A Southern Baptist state association leader and “pastor to pastors” in north central Louisiana has been arrested and charged with 16 counts of sex crimes against minors.
Daryl Ray Stagg, 60, of Pollock, was arrested last Thursday in Grant Parish, Louisiana, on 12 felony sex crimes. The initial charges included three counts each of first-degree rape, oral sexual battery, aggravated crimes against nature, and indecent behavior with juveniles. On Monday, authorities in nearby Union Parish announced a fourth count of each of these felony crimes had been added to charges against Stagg, following another alleged victim coming forward.
Stagg is being held at Grant Parish Detention Center on a $500,000 bond. A Third District judge set an additional retainer of $950,000 in Union Parish, if Stagg were to make bond in Grant Parish.
At a press conference on Monday involving sheriffs from three area parishes, Union Parish Sheriff Dusty Gates stated the crimes involved “young children.” Gates said: “These are very heinous crimes. We want to work hard to get this individual off the street and not have him be able to return to society.” The current allegations go back “several years,” but not decades, he added.
Since 2018, Stagg has served as the associational mission strategist, or “pastor to pastors,” for the Baptist Mission Center. The center includes two associations affiliated with the Louisiana Baptist Convention—the Big Creek Baptist Association and CenLa Baptist Association.
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Stagg’s role involved providing resources to pastors and leaders of 92 churches and ministries affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) across central Louisiana, according to the ministry’s website.
In a statement to a local news outlet, the Louisiana Baptist Convention (LBC) noted that Stagg has not been their employee and that the convention has no “knowledge of the particular facts of these allegations and is not involved in the incidents alleged.” The statement added: “Our prayers are with all those involved for an appropriate and healing resolution to this matter.”
In the 2021 Annual Report of the LBC, Stagg’s name appears multiple times, including as a member of the LBC’s Church Site Corporation Committee.
Prior to his current role in Louisiana, Stagg served in a similar role in an SBC association in central Missouri, according to his LinkedIn profile. From 2005 to 2012, he served as a domestic missionary in Lake County, Illinois, for the SBC’s North American Mission Board (NAMB).
In a statement to The Roys Report (TRR) received after initial publication of this article, a spokesperson for NAMB stated that “Daryl Stagg was never employed by NAMB, however he was a NAMB-funded missionary until 2012 in Illinois serving through the state convention.”
The statement added that the NAMB “repudiates abuse in any form. We grieve for victims of any crime committed by Daryl Stagg and encourage anyone with first-hand knowledge of any crimes to contact law enforcement. Our prayers are with those who have been impacted by his actions.”
Stagg previously served as a pastor for 19 years prior to his role as “pastor to pastors,” according to a 2018 article. Stagg was a pastor in a succession of three Louisiana churches and pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Stagg has earned multiple degrees at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary including a doctorate in ministry completed in 2010.
TRR reached out to the LBC and Baptist Mission Center but did not receive a response.
At the press conference on Monday, Grant Parish Sheriff Steven McCain noted the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department in southeastern Wisconsin has also been involved in the investigation. He declined to provide specifics, saying, “This is too serious of a case to jeopardize the prosecution and the courts’ role in this.”
McCain added: “Our concern is that there are other children that have been hurt . . . Things may have occurred in other states across the nation. Our message (is): you are safe. Mr. Stagg is in jail. If you’ve been hurt by Daryl Stagg, you get in touch with us and we will do the rest.”
Grant Parish Sheriff’s Office can be reached at 318-627-3261 and has an online tip submission portal.
This story has been updated to include a statement from NAMB received after initial publication.
Freelance journalist Josh Shepherd writes on faith, culture, and public policy for several media outlets. He and his family live in the Washington, D.C. area.
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11 Responses
It seems that today’s church and “Christian” organizations are the “go to” place for sexual perverts, pedophiles, adulterers and deviants.
Reading the Roys Report has truly been an eye opener for me. There are some very sick perverted people hiding behind “the love of Jesus” as they commit unspeakable acts behind the scenes.
Sadly, you are quite right
“today’s church” this has been going on for many MANY decades, they have been lying, covering it up and discrediting the victims all this time…there is nothing new about it.
What troubles me is that they are indistinguishable from every other good church member in their congregation. Why is it that no discerning believer or prayer warrior ever seems able to perceive through the Holy Spirit who these (mostly) men are before they act out their heinous behavior?
It is amazing to me that the SBC convention is so focused on women pastors, when this is commonplace and largely ignored. They just throw up their hands and say “but what can we do?” when men abuse children, but bring out the pitchforks and excommunicate churches when women dare to preach. The whole lot will be judged severely based on the end bit of Matthew 25. Goats enabling goats.
Why do we keep doing this? Churches, schools, scouting, etc, are exactly where pedophile predators go to find victims. Why aren’t we looking for them there? Why do we have to have these crimes happen before we notice?
At least at churches, it keeps happening because there are systems in place that protect the men who abuse, and don’t go after them because of “grace and forgiveness” and because they’re “doing the Lords work”. They get a pass, leave quietly, and move on to abuse somewhere else. Because they haven’t been prosecuted, nothing shows up on background checks. we give “men of god” the benefit of every doubt at churches.
what is happening at the SBC gathering right now is exactly why this happens. They’re so focused on expelling churches for having women pastors, but enable and dismiss abusers over and over again. Men certainly aren’t handling the responsibility of shepherding well- maybe the solution IS to let the women lead. There would certainly be less abuse.
In the 1970’s, a very large Baptist church in my hometown abruptly dismissed its pastor. A friend of mine whose parents were very prominent in the church told me that the pastor (as I would put it now) had trespassed against a child. We know that the tares and the wheat grow together but how is it that men with this proclivity so often rise to the office of pastor? The idea, often conveyed in a variety of ways in churches, that women and children generally owe “men” submission is a dangerous idea and is part of the problem.
It is simple. What we call a pastor in modern days and what the Bible called a pastor 2 millennia ago are not the same thing. Not even close. This is such a basic problem that there is no fixing it without a radical change in how we in the West do church.
Your statement assumes that this is a new problem. I highly doubt that is the case. “There is no new thing under the sun.”
But what is his stance on women pastors?