Synthia Esther Reports: Assembly of God-Child Sex Abuse Case
ASSEMBLY OF GOD - ROYAL RANGERS LEADERSHIP SEX ABUSE LAWSUIT SETTLED, AVOIDING A JURY TRAIL
Royal Rangers is a leadership, ministry outreach for boys K-12 with a mission to evangelize, equip, and empower future generations for Jesus Christ. within the Assembly of God (AoG) religious denomination. AoG made very erroneous mistakes, and a sex abuse case was filed. And rightly so.
The AoG Royal Ranger sex abuse case involved two lawsuits filed in 2018 by plaintiffs who confirmed they had been sexually abused in the 1980's by two volunteers in the Royal Rangers program at First Assemblies of God Church of Albany Oregon. Involved were Ralph Gantt and Todd Clark - the Springfield Missouri News-Leader reported.
The complaint stated that the organization should be held responsible for their adult volunteers, who were selected, approved, and trained by the church. And that they were made aware by the mid-1980's of allegations that Clark and Gantt had sexually abused boys in Royal Ranges, but continued to let them serve in the program, while failing to warn families of the allegations.
With access to young boys, in sleep overs and camp outs, Clark and Gantt were able to continue their sexual abusive actions without oversight from Church authorities. Both were temporarily suspended from Royal Angers leadership but were later reinstated, then terminated after additional new allegations were brought forward.
More than a dozen motions to get the case dismissed were filed by the denomination, according to Gilion Dumas, the attorney representing three men suing the denomination. Also three appeals with the state supreme court were filed by the AoG. The motions were rejected and appeals dismissed. When a trial date was set for September 7, the denomination agreed to a settlement. Thus, they avoided a Jury Trial.
The Assemblies of God reached an out of court financial settlement in a similar case in 2017. Christianity Today (CT) - christianitytoday.com reported:
"The trail court concluded that our legal theories of liability were viable, but they were not tested, ultimately, by a jury." Dumas told CT. "It was the first time that the national organization was named and successfully kept in a sex abuse case. They tried to get out of it, but the court denied those motions and denied them consistently."
SEX OFFENDERS WITHIN THE CHURCH SHOULD BE PROSECUTED!
Matthew 18:6:
"But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea."