                     Christian Clergy Abuse of People
              Compiled by Ammond Shadowcraft, WindFire Coven

         NOTE: This artical was taken from 8 messages on Cult-
         watch Echo, "Origin: THE CRYSTAL CAVE, "DER MAGICK 
         TREFFPUNKT"(719 391-1092 (1:128/50.0)" on Jan 30, 1990 
         By Cassandra-News (1:102/922.0)

I've been pretty patient with the M.T. calling me dangerous, the R.C.s  
calling witches Satanists and accusing us all of perpretrating vile and 
henious crimes against innocent persons. So I mulled this over, should I 
post my Clergy  Abuse article? I guess the answer is yes.

Witches, pagans and even religious Satanists aren't dangerous because they 
understand what they are involved with. We understand the psychology of the 
fields we are involved in. But our friends the Christians are unaware of 
what is happening to them. I wouldn't say this without proof. 

Instinctively I see in the CBS a schizophrenic worldview. And that 
worldview creates problems in its followers.

This is the fruit of the system of religious thought that commands its 
followers to mortify their natural members. And this is the pshychology of 
those who say that murdering witches and pagans would solved many problems.

Look in your own eye first. And clean up your own house before you blame 
all the worlds problems on us.

I give you Christian Clergy Abuse of Poeple. Your pastors lead the way...  

There has been some discussion of witches, Satanists, et al, abusing people 
on a ritual basis. Well here is some evidence to ponder. Mostly I see this 
a mental-emotional problem of epidemic porportions. And I think that it is 
unfortunate that the Ch ristian Belief System fosters this epidemic. More 
on why later...


                     Christian Clergy Abuse of People

Idaho Statesman 4/21/88...
Father Mel Baltazar, notorious for molesting a boy hooked up to a kidney 
dialysis machine at a Napa, Calif. hospital and another boy in double-leg 
traction at a Boise hospital will be paroled from his 7 year prison term. A 
20-year history of unprosecuted abuse was unraveled during his trail in 
1984.

No source listed...
Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland claimed, in writing about 
molesting priests, that "Sometimes not all adolescent victims are so 
"innocent"; some can be sexually very active and aggressive and often quite 
street wise."

The Specator 5/9/88 and Amherst Daily News (Novia Scotia)...
A clergy seminar of child sexual abuse and incest at Brock University, 
Ontario, Canada, concluded that the church is implicated in such abuse. 
Vince Pinpura, a social worker at St. Catharines General Hospital, said 8 
of 10 members of an incest counseling group connected the church with 
incest; one was abused by a father who was a minister... Another woman told 
of the anguish of being sexually abused by her clergy father from the age 
of two., the congregation blind to her pain, and another preacher telling 
her "just to forgive." A nun warned of misusing "bogus spirituality."

In June, a Canadian women's inter-church group released a study. Hands to 
End Violence Against Women, saying male-dominated churches, Christian 
theology and selective interpretation of scripture are at least partly to 
blame for violence against women.

Atlanta Constitution 4/15/88
Former priest turned psychologist A.W. Richard Sipe, Baltimore, said a 25 
year study he conducted shows that about 2% of all priests "show sexual 
excitement by fantasizing about or engaging in sexual activity with 
children." (Rev Thomas Doyle has projected that the figure may be as high 
as 3,000--one out of 18 priests or 16 per diocese--which is closer to 6%.)

Catholic apologists deny any complicity in covering up illegal activities.

Atlanta Constitution 4/15/88
Being a Catholic priest is "one of the best positions you can be go into 
[if you are a pedophile]. What better position could you be in to win 
peoples trust?" says Sharon Moody, commanding officer of the Crimes Against 
Children Unit for the Cobb County Police Department, Georgia.

Columbus Ledger-Enquirer 5/28/88
Rev. Tony ("Touch not my anointed and do my prophets no harm") Levya, a 
southern revivalists investigated by the FBI for heading a 3-man ring 
prostituting young boys, has used Christian radio station WEAM in Columbus, 
Ga.  to raise funds for his defense. Rev. Levya asks his followers to 
"sacrifice $100, $500, $1,000, $8,000 , even more, if God speaks to you" 
for his defense.

Federal authorities allege that his crusades gave him and fellow abusers 
Rias E. Morris, organist, and Rev. Freddie M. Herring opportunity to 
sexually abuse numerous boys in Virginia, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, 
Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Ohio and Indiana. He faces up to 65 years 
in prison and $550,000 in fines.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer 3/23/88
The notorious Community Chapel & Bible Training Center, a sect based in 
Burien, Wash. near suburban Seattle, not only mentally abused children with 
doctrines of demonology and stunted education in their backward and 
repressive classrooms, but involved children in sexual abuse, according to 
reporter Mary 
Rothchild. The Center, besieged by civil suites by ex-members claiming 
abuse, including women charging sexual exploitation, recently deposed it 
founder Rev. Donald Lee Barnett on charges of promiscuous adultery.

In 1986, after followers complained, Child Protective Services met with 
Burien officials, spelling out guidelines, for example, that the church 
policy condoning French kissing of children was unacceptable. Three 
counselors were convicted of failing to report child sexual abuse in 1987.

New York Times 5/23/88, New York Daily News 5/27/88, Newsweek 5/30/88, 
Denver Post 5/20/88, Newsday 6/11/88 

Rev. Thomas Streitferdt, 59, a white Pastor in charge of the  mostly black 
700-member True Church of God in Harlem, was charged with rape and sodomy 
of two young sisters (ages 14 and 16) in his congregation.

Law enforcement officials charge that Streitferdt told females worshippers 
that they could end up in hell if they refused his sexual advances, and 
raped at least one woman during premarital counseling.

Although his congregation was working class, Streidtferdt lived in a 1.4 
million waterfront estate on Long Island, and owned property financed by 
contributions illegally coerced from church-goers. He and his family had 
exclusive rights to drive three church-owned Mercedex-Benz autos. Yet his 
tax returns in 1987 listed income of just several thousand dollars.

The church required members to turn over tax records, and to tithe 10 
percent as a condition of membership, increasing that tithe to 30 percent 
every third year. He also controller the finances of many of his members by 
keeping their savings at a bank set up through his church. Members were 
told that if they were not buried under church auspices at an additional 
fee in the church cemetery that "they would not go to heaven."

San Gabriel Valley Tribune 6/18/88
Rev. Randall Wayne Brewer, a youth minister of Faith Community Church in 
West Covina, Calif.,  is charged with 3 counts of oral copulation with a 
Redlands teenager who said he was bribed and molested after being 
befriended at home Bible studies in 1985. The youth, now 17, testified that 
Brewer gave him $200 from a church checking account for running naked 
across an empty church hallway in a game called chicken. "I was told  to 
tell everyone that I got the money for doing work at the church."

Embarrassment prevented the boy from reporting the incidents, but he 
finally confided in his girlfriend and his mother. A trial is scheduled in 
mid-June.

In May the family filed a multi-million dollar suit against Brewer and the 
church for failure to tell new members that others had been previously 
abused. Brewer had previously plead no contest to "sexually annoying" another boy and had been placed on probation.

Washington Post 5/13/88
U.S. Rep. Floyd Flake, pastor of Allen African Methodist Episcopal Church 
in New York, and a first term Democrat, is accused of harassing a church 
assistant into leaving her job because she ended a sexual affair with her.

Thelma M. Singleton-Scott complained that a panel of "elders" at the 4,000-
member church held a "kangaroo court" review of the charges in January. She 
is now demanding back wages and Flake's ouster as pastor. She said that the 
church bishop was involved in offering her hush money.

Amherst Daily News (Novia Scotia) 6/16/88, The [Hamilton] Spectator 
6/14,16/88 
Msgr. John Monagahan, 80, of Nelson, B.C., was sentenced to 4 years in 
prison after pleading guilty to fondling 17 girls and young women from 1959 
to 1987, ranging in age from 6 to 21, usually in hospitals or private 
homes. Many of the victims said they had told their parents of the assaults 
but were not believed because Monagahan was considered a "near saint."

Nelson police say they have identified more than 50 victims.

Florida Times-Union 5/13/88 and 6/9/88
Rev. Joe Marino, host of Christian talkshow "Inner Visions" in 
Jacksonville, Fla., and youth minister/counselor at Beaches Chapel in 
Neptune Beach, plead no contest to custodial sexual battery and soliciting 
sex from a 16 year old member of his church. Other charges were dropped. 
The abuse was disclosed after a victim from the church had attempted 
suicide.

Marino was sentenced to 15 years in prison to be suspended after 5 years.

A second Duval county minister, Rev. Roy Lynn Gaskins of Edgewood Heights 
Baptist Church, was accused of forcing a 13 year old boy at gunpoint to 
have sex.

New York Times 6/10/88
Former Mormon missionary Arthur Gary Bishop, 36, was executed on June 10th 
in Utah for killing 5 boys (ages 4-13) for sexual gratification, saying he 
was "misled by Satan."

New York Times 5/14/88
Rev. Bernard Lynch, 41, and Brother Timothy Brady, 41, are indicted for 
sexually abusing students at a Catholic preparatory school  in the Bronx, 
Mount St. Michael Academy. Lynch, a former campus chaplain, is believed to 
be in Ireland. Brady "was removed last summer" to a Marist retreat in 
Arizona, according to the  Bronx D.A.'s office.

Kansas City Times 6/1/88
Barry L. Deaton was charged with taking indecent liberties with a child for 
abducting a 14 year old girl from a gathering of Youth for Christ of 
Greater Kansas City.

[Little Rock Arkansas] Gazette 6/10/88
Rev. J.D. Henderson, 51, of Russellville, Ark., was convicted of molesting 
twin 6 year old girls, and sentenced to 4 years in prison. Henderson is an 
ordained Free will Baptist minister.

Daily Camera, [Boulder, Co.] 5/21/88
Former Sister Mary Kregar and the Catholic Diocese of Brownsville, Col. 
were sued by a man who claimed his marriage was destroyed by the lesbian 
nun who seduced his wife while church officials did nothing to prevent it. 
A jury ordered the diocese to pay 1.5 million to Steve Voolverton on May 
20.

Tampa Tribune 5/31/88
Rev. Cleveland "Rapper" Mack, 24, of Tampa. Fla., was charged with sexually 
abusing 2 young boys during "Bible lessons", including a charge of sexual 
battery which carries a possible death sentence. He struck a boy in the 
face when he tried to flee.

[Rome] Daily Sentinel 5/28/88
Rev. Leon Dupree, 47, pastor of Lily of the Valley Church of God in Christ 
in Rochester, NY, is charged with first degree sexual assault and first 
degree burglary of a 26 year old woman. She said he was armed with a hammer 
and struck her with a screwdriver. Dupree was convicted of second degree 
manslaughter in a 1978 drunken driving fatality and served time in state 
prison.

Sunday Messenger [Athens, Ohio] 3/6/88
In 1978, Bessie Turner had $18,000 in the bank, $3,000 in cash at home, her 
house in Murry City, Ohio, a life insurance policy and a monthly income of 
$654. After 10 years of answering the pleas for money from evangelists 
Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Whittington, Jim Bakker, Don Stewart and others, she 
had exhausted her savings account, cashed in her life policy, gone hungry 
to send her grocery allowance to the hungry children invoked by the 
evangelists, and has nothing lest but her monthly income from renting her 
home. She  was forced to move in with her step grandson and wife. "I was 
trying to feed the children. That's what Jimmy [Swaggart] said. Them poor 
little babies. Too see how they looked--I could hardly take it." Now Ms. 
Turner, although still a firm believer, says: "I won't have anything to do 
with any of them again. I think they are all alike. I think they are all 
thieves."

"Ammond, you should try to locate copies of the December 30th and 31st San 
Jose Mercury-News from last year. I have been told that it contains a most 
impressive expose on the subject --thirty-five court cases in the last five 
years, and a number of attempted cover-ups. Perhaps somebody in San 
Francisco can do a library search for you -- some libraries keep microfiche 
of the local papers."

Anyone on the left coast want to look these articles up?

There seems to be many more cases than are reported. Victims try
to bring the various organizations round but generally get
stiffed.  That is until the victims go public.

Someone sent me this message last night...
There is of course the ripple effect to consider also. In a recent tv talk 
show in Seattle on KING-TV, while talking about abuse by priests in the 
Seattle diocese, hosts Susan Michaels and Cliff Lenz got a shocker. A woman 
in the audience reported that she had been abused not by a priest but by 
her brother, who was abused by a priest IN THE SEATTLE DIOCESE. After 
investigation it was revealed that the priest was an abuse victim himself.

Maryalyce Elbert was the victim of the victim. After this public expose' 
the diocese finally gave the name of the priest as Rev. James McGreal, age 
65, whose criminal conduct was well known, having worked at 10 parishes and 
2 hospitals. One ironic mistake leads to another with the priest being sent 
to treatment in the late 70's, after which he was sent to a hospital to 
abuse again. The priest was sent to a "Catholic program in New Mexico". He 
was then placed in another parish with several other priests aware of his 
condition. In four months he was suspected of grooming another boy for 
victimization. It is rather ironic that he was at Queen of Angeles Church 
in Port Angeles, under the supervision of one Rev. Conn, now facing charges 
himself for sexual abuse of altar boys. Rev. James McGreal abused people 
with impunity for 30  years.

Continuing on with the show. Sherry Matulis spoke about being raped at the 
age of 5 by a church deacon; and narrowly escaping another attack at the 
age of 12.

A shaky woman in the audience told of being continually incestuously abuse 
by her father, a southern preacher who attacked her on Saturdays nights. 
She had to sit in a pew and watch him preach on Sundays. Her efforts to 
expose and depose her father have as yet been unsuccessful.

Rev. Paul Conn, mentioned previously, is accused of molesting multiple 
altar boys under the ages of 14. The Church responded by offering 
counseling to the victims BY OTHER PRIESTS in the parish.

The Seattle archdiocese has admitted to a third unprosecuted and unnamed 
pedophilic priest now under treatment for his condition.

I would like to point out that all these victims spent many painful years 
trying to correct the problem. They were all stonewalled with the only 
success coming after public exposure.

This is a continuation of the people abuse subject. In the latest issue of 
_Freethought_Today_ there are thirty three accounts of people abuse by 
clergy. Here are a few... 
Peninsula Daily News 7/3/88
The Washington State Court of Appeals ruled that the Louisiana diocese can 
be held LIABLE for the actions of a priest it suspended, who was later 
CONVICTED of molesting boys in Spokane. The court reinstated a lawsuit 
filed by parents of 9 boys ALLEGEDLY molested by Rev. Ronald Lane Fontenot, 
a counselor at Deaconess Medical Center. Fontenot was suspended by the 
Louisiana diocese for suspected molestation. He was sent to jail for one 
year in 1986.

Idaho Statesman 7/21/88
Robert D. Campbell, 20, a Mormon missionary from Idaho, was CHARGED with 
sexually assaulting two Tennessee sisters, ages 7 and 9, at a prayer 
meeting. David Campbell, of Nashville, president of the missionary program, 
told the press "That's not true." The thirty two year old woman said "I'll 
probably be excommunicated over this." She said David Campbell advised her 
not to call the police, although he denies that too.

She also said church officials called her an hour after the missionary's 
release from jail asking permission for her daughters to "take a lie 
detector test." Said the mother: "He can deny it all he wants to. He told 
me not to tell anybody, and not to report it... He said the church's 
attorneys would look into it, that he [the missionary] would be sent back 
to Idaho and excommunicated."

Arizona Republic 7/2/88, Phoenix Gazette 7/1/88
Rev. James Anthony Colyn, 39, former pastor of the Glendale (Az.) Bible 
Baptist Church, received a SENTENCE of seven and a half years in prison. 
Colyn was described by police as a "sexual predator" who molested a teenage 
girl who asked him for counseling because she was being abused by her 
stepfather.

The five years of rape began when the girl was 13. She attended Glendale 
Bible Baptist Church and School. Although Colyn resigned after he was 
arrested members blamed the victim. Although she had a 4.0 grade point 
average and was nominated class valedictorian, she was denied participation 
and was segregated from the graduating class.

Colyn PLEADED GUILTY to a charge of attempted molestation as a plea 
bargain. He moved to Phoenix 12 years ago after resigning as youth pastor 
of Temple Baptist Church in Albuquerque, N.M. after admitting sexual 
involvement with a teenage member of that congregation. The Glendale church 
said they were not aware of that when Colyn was hired.

Miami Herald 7/17/88
Oreste Victoriano Lopez, 60, was ARRESTED by Miami police for sexually 
assaulting male and female teenagers he met through his business, community 
and church activities. Victims said they were wooed by Lopez's kindness and 
financial generosity and his use of bible verses to justify his actions. He 
met youth at his church, West Flagler Park Baptist Church.

Police found pornography, comic books, bibles, toys and children's clothes 
at his home, as well as 1000 files detailing children's lives. On his wall 
was a letter thanking him for his work with youth.

Oregonian 6/1/88
Todd S. Clark, 26, and Ralph W. Gantt, 26, both former youth leaders of the 
Royal Rangers boys' program at First Assembly of God church, Albany Oregon, 
were INDICTED for sexual abuse and sodomy of young boys.  Hamiltin 
Spectator (Canada) 7/9/88 Rev. Peter O'Hanley, 37, a priest from 
Fredericton, Ontario, was SENTENCED on July 8 to 3 months in jail after 
PLEADING guilty to sexual exploitation and abuse of three teenage boys.

Los Angles Times 7/2/88
Gilbert Crowell, 27, commander of the Salvation Army in Burbank and an 
ordained minister with a wife and 3 children, was CONVICTED on July 1 of 
molesting 3 girls inside the Army's office. He was convicted of 4 
misdemeanor counts of child molestation and two counts of battery but was 
acquitted by a jury of 7 related charges.

Scrantonian Tribune 6/29/88
Rev. Ronald Terry Litz, 50, of Riverside, Penn., SENTENCED to 2-5 years in 
jail for morals offences in Luzerne, Co., was SENTENCED in June to 6-23 
months in the Northumberland Co. Prison on similar charges. He PLEADED 
guilty Feb. 4 to 3 counts of corrupting the morals of minors. Litz, former 
pastor of the Danville Apostolic Church, molested 2 boys at a church camp. 
His sentences are concurrent.

Hamilton Spectator 6/30/88
Rev. Russel Nicolle, 50, an Anglican minister from Elliot Lake, Ontario, 
RECEIVED 8 months in jail for "repulsive, disgusting and degraded" sexual 
abuse of a 12 year old and 16 year old boy. Judge M.C. DiSalle said he 
"seriously breached" his position of trust as rector of St. Peter the 
Apostle Anglican Church.

Scranton Times 7/14/88
Rev. Thomas J. Hunt, former pastor of East Benton United Methodist Church, 
of Scranton, New York, was ARRESTED for molesting a young boy. Rev. Hunt 
already faces TRIAL for sex crimes against a young girl.

Philadelphia Inquirer 6/27/88
Richard J. Wagner, 26, a volunteer youth leader at the Warminister Hts. 
Community Church in Philadelphia, was CHARGED with assaulting a 14 year old 
boy and 3 others between the ages of 7 and 15 years of age, all part of the 
church youth program.

Sarasota Herald-Tribune 6/30/88
Rev. John Paul Marlow, pastor of Gospel Tabernacle, Inc. of Bradenton, 
Florida is ACCUSED of assaulting, battering and raping a member of his 
congregation. Pamela and John R. McLean charged Marlow with assaulting her 
when she sought psychological and religious counseling. They seek damages 
of $5,000 plus medical costs and lost wages.

Journal Tribune 7/15/88
Rev Jonathan Hamlin, 24, of Vicksburg, Miss., was CHARGED with shooting his 
live in girlfriend, Lula Sims, and burying her on July 3 hours before 
giving a Sunday sermon.

Hamlin was pastor of Zion Traveler Missionary Baptist Church, a 500 member 
congregation and worked at 2 other churches. "You'll never run across a 
finer person," said Hezekiah Butler, a Deacon at Zion Traveler. "He was 
just a first class minister," said a church member.

Sims' mother, said that about a month and a half before the murder, the 
minister had "called me and said he was bleeding to death." When she got to 
the house she said her daughter ripped open the t-shirt she was wearing. 
"Her breasts were nothing but scars and she had scars around her neck where 
he had choked her." She said Hamlin had a small cut on his head. [Evidently 
the "scars" were welts or red marks indicating a struggle had taken place.]

Dallas Times Herald 6/29/88
Although Rev. Gregory Charles Goben, a 28 year old Southern Baptist 
minister, often sat in front of his house and read the bible, he is, 
according to physical evidence obtained by police, the "Village Rapist" 
terrorizing Dallas.

The minister of Outreach Baptist Church in suburban Garland, married with 2 
sons, is CHARGED with a series of sexual assaults in the Village Apartment 
area of North Dallas. Goben, who has a masters degree from Dallas 
Theological Seminary, is linked to 4 sexual assaults, 1 aggravated sexual 
assault and a charge of attempted burglary. That attacks all involved 
break-ins in which the assailant wore a ski mask and tied the victims' 
hands.

Capital Times 7/23/88, Wisconsin State Journal 7/25/88
A jury CONVICTED William Chmielewski of Chilton, Wis., of cruel 
maltreatment of his 15 year old son, imprisoning the boy in his room, 
shunning him from the family and denying proper nourishment for 9 months in 
1987. The boy was taken out of school after the 6th grade. He was locked in 
his room and allowed to read only a bible. Physicians declared the 95 pound 
teenager 60 pounds underweight. The father's attorney defended him as a 
deeply  religious, loving parent.

San Bernardino County Sun 6/30/88
A 19 year old mother of 4 children is undergoing psychotherapy before going 
on trial for CHARGES of murdering her 2 year old daughter and endangering 
the lives of 3 other kids. Cynthia Moya told police that she had read 
somewhere in the bible that if you love your children you should bind them. 
She wrapped her children in sheets last April. One of the babies 
suffocated.

Dallas Morning News  6/29/88
The slaying of 4 people in Texas on June 27 is LINKED to a 16 year string 
of 21 murders involving a feud between a polygamist sect that broke away 
from the Mormon church founded by the late Ervil LeBaron. The sect believes 
in "Blood Atonement." Victims usually have been "defectors." [Evidently 
'between' should have been 'in'.]

Detroit Free Press 6/28/88 [That Dirty, Dirty Devil]
Brandon Carnell, a 14 year old boy who is being CHARGED with slaying his 
father, mother and 11 year old sister, was defended by his pastor, Rev. 
Paul Vanaman of Dixie Baptist Church, Oakland County, Michigan.

"Why should it happen to this family, so closely identified with this 
church? I don't know why. I have a suspicion. I suspect that the dirty 
Devil is about his dirty, dirty work."

The family went to church almost every night, said a neighbor. The children 
went to Springfield Christian School.

Washington Post 7/11/88 [Liberia]
Two little boys, brothers aged 6 and 7, were kidnapped, killed and 
mutilated for "parts"--two left eyelids and an penis--as a plan to sway 
voters to elect a small-town mortician mayor. A Methodist minister, a judge 
and a prosecutor were also involved with the murders. The men, all 
Christians, are to be HANGED this fall. "Heart men" or ritual murders are 
dreaded in Liberia, whose deeply Christian roots were imported along with 
its free-slave citizens from the American south.

Prosecutor Marcus Jones said: "As long as Satan is on Earth, I don't care 
what education you have, these practices continue. It is impossible to 
eradicate such practices in the absence of the second coming of Jesus 
Christ."

Today's Sunbeam [Salem N.J.] 7/1/88
A new book "On Thin Ice" by Roy Howard Beck, former investigative writer 
for the United Methodist Reporter, claims knowledge of "outlandish behavior 
by ministers" around the country. "Caught in the act of bizarre moral 
actions involving sex, violence and finances were television evangelists, 
mainline preachers, bishops, well-known charismatic leaders, revered small 
church pastors--Pentecostals, liberals and conservatives alike." Beck says 
moral turpitude by ministers cannot be excused because "they do a lot of 
good." He writes: "What people do along the way is just as important as 
what happens in the end. How many times have we watched as a person's 
legacy is reduced after one finds out about the people who were crushed or 
hurt along the way."

                      LEYVA ADMITS MOLESTING 100 BOYS

Atlanta Constitution, 10/12/88, Washington Post, 9/24/88, Richmond Times-
Dispatch, 10/12/88 
Tony Leyva, a Southern tent show revivalist who was charged with operating 
an interstate sex ring victimizing young boys, finally plead guilty on Oct 
11 to molesting as many as 100 boys over the past 30 years.

There is too much to type so I'll summarize the article. Tony ("Touch Not 
Mine Anointed") Leyva was sentenced to 45 years and $530,000 (which may be 
amended after psych evaluations).

Tony Leyva, Rias Edward Morris and Freddie M. Herring had maintained their 
innocence for months saying that their arrest was the "persecution" Jesus 
spoke of in the Bible and that Satan was head of the conspiracy against 
them, all the while receiving support and money from their congregation.

Morris and Herring pleaded guilty to some dozen molestations apiece and 
await psychological evaluation.

Leyva's admission came after a prior conviction on Sept. 22 for sodomy of 
two teenagers in Roanoke County, Va. At that time Levya said three angles 
appeared to him to warn him of the upcoming charges.

Federal agents found 31 victims of sexual abuse and 10 foiled attempts. The 
youngest victim was 8.

Levya, 42, whose ministry was in Columbus, Ga. Is now divorced with two 
children. Reportedly Levya forced his wife to sleep on the floor while he 
sodomized a boy. One youth told federal  officials that he was sodomized 
over 100 times by Levya and another youth said that all three men used him.

The boys were often recruited as summer help at revivals, were given 
traveling expenses, money for food and video games. Levya reportedly would 
kneel before his victims to pray for forgiveness.

  
                                    - 30 -

