated Zacharias academic credentials in its promotional materials.”

We received howls of condemnation for daring to sully his good name, and were told that obituaries were only reserved for happy memories.

Now, CT has done some rare good work and expanded a story that we had begun and helped break several weeks ago. Here are a few salient portions from the story, which describes allegations of witness testimony from the women he had in his employment:

Three women who worked at the businesses, located in a strip mall in the Atlanta suburbs, told Christianity Today that Ravi Zacharias touched them inappropriately, exposed himself, and masturbated during regular treatments over a period of about five years…

CT has verified the identities and job histories of the three women. They shared their stories under the condition that they not be named, fearing the stigma of coming forward as victims and possible retribution for harming the reputation of a famous Christian leader. They spoke with CT by phone multiple times over the past five weeks, and CT heard from three coworkers at the spas who corroborated elements of their accounts.

The third woman said that after Zacharias exposed himself several times, he asked her to massage his groin area and moved her hand there. It is possible that his back injury caused pain in that area, she said, so she complied with his request even though it made her uncomfortable.

By that point, they had talked for hours in the private massage rooms, the woman said. He had asked about her life, and she had told him everything from her career aspirations and her struggles as a single mother to her childhood relationship with Jesus and how she had been sexually abused.

The woman felt that Zacharias was ministering to her and “there was a holiness around him.” She thought she was, in turn, helping him and felt compelled to go along to an extent.

Then Zacharias tried to move her hand to his penis, the woman told CT. She refused and turned away as he masturbated. The next time she gave him a massage he exposed himself again and masturbated again. By her account, this happened more than 50 times over the next three years.

He would say, ‘I need it. I need it. I need it,’ the woman recalled. He would say he needed it so much and it was good therapy.

Zacharias asked her to have sex with him. Both times, she refused because he was married. He told her that he dreamed of being able to leave his ministry and his life as an apologist behind to live a normal, private life. But he couldn’t because this was his ‘burden,’ the woman recalled.


‘He would expose himself every time, and he would touch himself every time,’ one of the women told CT. ‘It was where he went to get what he wanted sexually.’

Zacharias masturbated in front of one of the women more than 50 times, according to her recollection. He told her he was burdened by the demands of the ministry, and he needed this ‘therapy.’ He also asked her to have sex with him twice, she said, and requested explicit photos of her.

Sharma, an IT professional, met Zacharias in the mid-1990s. In one conversation, recorded by someone not associated with the spas, Sharma describes himself as Zacharias’s close friend. Even after the business relationship ended, they continued to talk until the day Zacharias died, he said.

‘He had no friends, and he needed somebody to talk to,’ Sharma said. ‘He was very sad about all his demons, and he said that was the condition of the human heart.’


This is one of the rare occasions where we would encourage our readers to read the long article from Christianity today, as it largely echoes what we’ve already said, but provides much more detail of the allegations. The whole article is here.

As far as what that means for his legacy, the investigation that is supposedly taking place, how we should view his conversion in light of eternity, and the fact that he went to the grave seemingly in unacknowledged, unrepented of, a gross moral failing; we can only pray that he learned enough of the gospel during his time teaching it to have truly believed it at the end.