UNITED STATES
World
By DANIEL JAMES DEVINE
Issue: “Day of reckoning,” June 14, 2014
Posted May 30, 2014
A criminal conviction has stoked the embers in a smoldering, two-year controversy surrounding Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM), an association of about 80 Reformed, charismatic churches. Victims of childhood sexual abuse have claimed their pastors failed to report abuse allegations to police during years their families attended former SGM churches. The May trial of Nathaniel Morales offered legal confirmation of at least some of those victims’ claims.
In Montgomery County (Md.) Circuit Court on May 15, a dozen jurors convicted Morales, 56, of repeatedly molesting three teenage boys in the late 1980s and early ’90s. At the time, Morales was a member of Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Md., where popular author C.J. Mahaney served as senior pastor, and from where Mahaney launched SGM. Morales led Bible studies, participated on worship teams, and attended sleepovers with teenage boys during his years at Covenant Life. He later moved away, married a woman with five boys from a previous marriage, and became a pastor in Las Vegas.
After hearing the verdict, victim Jeremy Cook told local ABC affiliate WJLA, “I started crying. It was … overwhelming to know that the struggle, the fight, the 25 years of trying to bring this forward, was worth it.” Morales’ sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 14. He faces up to 85 years in prison.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.