Another ARBCA Member Sentenced to Prison for Sexually Molesting Children
“It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.”
Luke 17:2 NIV
70-year-old David L. Wood, pictured to the right, was arrested on Monday, December 4, 2019, and charged with three counts of first-degree child molestation, which are Class A felonies in the state of Washington. Wood initially entered a plea of not guilty, but in April changed his plea to guilty. Wood was sentenced on Monday, May 4, 2020, to 89 months to life in prison.
Wood is a member of Port Cities Reformed Baptist Church of Lewiston, Idaho. PCRBC is one of only 16 churches now remaining in the corrupt Association of Reformed Baptist Churches of America (ARBCA). At its zenith, ARBCA consisted of approximately 80 churches. The Association has been decimated by resignations after it was revealed that leaders in the Association lied and covered-up the crimes of former ARBCA pastor Tom Chantry. Chantry, having been convicted of six felony counts (2 counts of assaulting a child and 4 counts of sexual molestation of a child) is currently serving a 23-year prison sentence.
According to sources, David Wood’s father, now deceased, served as pastor of First Baptist Church (GARBC) of Clarkston, WA. David Wood, up until a few years ago, would occasionally fill in as a guest preacher at First Baptist Church.
On May 7, 2020, I placed two phone calls to Pastor Michael Kelly of Port Cities Reformed Baptist Church of Lewiston, both calls went to voice mail. I left a message but my call was not returned. On the same day, I also sent an email to Kelly which he has chosen not to respond to.
I would have liked to ask Kelly if convicted pedophile David Wood was still a member of Port Cities Reformed Baptist Church, and whether the church had enacted any form of church discipline on Wood. I would also have asked Kelly whether Wood had ever preached at Port Cities Reformed Baptist Church or had any unsupervised contact with children. Further, I would have asked Kelly if they had informed all church members of Wood’s crimes.
In research for my first article on the now-convicted pedophile, David Wood, I discovered, not surprisingly, that his recent arrest for sexual crimes was not his first. Wood was sentenced in 1993 on two cases of “Indecent Liberties” in Washington state. I am not aware of what type of sentence Wood received, but it does not appear that Wood received any prison time. Wood lived in Yakima, WA from 1992-2008 and a source told me while living in Yakima he frequently drove over Snoqualmie pass to attend ARBCA churches in the Seattle area. Neither church is now a member of ARBCA.
Source: The Lewiston Tribune
Below is a photo of the Lewiston Community Center. This is where Kelly and his small band of ARBCA-ites meet on Sunday mornings. (Pre-COVID of course. Kelly is currently broadcasting from what appears to be his bedroom.)
Pastor Michael Kelly, seen in the photo below, apparently was a big fan of the now-convicted pedophile Tom Chantry. Kelly, along with several other current and former ARBCA pastors left positive reviews of a book co-authored by Tom Chantry and David Dykstra. Dykstra was one of Chantry’s chief defenders within the corrupt ARBCA leadership.
I have not read the book, but I have seen several critical reviews that claim it is a very biased record of historical events. Below is Kelly’s review, along with a response I posted in October 2018.
Below is a short bio of Tom Chantry, at one time the golden-boy of ARBCA! Perhaps Chantry and Wood can strike up a pen-pal relationship and commiserate about the rough time pedophiles face in the Iron Bar Hotel.
Here is the up-to-date list of churches that still remain in ARBCA, proving once again the truth of the quote, commonly attributed to P.T. Barnum that “there is a sucker born every minute!”
Sigh….
They’re going to need a take-a-number system.
Tom Chantry is 5′ (60″) and 270 lbs? really?
Again, how do these jackal turds get unrestricted access to kids and teens?
That’s easy Muff, no protocols, no vetting, did you expect something different?
5’0″ and 270 lbs is what we used to call “Spheroid”.
BMI in the low 50s.
Of all the substantive things that one could comment on—-this turds SIZE is what comes to mind? ….really?
Honestly, shouldn’t someone be investigating the churches in ARBCA (past and present) for some kind of pedophile ring? Pedophilia pornography? It’s just too much damage!!
Leadership seems to be a predator network, the members would be their hunting ground.
I read this twice before it all clicked. I know David L. Wood. We attended Cedarville College in Cedarville, Ohio, together. Several of his relatives were there also. The fact that he was allowed to have any leadership/preaching roles in any church after the 1993 sentencing is very disturbing. (I remembered Wood had access to many children while in college. He was part of a small group of students who volunteered at the now closed Ohio Soldiers and Sailors Orphans Home in Xenia, Ohio. I know I am very likely being quite unfair here, but could this be an early sign for his becoming a child predator in his case?) May God be close to and bless those to whom he caused harm, and to his innocent family members. Thank you for your faithfulness in fact finding and supporting accountability.
“There’s nothing wrong with The System! The System Works Just Fine (for MEEEEEEE)!”
I just got back in town and I will clear up his size.
Huh, looks like there’s one of those ARBCA churches right here in the NC triangle area.
And there’s one ARBCA church here in Waco, TX. Isn’t that special?? The location is out toward the Waco suburbs…upper middle class suburbs. No po’ folks, few minorities. Makes me think of the late Grady Nutt’s observation that the Lord never seems to call pastors to a smaller church…
Or Depression-era bank robber Al Karpis on why he robbed banks:
“THAT’S WHERE THE MONEY IS.”
Anyone that puts pastor over God is co-complicit even though they were taught they were not.
There is probably going to be a huge wave of suicides by despairing hitherto christians, worldwide, beginning now.
Because they weren’t shown (modelled) how to beg God for our needs & those of the world.
What we were mostly taught (with few exceptions, which it was often implied, were inferior) since 1960 is pure poison.
The pharisaical theosophists scoured land & sea to turn their morsels (not yet carrion) and their kril into devils seven times worse than they.
I certainly agree that we should never put pastor above God. The rest of your comment is hard to understand.
Specifically, I am concerned about your prediction of mass suicides. What changed in 1960? And what is the proper way to beg from God? I have always understood that he hears prayers.
We weren’t shown how.
I’m talking, just as much, about those designer outlets where nothing more impolite was done than passivity, Bethelation, and burnout of leaders and congregation simultaneously (so there was no contrasting wellness to compare it to).
Every denomination says “oh well the C of E are bethelating, and the new churches are associating (and Torontulating), and they all say how successful they are, so that’s the way to go”.
And / or have compromising individuals and tendencies well “integrated” into their core, like someone that previously promoted salacious materials in secular schools just for example; also also any “church within a church” that likes to get a particular hold on some of the people as plausible alibi and a pool of those who are “material”.
There are still a few with true roots, tucked away, but are rushed off their feet surviving.
I did the rounds of the different varieties of nasty ones and so did lots of others, quite a lot of them getting stuck for longer for me.
Michael,
We should avoid churches that fall prey to shallow fads, and churches that behave in nasty ways. Do I have that right?
What works for you, Michael? Leaving church, leaving Christianity? Finding a kinder church with a more established tradition? Something else?
Friend,
Billy Bob’s Bible Church is the one and theeee only true church!!!
Friend,
Hello Friend, I left all churches. I joined one at some distance two weeks before “all this”. They are strangely sane and unaccountably relatively balanced.
One has to survive by the hour.
The rot has spread far beyond specific organisations of these characters. They co-opt and get co-opted. No organisation has primary purpose any more.
God’s providence is different from baggage.
Muff Potter,
Along with its billions of clones !!! !!! !!!
Michael,
Thank you for your reply. I’m glad that you found peace after awful experiences. We all have to, eh?
Like cells in a body infected by a virus.
Like cells in a body infected by a virus.
Remember the theoretical end state of Protestantism, achieved IRL by one A.W.Pink:
MILLIONS of One True Churches, each with only ONE member, each denouncing all the others as Heretics and Apostates.
And beyond the end state, praising all the clones because (being clones) they are all “true church”.