Pastor fired after rape allegations

Pasi Nurminen

Pasi Nurminen

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http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcon...pastor_12met.ART0.North.Edition1.42f1253.html

From the religious hypocrisy desk...

A Fort Worth pastor accused of paddling and raping women under the guise of scriptural teaching has been suspended by the national body of the Church of God in Christ.

The suspension comes more than three months after a Fort Worth woman sued the Rev. Sherman C. Gee Allen of the Shiloh Institutional Church of God in Christ, contending that he repeatedly beat her with a paddle from 2001 to 2005 and forced her to have sex with him.

Since then, eight more women have come forward with similar stories, according to the woman's lawyers.

Mr. Allen, who founded the Pentecostal congregation in 1983, could not be reached for comment Friday. But he has denied the allegations in court papers.

No one has filed criminal charges in the case in recent years, Fort Worth police said. Mr. Allen was indicted on sexual assault charges in 1983, but that case was dismissed.

...

The paddling escalated from there, she said, with Mr. Allen ordering her to pull down her jeans and then her underwear. Ms. Kelly said she was hesitant but believed so devoutly in Mr. Allen's power that she viewed it as a spiritual father/daughter relationship.

"I looked at him as a man of God, my pastor," she said. "I just revered him. I always thought he was hearing from God."

In addition to being a church member, Ms. Kelly volunteered cleaning the church. After Mr. Allen's wife died in 2003, she also started cleaning his house.

Around March or April 2005, Mr. Allen made sexual advances and eventually added sex as part of her punishment, she said.

Ms. Kelly eventually sought help and left the church in September 2005. But she said she didn't call police because she was afraid.

"He had literally put his hand around my throat and said that if I ever told anybody, he would hurt me," she said.

Ms. Kelly isn't alone in making the allegations.

According to a 1983 Fort Worth police report, a 21-year-old woman said she had contacted Mr. Allen about voodoo and he had promised to bring her an antidote that she could use while bathing.

But after he came to her house to talk to her one day, she blacked out, and she believed she had either been hypnotized or drugged, the report said. The woman alleged that Mr. Allen paddled her, sodomized her with a club and raped her.
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Discuss.
 
Who on earth would go to a church like that?
 
Adamb0mb said:
Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?
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Isn't that really just for the law to deal with? We're free to say as we will, condemn him or praise him. We're unimportant nobodies, and we can say as we please. It's important that the man get his due process and all that jazz, but we're free to condemn him as we are people nobody cares about discussing it in a place that nobody cares about.

Besides which, that nine women have come forward with the allegations and that he has been fired indicates that there is at least some evidence corroborating her story.
 
I was refering to him losing his job because of allegations.

We're free to speculate and condemn. Free speech and all that stuff.
 
Adamb0mb said:
I was refering to him losing his job because of allegations.
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You have multiple allegations and Texas is and at will state, meaning it is pretty easy to fire someone.

As for the rape, I am sure the pastor can argue that it is in line with Biblical teachings to go forth and multiply. He can argue that the urge to rape is a sign from God to procreate and ignoring such a sign is willfully aborting a potential life. Just might work in Texas.
 
Yeah, I believe the firing was likely legal, I just think its wrong to take such strong action before the man has had a trial. If any, paid leave or a strongly encouraged "vacation" would be the proper action to take in this circumstance.

I understand the church is probably terrified of any situation that involves "sex" and "misconduct" these days but we have all these lawyers, judges, and courthouses for a reason.
 
Adamb0mb said:
Yeah, I believe the firing was likely legal, I just think its wrong to take such strong action before the man has had a trial. If any, paid leave or a strongly encouraged "vacation" would be the proper action to take in this circumstance.

I understand the church is probably terrified of any situation that involves "sex" and "misconduct" these days but we have all these lawyers, judges, and courthouses for a reason.
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If you had an employee where there were allegations from 8 different women that he paddled and sodomized them, would you be willing to give him a paid vacation? If the church was smart, they likely made enough of an investigation to verify that the claims had a least some truth to them and that whatever the truth was, the pastor likely committed acts that made him unfit to hold the position.
 
Fair enough,

If the church has done its own investigation and found his conduct unbecoming and determined that firing him is the appropriate course of action I would be okay with that. After reexamining my position I think it would be unfair to force an employer to only fire people who have had a court hearing.
 
But...But!

I thought the religionists were so superior to we mere heathens!

;)
 
Pasi Nurminen said:
According to a 1983 Fort Worth police report, a 21-year-old woman said she had contacted Mr. Allen about voodoo and he had promised to bring her an antidote that she could use while bathing.
Click to expand...

Christians believing in voodoo? Isn't that like against Christianity?
 
Peuri said:
Christians believing in voodoo? Isn't that like against Christianity?
Click to expand...
Who do voodoo?

...ya I'm sure it is though.
 
puglover said:
Who on earth would go to a church like that?
Click to expand...

Texas.gif
tenchar
 
Why is this particularly newsworthy or interesting? Some dude allegedly forces some women to have sex with him. If it's true, it's terrible - but it happens everyday, and surely there are more terrible things going on as we speak.

Plainly from this and many other incidents in the past, Pasi, you just like taking potshots at Christianity, and Christianity in America. Don't you have anything better to do in your time?
 
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