The charge against Dames is one of a number of scandals to rock churches in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in recent months.
In June, Dr. Tony Evans of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas stepped away from his pastoral responsibilities after confessing to “sin” that he committed “a number of years ago.” No further details were provided. Evans is expected to return to the pulpit at some point.
Also in June, Pastor Robert Morris of Gateway Church Southlake, Texas, resigned in disgrace after it was revealed that he had been accused of child sex abuse.
The abuse allegedly took place in the 1980s, prior to the founding of Gateway Church and when Morris was in his 20s. The alleged victim was Cindy Clemishire, who claims that the abuse began when she was just 12 years old.
Earlier this week, Cross Timbers Church in Argyle, Texas, announced that its senior pastor, Josiah Anthony, had resigned after church leadership discovered that his “decisions and actions were inappropriate and hurtful to current and former members of the CT family and staff.”
The church’s executive pastor, Byron Copeland, will step in as the church’s interim lead pastor. Notably, Copeland was on staff at Gateway Church in various executive level pastoral positions from 2003 to 2023.
Copeland was also named in a 2023 lawsuit filed by a former Gateway Church employee, who alleged that she was “subjected to ongoing disparaging comments about her appearance and unwanted romantic advances” from another pastor who was on staff at Gateway at the time.
Last week, Pastor Ronnie Goines of Koinonia Christian Church in Arlington, Texas, turned himself in to police and was charged with one count of indecent assault and one count of sexual assault.
In July, Tony Cammarota, an associate pastor at the Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, Texas, was fired for a “moral failure.”
In its announcement of the firing, leadership of the church, which was founded by famed preacher Chuck Swindoll, provided no further details and urged congregants to avoid “unnecessary speech and speculation.”
 in Plano, Texas, for his “moral failure.” ){kind=link}