The member of a megachurch in Plano, Texas who had the audacity to question the pastor about covering up a child abuse case 25 years ago was ejected from church property and reported to local police. Associated Baptist Press reported:
Chris Tynes, a software engineer and member of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, for more than a decade, says he spoke with a detective about a complaint labeling him a “suspicious person, possibly violent” after he was ordered by security personnel to leave the church premises March 5.
Tynes only wanted to talk to a pastor about the alleged child molestation cover-up, which he discovered on a website that reports on clergy sex abuse. The website contained
articles about Prestonwood's alleged cover-up of a former music minister who avoided prison in part because it took so long for allegations against him to be brought to light. The then-music minister, who had already pleaded guilty in January to molesting multiple boys in Mississippi in the early 1980s, was fired from the church in 1989 after similar allegations.
After a series of frustrating exchanges by email and on facebook, a meeting was scheduled on Wednesday, March 6, with the church's executive pastor. Tynes said he learned Monday night that the pastor had backed out of the meeting and wasn't going to reschedule, so he decided to go to the church the next day and wait for him.
As he waited in the parking lot for a pastor to return, church security approached Tynes and asked him to leave. Although disappointed by the church's reaction, Tynes is still giving the folks at Prestonwood the benefit of the doubt, and hopes he can work things out.
A Facebook page titled People Against Prestonwood's Silence on Allegations of Sexual Abuse is dedicated to following the case.