[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Prejoice podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: My name is Eric Swizinski, and I grew up within the Independent Fundamental Baptist Movement.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as a former fundamentalist, I shed light on the dark side of the church from the pulpit to the pew.
[SPEAKER_00]: Last week, I broke down three stories relating to scandals and Baptist churches that took place between July, first, Angelai seventh, two thousand and twenty-five.
[SPEAKER_00]: And today, I'm diving deep into four headlines that broke between July, eighth, and July, fifteenth, twenty, twenty-five.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do want to make a note here that some of these stories refer to charges for possession or distribution of child pornography.
[SPEAKER_00]: I personally prefer to use the term child sexual abuse material or CSAM as it more accurately reflects abusive and exploitative nature of this content.
[SPEAKER_00]: However, I still will occasionally use the term child pornography in this video when referencing specific legal terminology like a charge or I'm specifically quoting other sources in order to maintain accuracy and context.
[SPEAKER_00]: With that disclaimer out of the way, let's go ahead and move into the rest of the video.
[SPEAKER_00]: On July, tenth, twenty-five, a pastoral care resident was arrested for distributing child sexual abuse material.
[SPEAKER_00]: Garrett English graduated from Clemson University with a Bachelor's of Science in Criminal Justice and Police Science in twenty- twenty-two.
[SPEAKER_00]: He took the next year and worked full-time as a preschool teacher for the Little Lights Learning Center in Clemson, South Carolina.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in twenty twenty four he returned to college this time attending Liberty University to study church planning while simultaneously interning at heartfire missions.
[SPEAKER_00]: Finally in August of twenty twenty four English became a pastoral care resident at Harris Creek Baptist Church in Waco, Texas.
[SPEAKER_00]: Romans three, twenty-three.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says, for all I've sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: On July tenth, two thousand twenty-five, he was booked into the McLennan County jail on two counts of possession of child pornography with intent to promote.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a third degree felony in the state of Texas and can carry a penalty of two to ten years in prison and a maximum ten thousand dollar fine.
[SPEAKER_00]: KWTX reports detectives learned someone had uploaded child pornography files on the social media platform kick and then shared those files with other users via direct messages according to the affidavit.
[SPEAKER_00]: The suspects in our net protocol addresses where identified by detectives and with the help of rice wireless the IP addresses were traced back to English the affidavit further alleges.
[SPEAKER_00]: English uploaded the child porn files under November eighth, twenty-two thousand twenty-four, and on December fourteenth, twenty-two thousand twenty-four.
[SPEAKER_00]: John Elmore, with the pastoral care and teaching team at Harris Creek Baptist Church, confirmed to KWTX that English was a part-time church employee from South Carolina, who is part of a nine-month residency program to learn about Christian ministry.
[SPEAKER_00]: According to Elmore, the criminal investigation began after English's residency program ended in May of twenty twenty-five, and he had returned to South Carolina.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do want to give a special mention to Amy Smith who runs the site watchkeep.org for initially bringing this story to my attention through a Facebook post and I dug in a little bit deeper from there but if you aren't following Amy Smith her reporting is incredible and I highly encourage you to check out watchkeep.org just as an aside here to the overall story.
[SPEAKER_00]: On July, thirteen, two thousand twenty-five, LGBTQ plus protesters rallied outside Sure Foundation Baptist Church in Indianapolis.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Church garnered media attention after two men from the congregation, Stephen Falco and Wade Raleigh, preached sermons urging LGBTQ plus people to commit suicide and calling for the government to beat the LGBTQ plus community and quote, blow the backs of their heads off and quote.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can see the original coverage of those sermons as well as a portion of my interview with WishTV here on this channel.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've linked to it in the show notes.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're just seeing it get worse and worse and worse.
[SPEAKER_00]: And like I said, I don't know which one's scary or the people that say it or the people who internalize it and feel that way, but you wouldn't know it, you know, because they don't say it publicly.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's Eric Scorsinski.
[SPEAKER_02]: He grew up in a fundamental church and now investigates abuse and extremist behavior in churches like this with a preacher voice podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: After seeing the coverage of the church, an Indianapolis local named Cast Jackson decided to organize a protest with the support of the fifty-fifty one movement.
[SPEAKER_00]: The day of the protest, Justin Zong preached a sermon titled Love Thy Neighbor in which he doubled down on his remarks.
[SPEAKER_03]: by wishing the government will be putting the homos to death, by praying for their destruction, and by believing the whole Bible.
[SPEAKER_03]: Those people will try to make a sound like that we are calling for the innocent to be put to death, but the thing is being a homo is a crime.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a crime against humanity.
[SPEAKER_03]: If our nation follows God's law, then no homos will be anyone's neighbor, amen.
[SPEAKER_03]: Zong jestered to the protesters outside while he continued to saying, In fact, I hope those police officers will just arrest those homos and try them and put them through death.
[SPEAKER_03]: Wasn't, you know, saw to me used to be illegal in like, seventeenth states, you know, let's put a law of go back in the courthouses.
[SPEAKER_00]: After the Sunday morning service, an Indianapolis reporter, Jade Jackson, captured videos showing congregants mocking protesters.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can see that footage over at her Twitter with the handle, I am Jade Jackson.
[SPEAKER_00]: On July fifteenth, twenty-five, a youth pastor and his wife were indicted on forty-seven charges.
[SPEAKER_00]: I first posted about Pastor John Radcliffe the second and his wife, Kathy Jean Radcliffe, on November twenty-six, twenty-twenty-four.
[SPEAKER_00]: At the time, John was facing a hundred and seventy-five sexual assault and abuse charges, as well as one count of displaying obscene material to a minor.
[SPEAKER_00]: Kathy faced one count of displaying obscene material to a minor and one count of principle.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, on July fifteenth, twenty-five, both John Rackliffe II and Kathy Jean Rackliffe were indicted on charges involving six victims.
[SPEAKER_00]: John faces forty-seven charges and Kathy faces one.
[SPEAKER_00]: WDTV reports John Radcliffe the second fifty-eight of netty has been indicted for sexually abusing multiple young girls when they were just three and four years old until they were around twelve years old.
[SPEAKER_00]: Many of whom are his nieces.
[SPEAKER_00]: Radcliffe is accused of making the girls who are now adults performed sexual acts on him and sexually assaulting them in other ways throughout their childhoods.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the current breakdown of the charges.
[SPEAKER_00]: Victim number one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Three counts of sexual abuse by parent guardian or custodian.
[SPEAKER_00]: Two counts of first-degree sexual abuse.
[SPEAKER_00]: One count of first-degree sexual assault.
[SPEAKER_00]: And one count of incest.
[SPEAKER_00]: Victim number two.
[SPEAKER_00]: Five counts of sexual abuse by parent guardian or custodian.
[SPEAKER_00]: Three counts of first-degree sexual assault.
[SPEAKER_00]: Three counts of incest.
[SPEAKER_00]: One count of first-degree sexual abuse.
[SPEAKER_00]: Victim number three.
[SPEAKER_00]: One count of sexual abuse by a parent guardian or custodian.
[SPEAKER_00]: One count of first-degree sexual assault.
[SPEAKER_00]: One count of first-degree sexual abuse and one count of incest.
[SPEAKER_00]: Victim number four.
[SPEAKER_00]: One count of sexual abuse by a parent guardian or custodian.
[SPEAKER_00]: One count of first-degree sexual abuse.
[SPEAKER_00]: Victim number five.
[SPEAKER_00]: Five counts of sexual abuse by a parent guardian or custodian.
[SPEAKER_00]: Five counts of first-degree sexual assault.
[SPEAKER_00]: Five counts of first-degree sexual abuse and five counts of incest.
[SPEAKER_00]: And finally, victim number six, where there are two counts of first-degree sexual abuse.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the most disturbing aspects revealed in this already disturbing story is the reason for Kathy Radcliffe's original charge of displaying obscene matter to a minor.
[SPEAKER_00]: Allegedly, she had two victims come into her and John's bedroom and watch a pornographic film with them, while John and Kathy performed sexual acts on one another.
[SPEAKER_00]: However, WDTV reports, Kathy's only been indicted on one count of principle in the second degree, or accessory.
[SPEAKER_00]: As multiple victims told police, she was aware of everything that happened to them at all times.
[SPEAKER_00]: My final story comes from First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pastor Tim rule was a featured speaker during the first night of youth conference at First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, which should place on July fifteenth, twenty twenty-five.
[SPEAKER_00]: Rule has a controversial history in ministry.
[SPEAKER_00]: While pasturing at his former church, Puzzle Valley Baptist, Elasu was brought forward for a two thousand and two incident where then teacher and associate pastor, David Jordanson, committed Lude Axe on a female student when she was fourteen years old.
[SPEAKER_00]: In two thousand ten, the courthouse news reported, Pleasant Valley Baptist Church pastor Tim Rul covered for another pastor, David Jorgensen, who is convicted of sexual offenses with a girl.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Rul accused her of being impure and booted her from the church school six months before high school graduation.
[SPEAKER_00]: She claims impute county court.
[SPEAKER_00]: In February, two thousand eleven, another associate pastor from his church who also happened to be a son, Jesse Rul, was charged with misdemeanor child molestation.
[SPEAKER_00]: The allegations involved a sixteen-year-old girl and the charges were brought after rule confessed to inappropriate physical contact.
[SPEAKER_00]: Specifically, Jesse admitted to touching the minor's breasts and bottom between five and ten times, including instances involving skin-to-skin contact.
[SPEAKER_00]: In spite of this, in two thousand nineteen, Tim Rull allowed his son Jesse to visit his camp ministry, Mount Zion Baptist Camp, which hosts minor campers during the summer season.
[SPEAKER_00]: And on June, twenty-six, two thousand nineteen, Tim Rowe preached a sermon at Lancaster Baptist Church in Lancaster, California, titled How Good Are You at Forgiving.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, in part.
[SPEAKER_01]: See, sometimes we can forgive.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not let it go.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, you know, they're no good.
[SPEAKER_01]: They don't do anything anyway.
[SPEAKER_01]: We can forgive those little ones.
[SPEAKER_01]: How about the big ones?
[SPEAKER_01]: How about when someone manipulates you?
[SPEAKER_01]: How does someone robes your home?
[SPEAKER_01]: You lay in bed, you realize you've been violated.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm about molestation.
[SPEAKER_01]: How about adultery?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not rape.
[SPEAKER_01]: So how do you forgive those?
[SPEAKER_00]: In light of all this, my burning question is, why did Pastor John Wilkerson and the rest of the leadership at First Baptist Church of Hammond think Tim Rull was an ideal speaker to bring to their youth conference?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, there's four headlines relating to scandal in Baptist churches from the past week.
[SPEAKER_00]: If there's any stories that you think I should have covered or need to cover in a future episode, we should have dropped a comment on this episode and let me know.
[SPEAKER_00]: And wherever you're listening, be sure to subscribe so you don't miss a single update from the Prechoice Podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm dropping weekly episodes containing interviews with survivors and experts, as well as doing some solo episodes like this one, keeping you up to date on stories you should know about.
[SPEAKER_00]: But for now, that's it for today's episode.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll see you on the next one.