(Charisma) – Four women claim men at a United Pentecostal church sexually abused and manipulated them when they were children—and church leadership did nothing to intervene. Debbie McNulty, Rachel Capacio, Rachel Huff and Rebecca Martin Byrd told The Cap Times that they were groomed at a young age to “accept sexual abuse from men” in Calvary Gospel Church in Madison, Wisconsin. The men who allegedly abused the women were in their 20s and 30s and were held in high esteem in the church. The
abuse occurred between the 1980s and around 2005. Adults allegedly looked the other way when older men pursued young girls in the church. Katelyn Ferral, the Cap Times reporter who investigated the abuse, says the church’s senior leadership fostered a “culture of manipulation and real fear.” Some of those elders are still in leadership now. Ferral says they told the women not to report the sexual abuse because it would sully the reputation of the church and hinder evangelism. READ MORE
