My appearances on the blogs have been sporadic since moving to Oklahoma in late 2020. My focus has been with my son and daughter, who live over the state line in Kansas with their mom. When not at work or spending time with my kids, I am enjoying my days with my girlfriend.
My girlfriend and I watched an episode of Monster in My Family. The episode was about John Wayne Gacy, the infamous serial killer who was convicted of murdering 32 men and teen males. During an interview with a man who escaped Gacy, the survivor said something that triggered me and made me realize the parallels between Gacy and the former pastor of the abusive church I attended for over 16 years.
The survivor escaped an attempt by Gacy to handcuff him and managed to place the cuffs on the killer; Gacy told him in a laughing manner that he “was testing him.” This made me upset.
The founder of the church I attended was known to test people to see if they would be potential male partners. He tried to approach me but I turned him away. Still, the memory remained and after watching this show, I couldn’t help but notice similarities between my former pastor and the most infamous serial killer in US history.
Both men put on a good front. They were seen as upstanding, charitable people who gave the appearance of helping others in their community. Both were closet homosexuals who lived double lives. Both deceived many people by their actions. The one main difference was Gacy killed his victims. The pastor didn’t, but left lasting scars his victims lived with for a lifetime.
The families of both men reacted differently. Gacy’s sister, who was interviewed for the program, was deeply saddened and devastated when she realized what a monster her brother was. To my knowledge, the family of the founding pastor never attempted to mend bridges or reach out to his victims. They instead tried to keep everything quiet. They insisted he was a mighty man of God, so when I read the court records (transcripts are no longer available online due to the host website being shut down) I was deeply hurt. I was lied to and deceived as well as having been approached.
My girlfriend and I spoke for a while about the comparisons. I am grateful my former pastor didn’t try to go down the path John Wayne Gacy did, but watching the program and looking at those similarities confirmed he was a monster like the killer. Like the survivor in the interview, I too was glad to be able to escape.
Category: United Pentecostal Church
Alejandro Negrete Child Sexual Abuse Charges
This 41st installment in this series about sexual abuse in the United Pentecostal Church will be different from the others. This concerns a young man who was water baptized at one of their churches and was recently arrested on suspicion of multiple sexual charges against minors. I do not know the extent of his involvement at this Spanish church or if he was still attending when arrested. I wish to make clear that this article is not in any way attempting to accuse this church or pastor of any prior knowledge of his actions or any wrongdoing regarding this case. It is being posted as an alert to any parent who attends or attended there where this man may have come into contact with their child(ren).
The extent of Alejandro Negrete’s involvement at the Iglesia Del Dios Viviente, a United Pentecostal Church, pastor Joe Anthony Ramos, is uncertain. The church is located in Portland, Oregon. He was baptized there in 2018, apparently in late October. This is the link to the above screen shot from the church Facebook Page. If the recent charges against him are true, it is unknown when this started, so parents should be aware and should check to be sure that no harm, or attempted harm, came to their child(ren). Please contact the Sheriff’s office at 503-846-2700 if you suspect anything may have happened.
“I think this specific act is pretty brazen, doing this while you’re working, in a truck, in a FedEx uniform,” said Det. Mark Povolny with WCSO. “Unfortunately we’ve seen that people who want to take advantage of children will look for any opportunity to do that.” – Source
Alejandro Negrete, age 24, was working as a FedEx driver for over one year when he was arrested on July 16, 2021 for attempting to sexually assault a 9-year-old girl in Aloha, Oregon. He was on the job when this happened. The girl was playing outside her home in the 4000 block of Southwest 106th Avenue when Negrete attempted to lure her with candy and assault her. Thanks to the child, her mother and police, with the help of FedEx, he was quickly arrested. Upon his arrest and based on what Negrete shared with investigators, they suspected that he sexually assaulted at least one other person, though it did not appear it was related to his employment. He worked seven days a week and his routes with FedEx included southwest Portland, Beaverton, Aloha and Tigard.
Three days after his arrest, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office reported that they discovered at least four additional child victims, all in relation to his FedEx employment. At least one of these alleges Negrete exposed himself to an 8-year-old girl in Beaverton. His bail was originally set at $20,000, but was quickly increased to $250,000 on July 19 after the other cases were discovered. Last I saw he was still incarcerated.
2024 Update: On May 18, 2022, Alejandro Negrete pleaded guilty to first-degree sexual abuse, first-degree attempted sodomy, and two counts of public indecency. He was sentenced to 103 months in prison. He must also register as a sex offender and undergo post-prison supervision upon his release from prison. (Link to Washington County District Attorney release.)
He is currently incarcerated at the Snake River Correctional Institution, which is a multi-security facility. His earliest release date is August 29, 2029.
KATU news article re: his sentencing.
KPTV news article re: his sentencing.
You will find a complete list of articles in this series by clicking here.
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United Pentecostal Pastor Ron Bohde & Two Youth Ministers
It is not my intention in this article to go into details of the two United Pentecostal Church related sexual abuse cases that will be mentioned here. Those will hopefully be covered in future articles. What I wish to share are my thoughts on how Ronald Earl Bohde, one of their pastors, handled two separate sexual abuse cases, each at a different church. It is infuriating that a pastor can fail to report the sexual abuse of a minor to police and then years later, support a different youth leader who was found guilty of 19 counts of sexual abuse involving four minor girls. Why the UPCI continues to license men who mishandle sexual abuse cases is absolutely mind boggling. It seems they need to toss their 2019 position paper on sexual abuse as words without actions are meaningless. This is Part 40 of an ongoing series about sexual abuse in the United Pentecostal Church (see links at the end).
Ron Bohde was raised in the United Pentecostal Church as his father, Earl S. Bohde was a long-time UPCI minister, going back to the 1950s in Oklahoma and Arizona. Ron graduated from the Salinas High School in 1976 and was a graduate in 1980 of Christian Life College (then known as Western Apostolic Bible College) and has been preaching ever since. He claimed that when he was 24, he turned down an offer to pastor a church in Collinsville, Oklahoma, where he had preached a revival. He has been a pastor in Mississippi, Oregon, and then his present church in Dinuba, California, where he started in late March 2016. While in Mississippi, he also worked as an administrative assistant for the District. In 1999 he became the director of Home Missions of the Mississippi District, which it appears he held for a year.
In the late 1980s, Ron Bohde was pastor of the UPC of the Reservoir in Jackson, Mississippi for a brief time and for about three years in the late 80s to the very early 1990s he was pastor at the Pentecostal Lighthouse Church in Meadville, MS. He then pastored the New Chapel Pentecostal Church in Collins, MS where he remained until 2005. It appears that after this he took a break from pastoring while remaining in Mississippi. In 2008 he became the pastor at Bethel United Pentecostal Church in Hillsboro, Oregon. While in Oregon, he owned Bethel Wood Works, an pen and oil vessel business. During the latter part of Bohde’s time in Oregon, the church had a daughter work in Seaside, Bethel Apostolic, which later folded, followed by another using the same name in Forest Grove, which also closed. In March 2016, Ronald Bohde became the pastor of Calvary Apostolic Church in Dinuba, California, where he remains as of the writing of this article. He is 62 years old.
Why does this article point out the various places where Ron Bohde has been a pastor? It is because, in my opinion and that of others, in two of these churches (Bethel & Calvary Apostolic), there was a sexual abuse case involving a youth leader and each was not properly handled. One cannot help but wonder if similar might have occurred at any of these other churches, and/or if there may have been additional cases at Bethel and Calvary Apostolic, but they never hit the news nor were prosecuted. Let’s take a brief look at these sexual abuse cases where the youth leaders were prosecuted.
“This was a worst-case scenario when it comes to a church and a pastor not cooperating.” – Prosecutor Kevin Barton, regarding the Dylan Ritterman case in Hillsboro, Oregon, and referring to Ronald Bohde.
Pictured below: Convicted sex offender Dylan Ritterman, UPCI Pastor Ronald Bohde, convicted sex offender Victor Becerra.
“Just to mess with their minds- I’m just praying that they get rain, cold and soaked wet, and miserably enjoy their protest.” – UPCI Pastor Ron Bohde, speaking at a church service in 2020, to the applause and laughter of church members. He was referring to a group of protestors comprised of the victims’ family and friends.
The following in bold is what was reported in part by The Oregonian on May 21, 2015 regarding the case against Dylan Ritterman and Ron Bohde’s response and knowledge of one of the victims. Bohde did not report the abuse to police when he first learned of it and was not initially cooperative with police when they were investigating the charges.
“This was a worst-case scenario when it comes to a church and a pastor not cooperating,” Barton said.
Barton said the church’s head pastor first declined to speak with police without a briefing on their investigation, which officers would not provide, and then declined unless his insurance agent could be present.
Finally, the head pastor talked to police and revealed with a “heavy heart” that he had known about the abuse of one of the boys. The teen had told the pastor about the abuse, Barton said, and the pastor told him to document it in a letter. But the boy didn’t speak English well and was incapable of writing a letter in English.
In May 2015, Dylan John Ritterman pleaded guilty to two counts each of attempted first-degree sexual abuse and second-degree sexual abuse of two boys at Bethel United Pentecostal Church, where Ronald Bohde was pastor. Ritterman was a youth and worship leader, minister, he lead services, taught and was involved in the Spanish ministry. It happened when the boys were in their early teens and some of the abuse occurred on church property. There was a third case which was dropped as part of the plea bargain. Ritterman was sentenced to prison for six years and eight months. His earliest possible release date is December 27, 2021.
On May 22, 2015, SNAP issued a statement asking the Portland religious leaders to shun the church leaders and urged law enforcement to press charges against the leaders due to how they handled everything. It stated that the pastor should be harshly punished. Less than a year later, in late March 2016, Bohde left Oregon to pastor the Calvary Apostolic Church in Dinubi, California. One must wonder if this church was made aware of the Ritterman case prior to this.
Ministers should not idly sit back while their colleagues – in any denomination – endanger kids, conceal crimes, rebuff police, and behave in ways that bring shame on people of faith.
When ministers do nothing while other ministers endanger kids, all churches become less safe. – SNAP, May 22, 2015, referring to Ron Bohde and Bethel United Pentecostal Church
The following in bold is what was reported in part by The Mid Valley Times on November 11, 2020 regarding the case against Victor Becerra and Ron Bohde’s response.
But the pastor also continued to deny the claims and further wished rain and discomfort on a group of protestors made up of the victims’ family and friends.
“I don’t believe that he did it,” said Bohde. “Just to mess with their minds — I’m just praying that they get rain, cold and soaked wet, and miserably enjoy their protest.”
The comments received laughter and applause from his congregation.
On October 8, 2020, a jury found Victor Becerra, a former licensed United Pentecostal minister, guilty of 19 counts of child molestation of four minor girls at Calvary Apostolic Church in Dinuba, California where Ronald Bohde is the pastor and Becerra was a youth leader. In 2021 he was sentenced to prison for 228 years to life. In an October 14, 2020 article from The Mid Valley Times, it was noted:
“We were finally able to sleep well,” said Veronica Reese, mother of two of the victims, after Becerra was convicted. “It’s so amazing. They (her two daughters) were emotional and crying. But, we finally got justice.”
Reese stated that throughout the allegations, prosecution and trial, members from Calvary Apostolic Church continued to defend Becerra as they accused her and other victims of fabricating the abuse. It was also reported that the church bailed Becerra out of prison after his initial arrest. – October 14, 2020 The Mid Valley Times
After Becerra’s conviction, in an outdoor service, Bohde spoke about being treated wrong and that the protests on the church sidewalks were attempting to “disrupt and harass” them. He mentioned how enemies should be treated and loving those people. Yet it appears he forgot this just a short time later, when he wished ill on the protestors, as reported by The Mid Valley Times.
Survivors should not have to endure a pastor and church mishandling what happened as they have more than enough dealing with their sexual abuse. In my opinion, Ron Bohde is a perfect example of the need for the United Pentecostal Church’s position paper on sexual abuse. Will the UPC add actions to their words and intervene in cases like this? From what we have seen so far, their response has been mostly silence as Bohde continues to hold license with them and pastor one of their churches.
You will find a complete list of articles in this series by clicking here.
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Book Giveaway- Christianity Without The Cross
As with all of our giveaways, this is only open to those with a USA mailing address.
The matter of the Westberg Resolution underscores a serious dilemma in the constitutional structure of the United Pentecostal Church. . . .Issues like this resolution are decisions made by a minority on behalf of the majority which is extremely ‘problematic in terms of policy-making.’ . . .The following group of ministers have been identified as among the constituency of this group which carries the banner of doctrinal uniformity: R.D. Whalen, the late David F. Gray, Paul Price, Billy Hale, . . .John W. Grant and others. Such small but vocal groups maintain a great deal of control. These comments reflect a fairly widespread opinion backed up by an examination of the procedural by-laws of the organization which concludes that because only a small portion of ministers actually attend General Conference the result is that the UPC is ‘a minority policy making organization.’ The high figures estimate that less than one-seventh of the ministerial constituency were present for the discussion on this issue at the Salt Lake City General Conference.– Thomas A. Fudge
This is your chance to receive a used copy of Christianity Without the Cross: A History of Salvation in Oneness Pentecostalism by Thomas Fudge, a former United Pentecostal Church member, whose father is an ordained minister in the organization. Fudge interviewed over 200 people and thoroughly documents information concerning their history. One thing you rarely see mentioned is the fact that one of the two groups which formed the UPC was not as hard line in beliefs as the UPC is today. Some believed a person was saved when they came to God in repentance. This can be seen in the very first edition of their official publication, The Pentecostal Herald, where they invited differing articles on the “new birth.”
To view the first 25 pages of his book go here. You may read an article from a Canadian newspaper which described the then forthcoming book as well as an article by Thomas Fudge concerning why he wrote the book.
This giveaway is a drawing and not a first come, first served giveaway. To enter, just leave a comment to show you wish to be included. The drawing will close on Tuesday, December 15 at 8pm (eastern time), after which I will draw the winner. You will then need to email me your mailing address if I do not already have it. Watch your spam email folder. There is absolutely no cost to enter. Don’t be alarmed if your comment does not immediately show as they require approval when you are commenting for the first time.
We always provide these at no charge to our readers.
We also have a giveaway in progress for two copies of Diane Langberg’s book, Redeeming Power: Understanding Authority and Abuse in the Church. The deadline is the same.
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Blindsided: Our Letter to the Witnesses
**Names marked with an asterisk (*) have been changed for the privacy of individuals and their families**
As we prepared to leave Antioch Baptist Church in early September 2018, I began to assemble a document describing the events that transpired from June 2018 to September 2018 that eventually led up to our departure. This document included, but was not limited to, transcripts of Douglas Stauffer’s voicemail, private Facebook messages between Pastor Andrew Ray, Douglas Stauffer, Matthew Olds, and myself, as well as copies of the email sent to our pastor about the harassment, and summaries of the meetings that took place.
My husband, simply desiring peace, was not supportive of the idea, but Pastor Andrew Ray’s words continued to repeat in my head about how we were not supposed to know that about the letter to the Crawfords*. The church’s letter not only dismissed the Crawfords* from church membership and the Antioch Baptist Bible Institute, but even callously threatened to contact their oldest daughter’s religious educational establishment should their family not leave in a way acceptable to the ones behind the letter! I find it ironic that Pastor Andrew Ray and Douglas Stauffer repeatedly attempted to invalidate my concerns by claiming them as merely transference from my past, and yet, Pastor Andrew Ray stooped as low as my mentor’s husband (Randy) to threaten a teenager’s college education as a means of silencing and control!
Both agreeing that such actions were not only appalling but manipulative, my husband I finally compromised by deciding to limit the recipients of the document we had created to just the few witnesses present at the final meeting with Douglas Stauffer. My husband desired to not cause division or strife, but I had felt strongly that our church needed to know the truth.
A copy of the abstract and list of documents sent to the witnesses is provided below:
To Our Friends and Family at Antioch Baptist Church
Abstract:
This message/email is sent to inform our fellow members and church family at Antioch Baptist Church of events on-going from June 3, 2018 to the beginning of September 2018 despite attempts to reconcile. Despite apologizing for the initial Facebook post, Doug Stauffer continued to harass my family in June. Two months later in August, after my wife attempted the beginning of possibly making amends, he endeavored to bully our family once again under the guise of attempting to move forward. On August 22, 2018, he approached us to say that he wants to clarify things and attempt to rectify the situation, but if not possible, he said that he will step down, leave, and the prior accusations of harassment will be brought before the church. Because accusations of harassment were brought up to Pastor Ray following the incident in June, Stauffer falsely believed himself to be a victim of the #MeToo movement. By further threatening to step down and leave without resolution, he further believed himself to be the victim, rather than the perpetrator. Pastor and Stauffer have continually stated that the accusations are a mere transference of my wife’s history with spiritual abuse to negate the validity of said accusations.
When asking pastor to attend the meeting so he would be aware of threats of stepping down and leaving by a Sunday School teacher, Pastor accused my wife and I of attempting to hurt our church based on actions in June. He further attempted to control the number of witnesses and who the list consisted of, as well as threatened to have men present in the meeting to address these past actions. We have compiled a list of correspondence between Stauffer, Pastor, and my family so that our those present in the meetings can be informed of the facts in case that a men’s meeting is called after we have left the church. This way, at least we may have some representation from those men. We have further decided to leave Antioch Baptist Church for the sake of peace in this situation that keeps blowing up in our faces time and time again. I am aware that sending this may not appear to be peaceable, but we are not wanting everyone in the church to know necessarily. Again, this is simply in case there is a meeting called in which there is a meeting pertaining to my family.
The following is a list of Documents included, [followed] by Key Information about the Documents Included on the following Page:
A. Original Facebook Message by Crystal Olds on June 3, 2018
B. Transcript of Stauffer’s Voicemail to Matthew Olds on June 3, 2018 after Evening Service
C. Transcripts of Stauffer’s Messages at Antioch Baptist Church
D. Facebook Correspondence between Doug Stauffer, and Matt and Crystal Olds
E. Facebook Correspondence between Pastor Ray and Matt Olds
F. New Facebook Apology Post by Crystal Olds
G. Facebook Correspondence between Pastor Ray, Doug Staffer, and Matt and Crystal Olds
H. Private Message Sent from Doug Stauffer to Crystal Olds (Matt Olds not included)
I. Continued Messages between Pastor Ray, Doug Stauffer, Matt and Crystal Olds
J. Replacement Apology Facebook Post by Crystal Olds
K. Summary of Tuesday Meeting with Doug Stauffer, Matt and Crystal Olds, and Grayson Campbell* (witness)
L. Summary of Tuesday Meeting with Pastor Ray and Matt Olds
M. Twitter Post from Doug Stauffer on Thursday
N. Meeting with Pastor Ray on the following Sunday
O. Apology from Doug Stauffer on Monday Evening
P. Apology to Crawfords* on Tuesday
Q. Text Messages Between Pastor Ray and Crystal Olds (Matthew Olds Included) about Apology to Mary*
R. Email to Pastor Ray with Accusations of Harassment from Doug Stauffer and Analysis of Doug Stauffer’s character
S. Meeting with Pastor Ray and Matthew Olds about Email about Harassment
T. Text Message Between Pastor Ray and Crystal Olds (Matthew Olds Included) after Meeting Between Pastor Ray, Matthew Olds and Crystal Olds
U. Doug Stauffer’s August attempts at bullying, creating a hostile environment
V. Phone Conversation with Pastor the Day Before Meeting with Doug Stauffer
W. Meeting with Doug Stauffer with Three Witnesses
X. Letter of Resignation Given to Pastor Ray on Sunday, September 9, 2018 Following the Morning Service
In this series I share my thoughts and opinions concerning these ministers and the events which led to my departure. Click here to continue reading: “Blindsided: Finally Speaking Out” or click on the link below.
For a list of the complete series, click here.
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