Meet Dave Reynolds. He’s the recently fired pastor of the Cornerstone Bible Fellowship in Sherwood, Arkansas currently facing 70 counts of distributing, possessing or viewing child pornography.
He’s also vehemently antigay.
The 40-year-old pastor, who has preached that marriage is between a man and a woman and that all homosexual activity is a sin, was arrested this week after police received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that a social media account in Sherwood was storing pages and pages (and pages and pages) of images of kiddy porn.
The account allegedly belonged to Reynolds.
In March, Reynolds informed elders at Cornerstone Bible Fellowship that he was under investigation for child porn possession. When they asked if he had engaged in viewing the material, Reynolds told them he had “not knowingly done so.”
Related: Pastor Is Convinced Children’s TV Series Is Turning Kids Into “Hideous” Homosexuals
The elders ultimately decided to relieve Reynolds of his duties and put out a statement saying the church was fully cooperating with police.
“Our present concern is with the people of Cornerstone to whom the Lord has entrusted us as shepherds,” the church said in a statement. “We have been and will continue to pursue all avenues to determine whether any of Cornerstone’s people may have been directly or indirectly affected by any actions Dave may have taken.”
Meanwhile, Reynolds is maintaining his innocence. In a statement released earlier this week, his attorney, Blake Hendrix, said, “Mr. Reynolds has pleaded not guilty and intends to vigorously defend himself against the accusations.”
Reynolds appeared in Sherwood District Court on Wednesday. Bond was set at $250,000.
Related: Pastor Claims Gay People Are Possessed By “Fart Demons” That Can Drive Pigs To Suicide
h/t: KATV
davidwhornii
The word Pedophile should have prominently been used in this story with one line that stated he is also Anti-Gay. Regardless if the images of the underage children were boys and or girls, he is a Pedophile and again he should have been described that way in the article. The version I just read….NOT ONCE was it used. I understand that most gay men and women who read Queerty understand the difference, but without stating that difference there are those out there straight and gay, who may not know the difference.
hwc2016
Not really surprised” people in church do the same things, they tell you not to do. The only difference is they do their dirt behind closed doors.
Leonard Woodrow
Another closet door opened in the house of religious hypocrites.
mcflyer54
Research … yea, that’s it … research. Maybe he’ll mount a defense that looking at kiddy porn is protected by his “strongly held religious” belief and he should be not be prosecuted due to the Arkansas “religious liberty” law.
Captain Obvious
Couldn’t care less if he’s anti-gay. The pedophilia is why he’s scum. But honestly I really wonder why our government never seems to go after the people who are putting these images out there in the first place. Unless it’s some kind of honey pot I don’t get how people are getting their hands on this stuff.
Uncle Mark
WAIT…the pastor’s anti-gay, but the church website says they have BI-weekly meetings. Are they hypocrites or just very specific about which member of the LGBT community they like? ;^D
Stache
@Captain Obvious: I only care in so far as what we already know about these type of rabidly anti gay type. He’s their latest poster boy.
dwes09
@Captain Obvious: They are getting their hands on it through trading with “friends” apparently, and through the TOR browser. I went to TOR for other reasons (mostly curiosity about what I had heard about the “dark web”), and was totally freaked out by the number of pedophiles on the social networks there. Even TORchat, used for many valid reasons (the sharing of any classified documents in industry as well as personal interaction…communication and files cannot be tied to a specific IP address), seems overwhelmingly to be populated with pedophiles. There are even people who go for neo-nates, which is totally sick and can injure infants horribly.
For those who try to rationalize this as a way for pedophiles to resist acting out on their desires, keep in mind that the production of the images they collect ALWAYS involves child abuse if it is true pedophilia. In viewing or collecting or sharing these images, one is undeniably an accessory to child abuse (and is always illegal if the producer does not have documents on file showing all participants are 18 or older).
The government goes after them when it finds them, and has busted a number of child porn rings that make the images. But getting the images off the web is (as it is for all images) next to impossible!
Uncle Mark
@mcflyer54: Perhaps he’ll mount an “I was doing research on deviant lifestyles” defense. Wait ’til the police get their hands on his computer.
@Captain Obvious: Actually, I do care if the pastor was anti-gay. Odds are that he was throwing us gay folks all into the category with pedophiles. It just further demonstrates what a liar & hypocrite he really is.
I agree with you on the need to have the gov’t shutdown these sites, but I imagine there are continual networks popping up all the time, and the gov’t prefers to track some known ones for awhile and then close the trap on the site & its users. What’s disgusting is that here in Illinois, that famous pedophile Hastert was able to escape his conviction regarding his sexual abuse of minors because of a ridiculous statute of limitations of 3 years. (What sexually-struggling teenager would be brave enough to come forward to discuss this with authorities and open themselves to the public about this?) In this state there is no statute of limitations on student loan debt, traffic tickets, or even DUI histories…but if you can rape a kid and manage to keep them quiet for 3 years, you’re safe from having a record or conviction. Recently, there was talk about removing the statute of limitations for reporting sexual assault on minors. Guess, who fought to block it? The Catholic Church.
jamessavik
I’m shocked, shocked I tell you!
DCguy
If somebody is virulently homophobic, there is a huge probability they are a self hating closet case. This has been proven over and over again.
Remember, the entire case against marriage in Ca. was supported by the writings and “research” of one of the founders of FRC, George Reckers.
And he was caught with a young male prostitute.
GayEGO
We should have a combined name for this type called Homophile or Pedophobic to represent a homophobic pedophile.
GayEGO
@Uncle Mark: But of course, they haven’t learned from their “Spotlight” days of molestation in the Boston Archdiocese.
Tommysole
“vigorously defend himself against the accusations.”
The same way he “Vigorously masturbated” to child porn?
I had sex with MANY minors…………..When I Was a minor.
Josh S
@GayEGO: I disagree that combined words are needed. We continue to “shorthand” the English language into incomprehension.
rbernard
It is a repeating pattern, the more antigay the bigots are, the more likely they have something hypocritical and scandalous to hide…
Dee Omally
enjoy ur time with Sandusky, Bernie Ward, Dennis Hastert, and don’t worry, there will be many more clergy to have “redemptive bible study with you. The default human condition (was/is for me), is when I don’t know about something, I neither fear it nor oppose it. I mean how can we know unless we know? How can non-gay males actually know the pleasure of gay sex (not trying to be crude), unless well they know? So when someone opposes others who are not hurting others…but enjoying who they are…..and does so vehemently…buzzer alarm and red flags in the dozens go off.
NSB2244
Like they say, where is smoke, there is usually a fire..all these people are spew extreme homophobic vitriol, are usually closeted homosexuals!
dean089
I suppose it’s irrelevant, but why would someone have kiddie porn and never look at it? Was he hoarding it as a retirement plan?
Meanwhile, except for the uneven eyes he’s kinda’ cute.
Kangol
Anti-gay PEDOPHILE pastor. That should be the headline. Many anti-gay people are deeply sick. They turn their internal derangement and self-loathing outwards. Closeted anti-gay men are the absolute worst. LOCK THIS SICK F*CK UP AND MELT THE KEY!
Richpontone
Guarranteed that this creep in five years will be a youth minister with a Church or a private school. These pedophiles love to hide their past record and go right at raping children again. Anyway, these Born Againer Christians only have to pray to Jesus and await that imaginary voice to erase sins of Adultery, Pedophilia, Theft, Murder, Mass Murder or even Genocide and they are again purer than newly made Snow.
Religion is a great industry for Hypocrites, Child Rapists, Liars and Bigots.
martinbakman
He has not knowingly viewed kiddie porn, in the same way the Larry Craig was not gay and had never been gay. Right!
The right wing crowd is ready to believe such denials, hold hands and pray about it.
Chris
Throw his pedophile a$$ into jail.
Mykey
Just another story for the religious people to to say all gay people are paedophiles!
Billy Budd
I abhor religion. religion is the root of all evil. It is the cause of intolerance, wars and all kinds of conflicts. It makes people believe they are better than others just because of their creeds. It is horrible. Religion should be extinct in the world right now. We must progress and get rid of all old ties with the middle ages, embracing the golden age of enlightenment and higher ideals of Classical Ancient Greece.
c2113245
hiii man
c2113245
abhor religion. religion is the root of all evil. It is the cause of intolerance, wars and all kinds of conflicts. It makes people believe they are better than others just because of their creeds. It is horrible. Religion should be extinct in the world right now. We must progress and get rid of all old ties with the middle ages, embracing the golden age of enlightenment and higher ideals of Classical Ancient Greece
DCguy
@Mykey: stated: “Just another story for the religious people to to say all gay people are paedophiles!”
—
Why would they say that? They said he was caught with “Kiddie Porn” not that he was caught with pictures of naked guys.
The guy is a potential or an active child molester. Not gay.
esemple
Boy or girl child porn?
Billy Budd
@esemple: Probably BOTH. The best perverts do not care.
Billysees
When they asked if he had engaged in viewing the material, Reynolds told them he had “not knowingly done so.”
What kind of answer is that?
GC1985
Scumbag. I don’t care who he is or what he stands for… he’s a pedophile
@Mykey: You’re dull. Where did this even say it was images of underage boys? Just take a look at the subway guy. I won’t even name him because his name makes me cringe. He was caught with images of underage girls.
Reynolds is a typical Trump supporter I bet. Support Trump if you like pedophiles, criminals and morons! (That should be his new slogan)