Assemblies of God General Council in Orlando Draws Attention to Abuse Scandal

Just last week in Orlando, the Assemblies of God, a Pentecostal denomination, held their General Council. It’s a meeting they have every year.

The president is a woman named Donna Barrett. She has been the general secretary since 2018.

She gave a speech where she recognized the victims of the sexual abuse scandal that broke a couple years ago in the Assemblies of God. And of course, the local news is all over this, portraying it as a cover up, asking why they waited until now to really discuss this.

The Daniel Salvo Case

The big name was a guy named Daniel Salvo. He may have abused hundreds of young boys for over a decade.

One victim spoke up, gave his name live on TV. He was very sad. He cried, but he wanted to make a difference. His name was Joseph Cleveland.

He says, “I just want them to repent. There was an internal investigation they refused to make public. They need to repent. The words they’re saying at this general council sound promising, but I don’t trust them. They haven’t done the right thing for the past 12 years.”

According to Joseph, they are just covering up. They don’t want the truth to come out.

Comparisons to the Southern Baptist Convention

This resembles what happened to the Southern Baptist Convention in 2021. Russell Moore, one of the top board members on the executive board, resigned because he found out the board was hiding abuse cases, not only from the public but even from him.

These groups work as independent churches. The Southern Baptist Convention has no authority over the local church. The Assemblies of God General Council has no authority over local churches either. They operate as a cooperative fellowship. As long as they agree on essentials of faith, they work together.

The General Council, led by Donna Barrett, certifies ministers, provides credentials, and organizes yearly meetings to decide on big issues.

Internal Disputes Over Women in Leadership

I belonged to Assemblies of God for a couple of years, maybe two or three at most. It was a very conservative church. They didn’t believe in women pastors, citing the Bible that a pastor should be a man.

But a lot of Assemblies of God churches are more liberal, with women pastors. You see they even have a woman head of the General Council, Donna Barrett.

The Southern Baptists are still holding the line on not having women pastors, though there are fights within the denomination.

The Broader Protestant Abuse Crisis

Most Assemblies of God pastors and Southern Baptist pastors are good, godly men. But they are making the same mistakes many organizations make — covering up abuse.

Kids are more important than reputation and money.

Whenever I speak on Protestant sexual abuse, critics throw past Catholic Church abuses in our face. But we recognized it. We repented. We know it was the worst crisis, but we dealt with it.

Baz Tjittivan, Billy Graham’s grandson, was assistant state attorney in Florida specializing in sex crimes. He later investigated religious sex crimes. He stated sexual abuse in Protestant and evangelical churches is two to three times worse than the Catholic Church has ever been.

Cherelle Shakeshift, hired to study abuse in U.S. public schools, concluded: “The Catholic Church has nothing on us.” Her study from 1991 to 2001 revealed nearly 300,000 cases, compared to 10,000 in the Catholic Church at its height.

Pope Francis and the Catholic Reforms

Investigative journalist Jason Berry, whose work inspired the film Spotlight, said Pope Francis brought greater transparency and safeguards to end the Catholic abuse crisis.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops found the main issue wasn’t celibacy, since many Protestant abusers like Daniel Salvo were married. The report identified homosexuality as the overwhelming factor, with 99.9% of abuse cases by homosexual men who entered ministry pretending otherwise.

Pope Francis told Italian bishops: “If you see a hint of femininity, you cannot let a man into the seminary.” He pushed for reforms to prevent future abuse.

In 1965, 78% of Catholic priests identified as progressive or liberal. By 2023, less than 2% did.

The abuse crisis was real and devastating, but Pope Francis solved it. In 2012, there were six credible allegations in the Catholic Church. By 2023, only three were reported nationwide, compared to 3,100 in the Chicago public school system alone.

Lessons for Assemblies of God and Southern Baptists

The Catholic Church implemented fingerprinting, background checks, and strict child safety rules. In Catholic schools, visitors need escorts, unlike in some Protestant schools.

We are not saying Catholics are better, but we repented and changed. Protestant denominations need to fully repent.

Victim Joseph Cleveland said the Assemblies of God have not repented in 12 years. He hopes they do, but so far he sees only talk.

Assemblies of God Growth vs. Catholic Growth

The Assemblies of God is one of the fastest-growing Protestant denominations with nearly 3 million members in the U.S. and about 80 million worldwide.

The Southern Baptist Convention remains the largest Protestant denomination in America, with about 13 million members, down from 16 million at their height.

The Catholic Church, by contrast, has 1.4 billion members worldwide. In the past 10 years, the Church has grown 9.9%, outpacing world population growth at 9.1%.

As Acts says, the Church broke bread daily, and God added to their numbers daily. Assemblies of God numbers grow daily, but Catholics are the only church that breaks bread daily, offering the literal flesh and blood of Jesus Christ seven days a week.