Baptist Church Hires Pastor after He’s Charged with 29 Counts of Child Sex Abuse at Another Church

SNAP
September 10, 2015

http://www.snapnetwork.org/tx_baptist_church_hires_pastor_after_he_s_charged_with_29_counts_of_child_sex_abuse_at_another_church

Group blasts church staff

They hired accused child molester

SNAP: “Local victims & witnesses must speak up”

Group urges other ministers to “denounce recklessness”

What:

Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, abuse victims will

--blast the pastor of a Dallas area church for quietly hiring an accused child molester, and

--urge other local Baptist ministers to “publicly denounce” the pastor

They will also

--seek out others who saw, suspected or suffered misdeeds or crimes by the alleged predator, and

--prod current and former church members and staff to call law enforcement if they “saw, suspected or suffered” the accused molester’s crimes or his supervisors’ cover ups.

WHEN

Thursday, September 10 at 1:00 p.m.

WHERE

On the sidewalk outside the First Baptist Church Bedford (corner of Bedford Rd and Barr Dr) in Bedford, Texas

2045 Bedford Rd

Bedford, TX 76021

WHO

Two-three adults who belong to a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), including a whistleblower from another Texas Baptist church

WHY

SNAP members are upset that First Baptist Church of Bedford Pastor Steve Knott quietly hired a pastor who is charged with child rape and sodomy in Alabama.

Alabama court records show that First Baptist music minister Charles Kyle Adcock faces charges for 29 counts of sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl at Woodward Avenue Baptist Church between 2010 and 2012.

For the safety of congregants, SNAP wants 1) the church board to “harshly and public discipline Knott for acting so recklessly,” and 2) all church staff and members to “aggressively search for and help anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes or cover ups” by Adcock (or other church staff) 3) prod victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to call law enforcement in both states and help them investigate and convict Adcock “and anyone who might have enabled or hidden his crimes.”

If more victims, witnesses or whistleblowers step forward, SNAP says, Adcock may face more charges which “will increase the chances that he’ll be extradited, convicted and imprisoned and make everyone safer and deters similar crimes and cover ups in the future.”

SNAP also contends that, to “deter such recklessness and secrecy in the future,” other Baptist officials in the Dallas/Fort Worth area should publicly denounce pastor Steve Knott “for his irresponsible actions that put children in harm’s way.”

Some church members or staff who may have information or suspicions about Adcock and his hiring may have quit the church in frustration or fear, SNAP says. So the organization is appealing to ex-church-goers and ex-church employees and ask them to “share any anything they may know about this troubling situation” with law enforcement.

[fox4news.com]

[rawstory.com]

[thedailybeast.com]

[al.com]