Sick Puppy: Tedd Butler

On Tuesday, August 24, 2011 Tedd Butler, Pastor of Gospel Light Baptist Church, near Warren Michigan surrendered himself to police. He was a 1988 graduate of Hyles-Anderson College, and Crown Bible College in 1998. He faced two separate charges in two separate counties.  Court documents say he molested two boys,  more than 20 years apart.  One of the boys was five years old at the time of the assaults.

As usual with these cases, we saw Tedd Butler’s faithful followers blame the lying boys, the media, a gay conspiracy, the vast left-wing conspiracy, a conspiracy between the police and all of the above, and a few other things I am sure I forgot.

Most of that stopped a few days ago.

On December 13, 2011, Former Pastor Tedd Butler accepted a plea that he had touched the buttocks of a minor in the case from more than 20 years ago.  He faces a maximum of two years imprisonment for this charge.  Sentencing for this case is scheduled to take place January 31, 2012.

To be eligible for this plea, Butler was required to allocute to the second charge. Sentencing for this second offense is scheduled for January 23, 2012.

Sadly, the church has not sought to reach out to victims. When I checked a news articles comment section, there are a few still a few who are blaming the police, the DA and victims who sue, despite Butler taking this plea.  The Koolaid is strong people, and that’s just sad.

The Editorial Board here at Chucklestravels pray for comfort and healing for all Butlers victims.  We pray for Butlers wife and children.  Lastly, we pray that Butler face the full horror of what he has done, and when he is released he never serve in a position of trust around young children again.

Trail of Tears and Blood

Matthew Jarrell was pastor of Miller Road Baptist Church which then merged with Open Door Baptist, was once home to Dave Hyles, son of Jack Hyles of Faith Baptist Church, Hammond, IN.  At some point Matthew Jarrell was simultaneously the pastor of both churches.

Current pastor Jack Shaap is the brother-in-law of Dave Hyles.

Here are a couple of the major low-lights of the story, involving men directly involved with First Baptist Church in Hammond:

A.V. Ballenger, a deacon and bus route driver at Hyles’ First Baptist Church Hammond, was convicted in March of 1993 (and sentenced in July of 1993 to five years in jail) of molesting a seven year old girl. (This crime occurred in a Sunday School room of the church! Incredibly, after conviction, but prior to sentencing, Ballenger was allowed to resume his FBCH bus route!) The highlight of the sentencing hearing was the testimony of three young women. Each was molested by Ballenger when she was a child, and in each case, before age seven. Jack Hyles, who testified on Ballenger’s behalf, defiantly declared the outcome of the trial null and void, claiming that the courts had no jurisdiction in this matter. Hyles told the girl’s parents, “Deacon Ballenger just likes little girls.” 

David Hyles, Jack Hyles’ son, had affairs with at least 19 different women at Miller Road Baptist Church in Garland, Texas, during the time he pastored there. (He was dismissed when a janitor found photos of Hyles having sex with a deacon’s daughter.) Back in the Chicago area (Bolingbrook, IL), and after David’s divorce from his wife, David was cohabitating with a woman by the name of Brenda Stevens. Brenda posed for pornographic pictures in Adam and Chicago Swingers magazines (in an advertisement for group sex) during the time she and David were living together. After David married Brenda, Brenda’s 17-month-old son by a previous marriage was found battered and dead at the Hyles’ home. The police still consider the case a murder and continue to view David and Brenda as prime suspects. At the coroner’s inquest in 1985, Brenda was a no-show, while David Hyles pleaded the Fifth Amendment. [In June of 2003, it was reported that David Hyles had been kicked out of another church (Pinellas Park Baptist in the Florida Keys), this time over a 9-woman sex scandal. Nevertheless, David Hyles still kept a a full itinerary of speaking to churches on Sunday School growth for quite a while thereafter.] 

I post these examples to point out the head-in-the-sand attitude that many Christians take to avoid confronting the truth.  I point that out to show, this is not a new phenomena. Long before Tina Anderson, there was the horrific case of Esther Coombs that was highlighted on ABC News Primetime.

There are 1000’s of similar cases out there.  For too long, When confronted with the evidence that they turn around and it insist the evidence doesn’t exist.  They complain when the media does a story on abuse, it is painting fundamentalism with “too broad a brush.” For all their insistence and whining, fundamentalist preachers chose to close their eyes tight, stick their fingers in their ears and scream, “I’m not listening! I’m not listening!” And then go on to prepare their Sunday morning sermon series on the pedophilia scandal plaguing the Catholic Church and how this proves that Catholicism is from the pit of hell.  The Fundamental Baptist Fellowship International (*note: Chuck Phelps is the vice-chairmen) wrote the following resolution against sex abuse by the Catholic church in 2002.

02.9 CONCERNING PERVERSION IN THE CATHOLIC PRIESTHOOD

The Fundamental Baptist Fellowship International condemns the perversion of the Roman Catholic priesthood that has recently become undeniable and widely known. We express outrage at any official hindrances to prosecution and hesitancy to dismiss from leadership not only those who are guilty of these sins and crimes, but also those who harbor them, regardless of the group responsible. Within the system of Romanism, we find many of the characteristics of the seducing spirits identified in I Timothy 4:1-3. We condemn such a corrupt and heretical system that fosters this abuse, and call professing believers to obey the command of 2 Corinthians 6:14-18.

While this blog, or no one wants to down play the sexual abuse that take place in any church, it should be noted that the FBFI has NEVER issued any resolution condemning abuse, physical or sexual abuse, whatsoever, from within Independent Baptist Fundamentalism. It is past time, fundamentalist leaders, pastors and their faithful members demand accountability.  It is time to stop blaming the child victim, in any way whatsoever, for the crime committed against them. It is past time, they stop “investigating,” as Chuck Phelps did, when sexual assault of a child or teen is revealed, and turn it over to the authorities whose experience and training with investigating sex crimes. It is past time, for fundamentalist leaders and pastors to practise what they preach and separate from people like Chuck Phelps who, made a conscious choice, to allow a degenerate who raped a teen girl to remain free, while sending the teen girl into exile.  No matter, what Chuck Phelps “thought,” he was wrong.  He was Tina’s shepherd.  He has told people that he was trying to save the Willis marriage.  Phelps testified on the stand that, Tina had less to lose than Willis.  Rape has been called “soul murder” for a reason. Our criminal justice system is not perfect, but it is responsible for investigate and prosecute these crimes. According to the scriptures, that is one thing for which government is ordained of God.

Two Sides of Matthew Jarrell

Pastor Matthew Jarrell was the pastor of Open Door Baptist Church, Mesquite Texas.  Pastor Jarrell was a traveling preacher.  He also liked to do other things when he traveled.  According to the West Virginia authorities, Matthew Jarrell was arrested and charged on Thursday, May 19, 2011 for second-degree sexual assault.  The West Virginia criminal complaint alleged that Jarrett met a woman at a bar in Charleston, WV, offered her a ride home, then sodomized the woman in his truck.   According to officials at the South Central Regional Jail in Kanawha County, WV, Jarrell was found hanging from a bed sheet in his cell.  He was pronounced dead at a local hospital where he was taken at 12:30am Sunday, May 22, 2011.

Matthew Jarrell Mugshot

Trouble seemed to follow Matthew Jarrell who once attended Hyles-Anderson college. Matthew Jarrell was at Old Paths Baptist Church in Pennsylvania from 1997 to 2003. Back in 1999, the Old Paths Baptist Church parsonage where the Jarrell family was living at the time burned down.  The house fire was ruled accidental.  In October 2001, lightening seemed to strike again when another fire gutted Old Path’s Baptist Church itself.  That fire was ruled an arson by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosions. but no arrests were made at the time.

There were rumors of sexual misconduct with a teenage girl in his Pennsylvania church too.  No court records can be found to substantiate this.  However, on April 15, 2003, Jarrell was had his first arrest. Jarrell was arrested for soliciting a prostitute who was actually a undercover policewoman in Baltimore MD.  Two guns were also found in his truck at the time of the arrest.  Apparently, Jarrell plead guilty and was sentenced to eighteen-months probation for the gun charges.

After his probation was complete in 2004, Jarrell moved with his family to become the Senior pastor of Open Door Baptist Church in Mesquite, Tx.  It is not known whether the church knew about his troubles in Pennsylvania or in Baltimore.  It is not known whether the church did a background check on their new pastor.

Jarrell was next arrested in San Antonio, TX, in 2007.  A grand jury in San Antonio indicted him on a second-degree felony charge of sexual assault on Dec. 19, 2007.  According to the complaint, Jarrell forced a woman to preform oral sex on him under threat of “force and violence.”  Jarrell was released on $50,000.00 bond.  Reportedly he did tell his associate pastor that he was arrested for what Jarrell said were “gun charges.”  The congregation apparently was never told, nor did his associate pastor check into what the charges actually were.  This 2007 case was still pending when he was arrested in West Virginia.

According to investigators in West Virginia,  Matthew Jarrell first denied the May 19, 2011 assault, then confessed.  Apparently his friends and family in Texas thought Matthew Jarrell was in Pennsylvania at a Fundamental Baptist pastors conference.

It now appears that Jarrell knew his double life as a pastor in one side of his life, and a serial rapist on the other were exposed now.  There was no way to talk his way out of it this time.  It appears his training from Hyles-Anderson College taught him well.  Looks like Jarrell had honors in  “Liar 101,”” Pulling the wool over 102,” “Denial and how to be successful at it 201.” “Abusing others while making it look Biblical 301,” and “How to Manipulate others with guilt 302.”

Prayers and healing for his sexual assault victims, and to his wife and their four children who are also victims of Matthew Jarrell’s double life.