Church members are outraged at the installation of a registered sex offender who spent time in prison for molesting two girls as the new pastor of a Florida Baptist church.
Rev. Darrell Gilyard recently began a new pastorate at Mount Ararat Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida, and church members and critics alike are concerned about Gilyard’s past of sexual abuse.
The Christian Post reports that upset church members have been reaching out to a local news outlet about Gilyard’s past.
Gilyard – who was mentored by former Southern Baptist Convention President Paige Patterson – served as pastor of Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church, also in Jacksonville, for 14 years before his arrest.
In 2007, while still working at Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church, Gilyard was arrested on charges of lewd and lascivious conduct. He pleaded guilty to two counts of the offense in 2009. Following his sentence, he was designated as a sex offender by the state of Florida.
Gilyard’s name resurfaced last year when the Houston Chronicle investigated sexual abuse in the SBC. The outlet’s investigation found that Gilyard “was mentored and assisted by Patterson amid allegations of sexual misconduct at churches in Texas and Oklahoma.”
Extensive documents and video footage showed that Patterson had personally investigated accusations levied against Gilyard as well as oversaw his resignation in…
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