A minister is taking his own denomination to task, claiming in a lawsuit that the Presbyterian Church was partly responsible for sexual abuse he suffered as a teenager.
The Rev. Kris Schondelmeyer, a youth minister in Toledo, Ohio, is seeking unspecified damages in a lawsuit he filed against the Louisville, Ky.-based Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); First Presbyterian Church of Fulton, Mo.; the Missouri Union Presbytery in Jefferson City; and his alleged abuser, Jack Wayne Rogers.
Schondelmeyer, 31, a native of Sedalia, Mo., said he was sexually abused at a youth conference in 2000 in Maryland. At the time, Rogers was a lay pastor in Montgomery County, Mo. The lawsuit alleges Presbyterian officials allowed Rogers to work as a chaperone despite Rogers’ 1992 conviction for child pornography.
An attorney for the denomination declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.
Read more at http://www.kansascity.com/living/religion/article845304.html
3 Comments. Leave new
The pedophile mentioned in this article, Jack Wayne Rogers, has no connection to Jack Bartlett Rogers, the moderator of the 213th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
I bet Jack Bartlett Rogers is glad there is no connection either.
Undoubtedly this youth minister is seeking to protect others and to find healing for himself through speaking about his experience. Unfortunately, in the PCUSA he will find – no hearing, no healing, no care, no Christ-like response. He will be run over by a bulldozer of retaliation and will find himself without any opportunity to work again. Someone forgot to tell him that the church shoots their wounded.