They Knew
One is too many. One victim ignored is too many and often leads to another.
One is too many. One convicted sex offender endangering our congregation is too many. But there were two!
One is too many. One district bishop who kept silent and endangered his congregation and OSID PCG families for years. But two?! Two district bishops who betrayed our trust. They participated in a cover-up that allowed serial sexual abusers in our midst.
One is too many, but two? Two women who kept quiet. One who made ways for the cover-up to continue and one who actually made opportunities for abuse to occur.
Participating in this cover-up once was too much, but now, after learning of Richard and Danny’s repeated crimes, continuing in it to this day, is reprehensible.
Don Manning knew.
If not in 1993, by 1994, Don Manning knew that Richard Evarts was a serial child molester.
The Springfield police report does not detail how then-Pastor Don Manning was made aware of two minors who reported sexual abuse by a man in his congregation, Richard Evarts. But the report does tell how Pastor Don Manning handled the situation. (Don Manning went on to become OSID Bishop for more than 10 years, and PCG General Council member (https://www.pcg.org/about/leadership) for many of those). Manning himself told police how he handled the allegations. Manning told police that he set Richard’s father to investigate the validity of the minors claims against his son. Manning told police the investigation quote, “cleared his son of any guilt.” (For the record, investigations can’t do that! ) The survivors of Richard’s abuse left the church.
But Richard, unchecked, went on to offend another child. This time Richard’s victims went to the police and soon after many historical victims came forward. A total of 7 reported to the Springfield Police Department.
I’m told that Don Manning stood with Richard during his trial and visited him during his imprisonment, an understandable response for a pastor. What is not understandable, what is not acceptable, what is just WRONG is that afterwards Manning allowed Richard to return to the church without precautions to ensure that he didn’t add to his long list of victims. What is a betrayal of trust and responsibility is that he allowed him to serve in leadership, becoming a board member of Chapel of Praise PCG in Eugene under the pastorship of Claude Smith. When later Eli and Lynette came to pastor Chapel of Praise in Eugene, we met on several occasions, maybe 6 to 8 times a year with Manning and his wife. Never once did they warn us to take precautions or make us aware that Richard was a serial child molester.
This kind of silence is not a favor to the survivors,
it only provides cover for the predator.
It also sends a message to other victims, a message of who is valued, who is believed, and who is safe.
Manning’s answer to this question was not that the children in his church were valued, believed or to be protected. Instead his actions communicated that serial predators with the right family connections could safely call his church home. And likely find their next victim there too. Sadly Richard did.
Gary Saner knew.
Gary knew about Danny Walton’s conviction no later than October of 2020.
I don’t know for sure how long the Saners knew that Danny was a convicted sex offender, but they were the ones who informed us in October of 2020. This was ONLY AFTER the arrest of the other convicted sex offender. In our October meeting, Bishop Saner casually mentioned, “You do know Danny Walton is a sex offender too, right?”
No, we did not. Danny Walton was a man who attended our church, interacted with our children, who we introduced to the children of our congregation. We did not know know that this same man had multiple times sexually assaulted children according to his own guilty pleas, and the police reports, and the criminal charges against him.
No, Bishop Saner we did not know. But apparently you did. Multiple times in this process, I heard about how you had known this person and that person all their lives. I don’t know when you knew that Danny Walton was a sexual predator, but at some point you did. And yet no one had the courtesy or took the responsibility to tell us, the pastors of the church.
We didn’t know and the parents who attended our church didn’t know. They trusted us and we trusted you. And this information was deliberately not revealed to us. So I don’t know when he knew first, but Saner has known since October 2020. He saw the details of the police report in December and heard the reports about Danny’s recent harassment in Chapel of Praise, Eugene. Yet he continues not to act.
“As of March 31st of 2021, we learn, directly from Bishop Saner, that no decision was made to keep a convicted child rapist, who recently sexually harassed at least one minor and multiple women at Chapel of Praise, Eugene, OR, from attending youth rallies or camps. Bishop Saner said that would be decided by the new District Youth Director. Why isn’t this decision automatic?! Bishop Saner and the OSID Board promised us action and in months have not even acted on this very clear well-documented case and They Know!”
From my personal appeal letter mailed to each member of the OSID Board in April of 2021.
Diana Saner knows.
Diana Saner, herself, told me that after Richard’s arrest and our investigation, she advised Sharla to leave our church and go to another. Advised that she should do it soon, so people would think it was because of her brother, Richard andnot because of Danny’s criminal background.
Diana told Sharla to go to church somewhere else that didn't know! Yet, somewhere that might know about Richard. Are you listening OSID churches?- That's one of yours. Her advice was, in essence, to go to one of your churches with her husband, a serial child molester. And in your church, continue to conceal the danger Danny poses. This is a danger Diana knew was real because I had already informed her in detail about the sexual harassment of a minor at our church.
And the coverup Diana Saner advised Sharla to undergo would only be successful if the Saners would once again leave his pastors in the dark about his dangerous background. It would only be possible if they concealed too. Just like they did with our church. Yet another cover-up! That’s wrong.
And when I got home and recovered from the shock of hearing this awful advice from a woman I admired and considered a mentor, I knew we needed to speak again. I texted for a meeting and drove back to her home. I asked her to think of the victim from our church and not give this advice to Sharla. It wasn't right. This is when Diana Saner said the sentence I'll never forget. She told me she "felt sleezy" for telling us about Danny's history. She felt she'd betrayed Sharla in telling me.
Instead of wishing I had known sooner and been able to prevent further abuse, her words to me were that she wished I never knew. She wished that I didn’t know now.
When I left that day I had very little hope that the leaders in this district could rightly handle these matters and provide safe churches for anybody. Even after knowing he had reoffended, IN our church, and RECENTLY, Saner wanted to continue to conceal his crimes. Just days later she invited Sharla to the campground where she cooked a meal for the district board and their spouses and was publically honored on Facebook by Saner herself. This is when I lost hope that they would help, that they would right this.
Sharla Walton knew.
She has known for decades. First for two years, after hearing Danny confess to the sexual abuse of an elementary-aged child while at a sleepover at her home (as recorded in their words to the Springfield Police Department), she did not report his crime to the police. The young girl likely went without profession help, as a qualified professional would have been required to report this crime to the police. Still for the following years, Sharla had sleepovers. There are at least 3 young girls listed in the police report as regularly spending the night and 2 reported sexual abuse at the hands of Danny during these sleepovers. Even after this point, she keeps having sleepovers!
She was there when Danny was confronted for his behavior towards a 13 year-old girl. She never spoke up to leadership and warned that this was a dangerous pattern he had, that she had witnessed at least 3 times before. Remember Danny admitted to the rape of the minor for which he was convicted and of molesting the teenager who brought it to the police. He admitted harassing a teenager at Chapel Of Praise. This isn't a wife who believes her husband is innocent, he has told her himself that he is not.
And yet she keeps inviting children to spend the night at their house. She knew and she kept bringing children home to him. She may still be doing so today. She invited my children to a sleepover as recently as Jan. 2020.
So Don Manning knew, Gary Saner knew, Diana Saner knew, and now the OSID board has known for more than a year.
OSID District Board members of both 2020 and 2021 know.
I don't know which members of the board knew about this criminal activity before we met with them in Dec. 2020 However, I do know they have known since Dec. 2020. They received a copy of both the police reports and report of Danny's recent harassment and Sharla’s complicity. As some members of the board changed in Spring of 2021, I sent an appeal letter with all this information and details of their crimes to the 2021 OSID Board Members as well.
The board received multiple reports of a credible, documented threat 18 months ago. They promised us then that they took this situation seriously and would act, proposing a bylaw and/or policies to protect known convicted sexual offenders from having access to children at their churches. They have had a year and a half to act.
How many of them made you aware?
Or did they, like the Saners, continue to praise this couple publicly,
leading you to believe they were safe?
In our meeting with the board, we had a written appeal for each board member to read as we read aloud to the group. We specifically appealed to them to not make false equivalencies when discussing and disciplining this action.
“We have heard some faulty thinking that could impair investigations. False equivalencies. We’ve been asked if teenagers involved in heavy petting should then be forbidden from ministry. Discussing this false equivalency will take you off track. We are not talking about teenage indiscretions. … At NO time were they teenagers together. …Danny Walton raped and sexually harassed minors while he was an adult, a married father of at least one (see police records). Richard Evarts was an adult when he molested young children (see police records). We are not here about two teenagers petting. We are here about reports of adults victimizing children and that should be the point of discussion.”
And yet in that same meeting, a board member took several minutes to discuss their marriage at age 18 to a 16-year-old girl with her parent’s legal consent. They went on wondering what should disqualify someone from ministry or attendance. Does a board of adult men who have been voted into ministry leadership really not understand that grown men that rape children should not have access to children?! Do they not understand that child sexual abuse is not the same as promiscuous activity among consenting teenagers?! Many of the board members were on the board during the Fenwick abuse case and lawsuit. Had they not been trained in this area since? It was in this conversation that I began to understand that the men who had led us into this situation were not going to bring a safe and godly resolution.
Additionally, in this meeting in Dec. 2020, one OSID board member shared that he had called his adult children and checked on them, because they had spent the night often at the Walton's as children. He checked on his children. -What a heartbreaking conversation, I know, because I had to have it too! -He checked on his own children and thoughtfully asked after mine; Yet, to our knowledge, the Board hasn’t banned the Waltons from coming near yours. I admit that after leaving the denomination, I don’t have a working knowledge of their present actions. So PCG pastors and parents, let me ask you…
Have they given you the opportunity?
Did they inform you that you may need to check in with the children in your life,
that they have been continually exposed to this sexual predator?
OR have they continued to keep his secret?
I heard directly from Bishop Saner in March of 2021 that he was not acting on this. I have since learned that Sharla was present at events with minors in the summer of 2021 and at the district campgrounds in the fall of 2021.
National PCG Officers have known since at least June 2021.
Pastor Eli Fields spoke to Assistant General Bishop Alvarez, who represents the Northwestern Region, in early 2021. Alvarez told Eli that he shared the information with General Bishop Ming and Dan Coleman. The word from our national officials was that each district was autonomous, and they couldn’t intervene. In June 2021, we emailed the General Bishop Wayman Ming Jr., General Secretary Dan Coleman (https://www.pcg.org/about/leadership ) and Assistant General Bishop Alvarez (as well as Rev. James Rayburn who was the only one who responded to us about our email, but was leaving the General Council that month). The email included the OSID district’s lack of action and a timeline of the events, similar to the What Happened post here. We were asking national leadership to look into these events and help. We were refused at every turn. I cannot fathom why. Were they really more concerned with maintaining district autonomy than child safety? Was the very real risk of children being molested not worth leaning on district officials to do the right thing? Especially as we shared with nation officials that this risk was actual reality in our district.
What difference would it have made if the national organization had provided assistance, support, training, and above all some measure of accountability?! Are there other pastors in other districts trying to hold district officials accountable and getting zero help from the national office?
Again, these were leaders I respected and trusted;
why weren’t they shocked and appalled and HELPFUL?!
Leaders who can help, who can do something, you can’t wash your hands of it. You will be held accountable for what you knew and what you did - or didn’t do!
WHY
I wasn't given the courtesy of being warned, of being able to protect my children and the children of my church. I will not be part of a coverup that endangers your children. Because leaders who can do something, can’t wash their hands of it.
I was questioned by a pastor who I was informing and warning that a serial sexual offender had keys to his church. He asked me, “Why now?” Why was I coming to him with this information at this time. - First, let me say that survivors hear this question too often. Delayed reporting is not a sign of deception. Delayed reporting is the norm.
Instead of asking survivors, “why now” we should thank them for their courage in sharing and reliving what must be one of the scariest and awful moments of their lives. They risk being questioned with the scrutiny that should be reserved for the perpetrators.
So pastor, “why now?” Why can’t I let it go? Why must I do something more? Here’s how I answered his question:
First, in 2021, I had begun reciting the Apostle’s Creed in my prayer time, “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son…” I noticed one day that beside the Godhead, the only two names mentioned were that of Mary “born of the Virgin Mary” and Pilate “suffered under Pontius Pilate.” Here were two people mentioned by name in a creed repeated by millions all over the globe.
Then, As Easter was approaching, I was also reading through the gospels and into the account of Jesus’ trials and death. I was struck by the account of Pilate in Matthew 27. Pilate recognizes that Jesus is innocent and asks the crowd what to do with Jesus, to which they reply, “Crucify him.” Pilate questions them, exclaiming Jesus’ innocence. They shout the more, “Crucify him.” “So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood, see to it yourselves”…Then delivered him to be crucified.”
It struck me, Pilate had power and authority. They brought Jesus before him because they needed him to crucify Jesus. He could have refused, he wanted to refuse. But when he saw that he could gain nothing, but that instead it would cause him trouble, he didn’t want to be involved. He couldn’t, wouldn’t, do the right thing. Instead he “washed his hands of it.” And yet, notice, that over 2 thousand years later, we still specifically name Pilate in connection with the crucifixion of Jesus. Because leaders who can do something, don’t get to wash their hands. You have to do what is right! For centuries millions have recited Jesus “who suffered under Pontius Pilate.” Pilate is held accountable for the role that he played.
So I have to do what is right. Even if I gain nothing. Even if it causes trouble. If it’s the right thing to do, you don’t get to wash your hands of it. And that’s what God spoke to me through this. I don’t get to give up until I’ve done what is right, until I’ve exposed this and people know what to do to keep their children safe, ‘til they know what leaders are doing to keep their kids safe and which leaders are intentionally not. There’s no washing your hands of this. Leaders who know must act. That responsibility doesn’t go away. I will answer to God for what I did with this. And so will all those who knew.
Lessons Learned the Hard Way
Abuse survivors, it is not your responsibility to protect the reputation of the church, an organization, a denomination, or a family.
You are not damaging the church or the name of Jesus by exposing, stopping, and getting help out of an abusive situation. Too many survivors are silenced in a nonsensical attempt to protect the reputation of Jesus or the church. Jesus is light and in Him is no darkness. He wishes to expose darkness. Jesus is not threatened by these abuses coming to light. He is grieved that they happened in the first place.
Abuse survivors who have been abused within the church or in church context, it is not your responsibility to protect the church, organization, denomination, or family- ESPECIALLY at the expense of silence, continued abuse, or going without the help you need to heal. If the church, denomination, organization, or family is worth their salt, that is if they are good and right, they will protect you!
You do not owe the church your silence;
you deserve a safe place to heal.
Pastors, church leaders it doesn’t matter how difficult it is to address sex abuse reports or how it will affect morale, attendance, growth, or finances. Reports of abuse MUST be dealt with because it is the right and godly thing to do at any cost. It will never come at a good time and yet it can not be delayed. No building program, outreach, or difficult season overrides the need to report, stop, and act against sexual abuse. I say this because it is obvious. The true church of Jesus Christ must act in the face of abuse.
Notify the police of any report of sexual abuse, even if the victim is now an adult.
Those who get away with assaulting one generation may go on to assault the next. We have LITERALLY seen that happen with both these men. They assaulted multiple generations of people. Decades of offenses. Just because the survivor you are aware of is an adult now, doesn't mean that the perpetrator is done. Get their abuse stopped. Get the survivors real help.
Too many people knew and didn't act. This a symptom of a groomed culture. Perpetrators carefully train adults, families, and organizations to overlook abuse and warning signs. It is never too late to report abuse. Even if the police are limited with their ability to bring criminal charges because of a statute of limitations, which vary from state to state, reporting allows law enforcement to know there is an issue. They may have other reports that are actionable to which your report adds credence. Report, report, report and follow up!