Las Vegas COGIC Pastor Arrested on 11 Sexual Abuse Counts

This is becoming a sadly familiar story. Yet another pastor in the rabidly anti-gay Church of God in Christ—the largest Pentecostal denomination in the United States and the second largest African-American denomination—is accused of sexual misconduct against teenage boys. A Las Vegas pastor was arrested on 11 sexual abuse charges ... five years after a similar case against him was dropped, reports the Las Vegas Sun.

Billy Eckstine McCurdy, 57, pastor of the Revival Temple Church of God in Christ, was taken into custody at 1 p.m. Friday at his home in North Las Vegas without incident, police said.

The alleged victims say they were forced into a sexual relationship with McCurdy, police said. They allege he used his position in the church and biblical scriptures to control them and force them into sex acts, police said.

Police said McCurdy spent a great deal of time with young people, including on youth trips to Arizona and California. Police said he conducted events at his home with young men, including sleepovers, and allowed teenagers — two victims involved in the case, among them — to live with him for extended periods. According to the criminal complaint, the alleged crimes happened between April 2007 and October 2009.

The teen boys testified at a grand jury, which indicted McCurdy last Thursday on six counts of sexual assault and five counts of open or gross lewdness. McCurdy is being held at the Clark County Detention Center without bail, adds the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Detectives believe "other victims" have not come forward.

Similar charges were dropped in 2005, after North Las Vegas Police arrested McCurdy after a teenage boy told investigators the pastor fondled him while they slept in the same bed. Will McCurdy's congregation stand by their pastor ... again? Or will they blame the boys for coming forward?

This becomes only the latest charge of sexual misconduct within the Church of God in Christ, which is well known for attracting many closeted black gay men and rivals the Catholic Church for the many sexual predators within its leadership.

COGIC is embroiled in numerous lawsuits and criminal investigations around clergy sexual abuse—there is a micro-site on the Church website—and has been accused of covering up sexual misconduct cases for decades.

On January 30, a former COGIC pastor was sentenced to 20 years on charges he raped a teenage girl some 25 years ago.One church reportedly has four convicted pedophiles on its payroll. And in March 2010, an Alabama COGIC bishop was also accused of sexual misconduct.

In November 2010 at the Church of God in Christ's Holy Convocation Youth Service in Memphis, the infamously "ex-gay"—or should we say merely "re-closeted"—

Grammy Award winning gospel singer Donnie McClurkin delivered an incendiary rant against gays and gay youth and compared them to vampires.

Glass houses, stones, etc.. ENDS

notes:

So where will this really end? well finally the black church is now seeing its own unraveling of sexual abuse and all this time it kept quiet about the Catholic Church mess over the years. What is even more disturbing is the both major accusations now in the public domain are from Pentecostal denominated or affiliated churches and one wonders with their insistence on having or being "filled' with the "Holy Spirit" one should have discerned these problems when having certain "gifts"

What is happening here?

Are these men of the cloth really there to lead or to enrich themselves and impose their "sick" desires as a result of drunkenness of power from having such influence of congregants' minds?

Are there more stories like this to come from other Black churches elsewhere?

What about the Jamaican context and why we haven't heard a peep about this type of behaviour in Jamaica?

Then again given our unique set of sensitivities involved we may never get this forced "cleansing" or outings happening anytime soon, as for the victims' sake I hope we do and by extension the nations' so we can finally discuss these and related issues and their separation from consensual adult gay relationships thus helping to dispel the misconstrued information that has heavily influenced our most active and caustic homophobia with in some instances disastrous consequences.

Think on these things folks.

UPDATE: 5:48pm

After going over this blog I found a story I posted earlier this year of a Seventh Day Adventist Pastor here in Jamaica who was accused of seeking sex from a teenage boy and was said to have been recorded soliciting the youth - an excerpt reads:

"A deacon at a Seventh Day Adventist church in Kingston, who was taped trying to make sexual advances to a teenage boy recently, left the place of worship after he was disciplined. Steven Benjamin*, a member of the church, told THE STAR that everyone was shocked when the tape was played for a pastor..."

Continue to the rest of the article here: Deacon Seeks Sex from boy says The Star

Peace and tolerance.

H