A church in a Texas school city, an affiliate of Chi Alpha's campus ministry, and its sponsoring denomination, the Assemblies of God, are being sued by a father who claims the leaders he commissioned to disciple his teenage son uncovered him as an alternative. ministry surroundings and used their authority to sexually abuse him.
The lawsuit filed Thursday follows a tumultuous few months for Chi Alpha. Since final spring, a serial predator has gone to jail for sexually abusing kids, chapter leaders at half a dozen Texas universities have been fired and the group's nationwide director has resigned.
Many of the outgoing leaders had ties to Daniel Savula, a registered intercourse offender who groomed and abused Chi Alpha college students at his Houston residence for many years. Final yr, he was charged with little one sexual abuse and human trafficking.
Though Savala was not formally a part of Chi Alpha or the Assemblies of God, the record of leaders who left displays the attain of his casual community throughout Chi Alpha in Texas.
A latest lawsuit alleges that Savala molested a 13-year-old in 2021 and that 4 Chi Alpha college students continued to sexually abuse a youth group member via nude and inappropriate video games in a ministry setting.
The teenage sufferer attended Mountain Valley Fellowship in School Station. The Assemblies of God church was led by Eli Stewart, a longtime Chi Alpha chief who began a chapter at close by Texas A&M College.
The sufferer's father, Stephen Holt, is suing the church and the native Chi Alpha chapter in addition to the North Texas Assemblies of God Common Council and District Council for “malice” and “gross negligence” for failing to warn the dad and mom and defend the kids. from abuse.
Final yr, Stewart was fired by Mountain Valley Fellowship for “sinful practices” and neglecting “his responsibility to guard his flock from a identified predator.” An investigation is underway.
Stewart first met Savala at his childhood church in Alaska. He maintained a relationship with him as a result of a earlier conviction for little one sexual abuse and continued to assist him as a non secular chief till a web-based discussion board uncovered Savala final yr.
The lawsuit alleges that Stewart allowed Chi Alpha members at A&M to guide a youth group and take journeys to Saval's residence, despite the fact that Stewart was conscious of his intercourse offender standing.
Based on the submitting, the minor sufferer sat bare and had inappropriate contact with Savala in his residence sauna in October 2021, which is analogous to many different instances of abuse by Savala. The next yr, the boy misplaced weight throughout an out-of-state management journey and performed video games involving genital touching at a Chi Alpha occasion.
He accuses the church of putting school college students in positions “the place they’d have unsupervised management over minor kids and which created a belief creating an surroundings the place they’d have unsupervised minor kids.”
Holt advised CT {that a} week earlier than he discovered about his son's abuse, he had unusual desires. Throughout prayer the following morning, he stated he felt the Lord telling him to arrange for one thing forward, however he didn't know what.
“Once we discovered, we had been overwhelmed with a lot emotion,” Holt stated. “The Lord ready us for this in His personal great approach, earlier than He knew all the pieces… This case might have simply pushed us away from the Lord, nevertheless it truly introduced us nearer to Him.”
His household left Mountain Valley Fellowship for an additional church.
Chi Alpha has not publicly responded to questions surrounding Savala and the investigation aside from to discuss with an up to date assertion from the Assemblies of God.
The denomination reiterates that Savala was not formally a part of Chi Alpha and that the nationwide workplace “knowledgeable the suitable Chi Alpha leaders of his standing and warned them to stop contact and never permit college students or leaders to be close to him” after the 2018 report. However he was nonetheless visited by a number of chapters, together with A&M.
CT requested the Assemblies of God by e-mail on Friday night for an announcement on the lawsuit and didn’t hear again by the point of publication.
Victims and supporters of Chi Alpha referred to as on the “XA and the Lion's Den” discussion board for the group to take duty and acknowledge the bigger downside that allowed Savala to proceed his abuse and others to do the identical.
“The entire system in sure components of Chi Alpha must be reformed and new management must be put in place,” one put up learn. “The Bible says in Galatians 5:9, 'A bit leaven leavens the entire lump.' So even a bit 'half-truth', a bit 'perverted educating', a bit 'group masturbation in Bible research' is leaven that may have an effect on and destroy a whole group.”
Chris Hundl, who was Savala's mentor and led the chapter at Baylor College, was additionally arrested final yr for getting a boy to masturbate in Savala's sauna.
Different campus leaders who organized for college students to go to Savala for mission journeys, discipleship or sexuality counseling have both left or misplaced their jobs: Jason Bell at Sam Houston State College in Huntsville; Josh Bell at Rice College in Houston; Daniel Younger on the College of Texas Rio Grande Valley; and Johnny Hauck on the College of Texas at San Antonio.
An Assemblies of God spokesperson confirmed to CT that they “don’t serve in Chi Alpha positions” and that “actions taken on account of the investigation have already resulted in varied actions, together with the firing of ministers.”
Chi Alpha's district director for New Mexico and Texas, Eli Gautreaux, was additionally suspended in the course of the investigation, and the denomination confirmed that he not holds the place. Chi Alpha Nationwide Director E. Scott Martin has resigned.
In 2022, Will Robinson at Texas A&M College – Corpus Christi was additionally arrested on separate expenses of kid sexual abuse.
A web based discussion board posted Holt's lawsuit on Friday with the message: “XA Lions Den and our internet hosting group ask that you just pray for peace and braveness for this younger man and his household and encourage them along with your feedback throughout this time of their lives. We ask you to hope for fast justice and full accountability for all events concerned.”
