Youth Pastor Watch, The Stranger, October 6, 2009

Youth Pastor Watch

The Stranger
October 6, 2009

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2009/10/05/youth-pastor-watch

Connecticut:

Police and state Department of Children and Families officials are investigating an allegation that the youth pastor at Faith Church, who reportedly was fired last week, engaged in an inappropriate sexual relationship with a high school-aged congregant, a police department spokesman confirmed Tuesday. A church official said Tuesday that Jason Glaza, 30, a married father of three, was dismissed Thursday, one day after officials learned of an allegation of what they described as "inappropriate conduct" between the pastor and a 16-year-old girl. Glaza has been the Route 7 church's youth pastor for two years.... A message left for Glaza on his Facebook page was not returned on Tuesday. Other contact information was unavailable.

Arizona:

About two weeks ago, Chandler police arrested a pastor for having sex with a 14-year-old girl in his congregation. Police say 25-year-old Josh O'Bannion admitted to having sex with the girl at least three times over the the last few months, while serving as youth pastor at the Christ Life Church in Tempe.... After hearing about the pastor's arrest here September 15, police in Parma, Ohio, say two girls, also 14, came forward to say that O'Bannion had engaged in sex with them, too, when he was a pastor in their church.

North Carolina:

A former parishioner is suing her Oshawa church, claiming she was coerced into sex as a teenager by a youth pastor. In a statement of claim filed in mid-September, Sarah Parsons, now 23, alleges she was victimized by the pastor, Brian Andrew Klein, of Whitby, between 2002 and 2004. The suit alleges that Ms. Parsons, who began attending the church in 1995 when she was nine, became involved in programs led by Mr. Klein, the youth pastor at the time. It's alleged that in 2002, shortly after her 16th birthday, the youth pastor kissed the girl. A month after that a sexual relationship began and continued for two years "on a regular, sometimes daily basis", the suit alleges.