Heritage Baptist church in Vinton Virginia and its pastor Bob Barton, feel they’ve been dragged threw the mud. I’ll leave it up to you to decide.
In July, former assistant pastor Daniel Silverman was convicted of aggravated sexual battery for molesting a 12-year-old girl. He pleaded no contest and received 18 months in prison.
Also in July, Deacon Dean Harold Stone was convicted of 12 counts of child molestation against three young girls. He received 225 years in prison.
Both were members of Heritage Baptist church, although neither case was connected to the church.
Was the church dragged through the mud? Yes – but it deserved it. They had a pedophile on staff and a pedophile helping run the church. How can kids be safe with these guys at the helm?
Unless the Heritage Baptist has all the programs, it deserves the attention, unwanted or not. How do you manage clergy accountability? What kind of background checks do you do? How much oversight an monitoring are in place? And what about awareness training programs for kids? I’m betting precious little was done. What about it?