“The true character of a society is revealed in how it treats its children.” – Nelson Mandela
A few months ago I received the email below from Stephanie. I emailed her back and she told me the sad story of the abuse she and her two sisters endured at the hands of Baptist pastor William White.
I believe Stephanie.
Additionally, the article states:
- The couple has taken in at least 20 foster children in recent years, according to state records.
- The Rev. White, 50, was in the Lake County Jail with no bail, charged with three counts of sexual battery of a child under age 12, a capital offense.
- Records show the couple – married 28 years – have cared for 20 foster children since 1996.
- White first was accused of sexual battery on Feb. 26. 1999. A 7-year-old girl, who had been living with the family for two weeks, told her natural mother during a visit monitored by social workers that White had molested her.
- Two other girls, ages 10 and 11, subsequently told investigators they had been abused by the pastor, Pallitto said.
- White became pastor of Lake Dora Alliance Church and stayed there until it closed in September 1997. He was hired to head Hillcrest Baptist in October of that year.
- Suzanne Stephens – one of the founders of a Lake County support group for foster families and adoptive families – said she has known White for five years and has always trusted him. It’s possible the children are confused about who molested them, if they were molested at all, said Stephens, who also serves as president of Florida’s Foster Families Association. “I’m not going to stand up and say he did or didn’t do this,” Stephens said. “I do understand how young children have a tendency to make mistakes. I have known that to happen.”
The complete story may be read here.
White only served 5-6 months in prison.
As you can see below, White was acquitted of fondling two of the foster children in his care. He was convicted of fondling the third child but was granted a retrial because of jury misconduct.
Neither Stephanie nor her two sisters testified in the trial. Their mother did not allow them to testify, saying it would just put more stress on them.
Stephanie told me that Susan White has stood behind her husband the entire time. She also told me she and her siblings were in the White’s home from 1995-1999.
Below are the criminal records that I was able to locate on White. I find it rather hard to decipher, but it looks like he spent about one year total in prison.
I am so sorry Stephanie, her two siblings and countless others had to endure the sexual abuse from Baptist pastor William Nathan White. I believe the man to be serial pedophile.
As Stephanie wrote, “Lord forgive me for saying this – he is going to hell.”
The drum beats on… Untill pew peons REALLY stand up and say enough, the good old boy system will just keep letting preacher boys get away with, and move on to more kids…
I was “struck” when I looked at the “Conservative Baptist Network” web page. Not a word about all the legally convicted, let allone allogations, of the depraved behavoir of SBC preahcers and leaders to kids.. The CBN is all “hung up” on the fact that SBC is become “woke”… yet they say nothing about preacher moelesting kids!!!! Whether the “faeture” of this post is SBC or not, it does not matter… lack of holding “preacher” accountable transcends relgious flavors..
And this lack of accountability for heinous crimes against children, who are most vulnerable, is the Welcome Mat that brings all the pedophile pervert predators to church to find their Hunting Ground.
Regarding fostering and adoption, while in high school and college, I befriended a teen who had been in Foster care (with her sister), and they both were targets of their foster dad.
My friends and I did what we could to help her get a new life. She did, get a new life.
Some of society’s reaching out to the downtrodden, be it social services or missions, is actually a ploy to find targets.
I have mixed feelings about outreach, fostering, adoption. Keep a wary eye. Not every home is Green Gables with Matthew and Mirella.
Evil. There’s potentially a Dark Side, an underbelly, to “good works”. It’s important to be vigilant.
Thank you, Stephanie, for sharing your story. God bless you in your journey to the life God intends for you with all goodness. I agree with you about hell. It’s real and some choose it. Stay safe.
Thank you, Dee, for opening your heart to these dear ones, and for your important TWW work. We are ever grateful.
Foster care appears to be yet another hunting ground for pastor-pedophiles. Looks so Christian, doesn’t it, a pastor who wants to foster children … I mean surely you can trust a pastor! Hell is hot and Hell is long.
Chester the molester.
Any adult who wants to hang out with kids, with minors, question that.
The experts say: it is not normal for an adult to desire a social life with children. There’s a power differential from the get-go.
People who work with children in their jobs all day may enjoy their work but they can’t wait to punch out of the time clock and then socialize with adults.
Sure, grandparents take the grandkiddies on an outing, but they’re grateful to be able to take them back home.
Fostering, adoption, and outreach need careful surveillance and scrutiny.
The kids who are born to a predator? This requires rescue; it can never be wholly prevented. I believe God advocates for those children, fortunately. They need God more than anyone, IMHO.
Total red flag.
Another red flag which has never failed me is if someone actively dislikes cats. It sounds strange but cats can’t be controlled or tamed and if you can’t deal with that it suggests you’re overly controlling.
We here read about abuse cases. Clearly there’s a problem. You are generalizing a bit much, in my humble opinion. It’s not even clear to me that this couple desired a social life with chldren.
Let’s not tar everyone with the same brush: all parents and other relatives, all teachers, all social workers, all church people, all coaches, all youth leaders, all this, all that.
I enjoy spending time with my children and with other people’s children. Does this make me a monster? Likewise I’d be pretty appalled if every teacher or coach couldn’t wait to get away from children. Some teachers actually miss their children during the work day, and I don’t think that’s a red flag.
Children NEED adults in their lives.
Putting these ideas together: adults are only OK if they like cats but don’t want to spend time with children. I’m struggling to understand.
Thanks, Todd, for publishing this post and for all of your work addressing the fact that pedophile pervert predators roam church society for prey, for children.
Saw your tweets on the Gospel Celebrities having each others’ backs regarding inchurch predation.
A man posing and propped up as a Christian leader while covering up child sex abuse is a charade, empty and evil. Welcome to the masquerade called church.
Then Beth Moore suggests people take up hobbies because their Social Media preoccupations with issues are a little over the top. So, women Gospel celebrities want to run and hide, too.
IMHO, if one’s Gospel doesn’t address predation in church, it’s a shallow, hollow Gospel. Posing in photos with the Hillsong predators was tone deaf.
Jesus addressed the disenfranchised and the religious elite until the religious elite had had enough. Jesus did not take up knitting or anything else as a diversion.
Hello, Gospel celebrities: a Gospel Social Media platform is for addressing Gospel issues like the fact that church should not be a Hunting Ground for pedophile pervert predators.
Not flyover, fun, and fluffy? Right. It’s not.
That’s the issue. And predators are well aware.
The power differential necessitates clear boundaries and iron clad safeguarding of children.
A minor and an adult are never peers. Adults know this. Children need to be taught this for their own safety.
And give up their potlucks?
And the smug thrill of looking down their noses at all us HEATHERNS?
“I Thank Thee, LOOOOOOOOORD, that I Am Nothing Like Those…”
Yeah, me too.
I’m not a cat person, but gimme a good hunting dog and a spirited horse and I’m happy. I’m quite partial to mules, too (the 4-legged variety).
And, I’m a former school teacher (grades 7-12), and former VBS and SS teacher.
I freely will admit, though ………… If I have to work with kids under the age of 12, I’d rather not have more than a half dozen or so of them …….. more than that, and it really is like herding cats.
SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW?
HE CAN TAKE A NUMBER AND STAND IN LINE WITH ALL THE OTHER PEDO MENAGAWD.
ALL SINGING IN UNISON “WE THANK THEE, LOOOOOOOOORD, THAT WE ARE NOTHING LIKE THOSE FILTHY ROMISH PAPIST PRIESTS OVER THERE!!!!!”
And that Tweet of his…. More “JESUS! JESUS! JESUS!” than on a Herman Cain Award social media trace. The more Rigid the Righteosness, the deeper the Perversion.
If not Unca Raggy.
The more Righteous, the more Corrupt.
I’m convinced that a lot of folks use/abuse the foster care system to warehouse children to make money. With that motive, they couldn’t be good “parents” and anything could happen to children in their homes. You have to care about children if you foster care.
I resemble that remark. I’ve had lots of those in my long journey and found them to be more trusting and loving than a lot of church folks. Rabbit, squirrel, and quail hunting with a dog is much more enjoyable than trying to fellowship with unspiritual knuckleheads.
It’s a sad commentary on SBC life, but chicken dinners at the church take precedence over everything … EVERYTHING! You can get away with powermongers in the pulpit, god-awful sinners in the pew, aberrant theology, and unBiblical church structure … but mess with their potlucks and you’ll have a war on your hands!
Friend,
Aaugh. Everything below the first line is from me, not Max. Sorry.
Nancy2(aka Kevlar),
Upvoted for 4-legged mules.
🙂
Agreed! To which I revise my earlier statement “You have to care about children if you foster care … and adopt.”
Fortunately, bad foster care and adoptive parents are in the minority, just like bad biological parents. We only hear about the bad actors, but enough to grieve our hearts for the little ones.
I knew a widow (now in Heaven) who fostered over 400 children over a 40 year period. She cared for and loved every one of them, taught them about Jesus, took them to church, went to their school functions, kept up with them after graduation. They called her mother, with many returning to visit her after they aged out of the foster system.
Our daughter and son-in-law, unable to have more children after their son, fostered a boy who had leg braces when they got him. They were told that the child could be permanently disabled, a victim of poor care as an infant. They decided to adopt him and devote time to his care. Following a 3-year regimen of physical and speech therapy, my 5 year old grandson is now running with his older brother without braces, talking our ears off, and fishing with Papaw.
Max,
Wonderful stories, Max. 🙂
Ava Aaronson,
Agreed, children do need to be taught this. To extend a point, these particular children did know they were being hurt, yet that knowledge did not protect them. Abused children are often threatened, even if not kept in the dark or gaslighted and brainwashed. The foster placements needed to be prevented, or the abuse detected.
It’s good they are free now, but what an absolute travesty.
Let’s be clear. William White was never a “Pastor.” He may have been called that, but was never given that assignment by Holy God … his actions prove that.
“In ‘that day’ many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we preach in your name …?’ Then I shall tell them plainly, ‘I have never known you. Go away from me, you have worked on the side of evil!’” (Matthew 7:22-23)
Nancy2(aka Kevlar),
Dogs are a gift from God.
Max, this can lead to theological-minutiae sidetracking while Pastor Pedo sneaks out the back door laughing.
He claimed the title of “Pastor”.
He identified as a “Pastor”.
Others called him “Pastor” and considered him a “Pastor”.
And he probably went into full “TOUCH NOT MINE ANOINTED!” mode when caught.
If it calls itself Pastor and others call it Pastor and it Quacks lie a Pastor…
“WOOF!”
That wasn’t my intention and there was no reference to any other animals.
Let me try again.
Cats are independent, can’t be tamed or controlled and basically ignore any attempts to do so.
Someone who is overly controlling will hate this and will therefore hate cats.
Literally all I’m saying is if someone actively hates cats (not a preference for a different pet) it’s a red flag that they’re likely to be controlling all areas of their life and be unable to tolerate other people making their own decisions or having their own autonomy.
John,
Do you have a scientific study to back this up?
The theme of people who dislike cats might be just a little off topic, though, so I don’t know where to go from here. At a loss.
Like a Good Widdle Winsome Christian Wifey.
Oh you mean like when the state trained state school teachers twice our age pretended to conveniently import playground talk into the civics lesson plan while the churches thought it was trendy not to pray for the nation’s youth any more?
Oh you mean like when the commercially trained consultants import exactly the resurgents’ own gender theology, based on neurological body language and tastes, into places that the wrongfooted, terrified, gaslit * children thought would be safe for them, just when the very same resurgents think it’s “contemporary” to carry on not praying for the nation’s youth?
{ * inexpensive adaptations for we Aspergers and dyspraxics, ideal targets for gaslighting, are suppressed as sadistic power ploy on pretext of “statistics” – S in DSM }
Of course He didn’t. He was wholly Real (TM) Man and wholly Eternally Subordinate to the Godfather.
(Apologies for tangenting from your allusion.)
quote
It’s possible the children are confused about who molested them, if they were molested at all, said Stephens, who also serves as president of Florida’s Foster Families Association. “I’m not going to stand up and say he did or didn’t do this,” Stephens said. “I do understand how young children have a tendency to make mistakes. I have known that to happen.”
unquote
I think this is a very suspicious statement for the “Florida’s Foster Families Association (which might be secular or inter denominational? – and might have relations with secular social workers?) to get one of its officers to make.
I think what this article really highlights is how unresponsive our current system is to kids who claim they have been abused (abused adults, too). They go to people they think they can trust for help, and they are either ignored, not believed, or the suspect finds some way around the charges and is let off.
A number of years ago one of my kindergartners got in trouble and was trembling when I told him I would need to contact his mom (single parent). He said his mom would hit him. I said that sometimes we get spankings (not illegal in my state). He said, “But mommy hits me with the pancake turner, or a shoe or with a belt.” I called it in. Mom convinced the social worker nothing was going on and came to school, and raised her arm to strike me. Two teachers got in between me and dear mom as I was on crutches and could have been easily bowled over. I left that school at the end of the year, fervently hoping his mother wouldn’t beat him again. But, if you’re crazy enough to try to hit a teacher in public, what would you do to a 5 year-old?
Linn,
I keep rereading this.
Abusive people so often guard their turf by intimidation and attack. And then they get worse.
I’m so sorry this happened. To all involved.
I agree, Michael. I would be checking into Stephens very closely.
So many children are harmed. It’s so sad. Thanks for standing up for this child, Linn.
https://youtu.be/nLh5vbBLpxI
I would be checking into that Association and the way it continues its internal “interests” among its officers whether Stephens is still there or not.
It was that Association that personified the suspicious attitude and got one of its officers to promulgate it.
This is because one of my peers walked out on them, which round here was instigated by HMG, and is a situation that is NORMALISED by just about all “christians” in their lack of prayer.
What is the purpose of the book of Daniel: cheap numeric gotchas for their non-gospel, or the prayer ch 9 vv 3-21?
Pope Macarthur says holding churches to standards is “persecution”. The world follows the prayerless sacred authorities, they don’t follow it.
Pope JMac should know that Christians are to obey the laws of man, unless they go contrary to the laws of God. Christians and their churches are not “persecuted” if local authorities expect them to live within acceptable legal, moral, social, and health boundaries, to follow the law not break it. JMac was not being persecuted when health authorities in California instructed him to adhere to Covid mandates for masks and social-distancing … they were trying to protect others from a potential church superspreader event. During my long life, I’ve known better “prayerless sacred authorities” than some church folks.
Max,
Agreed, Max.
And let’s not forget that secular authorities include many people of faith who do pray. I truly would abhor theocracy, but I also don’t think the world is divided into two separate groups, 1) Christians and 2) people with jobs.
Praise God for believers in all avenues of life who take their faith to work through the week, rather than leaving it in the pew on Sunday. I have a friend who is a Judge … he prays daily for God’s wisdom as he tries cases and for all those involved in the courtroom proceedings.
Christianese-to-English:
PERSECUTION:
1. Not being allowed to Persecute everyone else in the Name of God.
2. Not being allowed to do Anything I Want.
3. Proof I Am More Christian Than Thou.
(#2 is also the adolescent’s definition of Fascism from an old Mad Magazine.)
Crazy Cat Lady?
Headless Unicorn Guy,
They are not high on the list of people with a known tendency to assault and abuse.
A Christian theocracy would be as brutal a dictatorship as any the world has seen.
And the Christians will chorus “AAAAAAA-MENNNNN!!! HE SHALL RULE THEM WITH A ROD OF IRON!!! AND HIS KINGDOM SHALL HAVE NO END!!!”
i.e. THE FIX IS IN.