Facebook helps police nab Baptist preacher

By Bob Allen
Associated Baptist Press
March 1, 2014

http://abpnews.com/culture/social-issues/item/28410-facebook-helps-police-nab-baptist-preacher#.UxImDvldWa-

Police in Russellville, Ky., posted on Facebook this image of an unidentified man accused of indecent exposure captured on in-store surveillance video. One week and 646 shares later, they say they have their man.

A Southern Baptist pastor in Kentucky was charged with indecent exposure in an arrest that police credit to social media.

Kevin Lohse, pastor of Woodlawn Baptist Church in Russellville, Ky., was arrested Feb. 26 after police identified him as the man seen on surveillance video exposing himself to a girl shopping in the junior section of a local department store.

The Russellville Police Department posted a still image of the suspect on Facebook Feb. 17. One week and 646 shares later, Lohse turned himself in and confirmed he was the man in the security footage, according to a police report quoted by WBKO television in Bowling Green, Ky. Police called it “a prime example of community policing.”

Lohse, a graduate of Liberty University, accepted a call as senior pastor at Southern Baptist-affiliated Woodlawn Baptist Church in June 2013. Before that he was on staff at Pathway Baptist Church Calvert City, Ky., an independent Baptist congregation that identifies with Founders Ministries, a group formed in 1982 to promote Calvinism in Southern Baptist life.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Lohse worked in youth ministry for more than seven years.

At the time of the incident, police said Lohse’s 7-year-old son was with him in the store. The mother who reported the indecent exposure said the suspect had a small boy with him as he left the scene, possibly in a van.