Posted on 03/21/2018 10:30:51 AM PDT by Gamecock
MEMPHIS — A pastor accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl in Texas 20 years ago resigned from his ministerial post Tuesday at a Memphis megachurch.
Andy Savage, teaching pastor at Highpoint Church and part of the church's senior leadership team, follows a leave of absence and lengthy investigation by Scott Fredricks, a Fort Worth lawyer whose specialties include assisting churches with child-abuse investigations.
Savage's fall culminates more than two months of accusations and soul-searching over a case that became symbolic of the #churchtoo offshoot of the #metoo movement.
While the investigation found no other instances of abuse, "the leadership team at Highpoint Church agrees that Andy's resignation is appropriate," officials at the nondenominational church with campuses in Memphis and suburban Collierville, Tenn., announced in a statement.
The church's statement is the first time its leadership has termed the encounter involving Savage as "abuse."
Jules Woodson, the woman who accused Savage, said she was "trying to process" the news Tuesday afternoon and would have a statement soon.
In addition to the letter from church leaders, Savage posted a personal letter on the church website Tuesday.
Your passionate opinions on this important matter have truly helped me to gain perspective that I simply could not have achieved on my own. I have come to understand Jules' vantage point better, and to appreciate the courage it took for her to speak up.
While Jules cried out for justice, I carelessly turned the topic to my own story of moral change, as if getting my own life in order should help to make up for what she went through and continues to go through. Savage did not offer specifics about what his next steps would be but said he would "step away from ministry in order to do everything I can to right the wrongs of the past."
In its letter, church leadership said it had come to recognize "that it was defensive rather than empathetic in its initial reaction to Ms. Jules Woodson's communication concerning the abuse she experienced."
Church leadership and members received national criticism over a video that showed Savage getting a standing ovation from the congregation after discussing the case.
The church said it "humbly commits" to develop a deeper understanding of an appropriate and compassionate response to abuse victims. The statement also urged anyone with suspicions of child abuse to report them to the Tennessee Department of Children's Services or local law enforcement.
Woodson was a 17-year-old high school senior in 1998 at the time of the alleged assault involving Savage. He was her 22-year-old youth pastor at Woodlands Parkway Baptist Church in Spring, Texas, a Houston suburb.
In January when the encounter came to light on the Wartburg Watch website, Woodson said Savage took her to a secluded area when he supposed to be driving her home from church. She said he asked her to perform oral sex but then changed his mind and asked her not to say anything.
In a radio interview shortly after that, Savage said he remembered the moment as a spontaneous and consensual situation.
Another pastor at Woodlands Parkway who was involved in the incident resigned in February from his post at an Austin, Texas, church following an investigation similar to Savage's.
Larry Cotton, the pastor that Woodson told about the abuse, resigned from The Austin Stone Community Church in February. Cotton said in a letter to church members that he decided to step down from his ministry leadership position after coming to understand "the weight of my mistakes."
"I now understand that I did not do enough to serve Jules and help her feel protected and cared for," Cotton wrote in his letter. "I understand that I failed to report sexual abuse. I wish I had reported to the proper authorities."
Savage left the Texas church quietly following the incident, returning home to Memphis where he worked at Germantown Baptist Church and eventually took the post at Highpoint. Leaders at Highpoint were aware of the Texas incident when they hired Savage.
In a New York Times video published earlier this month, Woodson said she looked up to Savage and trusted him before the 1998 encounter. Afterward, she said church leaders didn't handle it properly.
What happened was a crime," Woodson said. "This is not something the church should handle internally. ... We as a church, of all places, should be getting this right."
Woodson contacted Texas authorities after the case was publicized in January, but they said the statute of limitations had expired. Texas law in effect at the time would have made charges difficult, anyway, they told her.
In addition to Fredricks' investigation into Savage, Highpoint has retained MinistrySafe, also based in Fort Worth, to review the church's child protection practices. MinistrySafe said its work would not begin until the Savage investigation concluded.
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Nothing happened, this woman was not abused. All young men have incredibly powerful sexual urges. This guy almost succumbed but didn’t. This is not a news story. We must insist that all people are held to the same standards. Do not allow the media to hold Christians to a higher standard than others.
These “Churches “ are false idols full of all manner of sin and decadence. Keep your relationship with Jesus, not organizations taking your money for their use “in the name of God” .
“This guy almost succumbed but didn’t.”
—
Seems it was more the 17 year old girl who was forced to ‘succumb’ to him:
“Last month, Savage told his congregation the story that launched an investigation at Highpoint as well as Savage’s leave of absence. In 1998, Savage was a 22-year-old youth pastor in Texas, and he sexually coerced a 17-year-old girl, Jules Woodson. When Woodson told another pastor about what happened, she said the church asked her to be silent.”
https://www.crosswalk.com/church/pastors-or-leadership/megachurch-pastor-andy-savage-officially-resigns.html
“Do not allow the media to hold Christians to a higher standard than others.”
—
Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his. savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good. for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
Just for the record: say there’s a minor in relation to whom you in a position of special influence or authority (ministry). Say you take her at night to a deserted wooded area to perform oral sex on you. Is that “almost” succumbing?
Oh?
Shall we start with Scripture?
Titus 6 if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. 7 For an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach.
Matthew 5:27-28
27 “You have heard that it was said to those of old,[a] ‘You shall not commit adultery.’[b] 28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Can you give your Pastor a call and see if he ever looked at a woman besides his wife with lust?
...how about you?
While you may view this man's behaviour as sinful, that is not the same as illegal. Legally, he didn't do anything wrong. The media hates Christianity, they don't get to quote scripture to me. You, as a believer, are different than the media.
I will say that I don't exactly understand the passage you cite. This "blow job request" happened 20 years ago. As far as we know, this pastor has been above reproach for the past 20 years. We are all sinners. Do you really expect your preacher/priest/rabbi to be perfect from the day they were born?
What would you call it? He didn't touch her (as far as we know).
Age of consent in Texas is 17, nothing illegal happened . He thought the better of it and didn’t follow through; the girl was not forced to do anything. Lived an exemplary life since. Perhaps he shouldn’t have continued in the ministry...instead, just got a regular job, got married and lived an exemplary life.
Sounds like another Genesis 39 hit job to me!
" Savage coerced her into performing oral sex on him while along a dirt road in Texas. ...After about five minutes, she said Savage reacted in shock at the action."
While still a little ambiguous, I read this to mean (1) he did coerce her into performing oral sex on him, and (2) he reacted in shock at the action. "The action" being oral sex. So yeah, they did touch.
I don't agree with the catholic interpretation of the Onan story anyway (although I am pro-Catholic: I just don't think they get every detail correct).
If she wasn’t forced and he thought the better of asking her to do anything...then where was the crime?(for that matter what was the sin, since he repented of what he might have let happen?) He was tempted but didn’t follow through. Maybe she was mad at him for not marrying her after all these years. Just another Genesis 39 hit job!
I shoulda clicked the link.
Genesis 39 was about Potiphar’s wife and what she did to Joseph when he refused her advances. The Genesis 39 accusation doesn’t have to be all about sex but it has to do with a pattern of accusation many women know how to engage in when they sense that the social stars are in their favor when they wish to do a male harm!
Earl
I’m with you pard
But you are currently holding both ends of the third rail here which is like surefire scold and denunciation
Men acting badly sexually
And even worse...
Megachirches!
Mouthpieces of Satan!
Be gone they are all evil....
We all have to attend little white wooden rural churches with eerie graveyards outback with moss in the trees preferably as a final touch and Cotton Mather at the pulpit
But wardaddy....what about them big catholic cathedrals....are they mega. too ?
“Why no child that of course a different animal altogether not to be confused with those evil big box southern baptists and Assembly of God “
This forum does provide me with amusement
I attend a large southern baptist church f9r the record....my church of letter died....killed by the ghetto..wasteland ..sadly.
Guess I'll look it up next time before I comment.
Look specifically at Potiphar’s wife’s social status and how Joseph had no status or social status in which he could refute her accusations. Right now, any male can be accused of anything going back years and the current social bias is to believe the woman first since “they would never lie about such things since that would open them up to attack”!
Yup all women are as pure in heart at the windriven snow!/s
I live in Memphis and have been reading some on this situation for past several months. It appears to me that this Pastor got caught up in the “metoo” mentality. Not justifying anyone taking advantage of a minor, but this was 20 years ago, he admitted he was wrong, apologized, resigned and informed is current church of the situation. People change and enough time had elapsed for this Pastor to mend his ways and repent. I feel sorry for he and his family.
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