FLORIDA
Daily Mail (UK)
By MARTIN GOULD FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
An unholy war over claims of pedophilia and graft in the nation’s fifth largest Christian church has taken a vicious new turn with the main accuser publicly naming a man who, he claims, was molested by the church’s top bishop.
The new allegation from Florida Pastor Earl Carter was angrily denied by the alleged victim himself as well as his parents and the hierarchy of the 6-million-strong Church of God in Christ, including its top man Bishop Charles Blake.
‘It hurts,’ Sidney Lassiter III — who admits he was molested as a child, but not by Blake — told Daily Mail Online in an exclusive interview.
‘I have been trying to put the horrible thing that happened behind me for years. I repressed my memories for a long time and now it has all been made public.
‘All I want is to heal and for my family to heal and now this comes up. It’s like picking at a scab.’
Lassiter, 32, a church minister in Richmond, Virginia, told Daily Mail Online a now-dead worker in the Church of God in Christ — known by the acronym COGIC — molested him when he was 12 or 13. He has been through therapy for years to cope with the incident.
His father, Sidney Lassiter Sr., a COGIC elder from Suffolk, Virginia, mentioned in passing that a member of his family had been molested as a child during a conversation with a friend, Denise Hall. She allegedly reported that to Carter, who then claimed online that Bishop Blake was the molester.
‘Earl Carter needs to get his facts straight,’ Lassiter told Daily Mail Online. ‘I hate to say this because I was always taught to respect my elders, but this man is just ignorant.
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