UCG West Virginia: Sexual Abuse and Embezzlement

Here is another story about sexual abuse  in the Church of God and how the ministry of UCG tried to cover it up.  Check out Silenced for this story about a UCG elder that was sexually abusing women in his congregation.  The members knew about, complained and UCG honcho's covered it up (some of these guys now are parked on their self-righteous asses in COGWA.)

I had heard about this congregation several years ago when it happened.

 An excerpt: 

Several years ago there was an entire UCG congregation in West Virginia which seceded from the mothership after a local elder molested a young lady in the congregation. The local elder had a history of doing this sort of thing. He had repeatedly been admonished by church leaders to stop, but as is so often the case, he didn’t because he knew they would never discipline him. Keep in mind, this was back around 2004 – 2005 when all the leaders of COGWA were still running United. Doug Horchak, Jim Franks, Richard Pinelli, Clyde Kilough, etc., were all aware of what had taken place with this elder and how he had molested a young girl. 

There are three reasons why I’ve waited until now to shine some
light on this very troublesome situation. First, the church asked all
family members to not discuss the case until a decision was reached
or else they would drop the appeal. Second, I really believed that
the leaders of our church would take at least some just action to
resolve the issue of an elder and sexual harassment. Third, after
reading Mr. Pinelli’s misleading response I felt it necessary to
share some relevant facts in this matter.

It is a fact that an elder in WV has sexually harassed my sister-in-
law. The “hugs” were accurately described in posts by
Lindap, the elder would sneak up from behind, lock his arms directly under the
breasts and then squeeze very tightly and lift for an extended period
of time. There was indeed touching that could be categorized, at the
very least as grossly inappropriate, and more accurately as
molestation. I can absolutely guarantee you that such hugs would be
grounds for severe discipline or reprimands were they to take place
at one of our UCG Youth Camps. This situation involves an ordained
official in UCG, are the standards less? This act of touching
inappropriate body parts is in and of itself defined as sexual
harassment in UCG’s own Sexual Misconduct Guidelines (Section N
reads: “No lewd touching or other inappropriate contact of a
sexual nature is permitted with minors”).

There will still be some who will defend this elder’s actions as
Mr. Pinelli did by describing them as “signs of grandfatherly
affection” or by arguing that the elder meant nothing perverse by them. I
already believe the prior paragraph alone, would require for UCG
leaders to take some kind of action. But to those who are still
skeptical let me provide the following evidence that has led me to
believe his actions reflected his intent.

Read the entire story here: More sexual shenanigans recently in the COG

West Virginia seems to  present UCG with a lot of issues.  A few years ago there was a UCG member in WV who embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from the bank she worked in.  She would show up at UCG services and hand out envelopes of cash to people who were in need and who needed help to attend the Feast.  She took a lot of the money and built the local congregation their own church building.  When she was arrested and then jailed the government repossessed the UCG church building and took it away from them.  The last I heard UCG made no attempt to repay any of the stolen money.