FL pastor charged with sending explicit texts to girl, 15 | Miami Herald

A Central Florida pastor was jailed Tuesday and charged with obscene communication with a minor and cruelty toward a child for transmitting harmful information.

According to Marion County Sheriff’s Office Detective Craig Evans, youth pastor Christopher Patrick, 30, associated with Grace Baptist Church in Belleview, near Ocala, sent sexually explicit text messages to a 15-year-old girl.

The teen, who was in a junior high youth program run by Patrick and his wife Alison at the church, received explicit texts and images on her phone allegedly from the pastor.

Patrick was turned in by a parent who saw the messages and images on the phone. The parent told a high school resource officer and that launched the sheriff’s department investigation.

FL pastor charged with sending explicit texts to girl, 15 | Miami Herald

Youth minister arrested in TN sex sting gets chance to clear conviction

Knox County Criminal Court Judge Steve Sword put his personal doubts aside Tuesday and gave a disgraced former youth minister who pleaded guilty to soliciting an underage girl for sex the chance to clear his criminal record.

Jason Evan Kennedy was sentenced to 30 days in jail and six years of supervised probation, with eligibility for judicial diversion.

If he successfully completes that probationary term, he will have the opportunity to erase the felony conviction for solicitation of a minor for commercial sex from his record, and have his name removed from the state's sexual offender registry.

Youth minister arrested in TN sex sting gets chance to clear conviction

Grace Baptist Church To Give Away AR-15 Semi-Automatic Rifle For Second Amendment Rights

And here we go,,,

Pastor John Koletas of Grace Baptist Church is out to show his community's support for hunters and gun enthusiasts who, he said, "have been so viciously attacked by the antichristian socialist media and antichristian socialist politicians the last few years."

Gun ownership and regulation has been a divisive topic in recent years, with the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School spurring a cry for stricter gun control laws. Koletas criticizes what he sees as an "attack" on gun owners and, as a result, on Second Amendment rights, saying "Our country was built with the King James Bible and the gun."

"I'm just trying to be a blessing and a help to the gun owners and the hunters and give away a free AR-15," Koletas told Times Union. "It's the right thing to do."

Grace Baptist Church To Give Away AR-15 Semi-Automatic Rifle For Second Amendment Rights