The Police Report
August 20, 2015 in Sovereign Grace Ministries
Someone obtained a copy of the police report relating to Gene Emerson’s arrest on solicitation charges.
Here is the first page (click to enlarge): [WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT/LANGUAGE]
Here is the second page (click to enlarge):
and the third page (click to enlarge):
© 2015, Kris. All rights reserved.
I wonder if CLC will be quiet and not say anything about this? Will be interesting.
A possibility is that he molested someone else’s child.
Correction. The other case on file does state vacate the home so it does appear he is being charged with doing what he did to someone in his own family.
He has risen, indeed!
Oswald – “He is risen,indeed !
Somewhereintime – Thank you for sharing and Happy Easter .
Wow, I am just seeing the testimony video. Let me just say that it is incredulous, though not surprising how my character was demonized by Ennis. Just for the record, yes, I am a convicted felon. After being separated from my family and dropped off and left at a shelter for juvenile delinquents, my new “family” of acquaintances/friends for the next several years as a “throwaway youth” were various young people who were far more street savy than I. I found myself very vulnerable and gullible to their influence and do not deny that I was in trouble several times by association with other teens who were used to surviving in shadier ways than I had ever know. I was learning how to survive as well. I did purchase a gun once from someone, thinking it would help me to protect myself from a sexually aggressive male living in one of my foster homes. I didn’t know how to use it and I ended up turning it in to a social worker and officer. Turns out the gun was stolen (long before I bought it) and a deal was made to plea to possession of stolen property. I am not a thief. I have never ever used drugs. I hung out with drug dealers as a teenager trying to find my way, and ended up convicted of a trafficking charge as a result of my association. Since that incident 20 some years ago I have never had a single run in with the law. My history, if anything, is not atypical for someone who has been exposed to what I was for those formative years. While I accept responsibility for every action I have ever done, even out of ignorance and naivety as a teenager in tumultuous circumstances, I also know much of it would have never ever happened or been remotely possible had I not been thrown-away as I was. Make no mistake — there were some things I didn’t understand but what I knew very clearly and full well that I was being sent elsewhere because I had not heeded Loftness warning to remain silent about what had happened in my family. My siblings were placed with families at first because they were too young to tell anyone. I was turned over to the state (who was told by pastors there was no where for me to go within the church). The rest of my siblings weren’t in state custody until later when the church attempted to help Dave get custody, and the state took them all specifically to prevent a child molester from getting custody of a bunch of little girls just because he was more financially capable than the mother at the time. This lady Ennis is just unbelievable in her assessment of the entire lawsuit and lacks any compassion for the victims. I felt sorry for people still in the church, so blinded by the system, but I am beginning to think the remaining members and pastors deserve each other. Her testimony against the bill is laughable and obvious in its agenda. I also want to say her attempt to track down and verbally intimidate and interrogate victims is intolerable and a reflection of her lack of basic decency and character.
EX-CLCer: You have my admiration; I am outraged at what happened to you and your family. I am so very, very sorry for what you have suffered. CLC was not my church; we didn’t live in that area, but the two times I visited there, I was both impressed and repelled.
When reading the latest CLC alleged abuser story, a few things crossed my mind. It seemed clear on the police info that he is being accused of molesting a child from the date of his daughter’s fifth birthday to the last day of 2014. My heart aches for this child and her mother; Brent added a note to say he had been told the perp was turned in by his wife. Good for her — I can’t imagine what she is going through. I hope CLC gives her financial and spiritual help of the greatest kind.
Anyone who read what looks to me like a narcissistic vanity-press book had to know that this man had a ‘fear’ of sexually abusing a daughter. In other words, he wanted / fantasized / pictured himself sexually abusing a young female. The idea that incestuous sexual abuse is completely different than other sex abuse, from what I have read, is nonsense. If family victims are available, it is much easier & more convenient to abuse them – and easier to control their silence. However, if family victims are not available, perps will look elsewhere.
The fact that the pastors knew of this man’s temptation (what he called fear) but did not see it as a disqualification for working in children’s ministry is almost unbelievable. Either they were naive and uneducated enough to think that other females were safe because what he really wanted was incest; or they were just plain stupid enough to swallow the grace and mercy verbiage spouted and printed in the self-published cesspool of Narcissa. Publication of this book was nothing more than a manipulation tactic. “See what a great guy I am? I told you I had this perversion, but I have ‘pulled myself up by my bootstraps’ (guess the pastor/editors missed that blatant self-promoting statement) and have been cured. This’ll protect me in court.”
This man did not have a daughter till 1999 when he was 49; and apparently began the abuse when she was around 5 years old. Yet he wrote years earlier that he had a ‘fear’ of sexually abusing a daughter. If I were a detective, I’d be wondering who he targeted prior to these charges, because 54 years is a long time to go before acting out on a perversion.
You know, I have heard a lot of confessions from men — but never once have I heard a man say he had a ‘fear’ of sexually abusing a daughter. I haven’t spent any time in men’s locker rooms, but I’d be willing to bet that’s one that’s not often bandied about and if told, might get one punched where it hurts.
Pastors, pay attention. If a guy ever tells you he has a ‘fear’ of sexually abusing his daughter, make sure all the children are safe, then reach for the phone and call a professional sex counselor. This is the highest and brightest red flag I have ever seen.
Lord, help that poor child and her mother, and in Jesus name, please bring an end to the diabolical epidemic of sexual perversion. Amen.
ex-CLCer, you ARE a hero. I hope you hear that and KNOW that. You have more strength than the lot of them. I know there’s no way I could have dealt with what you went through as well as you did. I can’t even imagine the years you walked through.
Thank you for coming here and sharing. Wish we could have been there for you when you were a girl. Really, really, really wish that.
“This is the highest and brightest red flag I have ever seen.”
I’m not looking forward to hearing how things have changed so much and how children are now safe. Mind boggling how the pastors there can claim they are watching out for the children. After his confession of fear, the pastors should have made sure he was not alone in the church. Or, around any girls, at all. If a man confessed to me he had a fear of sexually abusing a girl, sure as heck he’d NEVER be alone around any girl if I had anything to do with it. What is wrong with the pastors who had ever read his book or heard his confession and still let him walk the halls of that church unfettered or be in homegroup without everyone (lovingly & sensitively) being made aware of what could be his struggle. I would applaud someone for having the courage to admit this is a struggle. Someone that brave, if they were wise, would welcome the company of other adults at all times which children were around.
Nickname said: “EX-CLCer: You have my admiration; I am outraged at what happened to you and your family. I am so very, very sorry for what you have suffered.”
Stunned said: “ex-CLCer, you ARE a hero. I hope you hear that and KNOW that. You have more strength than the lot of them. I know there’s no way I could have dealt with what you went through as well as you did. I can’t even imagine the years you walked through.
Thank you for coming here and sharing. Wish we could have been there for you when you were a girl. Really, really, really wish that.”
exCLCer,
I echo the sentiments expressed above. I am also sorry people like Charlotte Ennis continue to attack you in a twisted attempt to defend the indefensible – namely, Covenant Life Church and their past and present delusional, pompous leaders. That Charlotte Ennis, herself a sexual abuse victim at the age of seven, would attack you is, to borrow a phrase she used, egregious and bizzare. It is also cruel and heartless.
I have would like to place your comment on a post I have written about CLC members Charlotte Ennis and Terry Mayo testifying in opposition to extending the statute of limitations for victims of sexual abuse in Maryland. If you have no objections please let me know. I believe a “Spotlight” needs to be turned on CLC.
https://thouarttheman.org/2016/03/11/womendefendclcatstatehearing/
exCLCer – I, too, echo the comments above about you, and would like to add that while it was good to hear your comments and be reminded of the details of your story – you didn’t have to say anything. What an added burden – 20+ years later, you have to defend yourself yet again. So sorry…
And social services would not permit anyone from the church to take in you or your siblings because of the pastors’ support of the child molester – I either missed that detail before now or it’s just now registering, but wow, so the pastors didn’t simply fail to support your mom and your family, their actions shut down help already in place. What an indictment.
I don’t know if this has been mentioned before but one reason is pretty obvious why CLC Pastors Gary Ricucci and John Loftness wouldn’t want to reach out and find families to care for them within CLC.
With the children being gone and out of sight, less questions are asked. It is more like the family just disappeared and thus less questions are asked. With the children needing to be cared for (that were too young to understand what actually happened) a lot of members would start asking questions about what happened and would risk the truth coming out. With older children like exCLCer they probably would have even shared with the hosting CLC family what Dave Adams actually did.
Thus apparently the CLC pastors at the expense of these children found it prudent to not to help the children so as to keep Dave Adams actions of molesting his step daughter a secret. What a shame the damage done this family all in their wanting to keep up the image of CLC assuming this was their true motive.
Well one sad thing is that it did work for a while. Dave Adams’ sins were hid for quite a while and Dave was able to go and marry another CLC woman and start a new family. It wasn’t till fairly recently that this sad truth came out surprising most of CLC.
@Todd – I have no objection.
One thing people may be forgetting is that Nate Morales was definitely connected to the church. He was not only a member of CLC but was also a high school teacher at MCCA where CLC sent all their youth after 6th grade. He also was one of the junior youth pastors FOR CLC in the frat style youth group called ADO under Chris Glass. Many of the “sleepovers” were CLC youth group events. His crimes were reported to CLC youth pastors who did not report to authorities. The suggestion that he was not connected to the church is a blatant and flagrant attempt to mislead and they know it!
Yes, it is unbelievable to me that here we are 20 years later and I am having to defend my own character as a teenager, especially in response to people who seem to have no character at all. Thank you to those who commented, refuting attempts to disparage me. I am okay with who I turned out to be. This recent seething from individuals like Ennis is just a small reminder of the hatred and contempt my family definitely experienced from this church and many of its leaders and some of its members.
Persona said “I am convinced they covered-up up the whole case to keep the church ‘untarnished’ by the examples of the child molestation and ‘unsubmissiveness’ of Dave’s wife. The pastors measured all such cases in their value to teach the church the ‘proper’ way to approach sin.”
Exactly that. Spot on.
Charlottes testimony, imo, is just proof that nothing has changed there. This is sad, because despite her assertion that the lawsuit was about money, it was always only about forcing changes that would protect the children there since the church was unwilling to do so.
By the way, Dave Adams actually went to live with Dave Mayo after my mother exposed his crimes.
Now, @just saying…..
Clearly (unfortunately, if you ask me) the pastors did NOT literally “kill themselves” trying to keep us out of foster care. However, their efforts to do so for years were solely based on trying to get Dave custody (of the younger children only of course) so that he wouldn’t have to pay child support or alimony to my mother (more $ for the church). Had my mother been able to get adequate support right away she would’ve been in a much better position to have the children come home right away but Dave (along with the pastors every step of the way) fought the child custody issue which was combined with the divorce case, needlessly prolonging the case and prolonging the foster care of my siblings, making sure their warning of “self-induced poverty” for my family came to fruition. Dave was only in jail for 9 months. When he came home it was him and other pastors who were incessantly calling CPS to try to disparage my mother to help Dave get custody. So brazen about it they often didn’t even bother to do it anonymously. The family court case went on for YEARS after his conviction, with the pastors testifying at every hearing as character witnesses for Dave, writing letter sot the court, pushing for overnight visitation and even custody for him, and fighting the support request unless my mother agreed to allowing overnight visitations and even fighting my mother’s insistence that any visitation be supervised. The thing is, Dave made enough money to support the family. We were already in public school. If the church hadn’t imposed themselves in trying to fight the support and custody case, it wouldn’t have even been a situation where THEY even needed to financially help my family stay together. All they had to do at that point was butt out. (Out there said “But it looks more to me like CLC was insisting that Dave to be the sole solution to the problem, when, in fact, he was the problem…”. Yes – this exactly…EXACTLY. ) I remember when Dave and my mother had to submit financial statements to the court in the fight to make him pay support, and his financial statement included things like clothing entertainment costs, and my mother sobbing on the phone about how this man could consider entertainment costs legitimate while we, the kids, were eating bowls of rice for dinner. You said: “The children…all of them…were precious and loved.” – oh please, GTFOH with that nonsense. We were pawns for the church in the whole situation and I was aware of that even then. I wasn’t so young that I didn’t know or don’t remember clearly.
You said ”The children were not sent into foster care because the father abused the daughter. They were not sent into foster care because the church did anything. They were sent to foster care because CPS determined PA was unable to take care of all those children. It was entirely based on the mother’s circumstances alone.” What do you think caused my mother’s “circumstances”??? CPS determined my mother wasn’t able to take care of all the children ALONE. Without financial support. Duh. You’re right – it was “telling” that some of us weren’t able to ever go home – but your reasoning is wrong. The divorce and child support case dragged on for so long that by the time it was settled and provided my mother with a reasonable order for support, some of us had aged out or were so deeply damaged by the whole separation and situation that we were considered children in need to therapeutic placement by then. So in fact, you don’t know what you’re talking about and we will never understand, as you say, “how much so many people loved them and tried for so long to protect them” because that is exactly what DID NOT happen.
See, it’s not even about the lack of help provided by the church – it was their intentional undermining of my mother and us kids in their continued legal support of Dave that prevented my family from recovering from the situation for so many years. If they had just stayed out of the whole thing altogether and allowed the family court system to do what it is there for we wouldn’t have spent so many years apart.
You said: “I don’t know what PA has told her children. I don’t know what the children told each other. I don’t know what went on behind closed doors”. Now that’s absolutely true – you don’t know. Please reread your own words. You don’t know. You seem to have a lot to say for someone who admittedly doesn’t know. I was there. I know.
It is amazing that Pat Ennis says she is testifying to protect people falsely accused – but Dave Adams admitted to the crime. Funny how my record as a teenager makes me, in her estimation, unbelievable, but convicted child molesters are somehow immune from that same additional scrutiny? I just love how anyone can even be judgy as to what any of us did or didn’t do after the fact. I’d love to know how she or anyone else thinks they would have fared – as a naive teen, taken from everything you knew, shuffled around shelters and other temporary placements (hospitals, group homes, juvenile lock ups, and drug rehabs despite having NEVER committed any crimes at that point, and having never done any drugs)…. How would you have reacted having spent your 16th birthday, sedated, in a locked psychiatric ward after having an outburst lamenting when you were being unfairly placed in a facility for delinquents when you hadn’t done anything wrong? Or put yourself in my mother’s shoes – what would you have done – all your kids separated from you – after almost dying from exhaustion trying to work to support them all, and having to fight the giant church and their legal team to keep your children out of the hands of an admitted molester, having to choose between giving your kids up to the state or to a molester because of unnecessary poverty?
So judge on if you want, but just know that you sound ridiculous in your judgment and I pity you and any others who would continue to try to find any flimsy justification for the leaders they still follow and the awful people they still defend and can only do so by trying to discredit the victims of those people. Shame.
Now now, no need for anybody to get upset here. PJ Smyth is going to lay hands on the people at CLC and they will speak in tongues, and a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit will fall, and everything will be fine as they all go forth in power and victory….. without any public repentance for the past…that would be oh so fleshly and backward looking.
I hope PJ is bring his own crack legal team when he takes up permanent residence. Methinks he’s going to have a really challenging time proving that CLC is not an incubator for sexual predators.
ExClCer: I hope you write or speak for lots of money. You are a talented, articulate communicator. It is a crying shame that this mess is what you are having to write about. It is a crying shame that this matter was even mentioned again in a way that you had to defend yourself and your mother.
The criminals in this situation are NOT you, your mom, and siblings. Victim-blaming is an outdated and horrific thing to do. I think of a young girl who was murdered in an out-of-the-way place, and the people who self-righteously cried out, “she had no business being there.” It doesn’t matter whether she was right or wrong in being at that place at that time. It is still not her fault that a criminal decided to kill her. It is NEVER anyone else’s fault that someone chooses to commit a heinous act. Yes, it is smart to avoid going places where criminals lurk, but it is not a victim’s fault even if drug deals, prostitution, etc. are going on. This kind of ‘you get what you deserve’ is what has happened to EX-Clc’ers mother. This thinking is graceless, merciless, and un-Christian.
Sometimes it’s hard to see the trees for the forest, so let’s just spell it out. The church leaders were wrong. Let’s face it. No excuses. They were WRONG. They protected a child molester and threw the damaged wife and children to the wolves. They aggrandized themselves as authorities on a level commensurate with the Word of God, expecting their parishioners to obey them as if they were the Lord; and when the wife recognized this blasphemy, they used their heinous tactics to punish her. Where was the wisdom of Solomon when it came to this woman’s children? Like the woman with the child who was to be divided, she sacrificed her own comfort for her childrens’ safety, knowing that their affluence and their very souls were not to be paid for by handing their bodies to a child molester.
Please, let’s hand EX-CLCer and her mom their dignity back. “The church is the army that shoots its own wounded.” Never more true than in this case. When will we ever learn?
Ex-CLCer, I am so very, very sorry. You are an amazing person who, as a child, had to fight a giant. God bless you in every way.
Wow, thanks for sharing exCLCer. That is powerful. I just finished reading a book that sounds a lot like what you went through. It is called “Escape” by Carolyn Jessop. She managed to extricate herself from the Fundamental LDS sect that believes in polygamy.
Somehow comparing the FLDS and CLC/SGM seems appropriate.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/818811.Escape
This is all so sad. I actually was living in the neighborhood when all this happened, but didn’t really know the Adams family and didn’t know what was going on, of course. And I was pretty young so not in a position to do anything or help out.
I totally agree that the new pastor of CLC needs to repent for the past, let the church do intensive soul searching, and repent to people who have been wronged. That would be a very good start and then maybe CLC could really move forward in the spirit.
Former CLCer, Amen!
I’ll tell a short little story about a church I knew. A new minister came to lead it. Not even a permanent leader, but a temporary minister who was only there for a few short months. Six I believe.
While he was there he heard a tale. A whisper of two young girls who had maybe been hurt decades before. I don’t know how he heard. No one that I knew of in that church knew of it. So how did he? I don’t know. But he heard a whisper of it from someone.
Now as a temporary church leader he could walk away, pretend because it had happened years ago, he could ignore it. He had had NOTHING to do with the church when this whisper of maybe something happening had gone on. He had not lived in the area. Probably not even in the state.
But he loved God and God he loved humans. And he knew God loved people.
That was about it. That was his qualification. Why he did what he did next.
He got a hold of the women who he had heard whispered had maybe been hurt by someone in the church. He contacted the authorities about this whisper, this story.
He started asking questions in the church. He started opening doors which had been shut for decades. He started shedding light and allowing the authorities to shed light on situations that had only known darkness and secrecy.
This guy who was only going to be there a short time anyway.
Because he loved God. Because he loved people. (The two qualifications which really matter to be a pastor. The two qualifications that, if you don’t have, should instantly DISqualify you from the ministry.)
The man who had hurt these two (and as it turns out many more) was hunted down. Found somewhere in Asia. In an orphanage. “Helping” little kids. Though I suspect, truly, helping himself to little kids.
He was brought back to the little courtroom in the little county where these whispers had happened. Decades ago. Forty decades ago.
He stood trial. Not for most of his crimes, as they had past the statute of limitations but for two of them, it was still in the nick of time.
He was found guilty. He was sentenced. On the day of the sentence, I was there in the courtroom. Along with many people whom I’ve known since I was little. Some strangers. All who knew this man who had hurt others.
And what did this new temporary church leader do? The one who was only there for a short time and was going to leave soon? Did he sigh and say, “It’s all over now?”
Not on your life.
He asked the court if they would loan him a large room, after the sentencing hearing was over. He asked us all to come into the room. He talked to us. He repented to all the victims on behalf of the church, who had kept silent. On behalf of the former senior pastor (whom this temporary pastor had never met.) He took the former pastor’s place and said all the words the former pastor should have said. With the heart the former pastor should have said them with. He invited everyone in that room to speak. Say their story. Introduce themselves IF they wanted to.
He repented. And listened. And believed. And loved. And he didn’t stop.
And God used him to begin bringing healing to people who hadn’t stepped foot in a church for decades. Who had stopped trusting anyone, including God.
This man acted like we all should act who have any part in leading a church. THIS is what the leaders of any church who had ANYTHING but a completely loving, supportive, protective response to a victim should be doing. It doesn’t matter if the leaders weren’t there. The church was. And the church needs to repent. And if their leader doesn’t start doing it, then their lay people need to start. Light a fire which won’t stop until all the seeking out, all the justice, all the repenting and love has happened. Doesn’t matter whether you were there or not. Doesn’t matter whether you knew about it then or not. You know now. Act now. Repent now. Heal now. Love now.
If this isn’t how your pastor is leading you, I’d recommend you talk to him then if he doesn’t change, get out. Now.
Former CLCer’s said,”I totally agree that the new pastor of CLC needs to repent for the past.” But is the new leader really the leader yet? Or is he just a preacher in a holding pattern until his visa is approved (or not)?
We will see. It is tragic in one big sense that CLC leaders get another chance to prove that something has changed, but maybe they will get it right this time. All the world will certainly be watching. And Stunned’s story is great – no excuses now for the new guy.
(And too bad SGM leaders left – they do not get another chance.)
Stunned, that is one of the most beautiful Christian stories I have ever read in my life. Thank you.
I agree, Stunned. That is a wonderful story, and demonstrates exactly how all of us as Christians should act and love.
Let me share another story, one not quite as good but powerful in my life. I have been attending a new church for almost five years, but have not been very involved because I was attending school, but also very leery of involvement. This spring I attended a bible study that was led by one of the two female pastors. After one meeting, I started talking to her about Pam Palmer (without saying Pam’s name). We had discussed our life’s calling or dream, so I referenced Pam as someone who used a bad circumstance to do find her calling and do great things. The pastor stopped me and said, “Please tell me that’s not Covenant Life.” Turns out she’d read the story on facebook, posted by someone from Minnesota. She read it out of curiosity about a church in her town, but said she cried when she read the story. It was affirming to me about how God feels about it, and that this church is a safe place for me.
Dear Ex-CLCer,
I want to give you a heartfelt apology. You are a beautiful woman and I appreciate your honesty in disclosing personal information about yourself to people who don’t really have a right to be asking.
As this conversation developed, I felt very uneasy and restless all night thinking about you. Thinking about what I thought were “facts” about your situation and where I’ve heard them and questioning what is true.
I do not know what is true. It had always been my impression the children were not returned to the home because the home life had not improved. I did not realize the children were not returned to the home because of the custody dispute. I had no idea the state would hold children in foster care because of custody disputes. Or, that the church was delaying that process by inserting itself.
When I asked Gary about you during that time, he started crying.
Someone else said the pastors told them, “Sometimes children suffer because of the sin of the parents”.
I am so sorry. Please forgive me.
I beg everyone here to please not mention the name of the latest victim. While the lawsuit involves victims who are older and have had time to process their tragic circumstances and come forward publicly, this victim is brand new and exposing her abuse at great cost.
Brent has no business exposing the names of underage sexual abuse victims without their consent. Doing so to such a broad audience is abuse in and of itself.
Please just refer to him as LC or something so the victim may keep her anonymity.
While I can understand not naming the victims of Larry Caffery, I cannot agree with referring to Larry Caffery as LC. Sorry, the man is a monster and I will name names and point fingers.
I hope BD is not offended by your exposing him. (Sarcasm)
Truth be told we live in a world of instant information. With a few keystrokes, anyone can find the information they want. Who are we attempting to fool – ourselves?
I don’t think Brent mentioned the daughter by name.
just saying, i agree 100% that we shouldn’t expose the name of the victim! One thing I love about this site is that (to my memory) no one regular person who comments here regularly has ever done such a thing (minus one person and I think everyone else here agrees that outing a victim by name is unconscionable- wow, did I really just spell that word correctly?)
I love that even back in the earlier years when at different times it would have been easier to mention an adult child of a pastor here, many people spoke up and were adamant that we would NOT go there. These kids didn’t have any choice in their parent’s professions nor in their parent’s choices. Many of them had it worse than we can imagine so no, kids names and victim’s name don’t get a mention here as far as I and most people here are concerned.
Thank you for reminding us of that very important point.
My heart does go out to the victim/victims in this new situation. It is truly heart breaking to think that this poor child/children suffered after this man told (and WROTE) about his struggle, yet people turned a blind eye because…. I don’t even get why you would turn a blind eye after someone told you this was a concern for them. Oh, what a sad tragedy.
On a different point, I think it’s awesome if we raise a huge “Well done, you have our FULL support” to the person who was courageous enough to turn him in. I can tell you FOR SURE after having lived through it, you can be amazed at the people that drop your and your family’s friendship once you speak out about a pedophile. I’m talking about people who have known you since the day you were born can literally look away and physically turn their whole back to you when you have the nerve to genuinely walk up to them and just say hello. Let alone the hell which exCLCer and excluder’s Mom have endured and continues to endure with the slander and gossip spread about them, even in the halls of justice! Even in the halls of our state senates! Even by the mouths of those who call themselves followers of Christ. Oh, how Jesus must weep. So to the person who turned in this most recently exposed, supposed pedophile, WELL DONE! WELL DONE for standing up for little children, despite the trauma you know face. WELL DONE for protecting other human beings from the alleged victimizer. WELL DONE for being willing to stand in the face of the gale winds which may now threaten to destroy you for the sake of a child. WELL DONE.
PS. I meant to write exCLCer’s Mom, but my spell check didn’t approve and changed it. Sorry I didn’t catch that. As far as typing know instead of now, that mistake was all on me! One of these days I’ll learn to actually read what I’ve written before I post instead of after.
PPS. Who am I kidding? If after all these years I still haven’t learned to reread first, then I probably won’t in the future, either.
Stunned says: “So to the person who turned in this most recently exposed, supposed pedophile, WELL DONE! WELL DONE for standing up for little children, despite the trauma you know face. WELL DONE for protecting other human beings from the alleged victimizer.” I totally agree!!!
(sorry, forgot how to blockquote here)
Also, FormerCLCer, I am so happy that you are in a safe place with an empathetic pastor who “gets it” about why church leaders should report suspected abuse. I want to say this gently because I appreciate your support and encouragement, but I don’t think that anything I am doing is “great”. What I am doing or have done is just “normal”.
It is the normal thing for a parent of a sex abuse victim to fight for justice and to change what is wrong with the system, in which the abuse happened. When injustice stands up and slaps you in the face, the only right thing to do is to get up and fight!
Everyone, in whatever way they feel called or able, should DO something about this problem. Especially those of us formerly in SGM.
Pray for change – I don’t want to discount that. Make sure your new church has a written child protection policy that calls for immediate reporting of ALL suspected abuse. Email your state representatives on SOL or other legislation that needs to change to protect kids. Call and email CLC on this latest scandal – CLC leaders should immediately inform the entire congregation of Caffery and his charges and ask any and all victims to go immediately to the police. They should bring in sexual abuse crisis experts to train members how to go forward from here, how to protect their kids. This is what Boz does at GRACE and other organizations such as Darkness to Light. These suggestions are what is normal to do in response to seeing a glaring problem.
To find out about local Maryland SOL reform efforts:
https://www.facebook.com/MdSOLReform/?fref=ts
Just Saying, I think it is ironic that you gave us new information by pointing out that the victim was Larry’s child and mentioned their sex. Might as well have mentioned the child’s name.
Persona, it was obvious if you followed the links. JS didn’t say anything new. I hope Brent got permission from the victim to post all that.
JS…your apology was beautiful, thank you. It is understandable that you assumed people in leadership would not lie. Of course you assumed that. I’ve done the same thing in my church past because we just can’t believe Christians in leadership would lie. We can’t wrap our minds and hearts around that. It is a hard lesson to learn.
Former CLCer, that was a good story you shared. Isn’t it good to see how different many churches are from our former experience?
@5yearsinPDI and @Just Saying:
Brent Detwiler took down the victim’s name at the request of a Facebook poster, even though it was already on dozens of social media sites. It’s also in the Kindle book which was written 11 years ago and in which Larry Caffery says he was afraid he’d sexually molest children. At least one CLC Pastor read that book and told Caffery he might want to take some sections of it out if he ever did a re-write.
Am I correct in assuming that the two of you have contacted all the other sites with the victim’s name on it and asked Amazon to take the book of its site? Have you expressed your outrage at the CLC Pastor(s) who protected Larry Caffery’s privacy even though they knew he’d likely molest children?
If not, why?
@5yearsinPDI:
Everything in Brent Detwiler’s article is a matter of public record and he obviously cannot contact an underage victim to get his/her permission to publish an article.
And don’t you think that making sure that more kids are not molested at CLC far supercedes privacy issues of any kind, right now?
Nor would Brent Detwiler have had to expose Larry Caffery if Covenant Life Church Pastors had immediately announced his arrest on March 16, 2016.
Just saying and 5yearsinPDI
You may want to start by contacting the Covenant Life pastors. The daughter’s name and photo appear with her father’s as of this moment on the CLC photo directory.
The daughter’s name appears to be a matter of public record, but the victim’s name, as far as I know, is not (it’s not on the police documents I saw). Making a detailed connection between the two in one location is as good as naming the possible victim.
I don’t think 5Years had problem with making public the situation – just the amount of detail. Of course Larry Ellis Caffery (who used to be Lawrence Ellis Caffery until he officially changed his name to Larry in 1998) should be named, photographed, and his details posted everywhere. Unfortunately, his family is going to be dragged through this, and of course there is no way to avoid associating a daughter with her father. But being able to google the victim’s name and associate the name with the crime is the issue – it can be traumatizing.
Most/all reputable news organizations do not name the victim, and some don’t even comment if it was a family member. But that doesn’t equate to silence on the matter, it’s just that who the victim is is no where near as important as who the offender is.
******* “And don’t you think that making sure that more kids are not molested at CLC far supercedes privacy issues of any kind, right now?”
No. Absolutely not. Never.
You do not expose the name of a sex abuse victim, whether minor or adult, without being certain it is fine with them and you have their permission. As you can see from the Catholic scandal with priests, often victims cannot come forward until well into adulthood. Such things are deeply traumatizing, and for little kids bring deep shame, embarrassment, feeling filthy, hating themselves, blaming themselves, etc. Just the betrayal alone when it is a relative supposed to be protecting you is enough to send them into self mutilation, mental hospitals, suicide, etc.
Of course- of course!!!! you appeal to them and exhort them to allow the truth to come out to protect others. But if they are not ready for that, and the PTSD is bad, you let them proceed at their own pace which might take years, many many years, and you do not expose them. All that does is revictimize them again, making them naked and exposed on social media.
Maybe it is OK to go to any adults who employ such a person around kids in any way, and tell them privately so as to allow them to get rid of the pervert. Maybe it would be OK for Brent to privately contact CLC about it if the guy was not arrested yet and say having sleepovers at his house. I don’t know, you would have to ask Boz at G.R.A.C.E. Maybe there is a place for some private warnings without permission, I don’t know the ethics of it, but it has to be done in a way that brings no shameful public exposure to the victim.
*************”Have you expressed your outrage at the CLC Pastor(s) who protected Larry Caffery’s privacy even though they knew he’d likely molest children?
If not, why?”
Maybe you are new here. If you think I have failed to “express outrage” about CLC’s leadership, you don’t know me.
Secondly, do you really think they knew he would likely molest children? Have you figured out nothing about these men? Don’t you get it? When a man acts humble and contrite and goes to them for counsel, they think the person will be FINE! They are duped by any show of repentance. They did not believe in sending people for counseling, at least not until CJ hooked up with Powlison, and even then, they thumbed their nose at anybody secular who was well experienced in sex abuse cases.
My husband and I went to big conferences with Larry and CJ, late 70s, early 80s. Rah rah rah, victory in Jesus. People get saved, they get filled with the Holy Spirit, they are new creations, and they are not going to molest kids. The old is gone, the new has come. Plus, when you are under the umbrella of the pastor, you have a lot of protection from the devil. Your pastor covers you and all that Bill Gothard stuff. I used to believe all this. 35 years ago I would have been like CLC.
I look at SGM/CLC as mostly incredibly inept and naive, a cult still lost back in the Shepherding movement. Some I think are actually evil…CJ, Loftness, anybody who lied about anything. But a lot of them were incompetent and actually thought that by “doing it right” better than any other denomination, these things could never happen.
Brent, I am not going to contact anybody, and a church that allows sleepovers at DAs house is not going to care about Sunday morning.
And may I say that you had no right to put out the names of CL’s victims either unless you had permission. All that needed to go to the cops and Susan Burke, but it doesn’t need to be online here or at your site.
You have yet to apologize for any of your part in the authoritarian pastor/apostle heavy handed approach to church that helped create these messes over the decades while you served as an apostle. And until you do, I will continue to think you have mixed motives. I do think you care about protecting kids, and I appreciate your work in that regard, but I also think you have a vendetta against CJ and his cronies and will stop at nothing to get back at them, even if it means exposing sex abuse victims. Try hard to stop it. Let the cops deal with it.
The average perp has countless victims before they get caught. You can bet they are at CLC right now. Probably in my church too. Makes me sick and furious, but, we need to grant the kids privacy when it gets exposed.
It’s up to a victim to tell their own story if and when they want to. They’ve been through enough and had enough taken away from them already to have this one choice stolen from them, as well.
Exposing their name or at least enough of their identity for others to figure it out, unless it’s nearly impossible to avoid while protecting the victim and the public, is not ok nor is it love in any shape or form.
Fortunately here it’s not necessary to say the victim’s name nor speculate upon his or her identity.
Praying for the victim/victims and making sure that the truth gets out about the alleged pedophile and about those who once again held on more tightly to their theology than they did their God given sense is what’s important to me.
Forgive the multiple posts. I was unable to have it all in one.
PS. I don’t think anyone here would argue that the alleged perpetrator should have their name private, though. If the person is exonerated, then I think it is important
Acck! Sorry. Posting problems.
If you believe the exoneration is just, then by all means, work to clear their name.
Amen, Pam! Isn’t it sad that doing what’s normal IS heroic. I look forward to the day it’s the norm in every church. (Until then, you’re title of hero is going to stick. ;)
Judith,
Yes, it is true that information about the latest case, including specific names, is available in other places, including a Kindle book. However, the more those names are put out there together, the more easily searchable they become. Imagine if YOUR father were arrested for this kind of crime. Would you want anyone who Googles your name to be led to this sordid story?
This new defendant’s children already have to deal with some very sad fallout. Why add to it?
I think it’s wonderful of Brent to remove identifying information from his post. The names may be out there already, but why make it easier to connect the kids to their dad’s allegedly sordid and criminal actions?
And I should add, NO, I don’t go around to other sites trying to protect random victims. But I’m happy to do what I can to help the ones I encounter along the way. It’s a little bit like the slogan of a church I know (which I think was borrowed from another author): “We can’t do everything, but we can do something.” We can’t clean up the internet footprint for all victims, but we can do our part not to add to the internet footprint of those innocently connected to perpetrators.
I honestly do not understand why removing this guy’s children’s names is even being called into question. I simply cannot imagine any reason why anyone would think it’s better to put their names out there more than they already are. What purpose could that possibly serve????
It is sad that this guy blatantly published his children’s names and birthdates in an indiscreet tell-all book; which is how the public can figure out the names. He had no sense of protection for his children — shown most graphically in the treatment of the innocent child who died of cancer. Most people would have the grace to use pseudonyms to protect family privacy, but this guy showed no grace and no mercy, yet he hijacked those terms for his book title.
I won’t purchase the guy’s book and add to his income from it, but I read the excerpts included on Todd’s site (thouarttheman.com), and they are chilling. Even without the fear-of-sex-abuse confession, my creep-ometer went off with every paragraph. (Excellent reporting, by the way, Todd.)
Purposely stopping his car on a train track in order to make the train stop, then getting mad when it didn’t, running down the tracks and jumping on the train in order to confront the trainmen while his wife recovered from the trauma of a near-collision a half mile back? (Narcissism — the world should revolve around ME — trains should stop for ME.) The serious consideration of turning his military weapon on a drill sergeant? Withholding medical treatment from a child dying of cancer, and admitting that it might have been his blow to the boy’s kidney that caused the cancer? Attempting to contact his dead son with help of a medium, who told him the son said he didn’t want to communicate with him? Good gosh, man, have you no sense of decorum for the sake of your family?
There was plenty in print even without the creepy sex abuse ‘fear’ that should have told the pastors that this guy was a powder keg. He shows no ability for discretion in his candor. I assume his point was supposed to be that since he had become more Christlike with every passing day (right), those things were BC and no longer mattered. Instant sanctification. He showed no sensitivity for the feelings of his family members. He showed the worst of who he is, and now, if the allegations are true, he has lived up to his own characterization.
Because this was a vanity press publication, I doubt that many people read it. But if any pastors of his church read this book, there was enough there to show them that this guy’s elevator didn’t stop at the right floors. If any members read it, I hope they knew to stay the heck away from him. I wonder if anyone ever read this and called a pastor up to say ‘this guy needs some serious help.’ After all, these were the sin sniffing people, and back when he wrote and published, that kind of thing was encouraged and rewarded.
I am heartsick that this man confessed to having a desire to abuse children, but was not stopped in his tracks as soon as he published.
It’s hard to discuss these abuse cases without feeling grieved in the process. But, I believe we are providing a service and that many who read this blog will take note and hopefully guard their children more carefully. Child abuse is not something spoken about enough in churches. And, I want to say I am proud of Mrs. Caffery for for going to the authorities for help in this situation.
So has CLC said anything about this yet to their members or is this still where they have to for information like this?