Ex-calvary Members Question Church’s Visit to Loudoun Juvenile Detention Center

By Crystal Owens
Loudoun Times
May 12, 2016

http://www.loudountimes.com/news/article/ex_calvary_members_question_churchs_visit_to_loudoun_juvenile_detention_898

A protester stands across the street from Sterling’s Calvary Temple church on a Sunday in March. Protesters in large and small numbers have protested outside the church since two women came forward last year, alleging sexual abuse. Times-Mirror/Rick Wasser

A former congregant of Sterling's Calvary Temple is upset after 20 current members of the Pentecostal church were allowed to provide outreach to youth in the county's Juvenile Detention Center on May 2.

Members of the church are under investigation by the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office and Virginia State Police after two women came forward more than a year ago with allegations that they were sexually assaulted by members of Calvary Temple. One woman said she had multiple assailants, including teachers, teachers' aides and deacons.

Chris Trent, who left Calvary Temple in 1992 after he said Pastor Star Scott told the congregation they must give 20 percent of their earnings to the church, volunteers at the Loudoun Juvenile Detention Center and was the first to express concern over the church members' visit to the facility.

Trent said his concern is that at least one member of Calvary wrote a letter to a juvenile trying to persuade him to not only stay away from Alcoholics Anonymous, but join the church once he gets out of the detention center.

“AA won't help you and only if you make Jesus your lord and savior will you stay sober. Being around those same people that have the same problems will only bring you closer to using,” reads the letter to one juvenile obtained by the Times-Mirror. “I wanted you to meet so and so, so when you get out you could meet up with them and come down to Calvary Temple. Since your [sic] going to NOVA you should move down here and get an apartment with so and so.”

("So and so" was the phrasing used in the original letter.)

The Calvary congregants, according to Hope Stonebrook, deputy director of Loudoun County Family Services, came to the juvenile detention center to present information related to their upcoming mission trip. Their activities consisted of skits and presentations, not outreach.

“... there was no direct contact between team members and youth, and no youth were ever alone with any team members; therefore, I can assure that our youth was safe,” Stonebrook wrote in an email to the Times-Mirror.

However, the visitors' log on May 2 has members of Calvary Temple giving their purpose of visiting as outreach.

Trent agrees that the youth were not in immediate danger, however, he's concerned that the church is trying to recruit what he considers already vulnerable boys and girls into their congregation.

After the women came forward last year alleging sexual assault, more than a dozen ex-congregants of the church told the Times-Mirror that they endured years of physical and emotional abuse. Many have not seen their children for more than 10 years because the church forbids them to interact with anyone outside its walls. If you leave the church, they said, you forfeit your family.

Greg Lyon, a former congregant, told the Times-Mirror in May 2015 that when he attended, members were told to look for “that lonely person” when recruiting new people.

Former congregants say Calvary's leaders are able to make congregants believe what they preach is true – that the leaders have a direct line to God and by being a part of the church, they do as well.

Glen Barbour, public affairs and communications officer for Loudoun County, said the detention center followed guidelines set forth by the state Department of Juvenile Justice.

“We are aware of the allegations involving Calvary Temple that the sheriff's office indicated it is investigating,” Barbour said. “To date, however, there have been no related arrests, charges or court proceedings.”

Barbour went on to say that if the sheriff's office provides the juvenile detention center with a reason to restrict any volunteer or visitor, the staff would take appropriate action.

Loudoun County Sheriff Michael Chapman (R) refused to comment on the issue, citing an ongoing investigation.

“... our staff were confident that the individuals who were admitted to the JDC on May 2 were admitted appropriately for their pre-approved presentation,” Stonerook said.

Stonerook said members of the church were vetted in accordance with state regulations. Actual approval, she said, is accomplished locally through background checks on individuals, not entities.

Ex-congregant Trent said several of the juveniles at the detention center told him the church's pastor, Star Scott, also accompanied the group, though his name does not appear on the visitors' log.

Scott, in an April 8, 2008, email written by his son and obtained by the Times-Mirror last year, is accused of molesting family members on a daily basis for almost three years. At the time of the alleged assaults, Scott was a pastor at Greenfield Assembly of God in California.

The assaults continued, according to the email, when Scott was a youth pastor at Herndon Assembly of God. An incident report filed with the Herndon Police Department backs up the allegations, although Scott was never criminally charged.