From: Covenant Life Church Blog
On Monday news reports were widely circulated about a Nevada man, Nathaniel Morales, who has been charged in Maryland with molesting boys during the 1980s. The reports contain allegations that this abuse occurred when Mr. Morales was a teacher, erroneously implying that he was a teacher at Covenant Life School. The reports fail to state that Mr. Morales, though a church member at the time, was never a pastor in Covenant Life Church nor a teacher in Covenant Life School. Rather Mr. Morales was a teacher employed by an independent private school in Montgomery County not affiliated with Covenant Life Church or School.
Contrary to the impression left by the news reports, Covenant Life Church had no knowledge of such abuse until many years after the abuse when an adult who had been victimized as a child came forward.
The criminal matter described in these news reports is distinct from the civil lawsuit filed last October against Sovereign Grace Ministries, that was amended in January of this year to add Covenant Life Church as a defendant. The church will respond appropriately to the allegations in that pending lawsuit through the legal system.
Our church places a high priority on protecting children, and has had robust child protection practices and policies in place for many years. Our hearts and prayers continue to be with anyone affected by the trauma of sexual abuse. We pray that they will receive the healing, comfort and peace of Christ. And we continue to invite your prayers for all those involved in these matters.
On Monday news reports were widely circulated about a Nevada man, Nathaniel Morales, who has been charged in Maryland with molesting boys during the 1980s. The reports contain allegations that this abuse occurred when Mr. Morales was a teacher, erroneously implying that he was a teacher at Covenant Life School. The reports fail to state that Mr. Morales, though a church member at the time, was never a pastor in Covenant Life Church nor a teacher in Covenant Life School. Rather Mr. Morales was a teacher employed by an independent private school in Montgomery County not affiliated with Covenant Life Church or School.
Contrary to the impression left by the news reports, Covenant Life Church had no knowledge of such abuse until many years after the abuse when an adult who had been victimized as a child came forward.
The criminal matter described in these news reports is distinct from the civil lawsuit filed last October against Sovereign Grace Ministries, that was amended in January of this year to add Covenant Life Church as a defendant. The church will respond appropriately to the allegations in that pending lawsuit through the legal system.
Our church places a high priority on protecting children, and has had robust child protection practices and policies in place for many years. Our hearts and prayers continue to be with anyone affected by the trauma of sexual abuse. We pray that they will receive the healing, comfort and peace of Christ. And we continue to invite your prayers for all those involved in these matters.
Security at Church: I am glad that Covenant Life Church clarified this point. I spent many years as a student at Covenant Life School and Nate Morales was never a teacher or employed by the church or school...to the best of my knowledge. With that being said at the time Covenant Life School did not have a High School and many students transitioned from their lower school to Montgomery County Christian Academy (MCCA) where Nate Morales was employed.
I found my way to your sight after seeing an image of Nathaniel Morales, whose picture brought me to your site.
ReplyDeleteWhile I can understand the desire Mr. Gallagher has to protect the reputation of the church he grew up in, I feel the need to make a couple points:
1. The above statement that was issued by CLC has been disclaimed, especially this sentence: "Contrary to the impression left by the news reports, Covenant Life Church had no knowledge of such abuse until many years after the abuse when an adult who had been victimized as a child came forward."
Nathaniel Morales goes on trial this Monday, May 12 in Montgomery Maryland. Former CLC Pastor Grant Layman as well as CLC Pastor Robin Boisvert have been subpoenaed in the case. The molestations that Morales was involved in was definitely known at the time he was involved as a member at CLC, but the matter was covered up. I'm sure Mr. Gallagher, who's Bio reads is studying at Penn State, can identify with the seriousness of this kind of behavior since it's exactly the same behavior Administrators at Penn State engaged in to protect the institution against bad publicity but at the expense of protecting innocent children from a pedator.
2. Nathaniel Morales didn't just molest "boys in the 1980's". The inclusion of that information in the above statement issued by CLC seems to be in an effort to give the impression that Morales didn't go being a threat to the public. This is blatantly not true. From CLC, Morales left a trial of destruction which continued up until his arrest in Las Vegas. Whereever he went, children were molested. He went on to marry a woman with five sons, some of whom he molested.
No doubt there are measures we can take as individuals and as home owners, and also as members of a church or civic organization to put security measures in place. The motivation to do this, no doubt, is a sincere desire to protect people from potential harm and injury. If our families were ever adversely affected by a break in, burglary, or worse - something like a sexual predator - we would be moved with compassion and, if our minds and hearts are in the right place, outraged by such criminal behavior committed by lawbreakers.
But with the Morales case, there's also the tricky issue of seeing the darkness in those who presented themselves as light and truth, and recognzing a systemic culture at work that harbored a predator - the very people who claimed they were working to secure and protect the people within their congregation as 'watching over their souls" - but who then allowed innocent children to be victimized, the victims themselves to be accused of unlawful behavior, and to prevent a criminal from being reported to law enforcement who then went on to molest many more children. There isn't a machine that can stop this. But what will help prevent this happening in the future is if we are willing to take a stand against the kind of people who portray themselves as good people, servants of the Lord, caring for and protecting others, but who then demonstrate they were more interested in protecting their own interests more the people they claimed they were called to protect.
How can we trust you to provide excellent security if you (speaking to Brian Gallagher) are willing to look the other way because you're more interested in protecting your own reputation as a long standing member of a church that is not widely regarded as the flagship of a corrupt organization? I know I'd feel better if I knew you were outraged and offended at the truth rather than holding to the PR your friends in SGM would have you believe.
In reference to the post above:
ReplyDeleteIts easy to attack someone publically and hide behind an anonymous post. The person above makes some very important points; however, they have also made some very incorrect judgements. My email address is public and I would love to have a conversation with them directly.
The statement made in this original post above are the public words of Covenant Life Church and not my own. My own thoughts were expressed with only four sentences at the end. The information presented was the information that was available at the time of the post almost one and a half years ago.
I tend to agree with almost all the points made by the anonymous poster; with the exception of the incorrect direct attacks against me... I am not sure why they felt the need to target this at me... I have been a police officer for over a decade and understand the importance of these crimes and since this situation at CLC, I have attempted to increase the awareness of sexual crimes across the nation, not as a business but as a ministry to churches.
I do not support the actions that have occurred regarding Nate Morales and I do agree that there is fault in the church for the way the situation was handled.
It is also a false statement that I am holding on to PR and my friends at SGM. I do not belong to Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg and I also do not belong to a SGM Church. I do acknowledge growing up at this church; however, if this anonymous poster knew me then they would know that for years I fought for changes...
I allowed this post to go public because I do think this person has brought up good points. I wish they took a minute to ask me a question rather then feeling it their duty to make false judgements without having the facts...
Was there a Morales employed by CLC or the school in the 80s?
ReplyDeleteCould this have been Nate's father?
Might he have been involved in the cover-up?
I am not sure about that. I don't have any memory of Nate's extended family. I was only in 7th or 8th grade around this time...
Delete