Category — cogic

Media outlets in Wilmington, NC reported that a 54 year old Church of God in Christ “superintendent” has confessed to multiple sexual crimes against a 14 year old boy. The crimes occurred in 1998 while the boy stayed in the pastor’s home.

According to several news outlets [see here, here and here] Superintendent Thomas A. Wiggins,Jr., pastor of the Faith Temple COGIC and Bolton COGIC was arrested and charged November 29th with five counts of first-degree sexual offense and five counts of indecent liberties with a minor.

The crimes are of a serious nature. North Carolina law defines the charges thusly:

§ 14‑27.7A. Statutory rape or sexual offense of person who is 13, 14, or 15 years old.

(a) A defendant is guilty of a Class B1 felony if the defendant engages in vaginal intercourse or a sexual act with another person who is 13, 14, or 15 years old and the defendant is at least six years older than the person, except when the defendant is lawfully married to the person.

§ 14‑202.1. Taking indecent liberties with children.

(a) A person is guilty of taking indecent liberties with children if, being 16 years of age or more and at least five years older than the child in question, he either:

(1) Willfully takes or attempts to take any immoral, improper, or indecent liberties with any child of either sex under the age of 16 years for the purpose of arousing or gratifying sexual desire; or

(2) Willfully commits or attempts to commit any lewd or lascivious act upon or with the body or any part or member of the body of any child of either sex under the age of 16 years.

(b) Taking indecent liberties with children is punishable as a Class F felony.

The unmarried Wiggins is an “adminstrative assistant” to Bishop CE Anderson in the denomination’s North Carolina 2nd Jurisdiction [source].

Despite numerous high profile sex crimes and cases of sexual immorality among members of its clergy, denominational leaders continue to deny that clergy sexual abuse is a significant problem. In November 2009, the denomination’s chief lawyer Enoch Perry told a church gathering

“Media coverage of any sexual oriented event and the church will have a negative slant. The pessimistic coverage will have a direct impact on the overall public perception of the church involved, its corporate body and its membership. Additionally, this negativity will directly affect new membership and outside donations.”

Report COGIC Abuse has been documenting the shocking examples of disregard for biblical admonitions and the church’s own seemingly selective application of its own constitution.

Despite a letterallegedy leaked by the church’s COO detailing legal failures and ethical violations by Perry, he was promoted to bishop in the 2011 convention in St Louis.

The case with Thomas raises the number of cases in 2011 to four and 47 total documented cases.
Cross posted at COGIC Abuse Watch blog

New Orleans – The Times-Picayune reported last night that Bishop Charles E. Brown, I, bishop of the Church of God in Christ Greater New Orleans Jurisdiction was booked on charges of sexual battery in June. Brown was released after posting a $25,000 bail. But the story quickly raised more troubling issues about Brown, his past, COGIC’s so-called zero tolerance sexual abuse policy and his association with the church’s presiding bishop.

According the paper, Brown seemed to have made a very foolish decision to contact the woman he is alleged to have molested. [source]

The spiritual head of a local Pentecostal denomination has been arrested and booked with sexual battery on a teenage girl more than 23 years ago. New Orleans court records show that Bishop Charles E. Brown, 58, was released on $25,000 bond.

Brown, who since Hurricane Katrina has divided his time between New Orleans and Houston, is the jurisdictional bishop for Greater New Orleans in the Church of God in Christ, a Pentecostal denomination with headquarters in Memphis. He is also pastor of a local congregation, Full Gospel Church of God in Christ.

Brown was arrested June 28, according to police records.

Several attempts to contact Brown at his home in Houston were unsuccessful. Court records did not list a lawyer. And denominational officials in Los Angeles and Lafayette who would know about the arrest either were unavailable or did not respond to an inquiry.

A police affidavit supporting the arrest warrant said an unidentified 39-year-old woman called the department’s child abuse unit in March to report that Brown molested her between the ages of 14 and 16.

The woman said at the time Brown was her aunt’s boyfriend, and the acts occurred at his home.

She told police Brown recently reached out and asked to “friend” her on Facebook. She told him she knew him to be an abuser and decided then to go to the police, the affidavit said.

Brown originally was arrested and booked with aggravated rape. But Magistrate Commissioner Harry Cantrell said the specific facts alleged by the woman supported only the lesser accusation of sexual battery.”

Brown, pastor of Williams Temple COGIC in Houston and two other churches, was a prominent figure in pre-Katrina New Orleans.  His bio connects him with several powerful civic and religious leaders around the country including serving as a board member with Dr. Fredrick Price of LA, Bishop IV Hilliard in Houston, as the “spiritual advisor” to former Katrina-era NO mayor Ray Nagin and ironically as a board member of Bishop Blake’s “Save Africa’s Children” charity. Within his denomination, Brown was the former Chief Operating Officer of the church until he resigned after a fallout with Blake over a Houston church he now pastors.

What’s troubling is that the police report alleges the crime occured about 23 years ago. That would put the timeline of the crime about 1990-91. During that time, according to Brown’s bio, he was

• Director; Youth Church,  [COGIC] UNAC/AIM 1980-1997.
• Executive Board Member; General Assembly of the Church of God in Christ, 1984 to present.
• Board Member; Fellowship of Inner City Word of Faith Ministries (FICWFM), Dr. F. K. C. Price, Founder. (1990-Present).

The woman alleges that Brown committed the crime while he was her aunt’s boyfriend. Just a few weeks ago, we told you about the case of adulterer and deadbeat father Joseph Hogan.  The biblical requirements for the office of a bishop mean nothing to COGIC leadership. If  blatant adultery and sexual immorality doesn’t disqualify a man from the office, what will? Sources told Report COGIC Abuse that despite the hard evidence on Hogan, COGIC will consecrate him to bishop.

Brown was arrested in June, but still holds his office of pastor and bishop in the Church of God in Christ (see this unconfirmed comment). Report COGIC Abuse has learned that the denomination passed a resolution giving bishops the power to immediately remove a local church pastor upon allegations of sexual misconduct or criminal sexual activity until an investigation is concluded. But there was no clause for the bishops to remove those in their own ranks.

As the Times-Picayune story noted, church officials aren’t responding even though there is evidence that all members of the church’s “general board” —including Charles E. Blake— were made aware of Brown’s situation prior to the story going public.

This story was cross-posted at COGIC Abuse Watch.

ATLANTA – Just days after GCM Watch reported and exposed COGIC”s upcoming “consecration” of adulterer and deadbeat father Joseph E. Hogan, Sr. a featured video showing a victory celebration at the church he pastors,  has been removed.   The Youtube host channel “faithprovideo”  took down the video showing Hogan’s church having a bizarre victory party upon hearing the announcement that Hogan would become a bishop in the Church of God in Christ.

In May, Hogan was arrested in Clayton County, Georgia  and charged with reneging on child support payments to an out of wedlock child he fathered in 2005.  Incredibly, he impregnated the wife of his former assistant pastor, a man who had served under him for some 20 years.

In the video, church members are seen  dancing, running through the church and wildly waving purple streamers while thronging around Hogan at his Cleveland Avenue church during a recent Sunday morning service.

In one scene, a minister introduces a subdued looking Hogan, telling him “this is your time, this is your season!”. When Hogan approaches the podium, the minister falls down at his feet, appearing to kiss his hands.

Hogan conveys to members that he has done what some thought was impossible. He tells them that “it costs to be the boss” and says that they will have to step up because of the expectations people have when the visit the church of a bishop.  He thanks Bishop Charles Blake and the “Board” for a “unanimous thumbs up” to his promotion. Noticeably absent is his wife of 39 years.

Another online source claimed that Bishop Charles Blake made candidates promise that if they did not win the vote they would submit to the winner and not split the jurisdiction (a common practice among disgruntled COGIC bishops) . Blake reportedly said that he would not proceed with the election until he had that promise. However, upon losing the vote by 2-1 margins to his competitor, Norman Harper,  Hogan allegedly called on some prominent COGIC friends to push for his nomination to bishop.

Email sent to COGIC’s public relations director Robert Coleman, Jr.  inquiring about Hogan’s status had not been answered as of publication.

ATLANTA – Ignoring an impassioned letter for reform in the nation’s largest black pentecostal denomination, Bishop Charles Blake, Sr and his cadre of fellow Church of God in Christ (COGIC) bishops are preparing to consecrate [Superintendent] Joseph E. Hogan, Jr. as a bishop. In November, Hogan will be promoted and has been selected to allegedly head the “North Central Jurisdiction” comprised of about 30 odd churches siphoned off the Central Georgia jurisdiction after the death of Bishop Chandler Owens.

Sources (whom we cannot identify for fear of retribution) very close to this story told COGIC Abuse Watch the selection of Hogan was a “travesty”.

The right choice?
Billing himself as the “right choice”, Hogan used this video to promote his candidacy for bishop of the church’s Central Georgia Jurisdiction, But after much politicking, legendary COGIC infighting and a vote, he did not win. To pacify him, Hogan was given approximately 30-45 (per his victory speech video) churches out of the 100 to start a new jurisdiction. In the end, politics and bad judgment won.

If the bible says that among believers there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people, what of the widespread sexual immorality among leaders?

Who is this man?

Hogan, pastor of New Life Tabernacle COGIC located in SE Atlanta, is a superintendent in COGIC, a midlevel administrative position generally supervising five or more churches. In the video, Hogan says he has been serving in the Central Georgia Jurisdiction for some 52 years and pastoring 32 years. He has been married 39 years.

A deadbeat gone wild
In 2005, Hogan (then serving as a ranking official under Bishop Chandler Owens (d. 2011), impregnated Sherry Adams, the wife of his assistant pastor, a man who had served with him for some twenty years.

Public records from Clayton County (GA) Superior Court show that Hogan initially denied the child was his, but after a paternity test, he was ordered to pay child support. In 2011, Hogan stopped child support payments and was subsequently sued and arrested. The case was dismissed “without prejudice” which in legal terms means that he could be sued and/or arrested again in the future for the same offense.

An elder who has served for a number of years in the Central Georgia jurisdiction told Report COGIC Abuse that the child Sherry Adams sued Hogan for child support is only one of several illegitimate children. He suggested that Hogan’s sexual wild cards are a result of the lack of discipline by his two former supervising bishops. In his campaign video, posted just five months ago, Hogan only acknowledges 4 children by his current wife. But according to the court documents, the statement is intentional deception.

What does the bible say about men who desire the office of a bishop?

If a man desires the office of a bishop in the Lord’s church, the scriptures are clear and direct in its qualifying stipulations for that man.

The Apostle Paul wrote that if a man desires the office of bishop, he desires a good work. Its important to understand that the office of a bishop while spiritual, is also equally administrative. Thus, “desiring” to administrate (oversee others in organization, supervision) is a good thing. However, because it has serious spiritual ramifications for those under such a person’s supervision and for the body of Christ at large, the prerequisites are intended to prevent unqualified individuals from accessing the office.

Those 16 qualifications are found in 1 Timothy 3rd chapter:

A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt at teaching; not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous; one who ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all dignity. (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?) He must not be a novice in the faith, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover he must have a good reputation with those who are outsiders, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

Just by the adultery, lying, covetousness and deception alone, Hogan fails to meet a minimum 4 of the 16 qualifications. Sources also charge that Hogan does not reside with his current wife due to his repeated cases of sexual immorality. Sound familiar?

Doesn’t Bishop Charles Blake know this? If he does, why would he go against the scripture to elevate a man who clearly is unqualified for the office of bishop? If Hogan’s life is out of control now, what excesses will he be able to indulge in once he is given the power of a bishop’s office? For context, Hogan was a faithful disciple of one of COGIC’s most notorious homosexual sex offenders, Bishop John Husband (d. 1991). Incidentally, the church’s current presiding bishop also served as a “youth pastor” under Husband. Are the errors of the past about to resurrect themselves for another Georgia “jurisdiction”?

Warning before a great fall?

COGIC’s stunning disregard of biblical directives in its leadership selection processes has produced numerous high profile embarrassments for the denomination. That’s why COGIC’s former Chief Justice, Bishop Samuel Nesbitt of Jacksonville, FL wrote Bishop Charles Blake a sweeping and detailed letter warning him that the denomination’s habit of allowing sexually immoral men (among other things) into leadership would be its undoing. Strongly suggesting that COGIC was being intentionally deceitful —and hypocritical— against its public proclamations of holiness, Nesbitt wrote:

“Based on my study of (the etymology of the word lying, and relating it to die meaning of the words hypocrite, deceiver and pretender, I conclude that whether the deceit is uttered (orally) or by an overt act, it is a lie. A hypocrite, a deceiver or a pretender may be classified as “a liar in action.” For this reason, we should be careful what we do and what we say. We are also obligated to place persons in nasttions of leadership who meet the moral standards, as prescribed in the WORD, and the standards which the title represents. A person should not be made to think that he is what he is not In Galatians 5:3, St Paul says: “If a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.” It is not difficult to see how a deceived person may cause harm to others who may rely upon him to produce that which he is not qualified to perform. As leaders of the Church Of God In Christ, Inc., we are obligated to take every reasonable precaution to see that we don’t place persons in positions who lack the qualifications to produce what the title is known to represent When we knowingly place persons in positions, for which they are not qualified, we may be guilty of making a person think that he is what he is not: That is deceit”

Blake never responded to nor acknowledged the April 13, 2011 letter. Read and download the entire letter.
Hogan specifically thanks Blake and the COGIC “board” for a “unanimous” decision.

This story was cross-posted at COGIC Abuse Watch

Courtesy of Pastor Kim Burrell. vice president of COGIC International Music Department.

The new trend in gospel music: presenting agape as eros.

Read Pastor H. Burnett’s post on this video and its video-vixen.

SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATE TO THIS STORY

In a seven page letter with almost 4000 words[pdf], the Chief Operating Officer for the nation’s largest black pentecostal denomination has accused the church’s top legal man of a plethora of legal, ethical and financial improprieties. The letter, bearing the signature block of Elder James Smith, in effect predicted a looming financial doomsday for the Church of God in Christ and laid the blame at the feet of its  “incompetent” counsel  Enoch Perry III.

The contents of the undated letter was sent anonymously to GCM Watch and Report COGIC Abuse on Monday by a “concerned cogic saint on the east coast”. The letter was also sent to a blog which writes on clergy issues but with no identification of the sender. Its unclear if any other new media outlets received the information. The letter is addressed to the Church of God in Christ’s General Board and copied to its General Secretary.

While GCM Watch was in the process of verifying the authorship and authenticity of the letter, we were informed that Smith —in a telephone conversation with Atlanta-based blogger Kevin Oliver— refused to deny or affirm that he was the letter’s author.

“I told him that we received a letter purportedly written by him. I told him it was posted on PimpPreacher.com and asked him if he were aware of it and if he could confirm he is the author”

“He told me point blank, “I don’t do blogosphere. I don’t who you are or where you’re from and I haven’t seen it so I can’t comment on something I haven’t seen.”

“I then told him that “the blogosphere” is not what it once was, and that a lot of people get their news and information from blogs. I then asked him if I could have his email address so I could send him the article, or if he’d like to go to the site. He again stonewalled me, saying that he had “no interest in discovery” and that it would be inappropriate for him to comment.

Excuse me, but how juvenile and trifling can a person be? Elder Smith, (and yes I know youre reading this blog, just like you read several others)  if you didn’t write the letter, just  be a real man and say “no that letter was not written by me it is a forgery”. Or if you wrote it, just say, yes I wrote the letter.  With duplictious “leaders” like Smith in place in COGIC its no wonder why the church is falling into darkness.

Oliver said that although he informed Smith the letter was spreading across the internet,  Smith continued railing against “blogs”. Incidentally, GCM Watch was told by a source within COGIC that Presiding Bishop Blake had sent out a warning to church leaders to stay away from blogs on the internet.

Old news

This comes as no surprise to anyone who has read GCM Watch’s comprehensive reports on COGIC clergy sexual abuse and followed our documentation at Report COGIC Abuse. This is old news.  Here’s a review for those who have been vacationing on the planet Krylonogic for the past three years.

Surveying COGIC’s  Justice System

Under oath, COGIC legal counsel Enoch Perry makes stunning admissions

Is COGIC’s “zero tolerance” policy on clergy sexual abuse a failure?

Did Enoch Perry, COGIC’s top lawyer, reveal coverup strategy?

Enoch Perry deposition during Sherman Allen trial

Update April 1st – 1810 est

The rancor over the letter released by COGIC’s COO has been in essence refuted publicly by the church’s Presiding Bishop. In a letter released yesterday through its website , Bishop Blake said it was “unfortunate that private communication became public”. Although Blake praised Perry, he said the issue will be dealt with as an “internal” matter.