Fired, hired, refired, and still tickling the old church ivories?

You may remember this one from back when JD Greear was trying to kick churches out of the SBC due to the mishandling of sexual abuse. Trinity Baptist Church in Ashburn, Georgia, was singled out during that brouhaha in 2019. As you will see, the SBC Bylaws Committee blew off the concerns. Anything goes in SBC land. In 2019, according to the Baptist Press in Churches named by Greear in abuse report respond

Rodney Brown, pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Ashburn, Ga., told BP the church’s music minister confessed in 2013 or 2014 he had molested a “young teen” decades earlier and had repented.

What does repentance mean? He got hired back because he was *gifted for ministry.” This happened sometime after he had been fired in 2013/14. He then got refired again in 2019. According to Ga. pastor repents, church fires accused staff member

Brown also told BP following Greear’s report the church’s minister of music allegedly confessed in 2013 or 2014 he had molested a “young teen” decades earlier and had repented. In response, Brown “fired him right there on the spot.” The man continued to attend the church, Brown said, though he was never allowed to be alone with children. At church leaders’ request, the church reinstated the man as minister of music, Brown said, adding the church felt the man was gifted for ministry.

“Church leaders came back to me and said, ‘Rodney, the man says he’s repented. We’re not his judge. We’ve not seen anything to indicate any of this at our church,’” Brown said, adding the church felt the man was gifted for ministry and reinstated him as minister of music, a position in which he continues to serve.

…Brown confirmed the termination in his March 7 (2019) statement and said the former staff member “was also asked to immediately resign his church membership, which he did. He has been directed not to return to Trinity.”

“Recently I have come to realize that I failed my duty as pastor in not taking action against an individual who had been accused of child abuse in the past at another church. This was because of my long standing friendship with the accused,” Brown said.

The Christian Index followed up by posting a mea culpa letter from the pastor in Trinity Baptist pastor: ‘This situation has greatly changed my thinking.’

Other victims have now come forward naming this person and he has admitted to assaulting several young people many years ago. I now realize that what I first thought was an isolated incident was much more. I should have understood that earlier and not doing so was a great mistake on my part.  I cannot apologize enough for my actions.

Although there has never been any known abuse at Trinity, the person accused has been terminated from the staff at Trinity. He was also asked to immediately resign his church membership, which he did.  He has been directed not to return to Trinity.

I have injured the victims of the accused by my actions, especially Mr. David P, who brought this to my attention. I have spent much time before God repenting for my actions. I now ask David P and the other victims for forgiveness for my acting so irresponsibly.

The SBC workgroup stated that, based on the information Greear provided, “no further inquiry is warranted” regarding Trinity.

The Daily Kos recently wrote GA church kicked a sexual predator out—then allowed him to return after leaving Southern Baptists. 

a working group of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee had cleared Trinity of wrongdoing

David Pittman and Pastor Troy Bush fight for the truth.

David P., in Pastor Brown’s statement, is David Pittman, who has come forward about his abuse. This is important since David Pittman, who works with G.R.A.C.E., has called out his abuser. And one honest pastor in the SBC, Troy Bush, decided to look into this travesty by the SBC leadership. Again, from the Daily Kos article:

It turned out Brown’s decision didn’t come without some prodding. In June 2021, Troy Bush, pastor of Rehoboth Baptist Church in Tucker, a suburb of Atlanta, revealed that he’d done some digging of his own after a working group of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee had cleared Trinity of wrongdoing. He knew by then that one of the victims named in “Abuse of Faith” was Dave Pittman, a former member of Rehoboth in the early 1980s. Pittman recalled that Wiley, then serving as a youth minister, molested him several times from 1982 to 1985. He kept silent about it for over 20 years until learning that Wiley was serving as a youth pastor at Jodeco Road Baptist Church in Stockbridge, another Atlanta suburb. While Georgia’s statute of limitations on child rape had long since run out, a call to Jodeco Road’s pastor was enough to show Wiley the door.

It appears that there was more to Pastor Brown’s actions in the firing of Wiley.

Bush called Wiley, who ultimately admitted molesting at least five boys in the 1980s. Bush called Brown soon afterward. It was that call, plus a personal appeal from Pittman, that made Brown realize Wiley had to go. An investigation by Bush and Pittman subsequently revealed that Wiley had molested at least 10 boys while working at several Baptist churches in Georgia over the years. They also turned up an 11th victim who was not a member of the churches where Wiley worked, and unconfirmed reports that he molested two more

Troy Bush was upset that the SBC had not done more to investigate the Wiley situation in 2019. Julie Roys wrote about this in Southern Baptist Pastor: Minister Accused of Abusing 13 Boys Never Investigated

The minister has never been criminally charged. But Bush said the minister confessed to him and others that he abused several boys during his tenure at half a dozen Baptist churches in Georgia.

At about the same time, the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee working group declined to inquire further about Trinity Baptist Church in Ashburn where the minister was serving.

“I think the way this was handled was poor and potentially disastrous as it protected and allowed this person to remain in a pastoral ministry role in one of our churches,” said Bush, referring to the work group’s decision not to initiate an inquiry.

Troy Bush wrote about his findings at SBC Voices in SBC Sexual Abuse: One church’s response when the SBC process failed. This is an important post. We learn how poorly the EC Bylaws committee responded in this situation. It almost appears they protected him to this writer, but I know such a thing would never happen.

I called Frankie on February 24, and over the next couple of days, he confessed to abusing 5 boys in the Rehoboth Family in the early 1980s. I couldn’t breath when I read his confession along with the names of each of the boys. I told Frankie that he needed to demonstrate true repentance, including never again serving in a leadership role in any church and making a full confession of the other boys in other places and churches he abused.

When I called the pastor of Trinity on February 28, he initially defended Frankie and the actions he and Trinity had taken. After I shared Frankie’s confession, Rodney admitted he had been wrong in how he handled this matter. I insisted that he remove Frankie from any ministry role and not merely ask him to resign. On Saturday, March 2, Rodney terminated Frankie and asked him to voluntarily withdraw his membership.

I also called Augie, Mike, Thomas and Todd Unzicker (he responded to my request to talk with JD) to tell them Trinity Baptist’s music director had confessed to abusing 5 boys, to tell them Trinity would finally be doing what it should have done years ago, and to express Rehoboth’s dismay over how they had handled this matter. I also emailed them and requested they address unresolved matters.

…Mike (Bylaws) responded to critics of the Workgroup’s findings by saying, “I believe that almost all of us, in our zeal, emotion and righteous anger have done some stumbling out of the gate.” You can read his statement here (https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/first-person-we-seek-the-same-goal/). He added that critics do not understand the process. I have to say, the failure of this process looks more like a faceplant than a stumbling, and I don’t need to understand the process or the motives of those involved to understand the Workgroup got it wrong on this matter.

This rushed process nearly succeeded in protecting a confirmed child sex abuser while it failed the survivors of his abuse. It failed Rehoboth and all the Georgia Baptist churches where survivors have been identified. It failed Trinity and the children and students there. And it failed Georgia Baptists by not providing just and righteous actions to address this matter within our midst.

Is Frankie Wiley back, doing more than not sitting near children?

Trinity Baptist Church left the SBC because they kept getting questioned by the SBC about Frankie, who was still attending the church (but not allowed near children…) According to the Daily Kos article:

Trinity had stormed out of the Southern Baptist Convention as a result of the Wiley affair. In an email obtained by Roys, Brown pulled Trinity out of the convention and changed the church’s name to Trinity Community Church in February 2020. The reason? “Continued questioning” by Greear over how it dealt with Wiley.

It gets worse, much, much worse. Guess who appears to be still tickling the keyboards?

According to Roys, Wiley was playing the keyboards on Trinity’s worship team at least as early as October and was still doing so as recently as last Sunday. There is no word on what his present role (if any) is at the church—and more importantly, what possessed Trinity to allow him back through its doors in ANY capacity.

Julie Roys just posted Georgia Minister Back On Stage Despite Allegations He Molested 13 Boys.

The accused former music minister reappeared on stage at Trinity beginning October 17, 2021. No one on stage said anything about his return to the worship team. The nature of his role is unclear, and it’s unknown whether the church has put any safety measures in place to separate him from children in the congregation.

“Now that the dust has settled a bit, they went right back to where they were before,” Pittman told The Roys Report. “That’s not truth, or remorse or repentance. That’s lies. . .

Think about the disturbing information in this post:

• Trinity Church hires, fires, rehires, refires, and maybe even allows Wiley to play music at the church.
• The SBC Executive Committee gave a pass to this church for these actions which causes into question the leadership of the SBC.
• Pastor Troy Bush gives me hope there are still truth-seeking pastors in the SBC. May more come forward.
• David Pittman, who is known by many folks as a selfless abuse advocate, says he was abused by this music “minister” and I believe him.

I am so sorry for the pain that David and the other victims experienced. We are grateful for the efforts of Pastor Troy Bush to bring light to this dark episode in the SBC.