Kentucky church ordains registered sex offender
flockwoodAP’s Dylan T. Lovan has written a fascinating story about a convicted child molester who has just been ordained as a minister in Kentucky.
Lovan was smart to describe the gay-friendly congregation as a “self-described Pentecostal church.” Just as most Jews reject Jews for Jesus, most Pentecostals would argue that no authentically Pentecostal church would teach that homosexual sex is acceptable to God.
By DYLAN T. LOVAN
Associated Press Writer
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A tiny Louisville church’s newest minister is a gifted music leader and popular among its three dozen members.
Mark Hourigan is also a sex offender. Almost a decade ago, long before he joined the flock at the City of Refuge Worship Center, he was convicted of sexually abusing an 11-year-old boy in central Kentucky. Hourigan served a five-year sentence and the 41-year-old was placed on Kentucky’s sex offender registry for the rest of his life.
A former leader at the church along with an abuse victims advocacy group say Hourigan is a risk to hurt another child and he should not have been placed in a position of authority.
“He’s still a threat” to children, said Cal Pfeiffer, who was abused by a Catholic priest as a young student in Louisville in the late 1950s and early 60s.
Pfeiffer and experts on religion and sexual abuse believe it could be the first time a convicted sex offender has been knowingly ordained as a minister in a Christian church.
“It sets a precedent,” said Pfeiffer, a member of a group that has protested Hourigan’s ordination. “It elevates him to an ordained minister which almost automatically conveys a level of trust and responsibility.”
The church’s pastor, the Rev. Randy Meadows, ordained Hourigan during a service on Sept. 13. The self-described Pentecostal church, started by Meadows and a handful of other members six years ago, welcomes anyone “regardless of race, religion, culture (or) sexual orientation,” according to its Web site. It also has a Sunday school for children.
Meadows declined several requests from The Associated Press for an interview, but said in a brief phone conversation that the church has not experienced any backlash based on the decision to ordain a convicted pedophile.
“We’re just finished with the whole ordeal with everything, so we’re moving on,” Meadows said.
There was no phone listing for Hourigan and no one answered the door during a reporter’s two visits to the apartment listed on Hourigan’s sex offender registration.
Church members aren’t talking about it, either. Several calls to members listed on the church’s Web site were not returned; people outside the church declined to comment to reporters during two visits to the church as services were beginning or ending.
But a pastor and friend to Meadows who attended Hourigan’s ordination said the church’s board gave Meadows and Hourigan its full support.
“It was a really beautiful ceremony,” said the Rev. Aletha Fields, a high school teacher and gay rights activist. “The sanctuary was full because there were people from out of town.”
Fields, who sometimes serves as a guest pastor, said she asked Meadows about why he decided to make Hourigan a church leader.
“I asked him flat out about it because I wanted to get behind his thinking,” she said. Meadows believes firmly in the “redemptive power of Jesus Christ,” and told her Hourigan had served his prison term and completed probation.
“I believe they followed Biblical principle,” Fields said.
One of the church’s founders, Kevin Pickerrell, said he left last year over plans to ordain Hourigan. He said Meadows assured church members that Hourigan wouldn’t minister to children, but Pickerrell continued to balk at the idea of ordaining Hourigan.
Pickerrell said Meadows believed that Hourigan had been reformed.
“He tried to convince me that Mark had changed,” Pickerrell said of Meadows.
Hourigan said in an interview with CNN in September that wants to minister to others like him “who have been rejected.” Hourigan said he has learned not to put himself in situations where he might be tempted and to seek counsel when he’s having “emotional problems … so it doesn’t turn into something that it has in the past.”
Pickerrell said Hourigan “has an illness that you can’t cure.”
Recidivism rates are high for sex offenders, with more than half reoffending, said Keith F. Durkin, a criminologist at Ohio Northern University who has studied pedophiles. He said that rate increases when the crimes involve prepubescent children, like Hourigan’s victim.
“I cannot possibly see him being reformed,” Durkin said. “(Sexual desire) is the most powerful drive we have as a human and (for a child sexual abuser) it’s kids.”
Pickerrell said Hourigan was a “wonderful” music leader at the church and was well-liked when Pickerrell attended services. But he and Pfeiffer said they worry that Hourigan can present himself as a minister to strangers who don’t know his past.
Hourigan was arrested on one count each of first-degree sodomy and sexual abuse in Marion County, Ky., in 1998, according to court records. An indictment said the abuses occurred between 1993 and 1994. Hourigan pleaded guilty a year later to two counts of sexual abuse. The terms of Hourigan’s parole, which he completed in June 2008, included an order that he not serve in any leadership capacity at a church with youths.
Pfeiffer’s group, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), sent a letter to the church but Pfeiffer said members have not responded.
Pastor Meadows, as a Pentecostal, may hold a strong belief in the healing power of the Holy Spirit, which could explain why he believes Hourigan can be reformed, experts said.
They “believe absolutely anybody can be healed of absolutely anything, no exceptions,” said Paul Alexander, a professor of Theology and Ethics at Azusa Pacific University in California.
Meadows told CNN that Hourigan’s faith has helped him reform, but he pledged to monitor the former sex offender closely.
“I don’t take anything lightly when it comes to someone’s past,” Meadows said.
September 30th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
“Pastor Meadows, as a Pentecostal, may hold a strong belief in the healing power of the Holy Spirit, which could explain why he believes Hourigan can be reformed, experts said.”
We see how well that worked for the Catholics. Christians need to reach out to sex offenders, because if we truly do believe in the redemptive power of the holy spirit, we must believe that these folks can be redeemed as well. Jesus reached out, after all, to lepers, prostitutes, tax collectors, and others who were disfavored by society as well. But, I also think that a due regard for the safety of our children would preclude someone with a history of child abuse from any duties that could put children in danger.
September 30th, 2009 at 7:38 pm
Lovely. . . .What on earth are these people thinking?
October 1st, 2009 at 4:19 pm
Hmmmm…well, look at it this way. Hourigan could be a member of the congregation, hiding his sex offender past, passing himself off as a normal adult. Would that really be better? At least now he is a known quantity, and under scrutiny. Unless people want to say that convicted sex offenders shouldn’t be allowed to go to church? If so, then wouldn’t you also have to ban all convicted murderes, thieves, drug dealers, etc.? Only people with no felonies can go to church? That’s where this is headed.
October 2nd, 2009 at 6:04 am
I have to agree with Niall on this one, he is trying to better himself and his surroundings, as Christians, its our obligation to give him a another chance.
October 2nd, 2009 at 7:54 am
Isn’t it interesting that both 1 Timothy 3:1 and Titus 1:5 say that a bishop/elder must be blameless/above reproach.
I am not advocating throwing stones,this is what forgivness and the church is about; but I also do not believe that it is okay to ordain people with such backgrounds as ministers–this is my personal opinion.
October 2nd, 2009 at 8:40 am
Niall,
I have long argued that the church should… with care… reach out to sex offenders. However, to echo what peach says, this is not a question about “can people with felonies go to church”… when you make this leap, you are essentially arguing that anyone who goes to church is fit to be an ordained pastor automatically. I would disagree with this on many levels.
The first would rather pragmatic: just as you would not want a tone deaf person to be the main soloist in your choir, so too should the church discern whether the gifts, talents, and attributes of a candidate for ministry match those needed in ordained ministry. God blesses us all with gifts, but not everyone is given every gift in equal measure. A talented singer might hate preaching, and vice-versa. Clearly, there are issues here that hamper the ability for this man to be a trusted public leader- and moral example- both necessary attributes in a minister.
I too question the theological support for this ordination… as St. James says “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.” Not everyone is called to be a minister.
On the other hand, maybe this will be a powerful example of grace and forgiveness of a sex offender… during time when there is little grace, forgiveness or even mercy show to people who have been so designated. Not knowing anything more than this article, it is difficult for us to make a judgement.
I knew of a church in a a struggling area of a large city that called as pastor a man who committed murder as a teenager… every time I drove past this church in the years that followed, they were adding another wing. Maybe things will work out well for this congregation and this pastor- God does not call perfect people, after all. However, I think it’s going overboard for you to suggest that those of us who strongly question such ordinations also seek to exclude people from the life of the church.
October 2nd, 2009 at 1:05 pm
It seems that whenever someone wants to quote “moral standards” from the Bible, they always go to those little books at the back of the New Testament that were written last, after the small movement of Jesus’ day had begun to jell into a church. In a hundred years, the Christian church went from “love thy neighbor,” and “turn the other cheek,” and “love thy enemy” to a list of high school-like rules.
No doubt all movements go through a stage where they become institutionalized, but few seem to have lost as much of the soul of the original as Christianity did. Certainly Jesus’ apostles were not blameless or above reproach; Jesus got so mad at Peter that he referred to him as Satan, and we know the whole Thomas story (no doubt trumped up by the opponents of the so-called Gospel of Thomas, who wanted to put Thomas in a bad light). Matthew was a tax collector, which in Roman times was half a step at most above being a street criminal, and there is at least some suggestion that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute.
I often wonder how a modern church, including my own, would deal with a group of people like Jesus’ disciples today. No doubt we would NEVER ordain any of them (well, they didn’t go to seminary for one thing, and their references didn’t quite check out), and we probably wouldn’t much want them hanging around at coffee time, because not to put too fine a point on it, it’s unlikely that they dressed or smelled quite right for Sunday morning.
But these folks, imperfect as they were, are the backbone of our church, and the beginning of the apostolic succession down to the present day (or at least so we say).
October 2nd, 2009 at 6:20 pm
Peach/ UK Lutheran
The author(s) of Timothy and Titus could only have been referring to people’s reputations post-conversion, otherwise they are rejecting the Gospel as such. To say that you can’t be a minister if you had scandal in your past prior to your conversion would disqualify the many of the people successfully ministering today. And no, just because you go to church doesn’t mean you should be a minister. There have to be higher qualifications for that. Whether Hourigan meets them or not, I have no idea. But I certainly know people in ministry who had criminal backgrounds prior to their conversion – that hasn’t in any way prevented them from ministry.
And even when it comes to sex offenses, can we really say there are no former prostitutes? No former porn stars or pornographers in the ministry? I think there are probably plenty.
My personal feeling is that if we drive sex offenders back into hiding, we are only endangering ourselves and society all over again.
October 3rd, 2009 at 5:36 am
Most pentecostal women I know are not permitted to wear pants or cut their hair,and others are not to wear jewelry or makeup, yet they can ordain a man with a convicted child molester background. It simply baffles me as to the reasoning behind it is okay for man–but women must be subjugated (submissive slave).
If we set our standards on women per Bible–then they should also be set for man to follow whether or not they are in ‘the back of the New Testament’ and then stick by those rules.
My own religion does not allow a person who drinks, smokes,lives with another without benefit of marriage, or gambles to teach a Sunday School class and we are suppose to be a “branch” from the pentecostals.
I am not trying to ‘push’ anyone into hiding-as church is for every sinner and without a sinner we would not need the ‘church’. I am saying before ordaining anyone to the ministry they need to be in strict adherence to guide lines and then perhaps closely monitored for refractions–there are plenty wolves in with the sheep.
October 3rd, 2009 at 5:42 am
Peach, like the catholics?
October 3rd, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Peach – How does the sexism of pentecostalism have any relation to the topic we are discussing?
October 3rd, 2009 at 3:37 pm
Peach, what if they just make a small wager on a live horse race (I understand the sin of simulcasting)? Does that disqualify them? If we Episcopalians used that rule, at least in Lexington, you couldn’t drum up enough of us to have a Sunday School class, much less find somebody to teach it . . .
October 3rd, 2009 at 6:47 pm
Niall: spoken like a true man–whatever man does is okay–but let woman step out of line–wear pants cut her hair and she is ostracized.
Perplexed–I am a Nazarene
Caleb– we are ousted
October 4th, 2009 at 6:22 am
My point Peach, is you just don’t know what your getting anymore. This guy is up front, he is being regulated and maybe he is for real. Other religions that require your to go through and get an undergraduate degree face the same dilemma as this guy who took the fast track to ordination. There is no guarantee with them.
As for the Pentecostal women, its a choice as is your religion and mine.
October 4th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Peach, my solution would simply be for your church to abandon its sexist policies. What’s wrong with that? Other churches don’t have rules like that, and frankly I don’t know that I’d put up with a church that did. When I was growing up, the Episcopal Church didn’t ordain women, but did require them to wear hats in church. In those days, they had little doilies at the back of Episcopal churches, and women without hats were supposed to put one on like a skullcap or yarmulke.
Now, we ordain women, and have no hat-wearing rules. We do go to horse races, though.
October 4th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
peaches – I’m mystified by your comment, since it assumes I would support the restrictions on female attire you mention. Which is in no way true.
October 5th, 2009 at 5:39 am
niall: I have read your comments in the past–the only platform you support is your own. You have yet to take a direct stand on anything and your comments are often derogatory to all. You certainly have not made your religious beliefs clear, and I suspect you are probably only here on this forum to cause confusion.
I still believe it is wrong to tell the male species that all sins are forgiven~~even to the point of ordaining a child molester then that ordained man gets behind the pulpit and tells woman how they resemble a prostitute for wearing makeup or cutting their hair, or better yet why do the Pentecostals not ordain women ministers?
Caleb: Nazarenes do not exclude ‘women ministers’ some of the first were of the the Nazarene faith. The Nazarene faith will not ordain a minister–male or female if they do not adhere to the faith’s guidelines –no smoking, drinking, gambling are part of those beliefs.If all religions held to their beliefs and actually stood for something we would all have less problems in the world. While I do not agree with the Mormon’s view/beliefs I greatly admire Mr. David Duke for so patiently standing up so righteously for his beliefs.
Perplexed: No we don’t know what we are getting anymore–all the more reason to be diligent and not to ordain those so quickly. There is a reason why they were called “elders”. Even in the Bible–the priests could not enter the priesthood before the age of thirty, Moses was 80 when he led the children out of Egypt; yes, God still used Moses even though he murdered the Egyptian, but we forget that because Moses could not overcome his anger he was denied entry into the promised land.
My point that I am trying to state is that we have become a nation that has lost faith in God to properly provide those He chooses and take upon ourselves to justify our own selfish actions.
October 5th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Peaches – At this point you’re just arguing with the voices in your head. I have never stated that all of man’s sins should be forgiven just because he is a man. That’s just absurd. And it sounds as though your issues are with the sexism of pentecostalism, not with any idea or position I have taken.
As for being derogatory – I suggest you reread some of your own posts.
October 6th, 2009 at 4:35 am
What really bothers me, not just in religion but all aspects of life, its when people get together and decide on how to deal with a problem or situation or an individual who doesn’t fit in this particular groups parameters. People do the strangest things to each other, simply because they don’t know how to communicate and they are unable to respect boundaries. Its a cult like mentality that extends from the office to the church to neighbors. I just can’t understand why people seek the quickest solution that has no merit for the decision made. What happened to informed decisions? What happened to the thirst for knowledge? What happened to moral and ethical boundaries? What has happened to the fear of God? Are people really this disconnected?
October 8th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
i do not think he should have bee ordained, not do i believe that Christians should be so accepting of a lifestyle that is without question a wrong doing according to the Bible. I am not talking about judging and being a gay hater or anything, but being in a position of authority is different.
My father, a former ordained minister, is divorcing my mom after 26 yrs of marriage to be with an 18 yr old boy. he is just now going public, but i am 19, and i can tell you thatwhat was happeningin my house happened before tha legal age. they were suppossed to be counseling, and now they’re in love. just be careful. chances are he’s unstable
October 13th, 2009 at 6:28 pm
preacherskid, it takes a man to write something that. I hope and pray things work out for you and your mom.
October 14th, 2009 at 9:50 pm
OH my word!!! i’ve been pentecostal all of my life and I have never seen anything like this.!!! So many people call themselves pentecostal and don’t have any idea what it means!!!! This is a disgrace!!!!
October 15th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
preacherkid:
Your family’s experience is an excellent argument for gay people to come out and not engage in sham marriages out of fear.