"I was brought up in a very religious, traditional Midwestern home," he told Ed Stetzer, a Wheaton College professor, in a 2013 interview for a video series. Long before his epic fall from grace, the pastor used his own struggles with sex and drugs to preach that anyone could find redemption in Jesus.īorn in 1955 and raised in Royal Oak, a suburb north of Detroit, he grew up in a strict Lutheran family but didn't buy into the church. "We need answers."Ĭoy's life story is biblical in scope and obvious in moral lessons. "There could be other victims out there," says Michael Newnham, an Oregon-based pastor who runs a blog critical of Calvary Chapel. Were there other abuse claims against Coy during the nearly three decades he controlled Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale? The church won't say, though a spokesman says the chapel was "saddened to hear of the allegations." That's not good enough, critics say. "I can't discuss it on the record," he said, before adding cryptically: "If you're foolish enough to go through with this story. He declined to discuss the child abuse case except to say he is innocent and passed a polygraph test to prove it. ( Update: The club has now terminated its relationship with Coy and says it had no inkling of the allegations against him.) Tracked down at the bar on a recent weeknight, the well-dressed ex-pastor looks no different from the days when he preached to thousands of followers. "If Calvary gives these pastors this much authority and they use and abuse it with no accountability, they have to blame themselves."Ĭoy, who was never charged with a crime, lay low after leaving Calvary but recently turned up at Boca Raton's Funky Biscuit, where he helps manage the club. "Religious leaders have a tremendous amount of power over their flock," says Scott Thumma, a professor of sociology of religion at Hartford Seminary who has studied the Calvary movement. In one case, victims claimed the church knowingly moved a pedophile to another city without warning parents. In fact, at least eight pastors, staffers, and volunteers in Calvary Chapel's network around the United States have been charged with abusing children since 2010. The revelations come at a sensitive moment for Calvary's national network of about 1,800 churches, which have been riven by legal infighting and dogged by claims that bad pastors have been allowed to run amok. His attorneys, meanwhile, persuaded a judge with deep Republican ties to seal the ex-pastor's divorce file to protect Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale from scrutiny. Documents show that Coral Springs cops sat on the accusations for months before dropping the inquiry without even interviewing Coy. The sexual assault claims, which have never before been divulged, raise new questions about the pastor, his church, and the police who handled the case. Coy shocked his flock and made national headlines by walking away from his ministry, selling his house, and divorcing his wife. With a sitcom dad's wholesome looks, a standup comedian's snappy timing, and an unlikely redemption tale of ditching a career managing Vegas strip clubs to find Jesus, Coy had become a Christian TV and radio superstar.īut then, in April 2014, he resigned in disgrace after admitting to multiple affairs and a pornography addiction. Over two decades, Coy had built a small storefront church into Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale, a 25,000-member powerhouse that packed Dolphin Stadium for Easter services while Coy hosted everyone from George W. His name was Bob Coy, and until the previous year, he'd been the most famous Evangelical pastor in Florida. She'd never even told her family about the crimes.īy the end of that harrowing call on August 20, 2015, police knew the accused predator was no ordinary suspect. The abuse lasted until she was a teenager, she told the cop. He would regularly "finger and fondle her" genitals, make her touch his penis, and "dirty talk" to her. The man had forced her to perform oral sex, she said. She confirmed the story in stomach-churning detail. It began when the girl was just 4 years old.Īn officer noted the information and called the victim, who was then a teenager. A woman told Coral Springs Police she had recently learned something terrible: A South Florida man had molested her daughter for years.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |