What happens inside the walls of independent fundamental Baptist churches across Tennessee is suppose to be sacred, but something far more sinister appears to have been playing out over the last decade.
Over the weekend, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram published an eight month investigation. It found dozens of pastors, ministers, and other church staff at independent fundamental baptists congregations in Texas allegedly abused children. According to the report, those abusers wound up at other churches, including at least 10 churches in Tennessee.
The accused were simply shuffled out of Texas. One pastor was reassigned to a church in Columbia. Another, Matthew Dennis Patterson, was sent to a church in Nashville.
Patterson was arrested in April by Metro Police who charged him with molesting at least eight children.
