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A spate of sexual abuses of minors by a 67-year-old minister have been reported in the Assemblies of God, prompting no fewer than three pastors to call for his resignation.
The three Assemblies of God pastors called on denominational leaders to repent and, where appropriate, resign after organizers of the Chi Alpha Campus Ministries in the United States were accused of allowing Daniel Savala, a 67-year-old itinerant minister and convicted sex offender, to prey on scores of young males for more than two decades.
The Assemblies of God claimed on Friday, however, that it had warned local Chi Alpha leaders about Savala and is already taking steps to dismiss leaders who failed to protect participants in the ministry as they continue to investigate the scandal.
The latest call for accountability has come from Pastor J.R. Armstrong of MAG Church in Orange, Texas, who recently criticized Assemblies of God General Superintendent Doug Clay for making comments that he believes appear to minimize the abuse Savala is accused of perpetuating in the wake of his recent arrest.
Savala was arrested in Waco in June for allegedly sexually abusing the minor sons of one of his protégés in the ministry.
“On Friday, Aug. 4, on the closing session of business at the General Counsel of the Assemblies of God, General Superintendent Doug Clay went on record with a statement concerning Chi Alpha Ministries. In his statement, Rev. Clay called attention to the ministry of Chi Alpha without presenting the dozens, if not hundreds, of victims of sexual and spiritual abuse as a spectrum in ministry lines, which in and of itself, [is] moral relativism at its worst,” Armstrong said in an impassioned address from the pulpit of his church on Aug. 13.
He played a video clip of Clay making comments that he said minimized Savala’s abuse to “hiccups.”
“Hundreds of victims of sexual abuse is not a spot on a spectrum,” Armstrong said.
“I, as an ordained minister in good standing with the Assemblies of God, call on Doug Clay, Donna Barrett, E. Scott Martin, Tim Barker, Don Wiehe, Gaylan Claunch, and others to speak up, take responsibility, and where necessary, to resign. And with some, that will be necessary.”
Chi Alpha is a campus ministry located on around 300 campuses globally with the support of the Assemblies of God. In recent months, whistleblowers have alleged Savala was allowed by some leaders in the ministry to prey on young men and boys for years.
Savala, according to KWTX, was identified as the “spiritual mentor” of Christopher Hundl, 38, the former leader of Chi Alpha’s ministry at Baylor University, who was charged with allowing the itinerant leader to sexually abuse two of his family members later revealed to be his sons.
According to the arrest warrant, Hundl allegedly brought the two boys to Savala’s Houston home several times between the summer of 2021 and March 2022. Texas’ sex offender registry records show that Savala was charged in 2012 for sexual abuse of a minor, a third-degree felony, which he committed in Alaska between 1995 and 1997.
While in a sauna with Hundl and the boys, who were younger than 14 when the abuse happened, Savala allegedly instructed the boys to masturbate in front of the adult men. It is alleged that similar activity also took place in Hundl’s home. The arrest records state that Savala also touched the boys inappropriately in Hundl’s presence.
Hundl, who is married, told officers that he met Savala while in college and was involved in a sexual relationship. Savala, he told police, acted as a “grandfather” to the two boys.
Earlier this month, a McLennan County grand jury indicted Hundl and Savala on one count each of continuous trafficking of persons, a first-degree felony punishable by a minimum of 25 years in prison without parole.
Armstrong argued in his address to his church that, as far as he knew, the denomination offered no relief to Savala’s victims and seemed more focused on limiting its liability.
“To date, there has been no relief offered to the victims of these decades-long failure more than a three-paragraph statement that’s buried on the AG website,” he said.
“Missionaries have been arrested. A handful of others have been removed from the pulpit. All the while, the leaders of the districts and national office leaders have remained silent. These leaders have had knowledge of the abuse of this sexual offender working in the organization since at least 2018, many as far back as 2013. Church, that’s a decade,” he argued.
“When we are guarding the liabilities over the people, we have lost our way. We’ve lost our way! Church, the liabilities are coming. So why not have the human decency to be who we are called to be and say, ‘We love you, and we’re sorry this happened to you,'” he added. “‘We are doing everything in our power to make sure it never happens again. And Because this happened under my watch and whether it fell through the cracks, or whatever the case may be, because this egregious thing happened on my watch, for the good of the fellowship, I will step aside.'”
–Christian Post
