**Warning**In this video are some very raw descriptions of violence towards children. If you have a background that involves physical abuse you may want to skip this one.
Note: This sermon was preached in 2011 at Central Baptist Church in Baton Rouge. It’s worth noting that this church also runs a K-12 school where one can only imagine what the discipline policies are like. The pastor of Central,B.G. Buchanan, attended the seminary founded by none other than J. Frank Norris, hero of fundamentalism.
This is not the fringe. This is as mainstream a fundamentalist pedigree as you can get.
Apparently if you’re the pastor’s niece and the associate pastor’s daughter, a little sexual assault on ar student is easy to sweep under the rug at Hilltop Baptist Church and School.
According to the indictment, the teacher, 32-year-old Terah Allyn Rawlings, has been charged with eight counts in all: four counts of sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust-pattern of abuse (a class 3 felony), four counts of sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust (a class 4 felony), and obscenity promotion (a class 2 misdemeanor).
KRDO reports the teacher allegedly had a relationship with the boy for two and a half years, beginning when he was 15. Anonymous sources told the station the school covered up the relationship until a staff member called the sheriff against the school’s permission.
Hilltop Baptist School’s senior pastor, 63-year-old Franklin “Wayne” Knight, was also arrested. Knight is Rawlings’s uncle.
Rawlings’s father, 57-year-old Raymond “Alan” Knight, the school’s former athletic director and associate pastor, has been arrested as well and charge with failure to report child abuse or neglect. The school’s Facebook page boasts Alan was the 2011 Division 1A coach of the year.
Jan Ocvirk, the school’s former principal, was also arrested. She faces two counts of failure to report child abuse or neglect.
It is interesting to note that Wayne Knight is also the President of Patriot Bible University, the institution responsible for granting tax evader Kent Hovind his doctorate.
According to public records, Charles “Chipper” Snow IV has pleaded guilty to the charge of Criminal sexual conduct with minor (victim under 16 yrs of age) and has been sentenced to three years of probation.
Normally here on SFL we’re more involved in simply commenting on what’s going on instead of getting directly involved in the cases themselves. However, today I spoke to the detective who is currently investigating Tedd Butler and I agreed to put out a call for information to the community at large here.
If anybody in the SFL community knew Tedd Butler back in the day or ran in the same circles and churches that he did, I’d ask that you consider giving the investigating detective a call and giving him whatever information you can about what kind of a person he was or anything else that you can remember about him. They’re in the process of trying to piece together the bigger story of what kind of man Tedd is and where he comes from and any help you can provide would be much appreciated whether that’s information that’s good, bad, or indifferent.
And now there’s yet another Hyles grad from Michigan who has allegedly got a thing for boys in his congregation. WoodTV.com reports:
The pastor of a Walker Baptist church is expected in court Thursday to face charges he sexually assaulted two boys, each under 13, that he met through the church.
The Rev. Tedd Butler, pastor of the Gospel Light Baptist Church, is accused of two separate offenses.
In Ottawa County, he’s facing second-degree sexual assault — that is, improper touching – in Ottawa County’s Tallmadge Township. Records show he lives in that township, but it’s not known whether these alleged offenses happened at his home.
But in northern Kent County, authorities told 24 Hour News 8 he’s being charged with first-degree sexual assault with a different boy.
Ottawa County investigators said the alleged assaults happened years ago.
Butler, 46, is married with children and has no criminal record.
What the article doesn’t mention is that Tedd Butler graduated from Hyles Anderson College in 1988 and from Crown Bible College in 1998. I’m thinking this map might be a good place to start in picking pastors to keep an eye on.
It’s worth noting that the church website has apparently been taken down.
