Pastor jailed for 'removing demons' sex attacks
A church pastor who sexually assaulted a female churchgoer under the pretence of "removing demons" from her body has been jailed for 10 years.
Walter Masocha, 61, groped the married woman at his home in Stirling, claiming he was a "gift from god".
Masocha founded his own church in Scotland in 2007 soon after moving from Zimbabwe.
He built Agape for All Nations Church into an international religious organisation with more than 2,000 members and appointed himself as archbishop.
One of his victims said most people in the church saw him as a father figure and referred to him as "Dad" or "Daddy".
The trial heard Masocha, an accountancy professor, had first targeted another of his victims, now aged 58, about 20 years ago at his home in Stirling.
She told the court how Masocha had ordered her to kiss his "holy lips" and attempted to justify putting his hand in her pants and groping her by claiming he was "removing demons" from her body.
A 39-year-old woman told how she was 20 when Masocha began sexually abusing her after she went to stay with his family.
She said Masocha repeatedly sexually assaulted her during that period by forcing her to touch him and slapping her on the bottom as she walked upstairs.
The woman said he later tried to rape her after taking her into his bedroom before managing to escape.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c206mp28exvo.amp
Mesa pastor accused of sexually abusing 16-year-old church member
A 61-year-old Mesa pastor was accused of molesting a 16-year-old member of the church who was meeting with him to help her grieve the recent loss of her brother.
The victim and her family were described in court documents as being friends with the pastor and his family. The victim and her mother had been “very involved” with Worship Life Center Church for several years, the document says.
Over the past year, the pastor made comments about the teenage victim’s body, documents say.
In early May, as the victim met with the pastor to grieve the loss of her brother, Jay touched her over her clothes, documents say. The contact escalated in subsequent meetings, documents say, with Jay asking her to share nude photos of herself with him.
The girl told police she felt disgusted, but she felt compelled to send the photos. She also said she was scared to tell her mother.
Jay, according to the court documents, asked the victim to “pinky promise” she would not tell anyone.
During a sermon on May 25, held on the birthday of “Pastor Stan,” days before he stepped down, Jay told members of his church he didn’t think he would “get to this point in life because of the life I’ve lived.”
In his sermon, Jay described himself as a three-time convicted felon.
Jay said during his sermon that he used to “smoke dope” and described being revived from a “concrete slab.”
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/loc...410250007/
A church pastor who sexually assaulted a female churchgoer under the pretence of "removing demons" from her body has been jailed for 10 years.
Walter Masocha, 61, groped the married woman at his home in Stirling, claiming he was a "gift from god".
Masocha founded his own church in Scotland in 2007 soon after moving from Zimbabwe.
He built Agape for All Nations Church into an international religious organisation with more than 2,000 members and appointed himself as archbishop.
One of his victims said most people in the church saw him as a father figure and referred to him as "Dad" or "Daddy".
The trial heard Masocha, an accountancy professor, had first targeted another of his victims, now aged 58, about 20 years ago at his home in Stirling.
She told the court how Masocha had ordered her to kiss his "holy lips" and attempted to justify putting his hand in her pants and groping her by claiming he was "removing demons" from her body.
A 39-year-old woman told how she was 20 when Masocha began sexually abusing her after she went to stay with his family.
She said Masocha repeatedly sexually assaulted her during that period by forcing her to touch him and slapping her on the bottom as she walked upstairs.
The woman said he later tried to rape her after taking her into his bedroom before managing to escape.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c206mp28exvo.amp
Mesa pastor accused of sexually abusing 16-year-old church member
A 61-year-old Mesa pastor was accused of molesting a 16-year-old member of the church who was meeting with him to help her grieve the recent loss of her brother.
The victim and her family were described in court documents as being friends with the pastor and his family. The victim and her mother had been “very involved” with Worship Life Center Church for several years, the document says.
Over the past year, the pastor made comments about the teenage victim’s body, documents say.
In early May, as the victim met with the pastor to grieve the loss of her brother, Jay touched her over her clothes, documents say. The contact escalated in subsequent meetings, documents say, with Jay asking her to share nude photos of herself with him.
The girl told police she felt disgusted, but she felt compelled to send the photos. She also said she was scared to tell her mother.
Jay, according to the court documents, asked the victim to “pinky promise” she would not tell anyone.
During a sermon on May 25, held on the birthday of “Pastor Stan,” days before he stepped down, Jay told members of his church he didn’t think he would “get to this point in life because of the life I’ve lived.”
In his sermon, Jay described himself as a three-time convicted felon.
Jay said during his sermon that he used to “smoke dope” and described being revived from a “concrete slab.”
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/loc...410250007/
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"
