Church Questioned after Hiring Accused Predator

By Bob Allen
Baptist News
September 11, 2015

https://baptistnews.com/ministry/congregations/item/30467-church-questioned-after-hiring-accused-predator

Victims' advocate Amy Smith speaks with reporters outside First Baptist Church of Bedford, Texas. (Photo provided)

An Alabama judge has revoked the bond of a former youth pastor awaiting trial for sex crimes after media reports he was serving at a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship church in Texas.

Advocates for survivors of child sexual abuse by clergy protested Sept. 10 outside First Baptist Church of Bedford, Texas, after it came to light that Kyle Adcock, the church’s 32-year-old worship pastor, was indicted last year on 29 counts of rape and sodomy involving a girl younger than 16.

Adcock, former youth minister at Woodward Avenue Baptist Church in Muscle Shoals, Ala., stands accused of molesting a girl in his former youth group over two years beginning when she was 14. He pleaded not guilty and is seeking dismissal of his indictment, which his lawyers claim is legally flawed.

Arrested in August 2014, Adcock got out of jail in Alabama last October on $500,000 bail, with the understanding that he would be supervised by his parents, who live in Garland, Texas. The Alabama Media Group reported Sept. 11 that a Colbert County judge revoked the bond, finding that his new church job violated a condition that he not have unsupervised contact with minors.

Controversy built during the week as media in both Texas and Alabama followed up on a Sept. 8 report by Fox4News that parents became concerned after learning on Facebook that an accused child molester could find work as a minister even before his case even came to trial.

The First Baptist Church of Bedford’s Facebook page is no longer online, but a cached copy credits Adcock with rebuilding the church’s music ministry.

Steve Knott, who became pastor of the North Texas church affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, Tarrant Baptist Association and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in January, did not respond to email requests for comment.

One local television station reported Sept. 10 that Adcock had resigned. Another said church leaders knew about Adcock’s past when the pastor hired him to lead the adult choir and work with the church's audio/video equipment.

ABC affiliate WFAA said Adcock took over directing the choir from his father on an interim, part-time basis. An unidentified church member told the station that only a small handful of people knew of the allegations, and that after a long talk with Adcock they decided to support him.

Amy Smith, Texas representative of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, termed it “terribly irresponsible and reckless to employ a man indicted and awaiting trial for 29 counts of child sex abuse.”

“Why would anyone, especially a church and a pastor, want to take a risk with kids’ safety?” she wondered.

Adcock is charged with 12 counts of first-degree rape, nine counts of second-degree sodomy and eight counts of second-degree rape. The most serious of the charges, first-degree rape, is punishable by 10 years to life in prison with parole.