A former Southern Baptist youth pastor, accused of sexually abusing teens, is selling an Advent devotional he wrote for parents to share with their children this Christmas.
D’Attoma is selling his Advent book called, “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus,” on his Instagram account.
“Each day contains a scripture, a short reading, a worship connection, and a parent connection to discuss with your children to be able to use this resource as an entire family!” wrote Michael D’Attoma on Instagram.
In two lawsuits and two police reports from different states, D’Attoma is facing allegations that he solicited inappropriate photos of multiple teenage girls while serving as a youth pastor. The West Columbia Police department in South Carolina has an open investigation on D’Attoma, Captain Matthew Deas told The Roys Report (TRR).
D’Attoma told TRR he has no comment about his Advent book, the lawsuits, and the police investigation.
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D’Attoma’s father, John D’Attoma, told TRR he is concerned publishing the book increases the pain his alleged victims are suffering.
“Based on what I’ve read in the court cases, it’s just unfortunate that there’s been no accountability for him, but these women have had to go through life with a scar,” John D’Attoma said. “We’d love to see some closure and we’d love to see some accountability.”
John D’Attoma and his wife run a nonprofit called Sexually Abused Children’s Relief Endeavor, (SACRED), to provide emergency funds through child advocacy centers for families trying to escape abusers.
Last year, a woman filed a police report in Ohio alleging D’Attoma solicited “half-naked” photos from her in 2007-2008. She was a teen in D’Attoma’s youth group when D’Attoma was youth pastor at Rural Chapel Methodist Church in Galena, Ohio.
The case fell outside of the statute of limitations and was closed, according to the Delaware County Sheriff’s Department’s police report.
In 2022, two women sued D’Attoma in the fifth judicial circuit court for Richland County, South Carolina. Filing as Jane Doe #1 and #2, they allege D’Attoma sexually abused them beginning in 2010 when they were teens in his youth group at Northside Baptist Church in Lexington, South Carolina.
D’Attoma worked as a youth pastor at Northside from 2009 to 2012. Both women allege D’Attoma groomed them, sent inappropriate texts, asked them to take off their clothes on Skype videocalls, and touched them inappropriately.
D’Attoma denied the allegations in court filings.
The South Carolina lawsuits were the first to claim the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) was responsible for the actions of an SBC church, following the landmark 2022 Guidepost Solutions investigative report. The report found the SBC had focused more on limiting liability than caring for abuse victims.
Jane Doe #1 and Jane Doe #2 sued not only D’Attoma and the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), but also the South Carolina Baptist Convention, and D’Attoma’s former employer, Northside Baptist Church. The lawsuit said all parties were negligent under the South Carolina Tort Claims Act in handling matters of abuse.
In February, Richland County Circuit Judge Clifton Newman dismissed Jane Doe #1’s case, according to court records. The judge determined the statute of limitations had already passed for the civil suit.
In April, Doe’s attorney Robert Phillips filed a motion to ask judge to reconsider his dismissal, arguing that South Carolina law grants some leniency for sexual abuse victims. Phillips argued that South Carolina’s statute of limitations is based not just on age, but on the victim’s realization of the connection between the offense and its injury.
Phillips added that D’Attoma attempted to downplay his behavior and discourage Doe from reporting the matter, delaying her case filing.
The judge hasn’t ruled yet on Phillips’ motion.
In November, Jane Doe #2’s case was scheduled for upcoming alternative dispute resolution (ADR), court records show. ADR is a step required by South Carolina law and doesn’t always end in a settlement, Phillips told TRR. Phillips dropped the SBC and South Carolina Baptist Convention in this suit due to the difficulty of penetrating ecclesiastical immunity, Phillips said.
Erin Dean, D’Attoma’s attorney, declined comment on the lawsuits.
D’Attoma posted a page from his devotional that encouraged people to trust in God when plans change.
“I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that some of you right now are facing something you didn’t plan to face this Christmas,” he wrote. “You didn’t plan to do what you did, or say what you said, and you didn’t plan to be spending Christmas without someone. . . . Regardless of what you’re walking in, God is not a stranger to where you are.”
Three years ago, D’Attoma authored a different devotional that was also controversial for a different reason.
A portion of his 2021 devotional called, “Living and Active, 100 Days in the Word,” is nearly identical to something written by author and former Bethlehem Baptist Church Pastor John Piper.
Piper wrote about anxiety in 1988, and his Desiring God Facebook page quoted it in 2018. He wrote:
When anxiety strikes and blurs our vision of God’s glory and the greatness of the future that he plans for us, this does not mean that we are faithless, or that we will not make it to heaven. It means our faith is being attacked. At first blow, our belief in God’s promises may sputter and swerve. But whether we stay on track and make it to the finish line depends on whether, by grace, we set in motion a process of resistance — whether we fight back against the unbelief of anxiety.
Similarly in “Living and Active,” D’Attoma wrote:
Anxiety has a strange way of blurring our vision of God’s glory and the future that He plans for us. This does not mean that we are faithless, it simply means our faith is being attacked. At first blow, our belief in God’s promises may sputter and swerve. But whether we stay on track and make it to the finish line depends on whether, by grace, we set in motion a process of resistance—whether we fight back against the unbelief of anxiety.
D’Attoma told TRR he had no comment regarding the similarity of his passage to Piper’s writing.
Rebecca Hopkins is a journalist based in Colorado.
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10 Responses
It’s not surprising that this man would celebrate false times, if/as he were false in other areas of his life. We have been celebrating the wrong “holi-days” also now for centuries – millennia, believing in the false father’s times and laws but thinking that we were celebrating them unto YHWH/Yahshua. The Birth of Yahshua actually occurred on Day 1 of the Feast of Sukkot, Tabernacles, in a booth prepared by Joseph (sukkah, tabernacle, manger, booth – all the same word in Hebrew), and He was then circumcised on Day 8: The Last Great Day of this Feast. Zechariah 14 warns that during the 1000 Year Shalom Reign of Yahshua on this earth, all who are remaining that came against Yerushalayim will be required to go up to Yerushalayim every fall season to celebrate this Time, or there will be no rain if one does not. It is High Time to begin this, now. And, also we were instructed by our Father YHWH, our Creator, to celebrate “Ingathering” or “Thanksgiving” on Day 1 of this Feast, also. Man (Rome, Babylon) has decided that these 7 Feasts of YHWH, HIs Seven Eyes of Fire, which His Son full-filled and continues to do so is not the correct times, and that the false father will decide on the times and laws, which is actually anti-Messiah and of which Daniel warned us in Daniel 7:25. (The false father’s times and laws only bring distress, penury, anxiety, with no rest, no Shabbat – Revelation 14:11.)
O Come Let Us Adore Him, Yahshua our Messiah, when HE says to celebrate Him and His Father – Father truly knows best! AMEN
There are real people who have been harmed by this man.
And yet you take opportunity to rant on about holy days, which ones are good and which ones are bad.
I’m curious how you inserted these comments here. Not sure how it relates to Daystar.
Also knowing what the New Testament says about these things:
Galatians 4:9-11 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.
Colossians 2:16-17 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
Correction, I did not mean to mention Daystar, but the accusations against this youth “pastor”
Too funny Tricia. The Daystar thing has become a bit overwhelming.
I agree with Steve Swan that it’s wildly inappropriate to comment on this story just to make a wider propagandist Hebrew Roots point.
Please always remember the heart of God for the victims of such crimes.
Also, it’s not true what you say re: the Hebrew word for “manger” (in Greek: φάτνη phatné i.e feeding trough).
There is no specific Hebrew word for “manger”.
In Proverbs 14:4, the word for “crib” is used, but it’s not the same as a feeding trough for animals.
We can say Jesus “tabernacles in us” in the sense of him indwelling the regenerate believer (2 Corinthians 13:5) through the Holy Spirit (John 14:16-17, Romans 8:9 etc).
Hence Jesus, the “sacrificial lamb” saying he is “the light (lampstand)”, “the door”, “the (shew)bread of life”, “living water” etc, all constituent parts of the Old Covenant tent/tabernacle (in Exodus).
He is the spiritual tabernacle IN us (regenerate Christians).
I ask you to also read the epistle to the Hebrews (especially chapters 8 thru 10).
Often, the evil ones run a charity/ministry that is actually doing the very things they state they are working to stop/help. Child sex trafficking done under the guise of rescuing, etc. It’s how the devil operates & has done from the beginning. God is bringing it into the light & revealing the truth.
Reading this it looks like it is the accused’s parents who runs the organization dedicated to helping those who have been sexually abused.
Plagiarism in the name of God. Just brilliant.
Selling a Christmas devotional after being accused of sexual abuse. If that’s not gall and hubris, it’ll have to do for the moment.