**NBC News | October 30, 2025**
*By Mike Hixenbaugh and Elizabeth Chuck*
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This article is part of “Pastors and Prey,” a series investigating sex abuse allegations in the Assemblies of God.
A children’s pastor was caught filming girls in a church bathroom in Arkansas. Elders suspended him for a few weeks.
In Illinois, a preacher was accused of sexually abusing children. Instead of notifying the police, church leaders sent him to therapy.
In California, a worship minister went to prison for molesting boys. When he returned, his congregation held a party to welcome him back.
All of these men remained in ministry within the Assemblies of God, the world’s largest Pentecostal denomination. All went on to abuse more children.
Since the 1970s, Assemblies of God churches have repeatedly reinstated ministers and volunteer leaders accused of sexual misconduct, returning them to pulpits and youth groups, an NBC News investigation found.
While some of the other largest Christian denominations now require safeguards such as background checks and mandatory reporting, national Assemblies of God leaders have resisted. They argue that such rules would increase legal risk, undermine their commitment to local church autonomy, and defy a core biblical command: to forgive.
The result is a patchwork system that has protected accused predators and left generations of children in danger.
NBC News identified nearly 200 Assemblies of God pastors, church employees, and volunteer leaders accused of sexual abuse over the past half century, based on a nationwide search of lawsuits, criminal records, and news archives. Together, they allegedly abused more than 475 people—the overwhelming majority of them children.
The allegations stretch into this year, when a 10-year-old girl filed a lawsuit claiming that her pastor groped her during Bible study.
*(Excerpt)*
Read more at [nbcnews.com](https://www.nbcnews.com)
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**Topics:** Charismatic Christian
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