This article is part of “Pastors and Dams” A series that investigates the accusations of sexual abuse in the assemblies of God.
Speaking to thousands of shepherds gathered on Wednesday in Orlando, Florida, for a biennial meeting of the Assemblies of God, the senior leader of the Pentecostal denomination, Doug Clay, began addressing a problem that “has put a stain in the church and a scar in the lives of people” – sexual abuse in the Chi Alpha College ministry.
On Monday, a NBC news investigation examined how Chi Alpha Pastors guided hundreds of students to Daniel Savala, a convict sexual offender announced by some as “the most sacred man alive.” In signed statements, demands and criminal presentations, at least 10 men and children have accused Savala of abusing them sexually, many at their home in Houston and in their backyard sauna. The report revealed that the officials of the assemblies of God were repeatedly warned.
Two days later, Clay and other assemblies of God’s leaders defended their management and pledged to take measures to prevent something like that again.
“We are committed to identifying within our system, within our structures, which is broken, which can be solved to avoid this kind of thing,” said Clay, the general superintendent of the denomination.
But promises do not satisfy some of Savala’s accusers, who say they are still waiting for God’s assemblies to release a complete accounting of what their leaders knew and how they responded to years of warnings about Savala. The officials of the Assemblies of God said Wednesday that they would not publish an internal investigation into the abuses of Savala to protect the privacy of those involved.
Joseph Cleveland, a former Chi Alpha member who says Savala sexually abused him for more than a decade, starting when he was 15 years old, said he was disappointed by what he saw as a continuous lack of transparency.
“In my opinion, no Minister of Assemblies of God, at any level, took necessary measures to free his Ministry of Savala,” said Cleveland, noting that the officials of the state denomination on Savala were warned in 2013. “It is a common knowledge that pedophiles intensified in their crimes with time, and the assemblies of God did not even invest It happened. ” “
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The focus on the Chi Alpha’s abuse scandal brought a gloomy tone to which aims to be a moment of celebration and reflection. The General Council of the Assemblies of God, the American Government Organ of the largest Pentecostal denomination in the world, meets every two years to elect the officers, consider policy changes and celebrate victories in their mission of spreading the Gospel. The denomination has almost 3 million members in 13,000 churches in the United States.
In prepared comments, the denomination leaders spent more than 30 minutes describing the changes they have made in Chi Alpha, a mixed ministry in hundreds of university campuses, including the new training in prevention of sexual abuse. They also described their efforts to investigate since several young people showed up accusing Savala de Abuso in 2023.
Dozens of children and young people have described how Savala turned their own twisted version of the Gospel. In a quiet and comforting voice, he read the Scriptures and offered responses to the deepest mysteries of life. To approach Jesus, young Christians from all over Texas learned, they just needed to approach Savala. And to do that, the first step was often the same: undress in his sauna.
Savala was arrested in 2023 and accused of sexually abusing four children since 2005, all of whom he met through shepherds connected to Chi Alpha. He still has to present an supplication to any of the charges, and he and his lawyers did not respond to requests for comments.
“There are no words,” Donna L. Barrett said Wednesday, the general secretary of the denomination, met in Orlando on Wednesday. “There are no words that can capture the pain we feel for those directed and affected by this.”
Barrett acknowledged that the Assemblies of God’s National Office received reports on Savala’s connection with Chi Alpha in 2018, six years after being convicted of child sexual abuse in Alaska. She said that the National Office responded by contacting Church officials in Texas and believed that Chi Alpha shepherds were warned to stay away from Savala.
‘Pastors and Dams’: NBC News investigates sexual abuse in the churches of the Assemblies of God
Barrett also defended the refusal of the denomination to release the findings of an investigation by a law firm, because, he said, would violate the privacy of the victims and dissuade others to present themselves. Finally, said Barrett, the evidence showed that no one in the national office “had information that any inappropriate sexual behavior was occurring in Chi Alpha until 2023.”
“Even if they misrepresented public forums, we are deeply committed to follow this principle: what did you know? When did you know? And what did you do with the information you knew?” Barrett said.
Ron Bloomingkemper Jr., a former member and activist of Chi Alpha who says that Savala proposed it in the 1990s, is not satisfied with the answers that God’s assemblies have provided and is asking for greater transparency. The same concern led him to launch an online forum in 2023 to expose abuses in Chi Alpha. The website caused dozens of testimonies about spiritual and sexual abuse in the Ministry, followed by a waterfall of demands and criminal charges against Savala and some of its protected in the assemblies of God.
The denomination dismissed six ministers who had links with Savala, including at least one that now faces criminal charges, and suspended another four that were ordered to a rehabilitation program aimed at restoring them to the Ministry, Barrett said Wednesday.
Bloomingkemper said that these actions did not address what he sees as the root of the problem: a leadership culture that, according to him, did not take the necessary measures to protect students from a sexual predator until public pressure was built.
“Nothing of any meaning happened until the forum was launched, the media collected it and the demands began,” said Bloomingkemper. “If those three things did not happen, Daniel Savala would still be there, abusing the children. Nothing would have changed.”
