Pastor abuses, impregnates NJ church member, tells her to get abortion, feds say
The self-proclaimed pastor of a New Jersey church, which he founded with his wife, “spread fear” among members through religious rhetoric and forced them into unpaid labor, including one woman he repeatedly physically and sexually abused, federal prosecutors said.
Treva Edwards, 60, impregnated the woman he sexually assaulted inside his church over a span of seven years, then told her to get an abortion, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey.
He and his wife, Christine Edwards, 63, who also described herself as a pastor, ran their church, “Jesus is Lord by the Holy Ghost,” out of an apartment building in Orange, where they lured people into becoming members as part of a forced labor scheme between 2011 and 2020, according to prosecutors.
Individuals facing hardship in their lives were targeted by the Edwardses, who preached that they “would lose favor with God if they did not perform labor,” prosecutors said.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-...99771.html
Women allege children’s pastor sexually abused them as children
She adored her pastor and the rest is history
Victorian sisters abused by paedophile priest say High Court decision has halted quest for compensation
The sisters were abused by notorious paedophile priest Bryan Coffey — who is now dead — and the pair are pursuing the Catholic Church for compensation.
But the sisters' legal pursuit is in jeopardy after the High Court made it harder to find the church vicariously liable.
Coffey was never convicted of the women's abuse, but Trish received a letter of apology from the Ballarat bishop's office in 2015.
In 2021, another victim was awarded $200,000 by two Victorian courts, which found the church was vicariously liable for the harm caused by Coffey.
But the church appealed that ruling to the High Court and won, because Coffey was not an employee — instead, he had a relationship of a spiritual nature with the church.
The idea that Coffey was not an employee is fanciful, the sisters said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-14/v.../105286662
The self-proclaimed pastor of a New Jersey church, which he founded with his wife, “spread fear” among members through religious rhetoric and forced them into unpaid labor, including one woman he repeatedly physically and sexually abused, federal prosecutors said.
Treva Edwards, 60, impregnated the woman he sexually assaulted inside his church over a span of seven years, then told her to get an abortion, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey.
He and his wife, Christine Edwards, 63, who also described herself as a pastor, ran their church, “Jesus is Lord by the Holy Ghost,” out of an apartment building in Orange, where they lured people into becoming members as part of a forced labor scheme between 2011 and 2020, according to prosecutors.
Individuals facing hardship in their lives were targeted by the Edwardses, who preached that they “would lose favor with God if they did not perform labor,” prosecutors said.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-...99771.html
Women allege children’s pastor sexually abused them as children
She adored her pastor and the rest is history
Victorian sisters abused by paedophile priest say High Court decision has halted quest for compensation
The sisters were abused by notorious paedophile priest Bryan Coffey — who is now dead — and the pair are pursuing the Catholic Church for compensation.
But the sisters' legal pursuit is in jeopardy after the High Court made it harder to find the church vicariously liable.
Coffey was never convicted of the women's abuse, but Trish received a letter of apology from the Ballarat bishop's office in 2015.
In 2021, another victim was awarded $200,000 by two Victorian courts, which found the church was vicariously liable for the harm caused by Coffey.
But the church appealed that ruling to the High Court and won, because Coffey was not an employee — instead, he had a relationship of a spiritual nature with the church.
The idea that Coffey was not an employee is fanciful, the sisters said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-14/v.../105286662
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
