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Posted on 07/20/2026 9:46:22 AM PDT by WhiteHatBobby0701
Community members gathered outside Pawleys Island Community Church Sunday morning, demanding accountability and justice following the arrest of a convicted sex offender who volunteered near children on campus.
Protesters lined up outside the church holding signs calling for the protection of children and asking for answers and change.
The South Carolina Probation, Parole and Pardon Services arrested 70-year-old Warren Perry Tuesday for violating probation. Perry is a convicted sex offender following a 2023 Sexual Exploitation of a Minor conviction for a crime committed in 2020.
Perry volunteered at the church, which operates Pawleys Island Christian Academy on the same campus, where he worked as a custodian. The academy offers programs for children from 6 weeks old to kindergarten age.
Parent Candace Spera came out to protest Sunday and said her children attended the school she once trusted.
“I was so vulnerable,” Spera said. “And I just feel like my faith is being tested, and I’m not going to give up on my faith. But I’m just upset.”
Former Pastor Don Williams, who resigned Friday, has publicly acknowledged he and other church leaders knew about Perry’s conviction.
Spera said she wants all those who knew about Perry’s background to be held accountable.
“People in this community online are saying ‘Oh, he didn’t do anything wrong, blah blah blah.’ That doesn’t matter,” Spera said. “If you are truly sorry for what you did, you would never put yourself in a position to be around children. That is 100 percent predator behavior, and there needs to be accountability.”
Other protesters echoed similar messages.
“I’m livid! I’m livid! I want arrests today!” said protester and community member Judy Purcell. “Like anyone else would be arrested for child endangerment!”
Others wish to see stricter rules when it comes to doing background checks.
“This needs to stop,” said protester and community member Jenny Pettry. “No longer can we accept this to go on in our churches, in our community, in our schools, in our country. We have got to stand up for these children.”
Protesters told WMBF News they will continue demonstrating for as long as it takes for justice to be served.
“You got people going by yelling ‘Get a life.’ Yeah, I got a life; it’s protecting children. What you doing? You worried about protecting a church? That’s a building. The church is in your heart,” said protester and community member Freddy Rowe.
However, some believe protesting will not help the community move forward.
“The parents in this situation need support, and I don’t think their support is coming from people protesting outside of a place that they called home away from home,” said Tiffany Lewis.
Lewis is a member of the church and said her daughter attended the academy. Though she also believes more can be done and would like to see justice, she believes next steps are in the hands of the law.
“It’s not going to happen with the church itself,” Lewis said. “It’s going to happen with law enforcement and the investigations that are happening. We have to let law enforcement do their job.”
Georgetown County investigators also executed a search warrant at Pawleys Island Community Church and Pawleys Island Christian Academy Sunday as part of the ongoing investigation.
The Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office has scheduled a press conference Monday afternoon with updates on the case.
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According to The National News Desk, "Warren Spence Perry is a registered sex offender who was convicted in Georgetown County in 2023 on charges related to the sexual exploitation of a minor."
He was prohibited from working with children.
South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services (PPP) officials were informed of Perry’s volunteer work at Pawleys Island Community Church; however, officials said he never advised them that the church also operated a school/daycare.
The National News Desk report: https://wpde.com/news/local/what-we-know-about-the-pawleys-island-community-church-sex-offender-case-warren-perry-church-leadership-lawsuit-state-dss-pica-picc
The church was closed Sunday after the resignations of the family that ran the church...
Many are. A man is called to be a pastor and founds a church. His son follows in Pop’s footsteps whether he is called or not, and so on down the line. IMHO, nepotism has led to many of the problems of the American church.
In the years I’ve visited and now attend the church weekly all of our senior ministers come from the UK. Escocia, then Gales, and now Irlanda del Norte.
This is an extreme example of what happens in way to many churches that pervert “forgiveness” into extreme permissiveness. We saw it in our own church when there was a theft of church property, and it came out that the church allowed a known convicted criminal - who had a long record and recently got out of jail - to be employed unsupervised. A pastor at one of my relative’s churches resigned under mysterious circumstances and there were rumors that he plagiarized his dissertation (and thus, probably really didn’t have his degree) but it was all hushed up and he was allowed to resign. So I can easily imagine that this church knew about a sex abuse scandal and let it happen out of some warped concept of forgiveness or Christian kindness until it was too late.
The pastor and his wife resigned. The church was originally Pawleys Island Baptist but after he took over he followed Rick Warren’s fad ways.
These days they are.
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