Posted on 07/11/2024 8:48:56 PM PDT by Morgana
Community members are calling for greater transparency after it became more widely known that the pastor of Eternal Church in Fort Mill, South Carolina, is a registered sex offender. Don Logan, who has been pastor of the non-denominational church since 2015, was convicted of a child sex abuse charge in 1997.
The church had been associated with the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) but left the denomination in 2009.
Dana Cummings, who formerly attended the church, told Fort Mill Sun that she and her husband became aware of Logan’s status as a sex offender after receiving a cryptic email about a meeting to discuss Logan’s past.
“I realized something must be very wrong,” Cummings said. “My husband jokingly made the comment, ‘Is he a sex offender?’”
Shortly after a brief online search of sex offenders, the couple was looking for a new church.
According to Indiana court records, Logan pleaded guilty to a felony charge of sexual misconduct with a minor younger than age 16 as part of a plea agreement in 1997. He was sentenced to three years imprisonment, with an additional three years suspended pending his adherence to probation.
As part of the agreement, the court also ruled that Logan “relinquish his minister’s license, that he have no contact with any minor without adult supervision, and his type of employment is approved by the Court and Probation Department.”
Logan was 30 years old at the time.
According to the sex offender registry in Lexington County, South Carolina, the victim was a 14-year-old girl.
“I feel like people who walk in that door and make the decision to be a member and give your time and money and effort need to know who is preaching to them. He is a wonderful preacher,” Cummings said. “But it really takes away all the credibility when I feel like this past is being hidden with the understanding that only the right people know.”
n an email obtained by The Wartburg Watch, “nonperpetual” church elder Mark Sivak told two church members that “Don is not in hiding about this event and how God has used it to bring Don to Himself and form him into the man he has now become. Don has faithfully shared this event with every employer before being hired.”
Sivak said that while the “perpetual” elders of Eternal Church were aware of Logan’s felony sex offense, he was not.
“The original 8 elders (minus 1 who has passed away) are still leading our church today,” Sivek said. “It is a personal story of the humbling, redemptive work Christ did in his life, which has required discernment by Don in when and how to share it, always with the concern that it be used to show God’s faithfulness and redemption to others.”
Sivek further said that Logan “has taken careful steps to safeguard himself including disclosure with elders and pastors on staff and never meeting privately with a female.”
Sivek indicated the Eternal Church’s elders have “no concerns and stand by Don, having known about his past and with confidence knowing who he is now.”
According to Fort Mill Sun, church leadership held a “family meeting” after the revelation of Logan’s past began circulating among church members.
In a follow-up email, church members were told that the church had entered “a discernment period which has involved prayer, quiet reflection, consulting Scripture, open dialogue as a church family, processing as individuals and in groups, and discussion among elders, pastors, and staff.”
Although the “discernment period” is “ongoing,” Logan is continuing to fill Eternal Church’s pulpit. He can be seen preaching at the church as recently as Sunday, June 30.
ChurchLeaders has reached out to Eternal Church for comment and will update this article in the event of a response.
This is why the Bible says that Pastors must be married and not perverts.
It’s clear that you cannot be a pastor unless you are in sexual control of yourself.
Over 20 years ago, he told them when he got hired, and obviously he had no further record. There sounds like there might be more to the story on this one.
There are killers and addicts who have found a long twisted route to the ministry.
Is there any hint he has been improper with anyone since he has been there? The door opening should be exceedingly narrow, but never completely closed unless the female was 11 years old or something really off the charts. But if that were the case, I doubt he would have gotten off so light.
And by the way, “relinquish his minister’s license”? You need a state license to be a minister? Maybe to sign marriage documents, but I’m not aware you have to get a state license beyond that.
This "Registered Sex Offender" pastor is married.
Regards,
That doesn’t detract from my point. If a person has a sexual shortcoming, he is not supposed to be pastor. If a person fails the sexual standards of the church, we are supposed to remove them from pastoralship.
You specifically referenced the Bible, claiming that it requires pastors to be married. Since the perpetrator at hand is married, your reference is irrelevant.
Your point - that persons with sexual shortcomings should not be a pastor - is correct, but your defense of it is faulty.
In any event, I would also take issue with your interpretation of 1 Timothy 3:2: This passage does not require a pastor to be married.
Indeed, Jesus was not married. (Were any of the original 12 Apostles married?)
Regards,
I Tim 3:1-7,, actually. Obviously no one point is adequate.
First Timothy 3:1–7 contains the biblical qualifications for a pastor: “Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task. Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect. (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?) He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap.”
Is this even a true story? It sounds to me like a madeup spoof of the very real story of “Pastor Robert” Morris, very real founder of Gateway Church (which has nine canpuses), in greater Houston, TX. Seems Brother Morris was guilty of some hanky-panky with a young girl many years ago, to which he’d confessed and been forgiven, by God and the then-extant chuch board(s). But recently the story was exhumed by someone with an axe to grind. They accused Pastor Robert of leaving out some juicy detail of the story away back when he originally confessed and repented, and was apparently forgiven. So the current Board Members, feeling slighted by not being told every juicy detail of his sins, has rescinded his forgiveness, declared him still guilty, and accepted his very belated resignation from pastoring 9 churches.
We’re told by Scripture that when we confess our sins, God forgives us and forgets it even happened. But the Gateway Board of Deacons has declard him still guilty and unforgiven. Which puts Pastor Robert in a real bind. Because he can’t repent of it AGAIN; because when God checks The Books, Robert Morris’ page has been wiped clean from when he repented the first time. I personally consider that deacon board to be guilty of heresy. King David was guilty of adultery AND murder, and was forgiven to the extent that we read his many psalms to this day. But in greater Houston, TX the blood of Christ does not PERMANENTLY wash away one’s confessed sins...if the Deacon Board sez it doesn’t or didn’t. Is the salvation of thousands of folks in greater Houston on shaky ground? Well, it seems that the Deacon Board’s opinion supercedes Scripture, in Pastor Robert Morris’ case, anyhow.
There are a million little churches in SC. I often wonder how they can even exist not to mention support a pastor.
Logan “has taken careful steps to safeguard himself ...... and never meeting privately with a female.”
” and never meeting privately with a female.”
And there you have it.
Watch your hair Sampsons, watch your hair. Anytime, anywhere.
somehow IIRC, 2 Tim sez these ‘elders’ need to be put out to pasture, and get lawyered up!
and you are surprised?
Pedophilia is a requirement now for many churches... Part of the WOKE/DEI program.
A while back I heard of a church that had a “pastor” with a similar background. Through a technicality he was never charged but he was still guilty.
The church was starting up some new youth ministry.
I quietly called someone who knew people at the youth organization and asked him to let them know about this guy.
The Bible has clear rules about the conduct of a church leader. While there is some room for interpretation, there’s none when it comes to other things like child molestation.
And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever. (Matthew 8:14)
Peter was married.
“This is why the Bible says that Pastors must be married and not perverts.”
The bible verse you are think of is in 1 Timothy.
2 It behoveth therefore a bishop to be blameless, the husband of one wife, sober, prudent, of good behaviour, chaste, given to hospitality, a teacher, 3 Not given to wine, no striker, but modest, not quarrelsome, not covetous, but 4 One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all chastity.
That first sentence kinda says it all “It behoveth therefore a bishop to be blameless” A man walking around on the sex offender registry is NOT blameless, in fact he has a Scarlet Letter. Being married has nothing to do with it he is tainted. He will not do for the ministry.
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