“I want to assure you that our commitment to keeping children safe…has been, is, and will remain a major priority,” said Clay.
Assemblies of God Pastors Call for Reform
A number of Assemblies of God pastors have spoken to NBC News in light of its recent report, including one who announced that he would relinquish his ministerial credentials.
“I cannot in good conscience remain credentialed with the Assemblies of God,” Virginia Pastor Trevor Walker said. “I pray that greater light and humility will one day prevail in addressing abuse within the church.”
Walker said that the denomination’s response to NBC News’ report pushed him to give up his ministerial credentials. Walker said the response was “devoid of accountability or compassion,” adding, “If they would have said, ‘Many people have been hurt over the years under our watch, and we regret that, but we’re working toward making it better,’ that would have been enough for me.”
Krystopher Scroggins, an Assemblies of God college pastor in Texas, said, “Maybe this will be the thing that turns the corner. You can’t have this amount of light shining in your dark corners and not want to clean your house.”
“When your guiding thought is, ‘We don’t want to implement this policy that will protect children because we don’t want to lose a lot of money in potential lawsuits,’ that to me is, you’re worshipping money,” Scroggins said. “And that’s heartbreaking.”
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“As long as the Assemblies of God, led by our leaders, refuses to repent over a culture of abuse, the media, the courts, public opinion will continue to expose all these things,” said Anthony Scoma, an Assemblies of God pastor in San Francisco. “Because it’s not actually them that’s exposing it—it’s God. It’s the spirit of truth that is bringing these things to light.”
