Assemblies of God pastors say denomination’s leaders should resign
over Chi Alpha scandal
At least three Assemblies of God pastors have called on denominational leaders to repent and, where appropriate, resign after organizers of the Chi Alpha Campus Ministries were accused of allowing Daniel Savala, a 67-year-old itinerant minister and convicted sex offender, to prey on scores of young males for more than two decades.
The Assemblies of God claimed on Friday, however, that it had warned local Chi Alpha leaders about Savala and is already taking steps to dismiss leaders who failed to protect participants in the ministry as they continue to investigate the scandal.
The latest call for accountability has come from Pastor J.R. Armstrong of MAG Church in Orange, Texas, who recently criticized Assemblies of God General Superintendent Doug Clay for making comments that he believes appear to minimize the abuse Savala is accused of perpetuating in the wake of his recent arrest.
Savala was arrested in Waco in June for allegedly sexually abusing the minor sons of one of his protégés in the ministry.
"On Friday, Aug. 4, on the closing session of business at the General Counsel of the Assemblies of God, General Superintendent Doug Clay went on record with a statement concerning Chi Alpha Ministries. In his statement, Rev. Clay called attention to the ministry of Chi Alpha without presenting the dozens, if not hundreds, of victims of sexual and spiritual abuse as a spectrum in ministry lines, which in and of itself, [is] moral relativism at its worst," Armstrong said in an impassioned address from the pulpit of his church on Aug. 13.
He played a video clip of Clay making comments that he said minimized Savala's abuse to "hiccups."
"Hundreds of victims of sexual abuse is not a spot on a spectrum," Armstrong said.
"I, as an ordained minister in good standing with the Assemblies of God, call on Doug Clay, Donna Barrett, E. Scott Martin, Tim Barker, Don Wiehe, Gaylan Claunch, and others to speak up, take responsibility, and where necessary, to resign. And with some, that will be necessary."
Chi Alpha is a campus ministry located on around 300 campuses globally with the support of the Assemblies of God. In recent months, whistleblowers have alleged Savala was allowed by some leaders in the ministry to prey on young men and boys for years.
Savala, according to KWTX, was identified as the "spiritual mentor" of Christopher Hundl, 38, the former leader of Chi Alpha's ministry at Baylor University, who was charged with allowing the itinerant leader to sexually abuse two of his family members later revealed to be his sons.
According to the arrest warrant, Hundl allegedly brought the two boys to Savala's Houston home several times between the summer of 2021 and March 2022. Texas' sex offender registry records show that Savala was charged in 2012 for sexual abuse of a minor, a third-degree felony, which he committed in Alaska between 1995 and 1997.
While in a sauna with Hundl and the boys, who were younger than 14 when the abuse happened, Savala allegedly instructed the boys to masturbate in front of the adult men. It is alleged that similar activity also took place in Hundl's home. The arrest records state that Savala also touched the boys inappropriately in Hundl's presence.
Hundl, who is married, told officers that he met Savala while in college and was involved in a sexual relationship. Savala, he told police, acted as a "grandfather" to the two boys.
Earlier this month, a McLennan County grand jury indicted Hundl and Savala on one count each of continuous trafficking of persons, a first-degree felony punishable by a minimum of 25 years in prison without parole.
Armstrong argued in his address to his church that, as far as he knew, the denomination offered no relief to Savala's victims and seemed more focused on limiting its liability.
"To date, there has been no relief offered to the victims of these decades-long failure more than a three-paragraph statement that's buried on the AG website," he said.
"Missionaries have been arrested. A handful of others have been removed from the pulpit. All the while, the leaders of the districts and national office leaders have remained silent. These leaders have had knowledge of the abuse of this sexual offender working in the organization since at least 2018, many as far back as 2013. Church, that's a decade," he argued.
"When we are guarding the liabilities over the people, we have lost our way. We've lost our way! Church, the liabilities are coming. So why not have the human decency to be who we are called to be and say, 'We love you, and we're sorry this happened to you,'" he added. "'We are doing everything in our power to make sure it never happens again. And Because this happened under my watch and whether it fell through the cracks, or whatever the case may be, because this egregious thing happened on my watch, for the good of the fellowship, I will step aside.'"
Armstrong told The Christian Post in an interview Thursday that he has heard "nothing" from the denomination since his address last month.
"I haven't heard from anybody in any official capacity of leadership," Armstrong said. "I've heard nothing."
He said his call for Assemblies of God leaders to be held accountable for Savala's enabling in one of the denomination's major ministries reflects a minority opinion because the denomination's leaders are not treating the scandal as a failure of leadership.
"I think that the vast majority of them (Assemblies of God leaders) would rather people like me just be quiet. Let it play out and see some lower-level missionaries" held accountable.
"I think as far as what Daniel Savala did, everybody should be appalled. Most do not, in my opinion, most do not see it as a leadership issue or ... a problem [that] elevates to district or national level," he said.
Armstrong says that, for the most part, his church will not be funding missionaries to work with Chi Alpha until the Assemblies of God conducts a proper investigation and holds everyone responsible for the leadership failures.
The Christian Post reached out to the Assemblies for God for comment on Armstrong's criticism and was pointed in the direction of an updated statement that said the national office had warned local leaders about Savala as far back as 2018.
"When a report first surfaced to the General Council and National Chi Alpha in 2018 of Mr. Savala's proximity to certain local Texas Chi Alpha groups, the appropriate districts with which these campuses are affiliated were notified," the statement said.
"National Chi Alpha, which serves as a resource for locally operated chapters, made relevant Chi Alpha leaders aware of his status and warned them to cease contact and not permit students or leaders to be around him."
However, the Assemblies of God officials confirmed that ministers are already being appropriately dismissed "in response to the investigative findings."
The denomination assured in its June statement that it was "heartbroken" and planned to do everything it could to help the victims.
"We are heartbroken to hear allegations related to Daniel Savala and the pain his reported actions caused. The Assemblies of God strongly opposes the teachings and practices he seems to have endorsed," the denomination said. "While he [Savala] did not hold credentials with the Assemblies of God and was never on staff within Chi Alpha Campus Ministries, The General Council of the Assemblies of God takes matters of this nature seriously and will do everything we can to help."
At least two other Assemblies of God pastors previously spoke from their pulpits about the Chi Alpha scandal after Savala's arrest: Pastor Albert Cortez Stern of Family Life Assembly of God in Katy, Texas; and Armstrong's good friend, Pastor Jeff Gravis of Central Assembly Church in Haughton, Louisiana.
Through tears, Gravis told his congregation in June that both he and his wife had been involved with Chi Alpha in the past and had a positive experience, so he was shocked to hear how Savala was allowed to prey on students.
"This man had been a sexual deviant for decades. In 2012, he was convicted in the State of Alaska and placed on a registered sex offender list. At that moment, all involvement with Chi Alpha should have ended. Sadly, it was Chi Alpha leaders who asked for leniency, Chi Alpha leaders who signed off to supervise him back in Texas and Chi Alpha leaders who continued to take groups of students to this man's home without disclosing his criminal background, all the while telling students that this was the holiest man alive," Gravis said.
"This particular individual had apparently been sexually grooming and assaulting young men for decades. Not only that, his pernicious, perverted teachings found a haven to flourish in the young men who went to his home and sat in the sauna of his home. He groomed them, and, as a result, those he molested turned out to be molesters themselves."
"It's been revealed that two of those he mentored and had campus ministries molested their own children. One of the campus pastors even took two of his sons to this man's house where both boys were molested by their father and this wicked individual," he said. "They're things so terrible that one can almost hear the pleading of the Apostle Paul speaking through the ages. It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles."
Gravis said that as former Chi Alpha leaders at Lamar University and Sam Houston State University, respectively, he and his wife, along with their church, have continued to promote and give money to support the ministry.
"To say that my heart is broken over what is going on is an understatement," he said.
The independent investigations underway have impacted friends in the ministry Gravis has known for more than 20 years. He called on Chi Alpha leaders who have not been implicated in the scandal to hold those responsible accountable.
"I know that you are being found guilty by association with people who committed these crimes. I beg you to hold leadership accountable," he said.
"This could have been avoided had leadership stepped up and called some people to account. It's my prayer that your ministry will survive this storm and that you will not lose the support you so desperately need. If ever there was a time that we needed ministries such as yours to the secular university campus, it is today. And I want you to know that at Central Assembly of God, we are with you. We are for you. And we are praying with you," Gravis declared.
"To those in leadership in the Assemblies of God national offices, South Texas district offices, North Texas district offices, any district office, any other people in positions of authority. If the investigations reveal that you were warned and did nothing but pass the buck and kick the can down the road, repentance and resignations are appropriate," he added. "You have failed in your duties, put people at risk and have been grossly negligent in the offices you were placed in to serve."
Pastor allegedly tried to kill his family because
they were being evicted
A Kansas pastor who attempted to murder his wife and their 5 children on Sept. 16, allegedly told police the family was scheduled to be evicted from their home that day and he thought it would have been better if they all died than find out they would become homeless.
Former Crossroads Christian Church children's pastor, Matthew Lee Richards, 41, who attempted to murder his wife and children by stabbing them and setting the house they had lost on fire with them inside, told police in an affidavit cited by Law and Crime that he “thought that it would be better if they all died rather than for his kids to have to deal with the trauma,” of being homeless.
“The defendant said that he had not been honest with his wife regarding their financial situation and the fact that they were supposed to be evicted that very day,” detectives noted in the affidavit. “They had not packed anything and no one in the family knew they were being evicted.”
The family appears to have lived in their four-bedroom, 2.5 bathroom home in Shawnee since it was purchased in December 2016. Civil court records cited by the Kansas City Star show that in November 2022, a foreclosure petition was filed for the home.
Richards, who had been working as a seventh-grade English teacher at Christ Preparatory Academy since 2020, according to his staff biography, and his wife, Stephanie, who is the director of Crossroads Christian Preschool and Parents Day Out, owed $155,429 on their mortgage at the time.
Public records indicate the home was sold in June.
Richards, who did not want his family to “find out the truth, according to the affidavit, confessed to investigators that “I stabbed my family,” and called himself a “monster.”
The Shawnee Kansas Police Department announced in a statement that the 41-year-old former Crossroads Christian Church children's pastor was charged with five counts of attempted murder and one count of aggravated arson with risk of bodily harm.
Investigators say they were called along with the local fire department to the pastor's house for a report of a disturbance and a house fire at 3:47 a.m. on Sept. 16.
They soon discovered that the pastor's children and wife suffered "laceration injuries of varying degrees." His wife and two of his children remained hospitalized, while his 19-year-old son, along with two of his other children, were released from the hospital.
According to the affidavit, police received several 911 calls about Richards’ attack.
“One of the callers said their dad [was] chasing them with a knife and the dispatcher could hear a fire alarm sounding in the background,” the affidavit said. “An additional caller stated she had been stabbed.”
When police got to the scene, smoke was billowing from the house and an explosion blew out the garage doors. One of the children told officers “They were all in bed when dad came around stabbing everyone and they all ran outside. He stated his dad stabbed him,” the affidavit said.
Investigators said after Richards was treated at the hospital for smoke inhalation, he confessed that “I stabbed my family” in an interview.
Crossroads Christian Church has now set up a benefit fund for the Richards family on its website but did not immediately respond to a request from The Christian Post to comment. Christ Preparatory Academy where Richards worked as an English teacher also declined to offer comment when contacted by CP on Monday.
Unbelievable! He would rather murder all his family than admit that he lost the house. That is spectacular pride. How did he get to be children's minister? Is there no discernment in the church?
Married pastor accused of producing child porn tells FBI:
‘I’m sorry that I cannot stop’
A married pastor and father of three who was arrested and charged with producing child pornography after the FBI raided his Brentwood home has allegedly confessed to collecting videos from minors engaged in sex acts and told investigators, “I’m sorry that I cannot stop.”
Authorities say they recovered 15 videos containing child porn from the cellphone of 28-year-old Pastor Jose Saez Jr. of Iglesia Cristiana Alumbrando El Camino (Lighting The Way Christian Church) after they raided his home.
A release from the FBI’s New York Office said the raid on Saez’s home conducted by their Long Island Child Exploitation Task Force was triggered by an online tip that the pastor was sexually active with children.
The videos were found in a saved conversation on Telegram, according to a criminal complaint cited by the New York Post.
One of the videos reportedly shows a 16-year-old boy performing sex acts. Saez allegedly told investigators that he was aware that the boy was a high school student and he had asked him to send the videos.
He further told investigators that he engaged in similar conduct with other minors and that he was aware the videos were child sexual abuse material, Newsday reported.
“I’m sorry that I cannot stop,” Saez told the investigator, according to details in the criminal complaint against him.
The pastor also admitted to sending child pornography videos to at least 10 other individuals.
It was unclear from the complaint how Saez knew the teenager. Calls made to the church by The Christian Post on Friday seeking comment went unanswered.
James Smith, assistant director in charge of FBI New York, said in a statement that while child pornography remains a horrifying crime in society, the involvement of a minister made the Saez case “more concerning.”
“The production of child pornography is one of the most horrendous crimes we deal with in our society. It is even more concerning when the crime is allegedly committed by a leader in a local house of worship,” Smith said. “The FBI is committed to protecting our children and working with our law enforcement partners to identify and apprehend predators who carry out these appalling crimes.”
While the church’s Facebook page has been disabled, it enjoys a high review rating of 4.9 of a possible five stars on Google with 10 reviews.
The church’s YouTube account, which features four videos, remains live. In one of the videos from about a year ago, titled, “Thanksgiving gender reveal,” Saez and his family revealed their third child would be another daughter.
Saez’s public Facebook page also shows wholesome images of himself and his family along with members of his small church which celebrated their 15th anniversary this month.
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