Constitutional Law, Religion, Society

Alabama Pastor Removed After Admitting To Use Of Drugs And Having Sex With Women In The Church Without Telling Them That He Was HIV-Positive

635484776486452861-Alabama-pastor-100914It is relatively rare for a judge to be placed into a position of having to determine who gives a sermon at a church but that unenviable position was forced upon Montgomery County Circuit Judge Charles Price who was faced with an uprising against Rev. Juan McFarland, 47, at his Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church. They had good cause to want McFarland out. The not-so-good reverend has admitted to using drugs, having sex with church members in the church building and having HIV but not telling sex partners. Price, a GW grad who was honored for this service by having the courthouse named after him and , ordered him to step aside.

Deacons and trustees went to court to ask for the removal of McFarland. The congregation voted to fire him on October 5th but McFarland refused to step down and had the locks changed. It is remarkably unrepentant for a pastor who admitted to having sex in the church and not disclosing that he was HIV positive. The church leaders are also suing church parliamentarian Marc Anthoni Peacock for his involvement in changing the locks and bank accounts. Witnesses said that McFarland had armed guards at the church.

After McFarlane admitted to his actions in a sermon, the congregation first tried to help him but decided later that he would have to go. The meeting on October 5th was described by Peacock as “holy hell.”

The issue for Price was not a religious one but a matter of interpretation. The church bylaws adopted in January 2013 state that cannot be terminated and can leave only through resignation or death. The bylaws, which are written to give virtually absolute power to pastors, allows them to also fire church leaders. However, the former chairman of the board of deacons (“former because McFarland fired him) said that the bylaws were not properly adopted and that the church members voted 80-1 to rescind them Oct. 5. That was the same day that they voted to fire McFarland.

The meeting took on a menacing character. Peacock accused Nathan Williams Jr., the former chairman of the board of deacons, of threatening him when they argued. He said that Williams, 80, threatened to kill him and to “pop” him. When police arrived, Peacock asked about “castle law,” or “castle doctrine,” the right to defend one’s property with force — something that we have previously discussed. Williams and other deacons said that it was Peacock who was threatening.

It does sound like McFarland has an argument about the legitimacy of the vote, though the bylaws were disturbingly one-sided. Moreover, the conduct of McFarland truly shocks the conscience. He has since turned over the keys, though there remains a question of access to the roughly $50,000 in the bank account for the church.

Price, a 1972 graduate of George Washington, ordered McFarlane to temporarily step aside. In 1997, Price received the prestigious John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library Foundation.

Source: AL

37 thoughts on “Alabama Pastor Removed After Admitting To Use Of Drugs And Having Sex With Women In The Church Without Telling Them That He Was HIV-Positive”

    1. Max-1 – if you liked Titus you will love The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. Do not eat before or during this movie.

  2. Squeeky
    “…legally forbidden regardless of consent.”
    = = =
    What is your meaning of consent in this context? Since the notion that personal responsibility comes bearing weight for one’s consenting behavior, I think it is always wise to be “well informed” before consensual behavior, especially on a sexual level. Do what you want, just don’t hurt anyone else in the process (spreading STD’s included) and make sure you have everyone’s permission. I just think forming legal language of what consenting adults can and can’t do on their bedroom playfields is a bit totalitarian and, shall we say, too puritanical for America as a whole. e.g. Ludwig van Beethoven is said to have died from syphilis. The joys of modern medicine that we can now deal with the frailties of being human but this case here is about choosing to not inform a partner(s) about one’s STD status. I see civil suits for this pastor’s future and no one needs to be some fortune teller to see it…

    1. Good luck with getting responses I can’t on this, But then again…. 🙂

    2. Max-1 – That is one of several proposed causes of Beethoven’s death. A new one is that his doctor’s may have accidentally poisoned him to death, which seems closer to the truth.

      1. Paul Schulte and Max – I think lots of people had syphilis back then as they didn’t really know what to do about it. syphilis was always present in the Old World but was not identified as a separate disease from leprosy before about A.D. 1500. A third possibility is that syphilis developed in both hemispheres from the related diseases bejel and yaws. New studies by paleopathologists Bruce and Christine Rothschild favor a New World origin.

        Ancient and medieval sources have long been cited as evidence for syphilis in Europe before Columbus, but none of the descriptions by Greek and Roman authors are specific enough to be certain. Returning crusaders brought “Saracen ointment” containing mercury for treating “lepers,” an appropriate medication for syphilis but not for leprosy. Thirteenth- and fourteenth-century A.D. references to “venereal leprosy” may also indicate syphilis because leprosy is not sexually transmitted. But the first unambiguous descriptions of syphilis begin around 1500. These may either reflect growing medical knowledge and ability to differentiate syphilis from other diseases or signal its arrival from the New World. http://archive.archaeology.org/9701/newsbriefs/syphilis.htm

        1. happypappies – there is significant evidence to show the transmigration of syphilis from the New World to the Old. And then its rapid spread throughout Europe. The disease has actually been tracked as has the spread of the disease. The evidence for an Old World source is slim at best.
          I find it interesting that historians get their shorts in a wad about Europeans bringing smallpox to the New World, but are not the least upset that the Columbian Exchange included syphilis and tobacco.

          1. Paul C Schulte That is not my point. My point was that for a while they did not know it was a venereal disease. Not up until maybe 500 years ago. That was the point 🙂 no wad not me 🙂

  4. I’d like to think that if it were I that was the preacher getting high and bangin’ the church ladies, that I’d have enough class to let these babes know I was positive and wear a raincoat, know what I’m sayin’?

    1. squeeky – that was the one. It was rated x for violence. Had a little trouble convincing my principal it was okay to show it to high schoolers.

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