Woman crying in church. cotonbro@pexels
“It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.” J. R. R. Tolkien
I was alerted to this situation on Twitter. According to one person, survivors have fought for a long time to have this brought before a judge, and some are still fighting. My guess is that more is going on behind the scenes than what was reported. I will give an overview of the current situation and continue to monitor new developments.
Kevin Straughan indicted on multiple counts of sexual assault and strangulation.
In May 2023, the Conway Daily Sun reported that the Court released indictments against the former pastor. After these indictments were released, Kevin Straughan was no longer a pastor with Agape Ministries. It appears that this ministry was well known for its successful food pantry program. I could find little information about the church and wondered if it was tied to the food pantry.
Straughan was known for something else.
- An indictment for “pattern (of) aggravated felonious sexual assault” says he sexually assaulted a girl over age 13 but under 16 over a period of two months or more
- A second-degree assault indictment says he allegedly strangled a second individual
- Another second-degree assault charge is similar to the other but is for a different alleged victim
- A fourth indictment alleges that Straughan committed aggravated felonious sexual assault against a child under 13 years old i
- The fifth indictment appears substantially similar to the fourth but with a different alleged victim.
- A sixth indictment is for aggravated felonious sexual assault for committing sexual assault against a girl who was at least 16 years of age
Straughan is sentenced to 7-20 years of prison for sexual assault.
On April 1, 2024, WMUR reported that Former New Hampshire minister sentenced after pleading guilty to sexual assault. “Kevin Straughan sentenced to 7-20 years in prison.” He pled guilty and claimed that he was profoundly sorry. However, that regret only goes so far, as you will see shortly.
A former New Hampshire minister was sentenced to prison Monday after pleading guilty to several charges, including sexual assault. Kevin Straughan, 68, was sentenced to seven to 20 years in state prison after pleading guilty to two counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault and one count of second-degree assault involving strangulation.
According to the Conway Daily Sun:
Carroll County Superior Court Judge Mark Attorri approved a plea deal between County Attorney Keith Blair and Public Defender Caroline Smith for Straughan to serve seven to 20 years in prison. He also got a 10-to-20-year sentence suspended for 10 years. He must also undergo sex offender assessment and treatment.
The Laconia Daily Sun reported about this in Agape Ministries founder sentenced to 7 years for child sexual assault.
According to Ossipee police, Straughan was head minister of the Agape Ministries Church at the time the crimes were committed. He was apparently the adoptive father and foster parent of a number of children over the past couple of decades.
Victim statements were read. What these brave survivors said was deeply disturbing.
…“I can’t honestly put into words how much Kevin Straughan has taken from me and my siblings,” said one victim. “I can’t wrap my head around the fact that this man took 13 years of my life and is only serving seven years in prison.”
One of the victims said he abused her when she was in her bedroom and had assaulted her in the back of a cargo van. She suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder because of Straughan and said he started abusing her at around 13 years old.
“I hate Kevin, and he deserves to go to prison for what he did to me,” said a victim.
Another victim said his abuse caused her to feel suicidal from age 9 to 15. She said he abused her sexually and physically. “The trauma is following me into present day,” said the victim.
Kevin Straughan and family are accused of misusing funds from the food pantry to enrich themselves.
It seems that Kevin Straughan, his wife Jana, and their son David have been accused of using the money donated to the Agape Food Pantry to enrich themselves. Again, from the Laconia Daily Sun.
Meanwhile, the charitable unit has a 25-page civil complaint against Straughan, then wife Janna Straughan and son David Straughan, among others. It says the Struaghans have “expended thousands of dollars of Agape’s funds and property for personal use and enrichment.”
The Straughans deny the accusations.
Final thoughts
- Since he is a serial abuser, there could likely be more victims.
- The victims’ statements were devastating. My heart goes out to them. If any wish to tell their stories on TWW, let me know at dee@thewartburgwatch.com.
- How many of these abusers are hiding in Christian ministries?
“Seems like nothin’ ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge…”
Muff Potter(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)
“How many of these abusers are hiding in Christian ministries?”
It has been estimated that there are around 400,000 Christian churches in America, with staff and volunteers numbering undoubtedly a million or more … think about it. Christians trust church officials; they believe that a house of worship is a safe area where abuse cannot affect them. Hell is hot and Hell is long for church leaders who betray their trust.
Max(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)
In a lot of church cultures there’s a huge focus on the old testament. These books are replete with stories of godly kings with godly harems and god himself was so smite-o-licious. He sent punishment galore. In this time women were on par with the cattle, they were items to be used, Abraham’s wife bought him a slave girl!
Switch to the new testament and Jesus was ostensibly nicer and did all sorts of healings and dabbled in catering (specializing in weddings and large crowds)
Christians make their peace with it in various ways but in the fundamentalist mindset, god is ok for this abuse to happen. It happens for a good reason because God’s reasons are always good. He can intervene but doesn’t because the rewards are in heaven and true believers get redemption.
The abusers are drawn to the power because ultimately that’s what they crave – it’s all about power and what’s more powerful than a god who predestined the crime – in fact it’s not the abusers fault! The abusers are actually following the will of God.
For me, if there is a god that can make animals talk and provide wedding wobbly pops then I don’t know what he’s up to but these clowns should go to jail.
Pretty sick stuff.
Jack(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)
“How many of these abusers are hiding in Christian ministries?”
Predators can only prey on others when they have enough power and cover. Their cover can be outward charm and an appearance of really caring about kids. (Think of all the coaches you’ve read about over the years when their abuse was disclosed and how many parents had trusted them.) In a church, this cover is aided by the church members’ general belief that other “Christians” are of course “safe.” Power also comes into play. At the very least, a predator must have more physical power than a victim or power of another sort over a victim. Take the infamous, but unfortunately true, quote “When you’re a star, they let you do it,” and replace “star’ with CEO, coach, or pastor. They “let you” not because they want to, but because they don’t see a way of escape. How many tell and aren’t believed? How many don’t tell because they know they won’t be believed?
The church needs widespread teaching on wolves, false prophets, etc. The Bible is rich with teaching and examples and warnings, yet I can’t recall ever hearing a sermon about it. Perhaps the good pastors are among the ignorant as to its prevalence. And of course, wolves aren’t going to preach sermons on how to detect wolves.
Good people are often caught unaware because they are ignorant. A person can read your Bible daily and remain ignorant because we interpret verses through our own experience. You read warnings about false teachers and think of some famous false prophet you know that you did not fall for, and move on to the next verses. Godly pastors can do this as well.
Seminaries need to make it a priority to educate their students on patterns of abuse so that their students are familiar with the more subtle patterns. They need to actively consider the ways good people can end up on the wrong side, the pressures there will be to be on the wrong side, and count the cost it will take to to stand up to it.
Eyewitness(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)
Max,
I’d like your thoughts on this, Max. I am of the opinion that the unforgivable sin, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, applies here. My reasoning is; when you purport to have a form of godliness and proclaim yourself a Christian, but you commit crimes and cloak yourself in Christianity, it’s blaspheme’ing the Holy Spirit. You claim to have knowledge of Him but you intentionally harm Him by abusing his people. I think the church is full of wolves and narcissistic pastors that are filled with pride and crave attention. But, this guy and one’s like him are at a different level that, I believe, meets the qualifications of the unforgivable sin. This is using God and hiding behind His goodness to destroy everything in this man’s path. Thoughts on this?
EW66(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)
“A second-degree assault indictment says he allegedly strangled a second individual”
This makes what is already horrific even worse. In domestic abuse, a previous episode involving strangulation is a uniquely reliable predictor of later murder of a partner. Hitting, punching, biting, kicking, etc. do not have the same predictive power.
You can google “strangulation in domestic violence” and find multiple articles. One was written by Joni E Johnston Psy.D. in Psychology Today entitled, “The Most Critical Red Flag of Domestic Violence.”
Eyewitness(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)
Not Max here, however here are thoughts.
A daughter says to her mother: “Either he’s the perfect guy … or, you’re going to end up on Dateline.”
Later, a detective says, “He’s the biggest liar I ever met.”
This was the tease for a recent Dateline broadcast.
Here at The Wartburg Watch, there are similar weekly posts.
Either he or she (but mainly he) is the perfect pastor preacher priest or he/she will end up on TWW.
He or she (mainly he) may be the biggest liar ever met.
It all starts with a lie.
TWW is the church equivalent of Dateline. Some of us follow both.
The deception and fraud all start with a lie.
Instead of the perfect pastor or priest or mate, you end up with the perfect lie, the perfect scheme, the perfect fraud. They have an agenda and it ain’t love. It”s profit, power, and perversion. That’s the motivation.
The means? For a mate, the means is love bombing or fake love, which is the lie. For a church leader, the means is staging, aggrandizing, or performance, which is deception akin to a magic show. The snake oil tongue is quicker and sharper than the critical thinking brain.
The opportunity? The opportunity is a parish or person looking for someone, that someone being a leader, in the case of a church, which is the domain of TWW. Or, in the case of Dateline, it’s a person looking for love, for a mate.
Is the love actually a lie?
Is the leadership actually a lie?
The question.
When the love is a lie we have Dateline. Every Friday night and sometimes on the weekend. It’s the longest running True Crime series, with no end in sight. Since there is endless material for Keith or Andrea, Josh or Dennis, acute selection of cases to cover is required.
When the leadership is a lie, we have TWW, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. There are far more cases than room for posts so some only get a dishonorable mention tweet on X.
At either venue, it’s all about perfection. The perfect lie.
Ava Aaronson(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)
Yeah, this is why Karma and her sister Comeuppance will never be out of a job.
Muff Potter(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)
Off topic: we are in the path of totality for the eclipse today! Only travel necessary is to walk outside to the yard. Any others in the path?
linda(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)
🙂
Lucky you 🙂 — I wondered last night as I was watching TV how many people were doing the equivalent of Boxing Day or Black Friday sales, or concerts or movies….arriving way ahead of time and waiting for hours, even days. 🙂
Where I live, we won’t get the total eclipse….I’m not sure if I’ll notice much difference….I guess I’ll find out soon. 🙂
researcher(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)
Hits too close to home.
Just like the forgotten archetype of Antichrist, the Slick Deceiver.
Hits too close to home.
Headless Unicorn Guy(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)
Unfortunately, “The unforgivable sin” has already been redefined to mean “Whatever YOU do that I Don’t”.
(Redefinition into “diabolical meanings”, My Dear Wormwood… Nowhere do we corrupt so effectively as at the very foot of The Enemy’s altar!)
Headless Unicorn Guy(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)
“The church needs widespread teaching on wolves, false prophets, etc.” – I agree, Eyewitness.
I once asked a church, during a membership class, why they required that volunteers who worked with children needed to be fingerprinted and have their backgrounds checked, but didn’t require the same for the 4 pastors on staff. Those pastors could teach a kids’ Sunday School class at any time and the church was basically saying “your kids are safe with these guys.” (I got blank stares and as far as I know the policy hasn’t been changed.)
JJallday(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)
Researcher–our area has tried mightily to convince people to come for a several day event, with all sorts of activities and sales. So far some extra people, so far not the hundreds of thousands we were warned to expect.
linda(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)
Headless Unicorn Guy,
Well said. Accurate analysis.
EW66(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)
Update: the eclipse was absolutely stunning and awesome. We were treated to everything good: enough high cirrus clouds to see the shadow coming and get some interesting cloud colors. Then excellent view of the eclipse. We got the wedding ring, Bailey’s beads, the diamond ring, and could see two planets. We got the 360 degree sunset. It got colder during the eclipse, the birds quieted down, tree peepers peeped, and one neighbor dog seemed extremely disoriented as light returned. Sort of like “what the heck that was one short night am I getting up or going to bed?” confused.
I am seldom at a loss for words, but this event has me totally unable to find the words to convey just how beautiful, wonderful, and God filled it was.
linda(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)
Makes sense to me. The institutional church really needs to get over its blind trust of church leaders. There are just too many bad-boy stories to ignore … Christian watchblogs inform and warn about them on a daily basis.
Max(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)
linda,
You had a blessed day, indeed!
We were in the 95% zone. Sort of a short twilight, but the birds did quiet down a bit and purple martins returned to our backyard martin house thinking it was time to roost. We didn’t witness the wonderful totality that you described, but it was cool to see my dear wife in eclipse glasses and our grandsons thrilled with the experience. I sat in silence (for a change) with a cup of coffee in hand taking it all in and thinking about the splendor of God’s creation.
Max(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)
linda,
Now get ready for next natural spectacle coming to your area. Billions of cicadas are getting ready to emerge! An amazing phenomenon of two broods emerging simultaneously for the first time in 271 years … Thomas Jefferson was President during the last Symphony of Cicadas. Better go buy your ear plugs now before they are sold out like eclipse glasses! 🙂
Max(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)
There were some things planned in our area, but not much more than for the duration of the actual eclipse….probably because our area was only experiencing a partial eclipse. 🙂
researcher(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)
Your description, Linda, is a very good summary of what I watched on the different news stories after the eclipse. 🙂
I’d seen all the news stories before I read your comment….and when I read your comment I was able to put names to some of what I’d seen (wedding ring, Bailey’s beads, the diamond ring, and I could see the two planets). 🙂
And in one of the pictures that was supplied to one of our local news stations — it was a picture supplied to the news station by a viewer who’s a pilot — I saw a picture of the moon with the two planets and with an airplane in front of it. 🙂
I really enjoyed watching all the people in the various news stories, the awe (etc.) in their faces….the joy they were experiencing. The getting together of communities. There were so many beautiful pictures and videos clips! 🙂
When I was watching the news stories, I saw some really cool ways that people had made it possible to see the partial eclipse without having to look directly at the sun. 🙂
I had more fun and got more enjoyment out of watching everyone else and reading your comment than if I’d been there myself. 🙂
researcher(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)
I really enjoyed reading your comment, Max….it brought a smile to my face. 🙂
researcher(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)
Max,
After the eclipse, I’d wondered what would happen with all the eclipse glasses, wondered how many people would save them as a memento, and if the eclipse glasses could get re-used….the only drawback being that some of the eclipse glasses had the date on the front of them.
And in one of yesterday’s news stories, they mentioned that the eclipse glasses could be donated to a group called Astronomers without Borders. 🙂 I hadn’t realize there was a group like that….and I thought it made so much sense….and by donating the eclipse glasses to Astronomers without Borders, it saves resources and helps the planet. 🙂
researcher(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)
We live directly across the road from this family and have for 25 years. The adopted kids were sweet and would always yell across the street and say “Hi, Miss M and Mr. A”! They would smile and wave. Our road is narrow and they would be at the edge of the road literally only several feet from ours. They would always stand on the very edge of their lawn and look nervously behind them so see if ‘dad’ was there. We knew he was a religious fanatic, and he ALWAYS gave off ‘creepy’ vibes. I was always extremely uncomfortable around him. He also never had a job, and hubby and I often remarked to each other how they could pay the bills on their home, and take trips, etc. People from the church would constantly be there doing their yard work, painting their house, and generally doing their bidding for free. Now we see there is a civil lawsuit against Kevin, his wife, and an adult son for taking thousand of dollars from Agape church for their own purposes. Ugh! Anyway, it was so obvious that the kids dearly wanted to come over to our house and see the chickens, ducks, and goose, and chat with us. The never dared leave the yard. These kids were old enough to do so—(not 6, 7, etc.) Hubby and I often commented to each other, wondering out loud why they could never come and talk to us, and why they seemed to be watched, and on an invisible string at all times. They seemed nervous about even saying hello to anyone.
The oldest boy did come over to talk to us, see our birds, and visit our 2 yorkies on occasion. He knew I always made homemade cookies or cake, and he would come over and I would ask him if he would like some. He would say “Yes, thank you”! so fast that it definitely stood out. He would gobble up the treat and look nervously across at his house periodically. After a bit he would say, “I better get back. I don’t want to get in trouble”, and things like that. I would always tell my hubby, and we both thought it was odd and felt sorry for all those kids. They just seemed like they were not allowed to have a ‘normal’ life.
We knew Kevin was hugely controlling and ‘off’ somehow, but we had no idea of any of this abuse. We feel so terrible that those kids were not allowed to come over and that they were watched practically every minute. We wish they had been able to tell us what was happening. We are grateful that this monster has been stopped and sentenced, but we wish it had been to a finite term of the maximum! 7 years is a travesty for what those girls suffered. So much for the justice system here!
Mary and Adam Spencer(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)
Privilege of Pastoral Rank, as often covered on this and other watchblogs.
Again, Privilege of Pastoral Rank.
Hasn’t this exact phenomenon been covered on this and other watchblogs?
EMBEZZLEMENT.
That explains how they could “pay the bills on their home, and take trips, etc” while never “having a job”.
Ezzo/Pearls/Got Hard Blanket Training.
Now the lawn was their Blanket.
Headless Unicorn Guy(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)
“What is the cost of lies?
“It’s not that we’ll mistake them for
the truth. The real danger is that
if we hear enough lies, then we no
longer recognize the truth at all.
What can we do then?”
— Chernobyl (HBO miniseries), opening monologue
Headless Unicorn Guy(Reply & quote selected text) (Reply to this comment)