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October 22, 2025

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November 7, 2025

Nov. 7, 2025, 5:00 AM ESTBy Mike HixenbaughThis article is part of “Pastors and Prey,” a series investigating sex abuse allegations in the Assemblies of God.The Assemblies of God is facing calls for reform and repentance after an NBC News investigation revealed decades of sexual abuse allegations and alleged cover-ups within the world’s largest Pentecostal denomination.The report last week identified nearly 200 ministers, church employees and volunteer leaders accused of sexually abusing more than 475 people, most of them children, over the past half-century. In dozens of cases, the investigation found, Assemblies of God churches returned accused offenders to ministry — freeing them to abuse again.In response, several Assemblies of God pastors said they were praying for a reckoning within their ranks. One urged the denomination to enter a season of repentance; another announced he was leaving in protest.“I cannot in good conscience remain credentialed with the Assemblies of God,” the minister, Trevor Walker, wrote in an email Wednesday to denomination leaders. “I pray that greater light and humility will one day prevail in addressing abuse within the church.”Walker was one of 10 current and former Assemblies of God ministers who shared their views with NBC News. Reporters also heard from several alleged victims and longtime congregants. Their reactions ranged from outrage and grief to deep disappointment. Some said they hoped the reporting would prompt change.The Children’s Pastor: The 40-year mission to stop a preacher accused of raping children42:24“Maybe this will be the thing that turns the corner,” said Krystopher Scroggins, an Assemblies of God minister who leads a college ministry in San Angelo, Texas. “You can’t have this amount of light shining in your dark corners and not want to clean your house.”The General Council of the Assemblies of God, the denomination’s U.S. governing body, released a video statement last week taking issue with the NBC News report and asserting its commitment to child protection.“The Assemblies of God grieves with anyone who has been hurt by the actions of an abuser,” said General Superintendent Doug Clay, the denomination’s top national leader. “The General Council of the Assemblies of God is committed to child safety and has an established track record of leadership in this area.”Standing beside him, General Secretary Donna Barrett defended the denomination’s policies, reiterating that it requires background checks of credentialed ministers and screens out any found to have sexually abused children.‘Pastors and Prey’: NBC News investigates sex abuse in Assemblies of God churchesAssemblies of God churches shielded accused predators — and allowed them to keep abusing children.A revered missionary who was also a convicted sex offender urged generations of Chi Alpha members to get naked in his Houston sauna.Assemblies of God church leaders allowed a children’s pastor to continue preaching for years after he was accused of sexually abusing girls.An NBC News documentary traces the 40-year fight to stop a preacher accused of raping children.Some pastors praised the Assemblies of God for vetting credentialed ministers but were troubled by a significant gap noted in NBC News’ report: Under denominational policy, only a church’s lead pastor is required to hold ministerial credentials — meaning other staff, such as youth pastors or music ministers, can be hired without national oversight or background checks.Jim Line, who leads a small church in St. Marys, Pennsylvania, said he’s concerned that this lack of supervision can allow individuals with troubling histories to return to ministry roles.“If you bring in somebody who’s a minister of music or youth pastor and they’re not credentialed, I don’t know what your background is,” said Line, who added that he otherwise thought the Assemblies of God’s policies are strong. “I do have a problem with that.”NBC News contacted each elected member of the denomination’s Executive Presbytery, which serves as a national board of directors, but none agreed to comment.At least a few of the Assemblies of God’s 66 district councils, which oversee church affairs on a state or regional level, sent emails to ministers responding to the reporting. One district office implored every pastor in the region to voluntarily adopt child safety policies; another called the reporting “heartbreaking” and encouraged ministers to watch the General Council’s response.For some inside the denomination, the video statement fell short, confirming fears that leadership is unwilling to confront what they see as systemic failures.California pastor Anthony Scoma called on Assemblies of God leaders to repent for failures that allowed alleged abusers to remain in ministry.Courtesy Anthony ScomaAnthony Scoma, an Assemblies of God pastor in San Francisco who previously served as a district leader in north Texas, said failures that allowed sex offenders to return to ministry can’t be fixed with policy changes alone. He called for “churchwide, denominationalwide repentance” in response to the NBC News report.“As long as the Assemblies of God, led by our leaders, refuses to repent over a culture of abuse, the media, the courts, public opinion will continue to expose all these things,” Scoma said. “Because it’s not actually them that’s exposing it — it’s God. It’s the spirit of truth that is bringing these things to light.”Among the most forceful reactions came from Walker, the minister who resigned his credentials after two decades in the Assemblies of God. Walker said he had already left his church in Midlothian, Virginia, in 2023 over its handling of a family member’s abuse allegations but had maintained his credentials and hoped to one day return to ministry.The NBC News report and the denomination’s response — which Walker described as “sterile,” “impersonal” and “devoid of accountability or compassion” — finally convinced him to step away for good.“If they would have said, ‘Many people have been hurt over the years under our watch, and we regret that, but we’re working toward making it better,’ that would have been enough for me,” Walker said.Other ministers criticized a 2021 decision by the General Council to reject a resolution that would have added language to the bylaws stating that a credentialed minister or church could be expelled or disciplined for failing to enforce safeguards like background checks and mandatory reporting of abuse. Ministers declined to adopt the policy after lawyers for the denomination warned that it could expose the General Council to costly lawsuits.One senior official said at the time that the legal risk “outweighed the benefit.”That remark brought to mind a passage from the Book of Matthew, said Scroggins, in which Jesus warned that a person cannot serve both God and mammon — or money.“When your guiding thought is, ‘We don’t want to implement this policy that will protect children because we don’t want to lose a lot of money in potential lawsuits,’ that to me is, you’re worshipping money,” Scroggins said. “And that’s heartbreaking.”Barrett, the Assemblies of God’s general secretary, defended the 2021 decision in the video response last week. She said the denomination’s structure gives churches broad autonomy to govern themselves, which she said “makes it impossible” for the General Council to “give oversight” to local congregations. “It is absurd to think that anyone at 2021 General Council was opposed to child safety,” Barrett said.Former Assemblies of God pastor Dan Matlock called that explanation hypocritical and “frankly, pardon me, bulls—.”Former pastor Dan Matlock criticized the Assemblies of God for saying it can’t force local churches to adopt policies to protect children.Courtesy Dan MatlockIn 2020, Matlock’s church in Kyle, Texas, announced it would affirm LGBTQ members and perform same-sex weddings. Within days, Assemblies of God district officials moved to revoke his ministerial credential and expel the church for adopting views “contradictory to historical Christian beliefs and our AG doctrinal positions,” according to a letter reviewed by NBC News.Matlock said the episode showed that the Assemblies of God can exercise control over local church policies — when it’s important to them.“I am not convinced in the least that what they are most concerned about is congregants’ safety,” he said.Among rank-and-file Assemblies of God congregants, reactions to the NBC News report ranged from heartbreak to hope.Charity True, a longtime Assemblies of God member in Illinois, said “Jesus would be flipping tables” at the Assemblies of God’s national office.“If my local church didn’t have their act already together, then last Sunday would have been my last Sunday inside of an Assemblies of God church,” True said in an email, referring to her congregation’s stringent child safety policies. “I just pray this will bring change at a national level.”For survivors, the revelations were deeply personal, reviving painful memories and exposing a pattern of abuse, silence and cover-ups.Cheryl Almond, who says her pastor molested her in the late 1970s, said she was “shocked” by NBC News’ report.September Dawn Bottoms for NBC NewsCheryl Almond spent decades attending Assemblies of God churches in Oklahoma — even after she says her pastor, Joe Campbell, sexually abused her as a teen in the late 1970s. After other children came forward in the 1980s to allege abuse, Campbell was allowed to keep preaching for years before the denomination finally removed him in 1989, NBC News reported in May.Almond said she was devastated by the latest report, which she said confirmed a long-held fear: What happened at her childhood church wasn’t isolated. “This has been allowed to happen to far too many kids, and for far too long,” she said.In calling for change at the national level, Almond pointed to Jesus’ parable of the shepherd who leaves 99 sheep to rescue one that has gone astray — a lesson about valuing every life.“The Assemblies of God isn’t doing that,” she said. “They’re saying that safeguarding the 99 is more important than protecting the one. ‘That vulnerable child can fend for themselves. We’ve got a church to protect from lawsuits.’”“It’s wrong,” she added. “It’s not biblical, and it’s disgusting.”Mike HixenbaughMike Hixenbaugh is a senior investigative reporter for NBC News, based in Maryland, and author of “They Came for the Schools.” Elizabeth Chuck contributed.

October 3, 2025

Doctor describes working in ER after LDS church shooting

September 28, 2025

Sept. 28, 2025, 5:00 AM EDTBy Berkeley Lovelace Jr.Last winter, Brian Noonan read online that some doctors were prescribing an obscure drug, typically given to cancer patients, for autism. Curious, he looked into it for his son Benjamin, who had just been diagnosed with autism in October.“We jumped on it,” Noonan said. “It felt right and it made sense.”The medication was leucovorin, also called folinic acid. It’s a synthetic form of vitamin B9 or folate, which the body needs to make healthy blood cells. During pregnancy, folate is important to reduce the risk of birth defects.Last Monday, the drug was thrust into the national spotlight by President Donald Trump in a rambling press conference about autism that mainly focused on the president and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s claim that taking acetaminophen during pregnancy could cause autism. Trump briefly mentioned that an “existing drug” — referring to leucovorin — may help with certain symptoms of autism. For those in the autism community, leucovorin is not new. Dr. Richard Frye, a behavioral child neurologist in Phoenix has studied leucovorin and autism for two decades. He made clear that it is not a cure for autism and that more research is needed. He does, however, prescribe it to some people with autism.Noonan’s son Benjamin, who is 4 years old, is one of Frye’s patients. “He’s higher functioning,” Noonan said. “He’s verbal, but he really struggled to put together sentences.” Since starting on the medicine, the family believes Benjamin’s speech has improved, though he still has difficulties with hyperactivity and impulsiveness.Still, Noonan added, he’s under no impression that the drug is a miracle pill. Benjamin also attends a behavioral program preparing him for kindergarten, Noonan said, and he plans to enroll him in speech and occupational therapy. “We very, very much understand we’re still taking an experimental medication,” he said. The Noonan family. Benjamin, 4, who has autism, has used leucovorin.Courtesy of Brian NoonanOther families say the drug conferred larger benefits.Ben Blomgren, of Minneapolis, said his 11-year-old son, Josh, had been prescribed leucovorin off-label in February after he was at risk of being kicked out of school, even as they tried behavioral modification methods.“He’s pretty severe,” Blomgren said. “He didn’t have any language skills. He was not toilet trained.” After starting the medication, Blomgren said Josh’s sleep improved, he’s fully toilet trained and he’s stopped running away from them. “It wasn’t overnight, but we saw major improvement,” he said. Yomarie Miranda, of Florida, said she saw improvements in her 7-year-old son Ethan after he started the medication, including following instructions in class.Ethan was prescribed the medication off label earlier this month, she said.“He’s now looking at me when I speak with him. He’s talking more than before with complete sentences,” she said.A highly unusual moveThe Food and Drug Administration first approved leucovorin in the 1980s to help reduce the toxic side effects of certain chemotherapy drugs.In the decades since, researchers have also studied whether it might treat cerebral folate deficiency (CFD), a neurological condition that makes it harder for folate to reach the brain. Some children with autism also have cerebral folate deficiency, which neurologists say can affect speech, mood and behavior. Last Monday, the FDA said it planned to update the drug’s label to include that use.But the agency’s decision, experts say, rests on just a handful of small studies. And despite Trump’s endorsement, the maker of the brand-name version, GSK, has yet to submit an application to the agency to change the label. In a statement, GSK said it will be submitting the request to expand the approval to include cerebral folate deficiency, though the statement does not mention autism. (Because leucovorin is already an FDA-approved drug, doctors have been able to prescribe it “off label” for other uses, though insurance may not cover it.) It’s a highly unusual move for the FDA: pushing a drug for chemotherapy side effects as a therapy for autism without a formal submission and limited evidence.“It’s incredibly irresponsible,” said Dr. Aaron Kesselheim, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. “For 60-plus years, we’ve counted on the FDA to help patients distinguish between products that work and products that don’t work. And here we saw the FDA making an announcement relying on a summary of unclear data and announcing that they had already decided to approve it.”Alycia Halladay, chief science officer at the nonprofit Autism Science Foundation, was frustrated by the implication that this is a breakthrough in autism research.“It’s not like scientists have just been staring at their belly buttons for 20 years, not looking at autism treatments,” Halladay said in an interview earlier this week. “They have, but the standards have been very high to get [treatments] approved.”Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the FDA, said in a statement: “Analysis across 23 publications from 2009-2024 demonstrated the effectiveness for CFD. Overall, 85% of patients experienced some type of clinical benefit including improved speech/communication capabilities.” Nixon’s statement did not mention autism, and he did not respond to follow-up questions.David Mandell, a psychiatry professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said HHS’ claim that 85% of patients experienced a benefit is a “quite a conceptual leap” because it assumes people with cerebral folate deficiency also have autism.Cerebral folate deficiency “is an extremely rare event, and it is accompanied by symptoms of epilepsy, really severe neurodevelopmental problems and some of those symptoms can look like autism, but it’s not,” he said.“I could not think of a single FDA approval that has such weak evidence in the past 20 years,” Mandell added.Frye, the Phoenix neurologist, estimates up to three-quarters of autistic children have antibodies linked to cerebral folate deficiency, based on his research. Other estimates are much lower: Alycia Halladay, chief science officer at the nonprofit Autism Science Foundation, put the rates at roughly 10% to 30%.The studies on leucovorin are small but look interesting, said Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former FDA commissioner.“It certainly merits follow up,” Gottlieb said.One of the studies was conducted by Frye: a placebo-controlled trial of more than 40 children with the antibodies, published in Molecular Psychiatry in 2018. It found around two-thirds of kids who got the drug saw improvements in verbal communication after 12 weeks. Others saw no changes. The children all had language impairments, as well as a common type of autism that’s not linked to other neurological diseases.Mandell, however, said the results shouldn’t be taken as evidence.“They claim that in certain subgroups of kids in their already small sample, they find these very large effects,” he said, adding that larger-scale trials that establish clear outcomes ahead of time are needed to verify the results. Kesselheim said it’s important for patients to have access to medications that could have a benefit, especially when there is an unmet medical need. But, he said, there are still a number of unanswered questions.“There is no accurate testing for this,” he said. “What are low folate levels? What are normal folate levels? All of that stuff should be worked out.”Frye said he currently uses two methods to assess whether a child has a folate deficiency: a spinal tap — also known as a lumbar puncture — which involves inserting a needle into the lower back to collect fluid from the spinal cord, and a folate receptor antibody test originally developed for pregnant women that isn’t approved by the FDA for diagnosing folate deficiency in children. Edward Quadros, a research professor at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University who has worked with Frye studying leucovorin for autism, said parents are already trying the drug, including supplement versions, which aren’t regulated and can be dangerous.“By making the FDA approve it, and reputable pharmaceutical companies manufacturing it and selling it, at least it gives you quality dosing,” Quadros said.Berkeley Lovelace Jr.Berkeley Lovelace Jr. is a health and medical reporter for NBC News. He covers the Food and Drug Administration, with a special focus on Covid vaccines, prescription drug pricing and health care. He previously covered the biotech and pharmaceutical industry with CNBC.Aria Bendix contributed.

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