Pawley Island Community church is a typical white evangelical church. The lead pastor has been shepherding the flock for 27 years and the church even has a small private school to give parents an alternative to public schooling.
But it came to light that a registered sex offender was volunteering on Church property for years. Worse, he was on the maintenance team giving him access to the school during the day when children are present. That would be bad enough, right? But maybe he hid who he was.
He didn’t.
The lead pastor, church staff and school administration knew Warren Perry was a registered sex offender on probation but because he professed to be a christian and a changed man leaders felt that was proof that he safe enough to be around children.
This was never disclosed to parents or teachers. When it was found out that Perry was a registered sex offender for possessing child sexual abuse material parents were understandably irate. So the pastor decided to hold a meeting to address the congregation in what is one of the worse church statements I’ve ever seen.
The meeting devolves into pure chaos as the pastor reads off of a script that sounds like it was written by A.I. He takes no responsibility, never apologizes and downplays the severity of the situation INCLUDING the TRUTH that Perry was violating his parole by being in the presence of children but the church NEVER checking in with the parole officer opting instead to take Perry’s word at face value.
But there’s a major plot twist during this meeting that left my jaw on the floor both in the claims made by a woman as the pastor was in his robotic monologue and the pastor’s failure to break character for a second to address massive allegations.
Sadly, this is not an uncommon situation. There are countless examples of predators routinely being protected and church leaders refusing to accept responsibility for horrific decision making that endangers their congregants. They hide behind cheap grace, weaponize forgiveness and preach a watered down gospel that is devoid of any repentance.
I watch the full response by the pastor and explain how this approach is directly connected to the rise of Christian Nationalism
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