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Author: Lois
I was a member of the United Pentecostal Church for just under 13 years and was a licensed minister during a short part of that time. I am the owner of the SpiritualAbuse.org website, which was started four years after leaving. I am originally from southern New Jersey.
In March 2018, the blog section of the spiritual abuse website had 10,491 visits, with 6135 being unique. Below are the top ten read posts for March from two different authors.
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In doing recent investigation on sexual abuse cases for this series of articles, I am reminded of an especially sick case involving a former United Pentecostal Church pastor in Alabama, Mack Charles Andrews. He was licensed from 1987 though 2000 and during that time was pastor of a UPC church in Thomasville. For some of this time he also held the position of Conqueror’s Secretary of the Alabama District. In 2013 he was arrested on multiple counts of rape, sodomy and sexual torture involving four children during the 1980s and 1990s at the church and its school, Faith Christian Academy. In addition, there were also victims whose cases were not included in the criminal counts against him, some who were willing to testify. On the day his trial was to start, he plead guilty and under the plea agreement was sentenced to only 15 years in prison.
At one point in 2015, an investigator had spoken to eleven victims and believed there were more. Some of the victims hired attorneys in an effort to keep him from speaking with them. There were church members who were still supportive of Andrews, some not even seeming to consider the possibility of his guilt. Investigator David Conner was quoted as saying, “I’ve had members of the church try to bail him out of jail. Some wouldn’t even entertain the thought that he might have done it. He is a master of manipulating people and, for lack of a better word, brain-washing them. …The hold he has on the community is still evident.”
This mindset sounds similar to what I have been hearing about a UPC church in Colorado, where there are allegations that the pastor failed to report several cases of sexual abuse. Many people there, both former and current members, have witnessed incidents that were not right and have knowledge that things were not reported to police which should have been. Many yet have a fear of this pastor and his family and it has been alleged they have threatened to sue people with whom they are unhappy or have tossed out of the church. While such a fear remains and people do not speak out and come forward, it leaves the door open for similar to continue.
The people of his old church congregation have all turned against me. In there blindness of the Truth they blame it on me because I came forth finally and told the truth. I haven’t been a member of his church in 20 years. But, until the point of me telling the police my story I still considered some of them friends. I know better now. It’s funny to me how people who so radically claim their salvation have shown no love of Christ to me or any other victims in this case. The really wild thing is some of those congregants are actually victims themselves. Yet, their rage against me is strong and venomous. – Donna ‘Shay’ Smith, survivor of childhood sexual abuse
In the Andrews case, it took just one woman coming forward who was victimized from age seven through twelve. Because she went to police and shared the names of others she knew who had been abused, it enabled the police to dig into his history and find many of the victims, some of whom had kept it all inside. It put a pedophile in jail where there is no chance of him hurting other children while he serves his sentence. When he gets released, he will have to register as a sex offender, alerting the community that children are not safe around him. It brought some sense of justice to the survivors.
Had Donna ‘Shay’ Smith remained silent, this would not have happened and he would be at liberty to continue to bring untold devastation to the lives of others. Often times all it takes is for one person to be willing to come forward and tell their story. We have seen that recently with Debbie in Wisconsin, where once she started openly writing about her childhood sexual abuse by Steven J. Dahl, several other women from the very same church contacted her. If you are a survivor of sexual abuse, you do have a voice and you can make a difference. Your voice could be the one that helps prevent another child or adult from becoming a victim.
This addresses the co-mingling of those underage with ones in their twenties and thirties in some churches. Years back, the Youth Division of the UPCI was called Pentecostal Conquerors. (2024: The original linked to video was later made private and I have replaced it with a different one.) The national leader could be as old as 39, while district officers could be 35. Their churches allowed those from 12 to 35 to take part together in various activities.
I feel that encouraging those in their twenties and thirties to hang with pre-teens and young teenagers has opened the door for grooming and sexual assaults of minors to occur. Debbie has shared that the church in Madison didn’t seem to think there was anything inappropriate or potentially troublesome with people much older hanging around with those quite younger. Debbie was groomed and repeatedly assaulted from age eleven to twelve by a man who was old enough to be her father. The church didn’t blink, even when he took her on day long work trips.
The following article is what one person has observed in this environment and was written by a woman who wishes to remain anonymous.
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I came into the UPC at 26 years of age. I had been out of church for about ten years, living a very worldly life, even by most liberal church’s standards. I look back now and count this life experience as a blessing, as I could see warning flags where many of the young people in the United Pentecostal Church could not. I had grown up in pretty average churches, and I had adored youth group in high school. I was used to youth group being for kids grades 8-12, with possibly a handful of older “young people” volunteering as leaders. Usually these leaders were part of the C&C (College and Career), they weren’t any older than early 20s, and they were Godly examples, leading solid, mature spiritual lives.
I was delighted when I was “invited” to attend my new church’s Hyphen group! I do recall wondering why it took them several months to ask me to attend, and why it wasn’t just published on their website or ever announced. I would have thought they would want everyone even visiting to know about it. I remember also being flattered they thought I was so young, and then surprised when they said it was for ages 18-35. I had thought that was quite a spread of ages. I look back now and I guess they didn’t want to advertise it at that age spread as it might have not looked so good on paper, and it would have held them more responsible for some of the things that did go on in regards to Hyphen and youth.
The first evening I showed up for the group, we had planned to play basketball and then have a short Bible study. I was still quite new, so I couldn’t figure out why the only other two girls to show up both wore skirts to play basketball. The group was mainly guys, mostly in their mid 20s. The other two girls didn’t really play ball, largely because of their apparel. In the subsequent weeks, the other two girls didn’t attend often. They both had rotating shift work and they also said it wasn’t fun if all the girls weren’t able to attend. I soon learned the holiness standards and started to see a real issue with attending these athletic evenings, as if I dressed how they preached, I would struggle to play things like basketball or soccer while remaining modest and keeping my skirt from getting pulled, twisted or flipped up. If I didn’t play, chances are I would be sitting on the sidelines alone as the other two girls weren’t often there. If I dressed to play sports, then I would look backslidden. I settled into a routine with the church where I spent my time with the older women and skipped Hyphen. Hyphen became an all boys club for a time.
The church had a small youth group but it was growing. The youth pastor was one of the guys in the Hyphen group. He usually used a couple of the other guys from the group as leaders. Because Hyphen was a small group, he regularly would combine the Hyphen/Youth activity so he only had to lead one group that week. Hyphen was still all male at that point in time, while youth was primarily female, with girls ranging from 12-17. One of those girls ended up marrying the youth pastor, as soon as she graduated from high school at 18. He was about ten years her senior and had known her since she was ten or eleven. I was around his age at the time and remember finding it kind of gross to think he watched her grow up and married her as soon as it could sort of be considered socially acceptable. I wondered if he just suddenly found an interest in her, or if he had been perving on her when she was 14 or 16, while he was her youth pastor. Another girl, same age, and the same year, also married that summer out of high school to a man from another church who was also in his mid to late 20s. I thought they must be anomalies at the time. Later I realized this was the norm.
Around that point in time, there was a number of new people to the church and the pastor couldn’t keep up on all the Bible studies and discipleship classes he had on the go. He sent one of his more difficult students to the youth pastor to mentor. I knew this 53 year old man from outside of the church. He had been a member of our local chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous for some time. He had been able to maintain sobriety from both drugs and alcohol, but he had a lot of mental health, and emotional issues.
He would argue with everything the pastor said, and he had a real hang up on what the Bible said about sex. He would argue with our pastor about God not actually expecting abstinence, he refusal to live chaste, and he had strong opinions on a myriad of other male topics in regards to sex. He had been my house mate at one point when I wasn’t attending the UPC church, and I had the misfortune of finding his adult magazines lying around the house, as well as literally walking in on him in the living room with his pants down. I knew he had a real problem in this area. In fact, all the women in AA knew he had a problem in this area. He was very friendly and overbearing with all ages of women in AA and he would harass and show up in the same places as the women he was interested in at the time. I was glad to hear he was so open with the pastor about his feelings in this area, as he really needed a Godly man to hash these things out with, and not the poor women in AA.
After the pastor passed along this man to the youth pastor to mentor, this man was nearly inseparable from the youth pastor. They hung out several nights a week. They hung out at church. Where one was, the other one was. I remember thinking it was odd that a 28 year old life time Christian man, and a virgin, would have much in common with this 53 year old man who wasn’t overly committed to a Christian walk and who had such an obsession with sex. I was uncomfortable when this man started attending Hyphen. It was one more reason I didn’t want to attend. I was horrified when I found how he was attending Hyphen/Youth. Why would a 53 year old man want to hang around with teens and twenty somethings? Why would he want to be around underage girls?!?! Why was anyone letting him be around under age girls!?!?
This guy had a reputation for being very pushy and not respecting boundaries with women his own age. He also had a bad temper. He got into a fight with one of my close friends because she turned him down. He told her all the reasons he was better than the men she had been dating and why she HAD to date him. He bullied her and yelled at her and wouldn’t leave her alone. She was a very strong woman, but I knew many women would have caved and gone out with him just to settle him down. And they were allowing him around very young, vulnerable women? What if he decided he was the best dating choice for one of the 18, 19, or even 22 year old women? I knew the pastor wouldn’t listen to me if I said anything though, so I fretted in silence.
A new, young girl, started attending the youth group. She was 15. She came from a pretty broken home. She had actually been invited to the youth group in the most ingenious of ways. She had developed a pretty serious crush on one of her classmates, who happened to be a young boy from our church. She was following him around school and giving him gifts and notes. He went to his mother, looking for advice as he wasn’t interested in this worldly girl with a reputation for partying.
The mom decided she found a witnessing opportunity. She started inviting the girl to their home for family dinner and then brought her to the youth group when she brought her three sons. The girl continued to crush on the boy, but she did it while hanging out with a group of Christian girls, learning about God. Eventually the girl became more independent of the boy’s mother and she started getting rides with other members of youth or Hyphen, and she also hung out with the group at non official gatherings at people’s homes or McDonalds.
I was so concerned to hear that the 53 year old man had become her regular ride. He didn’t work, and had no problem driving her from anywhere to anywhere as he appreciated the company and wasn’t doing anything anyways. She was starved for attention in life and she would go to anyone looking for attention, love, etc. She was so vulnerable as she told him about her drug experiments at parties. They could bond over their shared substance abuse stories. She confessed her confusion over an attraction to women to him and wanted to discuss what the Bible had to say. They could bond over their dislike for God’s plan for husband and wife. She discussed modesty as per how the UPC preached it. They could bond over their shared desire for women to wear what they wanted and the innocence in a little cleavage and leg. She had no curfew; he had no reason to be up early in the morning. They would end up in an after hours dinner having deep discussions late in to the night. The youth pastor knew, but if anything, I think he was just glad someone other than him was amusing this man on those nights.
Something I’ve learned in my own life. There are many male predators that don’t set out to be a predator. They just don’t have boundaries. A healthy, normal man of 53 years of age wouldn’t want to hang out with a bunch of young people because he doesn’t have anything in common with them. If he was a leader to them, he would maintain a certain distance as he is twice their age. A normal, healthy man of 53 years of age would not allow himself to get pulled into deep conversations with a 15 year old girl, because he would know its not appropriate and its not healthy for her. A man with boundaries, certainly wouldn’t start confiding in this 15 year old girl, while discussing the Bible and what it says about sex.
This man was one of those predators that didn’t set out to be a predator. I don’t know if anything ever happened with them, I would like to believe it didn’t. But they had both put themselves in a very precarious place. She was latching on to a daddy figure, but she was just a mixed up kid. He was allowing himself to get very emotionally involved with a minor. If she had made a pass at him, I truly believe he would have gone with it. The legal age of consent in our area is 14, and he would have deluded himself into believing it was ok since she was older than 14.
I look back at that group of kids now. The kids that came from church families have stayed in the church. The kids that were new have not stayed in the church. Facebook told me recently that a girl who had just entered youth when I was attending Hyphen, married one of those men from Hyphen as soon as she graduated at age 18. He was 30. He had known her since she was a preteen. She is now pregnant and will be giving birth at 19.
The church looks at the girls that left as backslidden and headed for hell.
Some of the girls are just wearing pants and make-up. One is living with her boyfriend. Another is in a lesbian relationship. Instagram has gotten at least one of those girls in trouble with her mom after photos of underage drinking came out. None of these girls have made terrible, life ending decisions. They are just going through some of the stages or rebellions of growing up. I look at the girl who is pregnant at 18. She is the only one of the group with a teenage pregnancy, even if she is married. She is still just a kid herself. These other girls living outside of the church haven’t made any decisions that will alter their lives in big ways. This girl soon will be responsible for another little life, while shackled to someone who has 12 years of adulting experience over her. I find it so sad.
These girls aren’t protected from being exploited and they aren’t allowed to be kids with other kids. They are put together with men twice their age, and are expected to be mature and pure, and would be held responsible if anything were to occur. In a church culture where the older men marry the young women after watching them grow up, no one is concerned in protecting these girls.
You will find a complete list of articles in this series by clicking here.
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I have fought back tears while hearing reports of sexual abuse, some of it happening for years. It is sickening to discover how older men manipulated and molested young girls and boys. It is enraging to hear how certain pastors have systematically covered up and not reported such cases. Hearing that minors who were molested were blamed by pastors or church members disgusts me. Watching current United Pentecostal Church members and friends of the perpetrators and pastors attempt to re-victimize people, call them liars, blame them in some way and claim wrong motives for telling what happened is maddening. It is mind boggling to see former UPCI minister Todd Ritchie state there is nothing wrong with a pedophile being a pastor and claiming persecution of the perpetrator because a survivor is speaking out. It is all heartbreaking, it is repulsive, it is infuriating, I struggle to find words adequate to describe it….and I am not a victim but simply someone hearing what has happened.
There are pastors who have sat on their thrones and helped to devastate the lives of countless people by instructing parents to not go to police, not provide professional counseling to survivors and in some cases they have made them confess before the church, as if they had anything to do with their assault. Fearing for their spiritual welfare, there are church members who hold these men in esteem and will not speak of what they have seen and heard, thus allowing the criminal behavior to continue. Pastors have allowed perpetrators to continue molesting an untold number of people due to handling situations ‘in house’ and failing to report cases to the authorities. At least one has made it appear that they took cases to police when they did no such thing.
Pastors have either hidden sexual abuse or sent people away without informing church members of what happened, so parents don’t know to check if their child(ren) may have also been a victim. Pastors have allowed some to obtain a UPCI license after having committed such a crime, or to retain one.
It is unbelievable, inexcusable, and reprehensible how some United Pentecostal Church ministers have handled instances of sexual abuse and infidelity. They have not only brought shame upon themselves and their loved ones, but also upon the churches, the organization, and even Christianity itself. It is no wonder that some walk away from a belief in God. These men should not hold the office of a pastor, nor should they be licensed by anyone, nor should they hold any church leadership position or be preaching. Their actions have proven themselves untrustworthy and unfit.
Those who were sexually abused in these churches need to file a police report. The Special Victims Units handle such cases. If the crime happened in Madison, Wisconsin, for example, the SVU has six detectives on staff or if it happened in Denver, the Major Crimes Division would investigate. Don’t be concerned with how long ago it occurred or if there are witnesses or evidence. It isn’t solely about whether or not they can prosecute, but there are other factors to be considered.
There may be the possibility of a civil suit against the perpetrator or the pastor/church. There are cases that involve the repeated deliberate cover up of sexual abuse by pastors. There may be other churches that have done so but are not yet openly known as people have not come forward. Recent history has shown that all it sometimes takes is one person to come forward and report their abuse and it gives other survivors the impetus to do likewise. Many times a person feels they are alone when there are actually others. That is how Debbie felt when she came forward but found there were many more from Calvary Gospel Church. Yet no one will know and things may never change if people remain silent and do not come forward.
Each case has its own unique factors as well as statute of limitations and those vary from state to state. If people do not file reports, then there is nothing on record. There is no chance that the authorities will go after these perpetrators, pastors and churches. There is no chance of helping other unknown survivors, nor potential future ones should they decide to report. Each reported case helps- even if your individual case can no longer be prosecuted.
In addition, you will have the satisfaction of trying to do something to put a stop to what has happened and may still be happening. You have a voice. Who knows who you could help by filing a report. It may be just what another woman or man needs in order to go forward with their case. If there has ever been a time in our country where people are paying attention to what all too many people have endured with sexual abuse and how it has been mishandled in churches, it is NOW.
In addition to filing a police report, if it was a currently licensed minister who abused you, or covered up sexual abuse, the United Pentecostal Church has a judicial procedure where a complaint may be filed against that minister. I encourage any of our readers who have personal knowledge of such wrongdoings to learn about the judicial procedure and seriously consider filing an official complaint if the minister yet holds license, no matter how long ago something happened.
If a complaint is not filed, you can pretty much be guaranteed that the UPCI will not address the matter. If a complaint is filed, there’s a chance that some type of action will be taken, even if it falls below what you would want done. In other words, if you know of wrongdoing by a minister and you choose to not file an official complaint, do not expect to see any action taken against that minister.
In 2024 significant changes were made to this procedure and child sexual abuse complaints will now be handled differently than other complaints. Individual districts in the UPCI will no longer handle these. To learn all the details about the judicial procedure, go here.
Speak up- for yourself and for others. There is power in numbers- let your voice be heard. People may have been silent in your assault and there may have been little to no help and you may have been shamed. Yet you have a powerful voice which has yet to be heard and that may make it easier for another survivor and perhaps help them to receive justice in our legal system, even if you cannot. People are watching and listening.
Will your voice be among those that shatter the silence surrounding sexual abuse and the United Pentecostal Church?
March 20, 2024 Note: I added information about the UPCI’s judicial procedure and checked links.
You will find a complete list of articles in this series by clicking here.
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(Some statements in this article are what have been alleged by a survivor. There have been no convictions as the case mentioned here was not reported to the police and to my knowledge, the alleged perpetrator has not admitted guilt.)
This article covers information about Steven Dahl and his alleged molestation of at least two children in the 1980s as well as allegations of failure to report instances of child sexual abuse by pastor John W. Grant, of Calvary Gospel United Pentecostal Church in Madison, Wisconsin. You will need to read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 for additional details.
For the purpose of ministerial membership in the United Pentecostal Church International or for ministering in a United Pentecostal Church International church, immoral conduct shall be defined as adultery, fornication, homosexuality, incest, and/or any other sexual acts determined by the District Board to be perverted or immoral (Matthew 5:32; Matthew 19:9; I Corinthians 6:9; Romans 1:24-28). – UPCI Manual
In my previous article, I asked four questions that cannot be ignored, tip-toed around or rationalized away and which need to be addressed by the Wisconsin District of the UPCI. I also shared that, “for years United Pentecostal ministers and pastors have been speaking for Steven Dahl at the Pentecostal Lighthouse Church in Oconto.” Before giving the names of various UPCI ministers who have spoken there, let’s take a closer look at Steven J. Dahl. Some has been shared in earlier articles.
Steven Dahl 8-25-23 Facebook post
Steven Dahl was born February 10, 1952 and grew up in Cambridge, WI. His grandparents came to America from Norway. His mother was Catholic and his father was Lutheran, which is how he was raised and baptized as a baby. He worked at a Pontiac garage in his teens, followed later by Ford and Chevy garages. He also worked for many years as a marketing representative selling church directories for Olan Mills and then as a consultant for Lifetouch Church Directories (they purchased Mills). When he was just 14, his father died at age 51 in 1967, with his mom being 81 at her death in the late 1990s.
Steve Dahl 1990s
Prior to his involvement with the United Pentecostal Church, he “was married, divorced, and went bankrupt by age 22.” Claiming an angel appeared to him the night before, on a Friday night in mid March 1981 at 11:30 pm he spoke in tongues for 45 minutes at his home in Madison, in front of two friends. On March 17th he was baptized at Calvary Gospel Church in Madison, Wisconsin. John W. Grant was the pastor, an ordained minister of the United Pentecostal Church. Steve claims to have been delivered of cigarettes, alcohol and drugs when he spoke in tongues on March 14.
He soon married Debra, seven years younger than him, in July 1981. The same year, or possibly in the spring of 1982, Debbie alleges that Steven Dahl started repeatedly sexually molesting her when she was eleven years old. Debbie reported this to pastor John W. Grant when she was 12, either in 1982 or 1983. Around the same time, Steve was caught in bed with Alice, his wife’s 15 year old sister. It appears that Grant may have sent Steve out of state for an unknown period of time, though in 1984 he was living in Appleton. None of this was reported to the police.
On March 26, 1985 Debra filed for divorce and on April 17, 1986, at age 34, Steve and Alice Marie eloped in Las Vegas, Nevada, just a few months after Alice turned 18. Steve and Alice have remained married and have four grown children. As a child, Debbie and Alice had been friends and pen pals, but this started changing when Alice moved in with Steve and his ex-wife back in the early 80s.
According to Dahl, these “mistakes” cost him his chance at being licensed in the UPCI. In December 2013 [screenshot] he wrote, “But that did not stop the call of God in my life from being fulfilled. I have had a lot of men disappoint me, and try to stop me from being a preacher, but God kept setting me up to minister.” Prior to him attending the Neenah church, he preached in nursing homes and while at the Neenah church he preached in three different prisons (being told not to return to two) for six years. He was asked to preach at a Methodist camp where he was almost thrown out when they realized he was Oneness Pentecostal. By 1986 or 1987 he started attending Christian Life Center in Neenah, a UPCI church. He occasionally preached there “when no one else was available.”
While a member of the Neenah church, for four years starting in April 1995 [screenshot], Dahl would make the 70 mile drive to Oconto, a city he hated and claims has a “bad spirit over it.” Starting in February 1998, meetings were being held rent free in the former VFW Hall at 821 Superior Ave in Oconto, Wisconsin. Around 1999, he purchased a home about four miles from the church. At some point the church had a split. In the time from 1995 to 2013, Steve claims to have baptized over 60 people, using a cow tank in the beginning. On June 6, 2014, the company that owned the building gave it to the church, after first putting on a new roof and adding a steeple and a cross. It is not a 501(c)(3) church.
The Pentecostal Lighthouse Church was a daughter work of Christian Life Center (now CrossPoint Church & then later Hope City Church), when John J. Bridges was pastor. Though unsure if it was such from its inception, we know that Bridges was supportive of it and advised Dahl. It was also listed in at least three years of directories that the Wisconsin District issued from 2006-2008, naming Steven Dahl as the pastor, even though Dahl did not hold license, was never eligible to hold license, and according to UPCI rules, should not have been ministering in their churches. (Screenshots of these are found in Part 1.)
In December 2013 Dahl shared that he was glad the church had become independent, that he had changed a lot of the ways he used to believe and did not wish to place “grievous burdens” on people. It appears it may have been over the UPCI standards teachings. As far back as November 4, 2012, Dahl stated that the church was not UPCI. It ceased to be listed as the daughter work of Christian Life Center in 2014 and probably prior. (I have not seen the issues from 2009-2013.)
[Video: Rachael Denhollander describing credible allegations of sexual abuse coverup in the network of Sovereign Grace Churches, and in the Evangelical community at large.]
June 13, 2017 Facebook post
Besides it being incredulous that John J. Bridges and the Wisconsin District allowed Steven J. Dahl to pastor a daughter work of the Neenah church, numerous United Pentecostal Church ministers and pastors have spoken at the Pentecostal Lighthouse Church. Even more socialize with him on Facebook and in person. UPC minister Mark Willhoite, who Dahl considers a mentor, believes that Dahl is a good man and preaches as well as Lee Stoneking, because he considers him anointed.
Below are the names of fourteen known ministers who have spoken for Dahl, as well as two who have allowed him to speak at their UPCI church. How could so many either have not known of his past or ignored it? When an ex-UPCI minister in Michigan can be shunned and spoken vehemently against by his former pastor, because he left and no longer believed all the standards, how can so many ministers embrace someone who has committed adultery more than once and is an alleged pedophile?
This is little Debbie, at the age in which she alleges that Steven J. Dahl started repeatedly molesting her. How do you think this appears to her when she sees how these men have welcomed Dahl with open arms, when she was treated by some at Calvary Gospel Church as if she had done something wrong? This is not a “mistake” and it is not just a matter of “adultery.” It is not normal for someone unhappy in their marriage to turn to young children and sexually molest them.
The following ministers are those known to have spoken at the Pentecostal Lighthouse Church. It should be evident that the inclusion of these names is by no means an indication that they were aware of the accusations against Dahl at the time. Mark Crowley (July 2010; March 2011; December 2014), Lee Endris (October 2017), George Hurt (January 2011), Mark Harris (May 2012; April 2014; December 2014; January 2017, May 2018), Joe Martinez (July 2010), Jimmy Ogle (December 2009), Phil Bridges (October 2010), Felix Crowder (January 2011; January 2013), Michael Papp (May 2014), Ward Rehbein (July 2012; October 2013, April 2019), Mark Showalter (March 2013), Dale Welch (December 2010), Ellery Campsall (August & September 2014, December 2018), Timothy Duffy (May 2018), and Robert Childress (May 2011; December 2016, January 2017). (Campsall was not UPC licensed at the time of this post, but was campus pastor at Life Point Church in Hortonville, an extension of Apostolic Truth Church in Appleton, an affiliated UPCI church. He did later become licensed and now is pastor of the Wauwatosa Tabernacle of Praise.)
As Christians who preach the inherent worth of people made in God’s image, we must take credible claims of abuse and mishandling seriously and require an independent investigation of the organization before supporting. If these claims are true and we have supported something that damages God’s children so much, that is grievous beyond what I can express, and we are responsible for that support and the damage that ensues thereafter, both to the victims we harm by failing to hear their cries, and to the victims that follow.
And if these claims are proven false, will we not all rejoice that God’s truth came out through humility and accountability, exactly as we teach it will?
And if you were leading an organization with such widespread claims of mishandling sexual and domestic violence, would not your love for God, and those under your care, motivate you to seek the truth yourself, to find out if errors have been made? Would not LOVE require this? – Rachael Denhollander
There are voices crying out, saying there is something very wrong here.
Known as ‘The Rev,’ Steve Dahl runs The Rev Oconto Car Club Facebook Group (started September 28, 2021). He organizes Car N Tunes events in Wisconsin and at the annual Oconto Fly-In Car & Tractor Show (he also runs or helps run that Facebook Page, which started February 16, 2018), where he has served as emcee and DJ at the event for thirteen years. The next Fly-In date is September 21, 2024.
March 10, 2024 Note: Screenshots and some pictures have been added to this post, links have been checked, and some revisions were made.
You will find a complete list of articles in this series by clicking here.
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In doing recent investigation on sexual abuse cases for this series of articles, I am reminded of an especially sick case involving a former United Pentecostal Church pastor in Alabama, 
This is little Debbie, at the age in which she alleges that Steven J. Dahl started repeatedly molesting her. How do you think this 
