Pastor Asked Students To Cut Him In Easter Lesson

 

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Impact City Church in Licking County, Ohio apologized after a shocking video of a youth pastor asking students to physically abuse him was revealed. Part-time youth pastor Jaddeas Dempsey asked students to spit on him, slap him and even cut him with a knife in Easter lesson; children were disturbed and shocked by all of this. As he tried to explain later, he was trying to illustrate what happened to Jesus leading up to the crucifixion, but the whole thing was extremely inappropriate. Both Dempsey and the lead pastor of Impact City Church, Justin Ross, offered their apology.

"The illustration went too far, and it was inappropriate for the audience that we had, that was students." Justin Ross explained in a video on Facebook, as Fox News Service reports. "Many of you were disgusted. Many of you were hurt by this. Many of you were very confused on why this would be taking place at a church and a youth event, and we agree," Ross said. "It was inappropriate for this audience and there's really no excuse for why it happened."

But Ross than goes on and explains what happened after the abuse. As Patheos reports, he said Dempsey then sat down with students, and explained to them “about this guy named Jesus, who thousands of years ago, he was put on trial for a crime he didn’t commit. And he was beaten. He was broken. He was whipped. He was crucified, and he died as an innocent man… He chose to allow it to happen…” He said Dempsey’s illustration was meant to share that message of love. Ross said while Dempsey’s “intent was honorable, it wasn’t appropriate for our student gathering today.”

So as it can be expected the church officials defended themselves once again and tried to make It look like Dempsey's intentions were good or that he is the victim here. This is just another example of how churches react when one of their members is implicated in a scandal. Ross offered an apology just to satisfy parents of the students involved, but afterward only tried to explain why Demspey did what he did and to protect and excuse him. For the church officials, it is not important to protect the real victims — the children— who participated in this mental abuse. That is why many parents are not satisfied with this apology video on Facebook and they are not sending their kids back to that church anytime soon.

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