For the better part of last year, when the subject of sexual abuse in the church came up, the name that most often came up was former Trump spiritual adviser Robert Morris, who was forced to resign from his Dallas-Fort Worth megachurch when his grooming and molestation of a 12-year-old girl four decades ago finally caught up with him. Morris, in case you missed it, insisted that he had only had “moral failure” with a “young lady”—and got away with that lie even though numerous people in his circle knew that his victim was most assuredly not a young lady. Morris was indicted yesterday on charges that could send him to prison for the rest of his life if convicted.
Well, it turns out that while that scandal was festering, an equally outrageous scandal was also festering involving a pastor with a mere fraction of Morris’s profile. For many years, Mark T. Barclay, based in Midland, Michigan, has been a prominent voice in charismatic circles in the Midwest. He has long billed himself as a “preacher of righteousness.” But as I note at my Substack, Barclay is guilty of false advertising. The man who had long run the youth ministry at Barclay’s church, James Randolph, stands charged with six counts of sexual assault of minors, and could potentially spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted. As egregious as this is, it’s even more so considering that he confessed to a violent sexual assault on a child four decades earlier—and Barclay still hired him.
Randolph was arrested and charged in December 2023 on two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and four counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct. He was bound over for trial that March; at that time, it was revealed that the first-degree criminal sexual conduct charges involved a victim under 16. If convicted on all charges, he could face life in prison. One of the victims, a member of the youth ministry at Barclay’s Living Word Church, recalled being assaulted off and on over six years from 2012 to 2018. She said she balked at coming forward at first because she feared no one would believe her.
The response from Barclay and others close to him makes clear why the victim was reluctant to speak up. After Randolph’s arrest, Jeremy Pfeil, pastor at Accelerate Church in Amarillo—a member of Barclay’s Righteous Preachers Network—railed about how “my friend” Randolph had been “lied about,” and warned anyone spreading said lies risked being “taken out.” Barclay himself took to the pulpit and warned anyone speaking out against Living Word was “vicious and evil.”
Randolph would be the first of three members of Living Word’s leadership team to be arrested or convicted for child sexual assault within six months’ time. In January 2024, Living Word elder Brandon Saylor pleaded guilty to three counts of criminal sexual conduct over a 13-year period involving three victims under 13. He was sentenced that May to five to 15 years in prison, and will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. In April, Brandon’s father, Living Word associate pastor Randy Saylor, was charged with two counts of criminal sexual conduct with a minor under 13; another three were added a month later. Barclay was also under fire for helping financially support Keith Johnson, a Canadian pastor who is ducking being served a multi-million dollar lawsuit for a litany of abuse at his church and Christian school in Saskatoon.
As hideous as this already was, it got even more so in October, when local CBS affiliate WNEM-TV revealed Randolph already had a conviction for sexual assault on a child on his ledger. Watch here.
In 1984, less than two months after being paroled for a 1983 beating of two men in Jackson, Randolph took part in a gang rape of a 15-year-old girl “with limited mental capacities.” He potentially faced the rest of his life in prison, but in 1985 he pleaded guilty to third-degree criminal sexual conduct. He was sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison, but paroled after eight.
However, according to longtime Living Word members Dana and Dan Stahl, not a whole lot was said about Randolph’s past when Randolph showed up at Living Word in 1993 and married Barclay’s daughter, Dawn. The Stahls told Legacy of Abuse, a podcast focusing on Johnson’s misdeeds, that most people were led to believe he’d been in and out of juvenile hall as a kid, and the 1983 arrest was a case of being “in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Dana later told me much was said about the 1984 arrest, though another former member recalled being told Randolph “took the hit for others.” Randolph’s lawyer alluded to the 1984 case after her client’s most recent arrest, saying it had been akin to Romeo and Juliet. The actual records revealed something else altogether—a violent gang rape of a special needs girl.
Dana and Dan were hit pretty hard when these disclosures came out. They had been the volunteer heads of Living Word’s nursery for two decades—and Randolph had been their immediate supervisor. Plus, Dana spent most of her working life working with special needs kids.
Most longtime Daily Kos members know that I’ve seen some of the worst the evangelical world has to offer. As strong a stomach as I have, this situation with Barclay has my blood running cold. Consider the timeline here. By the time Randolph set foot at Living Word, it was already well known that allowing a convicted sex offender within an area code of working with children was a bad idea, simply because of the extreme likelihood that they will re-offend.
Barclay and others may argue that this happened before he was saved. But forgiveness doesn’t mean avoiding accountability. And what of the message it sends to survivors? It’s a small wonder that the hosts of Legacy of Abuse thought Dana was being way too kind when she said Barclay displayed poor judgment. They believed Barclay exposed himself and his church to considerable “liability.” That’s putting it mildly. If any of Randolph’s misdeeds can be even tangentially connected to Living Word’s programming, it’s a lawsuit waiting to happen.
Dana told me that said liability zoomed exponentially when Randolph convinced a judge to let him attend church. There was nothing that said Barclay had to allow Randolph to attend, but Barclay did so. A repeat sex offender currently facing charges for sex crimes being allowed to attend church? You literally can’t make this up. While the courts may pass judgment on Randolph, we have enough to pass judgment on Barclay. And it’s clear that he is as far from being a “preacher of righteousness” as you can get.
There’s more where this came from. See for yourself at my Substack, Loud, Liberal, Christian. A paid subscription would be much appreciated, especially since I’m staying off Twitter for the foreseeable future. Paid subscriptions support work like this.
