For some reason, whatever Christians do is: 1) All the time in agreement with the holy spirit, and 2) All the time in agreement with the bible.
CONCORD, N.H. — Tina Anderson was a scared 15-year-old when she was summoned by church leaders to stand before her congregation and apologize for getting pregnant out of wedlock.
Just minutes earlier in that evening service in 1997, a longtime church member admitted publicly that he had been unfaithful to his wife.
Now, 13 years later, Ernie Willis is charged with raping Anderson, and police are investigating what church leaders knew about the assault and whether they shipped Anderson out of state to keep the matter quiet.
When the pastor heard Anderson's allegations, he told her that if she had "lived in the Old Testament," she would have been stoned to death for not reporting the attack sooner.
"He also said I had 'allowed myself to be put in a compromising situation,' Anderson said. The pastor decided she needed to be "church-disciplined."
"I was completely humiliated," Anderson said, her voice quavering at the memory. "I hoped it was a nightmare I'd wake up from, and it wouldn't be true anymore."
The Associated Press does not generally identify victims of sexual assault, but Anderson asked that her name be made public. Several witnesses to the church service involving Willis and Anderson recounted details to The Associated Press.
Willis, 51, of Guilford, will be arraigned June 16 on sexual assault charges. He was released on a $100,000 personal-recognizance bond after his arrest last week. A message left on a cell phone linked to him was not returned. A woman who answered the phone at a number listed to him said he no longer lived there. Court documents do not list an attorney.
Concord police also are weighing whether to bring obstruction-of-justice charges against anyone who may have concealed the girl's location during the initial investigation, which authorities say they were forced to shelve when there was no victim to testify.
After all these years, Anderson decided to come forward after she was contacted by a Concord police detective in February.
She told police she started baby-sitting for Ernie and Tammie Willis' children when she was 14. When she was 15, Willis volunteered to teach her to drive after her mother refused to do so.
During one of those driving sessions, she says, Willis pulled her into the back seat in a parking lot and assaulted her. The second attack occurred weeks later, when she said Willis came to her house, pushed her onto a couch and raped her again.
Anderson said she realized several months later that she was pregnant, and her mother took her to the pastor at Trinity Baptist Church for counseling.
This week, Pastor Chuck Phelps said he reported the accusation to police and child welfare authorities within a day of his conversation with Anderson and her mother. He would not discuss the church discipline session or his role in relocating her to Colorado to live with a family of another independent fundamentalist Baptist congregation.
Police refused to release any reports, citing the ongoing investigation.
Oh so they even further punish the girl by sending her to another fundamental Church?
Here's the source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gcKuFXet0XK6WOFgLmwLnVu4tUrwD9FVDVT01
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