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Former Professor at Brite Divinity School in Texas Arrested for Alleged Possession of Child Pornography

By Sheila Stogsdill
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Charles Bellinger has been arrested for alleged possession of child pornography. (Photo: Tarrant County Jail)

A former professor of Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, Texas, has been arrested for alleged possession of child pornography and remains jailed.

Charles Bellinger, 62, was taken into custody on Oct. 2, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. He remains in the Tarrant County Jail on Thursday waiting for a bond to be set.

Internet Crimes Against Children Unit detectives, Texas Christian University (TCU) police, and United States Secret Service special agents searched Bellinger’s house in Arlington and at his university office on campus, the newspaper reported.

By Thursday afternoon, Bellinger’s name and biography had been removed from the school’s webpages.

Brite Divinity School is the seminary of TCU and is located on TCU’s campus. However, it has a separate board of trustees and its own dean.

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Brite Divinity School today released a statement, informing the public of Bellinger’s arrest and explaining their response.

We have been informed by law enforcement that Charles Bellinger, a former faculty member, was arrested yesterday for ‘Possession of Child Pornography.’ When Brite administration was made aware of this situation, we immediately initiated our own investigation, cooperated with law enforcement, shut down his access to school technology, personnel, and facilities, and placed him on immediate administrative leave before terminating his employment shortly thereafter.

The statement added that Bellinger “did not teach a single class after we learned of the concern.”

“The alleged behavior is repugnant and the antithesis of our values as an institution,” the statement continued.

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Statement from Brite Divinity School, the seminary of Texas Christian University (Screengrab)

According to Bellinger’s biography in Life & Learning, an annual Brite faculty publication, Bellinger is Theological Librarian and Associate Professor of Theology and Ethics at Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University. His degrees are from Portland State University, Pacific School of Religion, University of Virginia, University of Illinois, and Texas Christian University.

Bellinger’s papers, books and blogs have a theme of confronting evil.

“The evil in the pro-choice position lies principally in its indefensible violence, which in turn produces a cultural atmosphere characterized by rancor, spiritual ugliness, and emotional pain,” Bellinger’s Life & Learning paper states.

In a Dec. 17, 2016, blog, Bellinger retells the Biblical story of the prophet Nathan, confronting King David exposing his hypocrisy.

“When the prophet exposes David’s hypocrisy, we are seeing that precise moment of self-knowledge that is at the heart of the Bible’s transforming power in human history,” Bellinger writes. “We human beings careen through our lives, going along our moralistic way, until we are interrupted by moments of grace that are simultaneously moments of judgment.”

Sheila Stogsdill is a freelance print journalist and digital reporter, primarily covering crime issues for KSN/KODE.

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8 Responses

  1. I recently expressed my surprise on the number of Christians with PhD’s being in the news for the wrong reasons. After Oklahoma Baptist pastor Bertheophilus Maurice Bailey, you now have this man and Christian Scholar Vince Bantu. And, these men are now included in the infamous list along with Steve Lawson, Gilbert Bilezikian, Byron Yawn, Tony Evans, Art Azurdia, Ronnie Goines, James H. Swanson, Daryl Ray Stagg, Bruce Douglas Konold, Michigan Episcopal Bishop Prince Singh, Mike Breen, Johnny Hunt (honorary doctorate), Thomas Minar, John Robert Griffin III, Lawrence “Clay” Hopkins, and Joseph Krol.

    1. Ok, this Bellinger does indeed have a PhD.

      The Bailey guy doesn’t. Neither does Steve Lawson, by the way. They both have DMins. Different degree. Not all doctorates are PhDs.

      1. My bad. I think I should have worded “why do those with Doctorates “ rather than “those with PhD’s”.

  2. The headline makes it look like Brite was a former Brite staff member rather than a current one that was just fired. Seems a bit misleading to me, though perhaps it was unintentional. Until October 2nd (yesterday) he was a faculty member apparently.

    1. Another perspective, Fred: I use pronouns in my email signature and other communications because my name is unisex. I have had several awkward circumstances when people assumed they were communicating with a male based on my name. It was actually the unisex name concept that led to my team adding pronouns to our email signatures before all the LGBTQIA “hype” – for context, I work with men named Courtney, Jamie, Stacy, and Ashley, and women named Pat and Ezra.

      Please be careful about throwing around assumptions.

    2. Most “divinity” schools these days are anything but. TCU is affiliated with the Disciples of Christ, a decidedly “progressive” sect, so it’s no wonder.

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