SEXUAL PREDATORS IN THE CHURCH WILL DESTROY YOUR CHURCH
The pastor of Pawleys Island Community Church, David Williams, never read my book, Protecting Your Church Against Sexual Predators. He should have read it. Someone in the church should have read it. Now, as a result of his failure to take reasonable precautions, he has allowed the church to be destroyed, and probably, his ministry as well. Indeed, since he is being charged, he may even lose his freedom.
Why?
Because he failed to understand the Bible and certain biblical truths. He adopted a distorted view of “love one another” and forgot his duty to his church and to God. As a result of his failure, a Plaintiff is likely to end up owning much, if not all, of the church and its facilities. It’s a warning I made in my book. It is one of the reasons I wrote the book. The main reason was, of course, to insure that our churches protect the children placed in our care. Bottom line: Protect the children, you protect the church.
On page 21 of my book, I wrote:
“A church that accepts a man into their midst who has a history of child molesting is at risk legally. If he comes into the congregation and one day molests a child, the church may well face a lawsuit filed by the parents….”
One of the issues I discussed in the book which clearly played a part in this matter was the idea that a child molester who gets “saved,” will somehow pose little danger, or less danger. The sad reality is that the hard data collected shows that child molesters are “wired” differently and they are likely to be repeat offenders. I referenced statistics that track these offenders and their numbers show a huge likelihood of a convicted child molester of being a repeat offender. If that pastor had read my book, he’d have read that paragraph and could have saved his ministry and his church with just that little piece of information. How sad.
CAN A CHILD MOLESTER WHO BECOMES A CHILD MOLESTER BACKSLIDE?
As Christians, we love the idea that once we got saved, Christ changed us and we lived a different life thereafter. But somehow, Pastor David Williams EVENTS REPORT got the idea that because Warren Perry professed Christ, it was unlikely he would ever…backslide. Now, I’m sure that word never slid through that pastor’s mind, but it should have, because that is what happened, assuming Perry was in fact a “real Christian” (there is clearly some debate there). However, even if we grant that Perry’s conversion was genuine, did Williams ever consider the man might backslide? If he’d looked at it with that perspective, knowing he himself had backslid a time or two, as do virtually every Christian I’ve ever known, then he’d have looked at Perry in a very different fashion.
I doubt it ever crossed David Williams’ mind in that form. You see, if you put backsliding in the context of a man whose past is as a child molester, then he would have realized what backsliding for Warren Perry meant. His backsliding isn’t a man falling back into alcohol, getting drunk, and being sorry, or falling into his old way of life, drinking and partying and running with the old crowd. It’s a very, very different thing for a child molester to backslide.
Pawleys Island Community Church officials needed to look coldly at Warren Perry and ask themselves five questions:
1. Is there any possibility this man will ever backslide?
2. If so, how likely is that?
3. If so, what is the possible outcomes? What does a backsliding look like for him?
4. Who are his mostly likely targets if he were to backslide?
5. What can we do to protect ourselves, the church?
I’ll not bother to answer those questions. But, you can see, can’t you, how that would have changed things? (I’m assuming the pastor and staff would have arrived at the correct answers to all of the questions.) It is apparent to me they did not ask those questions and for reasons that are beyond my comprehension, they never seemed to be a part of their decisions.
I say “their” decisions. Actually, it was his decision. He was the pastor. He could have prevented it. As a result of his foolishness driven by what, pride? Arrogance? A desire to display how much like Christ he was, and thereby, the church, in demonstrating “love” to a fallen man?
The sad thing is that David Williams and Pawleys Island Community Church are just the tip of the iceberg. Churches are being sued on a regular basis across the nation because of leadership’s ignorance and arrogance. They are willing to “roll the dice” with the safety of the children in the church, and willing to put at risk all the donations made by hundreds of people to the church.
And, all for what? So they can play the “loving pastor” and project an image they have in their mind that is totally unbiblical.
CAN A CHILD MOLESTER BE A CHURCH MEMBER?
Is it possible to have a convicted child molester be a member of a church? I address that
question in my book. I won’t answer it here, in the hope that it will spur some of you to buy the book to find out my answer(s) to that question.(And, to the haters, No,. It’s not about money. The pennies I make on the sale of that book is inconsequential.)
Final thoughts! If you are a church member, INSIST your pastor and leaders order a copy of this book and insist that it be read. We must protect our churches. As I recently said to a committee in our church dealing with security, “We have mobile eyes walking around. But, we have to train them as to what they should be watching and how to understand what they are seeing.” The best security a church can have is the members. They see things. They can report things.
I believe this case is instructive for all of us. So, I’ve prepared a kind of summary and timeline on this case because it clearly outlines the entire sequence of things in a way that allows you to see the case developing. This outlines the case from the perspective of an attorney who would be preparing the case as a lawsuit. This is the information I would prepare for myself prior to filing the case. Pawleys Island Community Church Report
(Share this article with your pastor and leadership!!)
Copyright 2026 Voyle A Glover