Everyday thousands of children are being sexually abused. You can stop the abuse of at least one child by simply praying. You can possibly stop the abuse of thousands of children by forwarding the link in First Time Visitor? by email, Twitter or Facebook to every Christian you know. Save a child or lots of children!!!! Do Something, please!

3:15 PM prayer in brief:
Pray for God to stop 1 child from being molested today.
Pray for God to stop 1 child molestation happening now.
Pray for God to rescue 1 child from sexual slavery.
Pray for God to save 1 girl from genital circumcision.
Pray for God to stop 1 girl from becoming a child-bride.
If you have the faith pray for 100 children rather than one.
Give Thanks. There is more to this prayer here

Please note: All my writings and comments appear in bold italics in this colour

Showing posts with label volunteers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label volunteers. Show all posts

Tuesday, 16 June 2026

Wolves Among the Sheep > Christian Youth non-profit founder guilty of sexual abuse; Brash ICC Prosecutor suspended over claims of sexual abuse

 

Investigation confirms Orange founder Reggie Joiner sexually abused six women






By Daniel Silliman
Reggie Joiner
A third party investigation into Orange founder Reggie Joiner has confirmed he is guilty of sexual misconduct. (Courtesy photo)

A Christian nonprofit that produced the youth group curriculum used by one million children every week has quietly released a summary of the findings of a third-party investigation into allegations of sexual abuse.

The board of reThink Group, parent company of Orange, said the investigation confirmed founder Reggie Joiner is guilty of sexual misconduct.

Victims include four women who worked for Joiner, according to the report, and two who were under his pastoral care at North Point Community Church. Joiner cofounded the metro Atlanta megachurch with Pastor Andy Stanley.

One of the women at the church was 19 when the abuse began, the statement said.

ReThink called the findings “heartbreaking.”

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“The investigative findings have left us grieving for those who experienced pain, stress and confusion during their time with reThink,” the board said. “We recognize that there was a betrayal of trust placed in the organization, and most importantly, in its leaders.”

stanley joiner orange
North Point Community Church Lead Pastor Andy Stanley (right) and Reggie Joiner speak at a church event in September 2019. (Photo: Facebook)

ReThink is not releasing the full investigation done by the law firm CastaƱeda + Heidelman LLP, citing the need to protect confidentiality. The summary offers few details about the sexual abuse, spending more time reporting on victims willingness to cooperate with the investigation.

The summary statement was posted as an update to a statement reThink posted on its mostly defunct website the Friday before Thanksgiving Day 2025. News of the update was first reported by Ministry Watch on June 8.

Zero accountability for the board

Victims and whistleblowers told the Roys Report (RR) the timing seemed designed to avoid attention and evade responsibility.

“It does not apologize or center the victims or demonstrate any kind of victim awareness at all,” said whistleblower Kim Nunes, a former project manager for Orange. “There’s zero accountability for the board. This is what I expected, but there was one percent of me that was hoping the right thing would be done.”

Board members did not respond to emails from the RR. A spokesperson anonymously declined to answer further questions.

Reggie Joiner (Courtesy Photo)

“The statement regarding the third-party investigation was published in November 2025 and has been available continuously at www.rethinkgroup.org for the past seven months,” the unsigned email to RR said. “No additional statements have been made or are planned.”

According to reThink’s November 21 statement, Joiner concealed his sexual misconduct, and no one on the board knew or could have known what was happening.

The board notes the nonprofit did not have written policies about sexual harassment, a professional human resources department or procedures for reporting misconduct. The statement does not apologize for these oversights.

The board instead expresses hope that the “painful lessons” will be useful to others.

“Our prayer is that the truth revealed here will be a step toward healing for those who have suffered, and a reminder to all of us that leadership is a sacred trust, never to be taken lightly,” the statement said. “This can serve as an opportunity for accountability, growth, and change.”

A former employee who spoke to investigators said it was sad the board didn’t take the opportunity it had to be accountable.

“I honestly feel the whole thing was sort of a joke,” she told the RR, speaking on condition of anonymity, citing mental health concerns. “All of the questions we had, it was like, ‘Wait for the report.’ When the report came out, it was nothing.”

Orange curriculum
The youth group curriculum created by Orange is used by one million children every week, predominantly across the United States. (Source: Orange official website)

Curriculum was widely endorsed

Joiner founded the organization that became reThink and Orange in 2001 while still serving as executive director of family ministry at North Point. He went out on his own in 2006, producing youth group curricula that was widely and quickly adopted by children’s ministries across the country.

ReThink’s annual revenue grew from $168,500 in 2001 to more than $4 million in five years. And it kept growing. In 2024, when accusations of sexual abuse were made public, the Georgia-based nonprofit brought in $24 million.

The reThink curricula covered every age group from preschool to high school. For preschoolers, “Let’s Fly” taught Christ-like compassion. For older kids, there was “Table of Context,” a Bible study presented as “ancient words for modern times,” and “GOAT,” teaching teens to become “the greatest” with Jesus’ teachings about sacrifice and servant leadership. 

When Joiner wrote a book articulating his ideas for getting churches and families to work together to develop children’s faith, it was widely endorsed by evangelical megachurch leaders. 

Stanley called it a “paradigm shift” and a “brand-new approach to capturing the hearts and imaginations of this generation’s parents and kids.” 

Craig Groeschel, pastor of Life.Church, said “Reggie Joiner’s ideas … will empower and motivate Christian leaders around the world to rethink how the church and families can and should work together.” Sue Miller, a former director of children’s ministries at Willow Creek Community Church, praised the book as a “must read” and “just what we all need to strategically partner with parents.”

Pastor Craig Groeschel delivers the closing session at the 2021 Global Leadership Summit, focusing on emotions in leadership. (Photo courtesy of open blog.life.church)

Compliance and silence

While the company grew, Joiner was grooming and manipulating women into sex. One woman, in an anonymous statement, said she was “fully conditioned … to compliance and silence.” When Joiner kissed her, she said, it “felt like being shoved down a dark tunnel slide.”

Another victim has previously said she was prepared to “protect Reggie at all costs,” and “labored under the belief that protecting Reggie was the only way to protect Orange.”

In 2025, Joiner told investigators that he believed all the relationships were consensual — admitting only that one, with a teenage girl in his church, involved abuse.

Georgia law prohibits employers from sexual harassing employees. The legal definition includes any “conduct of a sexual nature” that employees are asked to accept, “implicitly or explicitly,” as a “term or condition of work.” 

Orange advertisement 2019
Joiner speaks in a promotional video for Orange Conference 2020 (Screen shot)

Georgia also passed a law in May criminalizing clergy sexual abuse. The law prohibits ministers from claiming consent as a defense The behavior that many ministers have called “an affair” or an “inappropriate relationship” is now a felony, punishable by up to 25 years in prison. 

Joiner has not been charged with any crime. He reportedly still lives in Atlanta. 

ReThink remains open but is not producing any more materials. The organization’s suburban Atlanta office now appears to be occupied by a dentist. 

Material still for sale

The existing curricula and the subsidiary company Orange were acquired in 2024 by the Amazing Life Foundation. The nonprofit, founded at that time, has revamped some of the material and rebranded Orange’s annual conference. 

orange joiner
Figures from Form 990 reports of The reThink Group, the nonprofit behind Orange, showing Orange CEO Reggie Joiner’s past four years of compensation. (Spreadsheet: TRR Analysis)

Malachi Boyuls, president of Amazing Life, told the RR that the company has “no preexisting or ongoing relationship” with Joiner, reThink or anyone in leadership at reThink.

Boyuls declined to answer any questions about royalty payments. 

According to the last 10 years of available tax records, reThink was paying between $1 million and $3 million in royalties per year. Some of that money went to Joiner, who also earned a salary from reThink. 

Victims and whistleblowers who spoke to the RR said everything still feels unresolved. Instead of stating what happened definitively and for the record, the board’s statement leaves much cloaked in secrecy, they said. 

“I wish that more would come out,” a former employee told the RR. “I want the truth to be out there. But I’ve lost hope.”



ICC prosecutor who charged that Israel committed ‘war crimes’ had ‘nonconsensual sexual contact’ with aide


International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan in March 2024 filed applications for warrants of arrest for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. He claimed that Israel had committed “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity.” Later, when he faced these claims about his behavior, some suggested that he leveled these baseless charges against Israel so as to distract from his own woes. That idea has not been disproven.

Also, Karim Khan appears to be following in the footsteps of Tariq Ramadan. Could they be reading the same book.


ICC suspends its British chief prosecutor Karim Khan over claims of sexual misconduct

by Imogen Garfinkel, Daily Mail, June 9, 2026:


The International Criminal Court has suspended its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, over claims of sexual misconduct in an unprecedented decision.

Khan, the British barrister who sought the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes in Gaza, stood down from his post on Monday after the court’s oversight body referred him for disciplinary proceedings.

The 56-year-old is facing allegations of sexual misconduct with a female aide, in a scandal that has dragged on for more than two years.

He has steadfastly denied any wrongdoing.

A final decision on Khan’s fate is now up to the Assembly of States Parties, the body that oversees the ICC, which will hold a special session to decide if Khan can remain in his job at the global court.

The Bureau of the Assembly of States parties – the executive committee of the court’s oversight body – said in a statement that it based its decision ‘on the report of an investigation undertaken by the United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), the underlying evidence, the advice of an ad hoc Panel of judicial experts, and written submissions’.

It added that Khan’s suspension pending the assembly meeting ‘is not an indication of the final outcome’.

The UN investigation found evidence that Khan had ‘nonconsensual sexual contact with (the aide) in his office, at his private residence, and whilst on mission’…


 


Monday, 20 April 2026

Wolves Among the Sheep > 2x2's Minister aquitted of CSA in B.C.; Deceased Mormon leader accused of CSA

 

Former fundamentalist minister in B.C. found not guilty of historical sexual abuse


Lee-Ann McChesney acquitted on charges of sexual assault and sexual exploitation dating back to 1989

A statue of a blindfolded woman holding a set of scales.
Lee-Ann McChesney, a former 2x2s minister, has been acquitted in B.C. Supreme Court of historical sexual abuse. (David Horemans/CBC)

A former minister in the 2x2s Christian fundamentalist sect was found not guilty of historical sexual assault and sexual exploitation dating back to 1989.

In acquitting Lee-Ann McChesney, Justice Michael Stephens said Crown had not proven the charges beyond reasonable doubt. Stephens described the case as “difficult” due to the subject matter.

Only one witness, complainant Lyndell Montgomery, was called to give evidence during the trial in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster, about incidents alleged to have taken place in Terrace, Delta and Surrey when she was 14 and 15 years old.

The court heard Montgomery was adopted as an infant into a devout 2x2s family, and had been sent to live under the care of McChesney, a minister in the church, during the time of the allegations.

Montgomery requested her name not be under a publication ban. Publication bans are common in cases involving the alleged sexual abuse of a child or youth. 

McChesney declined comment outside of court and no 2x2s leader was present. 

Montgomery was supported at trial by over a dozen people in the gallery. In a statement sent to CBC News after the trial, she said she wasn’t sorry for choosing to engage the court.

“Telling [my story] was for my own healing, sure, but it was also for everyone who can’t — whether they’re silenced by a statute of limitations, by death of their perp or by fear. This was my story, but now it’s a part of others as well," she wrote.  

FBI 2 years into 2x2s investigation

The case in New Westminster is one of a handful in Canada where 2x2s complainants have gone to police seeking criminal charges against church members, although hundreds of allegations of child sexual abuse and abuse have been recorded by independent researchers.

Two years ago, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation opened an investigation into the 2x2s and issued an public appeal for help in identifying victims or individuals with knowledge of abuse and/or criminal behaviour within the sect.

In an email to CBC News, the FBI said the investigation remains open, but no details could be shared in order to preserve the integrity and capabilities of the investigation. 

The email said 2x2s victims of abuse from outside the U.S. are encouraged to contact the FBI. 

“In coordination with our Legal AttachĆ© Offices around the world, we routinely share information and intelligence with our international law enforcement partners in an effort to identify and mitigate threats,” said an FBI spokesperson.

The 2x2s operate globally. The faith teaches that it is the only true way to salvation. Former members who have spoken to CBC News described the church as high-control, insular and secretive.

Although commonly referred to as 2x2s, the organization is officially nameless. It doesn’t keep official records or publish a leadership structure, and own no places of worship, according to multiple sources.

Ministry is conducted in the homes of the faithful, known as “friends,” or in rented spaces. Ministers, known as “workers” have no formal training and live in the homes of friends who are expected to provide financial and material support. Senior workers called “overseers” control a geographical region and are exclusively male. 

The FBI investigation was sparked by an outpouring of abuse allegations that emerged after an overseer named Dean Bruer was found dead in an Oregon motel room in 2022, according to multiple sources CBC News spoke to. 

Following his death, a letter written by an overseer named Doyle Smith described Bruer’s double life, calling him as a “sexual predator” whose “actions include raped and abuse of underage victims.” The letter has been posted publicly, including by the organization Wings for Truth, which documents activity within the 2x2s organization.

From left to right: Cynthia Liles, Lyndell Montgomery, Judy Scheller and Jen Barth outside of New Westminster Supreme Court.
Lyndell Montgomery poses with supporters outside of B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster. From left to right: Cynthia Liles, Lyndell Montgomery, Judy Scheller and Jen Barth. (Karin Larsen/CBC)

After the revelations about Bruer, Cynthia Liles, a former 2x2s member and private investigator in Oregon, launched a non-profit called 2x2s Church Accountability. It runs an independent reporting hotline to document allegations of abuse within the 2x2s that Liles says has received reports of over 1200 alleged perpetrators.

Liles believes from the information collected that leaders in the 2x2s church have been ignoring allegations of child sexual abuse within the sect and protecting perpetrators for years. 

“I thought when [church leadership] became aware of the amount of abuse we were hearing about that they would be shocked and do something about it. But they already knew about it and they had no intention of changing,” she said. 

Liles travelled to New Westminster to support Montgomery during the trial. So did Jen Barth, a former 2x2s member who was drawn into an earlier criminal trial involving former 2x2s minister Aaron Farough, who pleaded guilty to possessing and distributing child pornography in 2023.

Farough was living in the Barth family home in Courtenay, B.C., during a portion of the time he committed the crimes.

“Originally, I, Jen Barth, was under investigation because the [internet service provider] for our household is in my name,” she said.

Barth says the 2x2s organization has shown little accountability. 

“They are avoiding, they are minimizing, they are concealing. They are denying these allegations. And we all know, these things need to be taken seriously.”




Mystery shrouds ex-Mormon figure's death in northern Illinois plane crash amid child sexual abuse lawsuit

Richard McClung died in February when the small plane he was piloting crashed in a community between McHenry County and Rockford. A pending lawsuit accuses McClung, a convicted sex offender, of molesting a young girl while he was a leader and member of a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints congregation in the early 2000s. The suit says church leaders knew he was a potential danger and still let him be around kids.





Richard McClung died in a plane crash Feb. 14 when the small aircraft he was piloting plummeted into a residential neighborhood between McHenry County and Rockford, narrowly missing homes, severing a gas line and horrifying locals.

McClung’s online death notice described the 83-year-old Rockford resident as having “a love for his family” who “tried his best in all the ways he knew how.”

A darker reality has since emerged: McClung was a former Mormon church figure in Illinois and registered sex offender who’s been repeatedly accused of sexually abusing children.

At the time of his death, McClung was a defendant in a federal lawsuit in Chicago accusing him of molesting a young congregant while he was a member and leader of a Mormon church in Rockford in the early 2000s.

The death notice said the crash was “a result of having a mechanical failure.”

A nonprofit general aviation safety organization says McClung likely plunged his airplane into the ground because of mounting pressure from recent court filings.

Lawyers involved in the suit wouldn’t comment.

This much is known: A formal cause of death hasn’t yet been determined by the Boone County coroner, and the National Transportation Safety Board also hasn’t concluded its investigation. An arm of the federal government, the NTSB is generally the final word on how and why a fatal plane crash happened.

Please continue reading on the Chicago Sun-Times at:


Filed in 2025, the lawsuit