Jesus Saves, But Not From Rape

Dale Richardson will soon be out on bail. After he raises and pays the $25,000 bond, the South Carolina pastor will move back in with his wife, after spending about 22 months behind bars awaiting trial for multiple rapes and abduction. The reverend will be under house arrest, though the judge granted him an exemption for visiting church.

Which is a bit ironic, perhaps, as that’s exactly where Richardson frequently got all rapey.

Richardson

Until the summer of 2011, Richardson, who graduated from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia (the college founded by evangelical preacher Jerry Falwell), served as pastor at Freedom Free Will Baptist Church in Ladson, South Carolina.

He preached love and kindness — but apparently didn’t practice those things too much.

Richardson’s crimes came to light shortly after he gave a lift to a young woman, in July 2011.

When the 20-year-old tried to get out of the car, he allegedly pulled a gun, bound her hands, covered her head and took her to the grey-blue trailer home behind the church.

The [police] report said he later dropped the woman in a wooded area, threatening to shoot her if she turned around.

Police said the woman was able to identify Richardson from his picture on the church website, which also displays a short biography detailing how he became a Christian and then a pastor.

Richardson has since been charged with two other similar sexual assaults.

He is accused of bringing one of those women to the church trailer. The third woman claims she was raped in a wooded area outside nearby Summerville, which is about 20 miles north west of Charleston.

He is also charged with kidnapping a fourth woman.

The mother of the kidnapping victim went on the local TV news in August 2011 to say her daughter wasn’t raped thanks to the power of prayer:

“When she put her head down in her knees and started praying, ‘Oh, God, please, please, Oh God’ — it shook him up and he let her go,” [she said]. “God moved in a supernatural way from having to go through what the other girls went through.”

So apparently, the other girls just didn’t pray hard enough.

[photo: AP, via the Daily Mail]