A former Southern Baptist youth pastor facing child sex abuse charges is now at the center of an FBI investigation, police in Lubbock, Texas, confirmed on Friday.
Luke Cunningham, 41, remains held in the Lubbock County jail on $500,000 bail on charges of aggravated sexual assault and two counts of child sexual assault.
Kasie Davis, Lubbock Police Department spokesperson confirmed the federal investigation, which was first reported by Noticias Bautistas Globales.
When asked about specifics of the federal investigation, Davis said all aspects “were under investigation.”
The FBI’s Violent Crimes Against Children program investigates child abductions, production, selling and possession of child sexual abuse material, sextortion, domestic and international travel to engage in sexual activity with children, sexual exploitation of children, and international parental kidnapping.
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The crux of the Texas investigation centers on three allegations of abuse that occurred around Jan. 1, 2016, Jan. 8, 2017, and Oct. 17, 2018, involving two alleged victims.
These accusations coincide when Cunningham served as the student pastor at Turning Point Community Church in Lubbock from 2016 to 2020. Cunningham has also served at three other Texas churches, Baptist News Global reported.
The indictments state the two accusers were under 17-years-old when the 2016 and 2017 alleged sexual assault occurred. The aggravated sexual abuse charge allegedly happened to one of the victims as an adult, the indictment states.
A Lubbock County Grand Jury is scheduled to hear Cunningham’s case on July 2.
At the time of his arrest, Cunningham served as student minister at Lakeside Baptist Church in Granbury. He has since been fired from the church.
Lakeside Baptist leaders “determined within days that there was enough evidence to turn him over to the Personnel Committee, who immediately released him from employment,” according to a church statement.
A Turning Point representative previously said the church planned to release a statement on Friday. However, no statement has been released.
While Turning Point has largely remained silent on the allegations, Lakeside Baptist Church released a statement calling out their denomination leaders for failing to develop a sex offender database.
“Lakeside Baptist Church stands firmly against clerical sexual abuse. We believe that, if the Southern Baptist Convention had a working database for offenders, we would have never been exposed to Mr. Cunningham,” according to the statement.
As reported earlier by El Informe Roys (TRR), a Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) task force charged with implementing abuse reforms ended its work earlier this month without publishing a single name on a database of abusers.
Lakeside Church leaders said they plan to re-evaluate and institute their own even more rigorous processes including “to do everything possible to encourage national leaders to exercise their spiritual responsibility, identify perpetrators in the churches, and stop this from happening again,” the statement read.
The statement added that the church informed other church leaders and encouraged anyone with direct information to contact law enforcement.
Lakeside Baptist Church partners with Ministerio Seguro, according to the church statement.
MinistrySafe provides child sexual abuse prevention resources for churches, ministries, schools, camps, and ministry programs of all types.
Lakeside leaders said MinistySafe will assist pastoral and lay leaders in evaluating the events leading to Cunningham’s legal problems and to provide the best safeguards for the church’s children and members.
Sheila Stogsdill is a freelance print journalist and digital reporter, primarily covering crime issues for KSN/KODE.
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13 Respuestas
I continue to read the quotes in the SBC clergy sex abuse articles stating that if a database existed then this would not have happened. Seriously people, they have to get caught to be placed on a list. If they have not been caught, then they will not be on anybody’s list. If they were caught…a clearly vetted background check coupled with thorough references will do the job. While I have nothing against a database, I am just not sure it is that simple for a denomination that states that the local church is autonomous (i.e. the SBC). I know it probably does not make sense to non-systems thinkers, but if the SBC Executive Committee creates such a list then it begins to walk the fine line of being a hierarchical denomination where the top controls who can and cannot be hired by a church. Just my two cents worth.
Jeff: In the nicest way I can you do not know what you are talking about. The statement-churches in the SBC are autonomous is not true. Call a woman as a pastor and see how autonomous your church is. You are advocating the SBC do nothing-which is what they have done for decades as it relates to sexual abuse. Finally the common denominator in these many current stories is SBC Pastor charged with sexual abuse.
As a member of a SBC church myself. I know for a fact that SBC considers themselves and the churches in the SBC to be autonomous. The reason I know that is because they say so themselves. I go to a rather large SBC church in Kentucky. I won’t name the church. But I will say that I sent an email last month to Kentucky Baptist Convention which falls under the SBC regarding some unfair treatment and ableism and discrimination that I was experiencing at my church. I got a response later that day saying that the KBC regarded themselves as autonomous. And they didn’t get involved with non criminal actions that involved church staff members. So I then emailed the SBC and got the exact response. So they definitely think of themselves as autonomous. The SBC does have core beliefs that they expect the churches under them to follow. Which is outlined in the Baptist Faith and Message. Which is on their website.
Ashley: The KBC and SBC and local Association can claim all churches are autonomous, but it does not make it so. Let any SBC church call a woman or a LBQT person and watch that churches autonomy go out the window. The bottom line is sexual abuse has been going on for decades in the SBC and those that could do something about it make lame excuses like autonomy.
The SBC admitted that it DID keep a database, not only of convicted abusers, but also suspected and moved pastors. People who resigned quietly (as is their pattern) with no police action, or who were accused but not taken to trial for any number of reasons.
the sbc kept the database. https://sbcec.s3.amazonaws.com/FINAL+-+List+of+Alleged+Abusers+-+SBC+REDACTED.pdf
A question relating to Lakeside Baptist Church’s statement, “We believe that, if the Southern Baptist Convention had a working database for offenders, we would have never been exposed to Mr. Cunningham.” Is there any documented information prior to the investigated alleged 2016-2018 incidents that would have been in the SBC database if it existed, especially considering that the National Sex Offender web site (nsopw.gov) has no information from registries relating to Luke Cunningham before the alleged incidents in this article?
Oh look at that, another outstanding Baptist “pastor”?. Wait, let me find my surprise face……
I bet he was hired over a well-qualified and better suited woman. Rather, it’s gender at all cost over morality/character/godliness in a woman.
They will even hire devil in human form over a qualified woman.
Seeds of evil doers, corrupt children who call evil good; dark light; bitter sweet.
Wisdom shall be vindicated and justified by her children.
You might want to go to your prayer closet and ask Christ to help you with your bitterness. Just a thought.
How would you know there was a better-qualified woman for the job? Were you involved in the hiring? You can carp all you want, but biblically, women are not allowed to be the Pastor of a church. It isn’t misogyny, it isn’t sexism, it isn’t any kind of ism, biblically. Are there some men who want to keep women out of ministry because they feel threatened? I am sure there are. But that does not mean that is the reason in every single case.
Because there is ALWAYS a better qualified woman for the job. probably doing most of the work already anyways.
Also, I’d encourage you to study those scriptures in context and learn about the history of the early church in which they were written- you might land in a different place on “women are not allowed to be the pastor of a church”- because the early church certainly did. Jesus certainly did.
I have been working in schools and volunteering in churches since the early 80s. If you haven’t been charged or convicted of anything, you won’t have any aberrant behavior to check. A person may have been charged, but the charges may have been dropped. You can’t put people on a list unless they really have been convicted. Of course, if a church is called they might mention their suspicions, but they might be open to a lawsuit for badmouthing an “innocent” person.
I continue to be amazed when people like Karen make excuses for the SBC. Karen are you a practicing attorney?
I don’t think she is making any excuses for the SBC, just pointing out that the database would not be the end-all be-all of stopping abuse
You realize the majority of these perverts aren’t convicted of their crimes? They’re just shuffled from place to place to cover it up. This is why we need a database containing all complaints against leadership, so the next church can look up a potentially new pastor within it to see if the person is an abuser, or not. “Alleged” covers many legal ramifications. Are you more worried about an abuser suing the church, or keeping abusers away from victims?