This article is part of “Pastors and Prey”, a series investigating the allegations of sexual abuse in the assemblies of God.
Houston – Daniel Savala leans in a fabric chair, raises his right hand and swears before God that what he is about to tell is the truth.
Looking in the camera, the Pentecostal missionary speaks in slow and measured sentences, describing how, for decades, he acquired the confidence of the students who came to his Draped Bungalow of Ivy in search of spiritual advice. Using the entries, he convinced them that they could open up to uncomfortable subjects such as pornography and masturbation. Then he struck, touched their penis and put them pressure to touch his, all under the cover of bringing them closer to Jesus.
“I knew I was wrong,” said Savala in the video, filmed by a lawyer in 2023. “But I did it anyway.”
Religion, he says, was the tool of his deception. “People can just see this spiritual part of your life without seeing the whole of who you are.”
And the person he really was?
“Manipulator,” he said in a neutral tone. “Cunning.” “Sinister.”
During the two years that followed that Savala recorded this confession at his home in Houston, lawyers, activists and denunciators worked to unravel how a sexual offender condemned with an eighth year education managed to convince the scores of pastors and young Christians to make him faith in him – and why the church officials failed to arrest him.
To find out more about this story, look at “NBC News Daily” at noon and “Hallie Jackson Now” at 5 pm HE on NBC News now.
In police reports, prosecution, online forums and interviews with NBC News, dozens of boys and young men described how Savala turned its own twisted version of the Gospel. He taught them that being naked in his backyard sauna was essential to become real brothers in Christ – or, as he said, “nudity is unity”. For those who fight against the leaf temptation, he offered a counter-intuitive solution: group masturbation, sometimes while listening to the music of Christian worship. He pushed some of his disciples later; In the proceedings, the declarations signed and the criminal documents, at least 10 accused him of having sexually abused them.
“He said things like:” Hey, you know it’s ok to masturbate, “said Joseph Cleveland, who said that Savala treated him and sexually abused him for a decade from 2004, when he was 15 years old. “” Because we are brothers, we can do it together. “”
The pastors who brought hundreds of students in high school and colleges to the home of Savala were part of Chi Alpha, a Christian ministry that evangelizes on university campuses. Students are looking for Chi Alpha to connect with God and each other, through small biblical studies and rolling worship services – and, for more than 30 years, by Savala. Generations of chiefs of Chi Alpha hailed him as a spiritual scientist who could respond to the deepest mysteries of life.
The boys and young men who devoted themselves to Savala called him “dad daniel”, “God of God” and “the healthiest living man”. In its direction, students of students built the sauna of the backyard which has become the site of its alleged crimes. So much wrapped in his teachings, his supporters often considered himself victims until years or decades later. At least one of the students that Savala has sexually exploited later became a pastor and led his own boys to learn from his master inside his dark sauna.
The reward for the devotion of this minister: like Savala, he now faces the possibility of life in prison.
The Ministry of Savala collapsed at the beginning of 2023 when several men appeared, some anonymously, to accuse him as well as some of his protégés of sexual abuse and exploitation, triggering a wave of criminal accusations, legal proceedings and dismissals of pastors. Savala was arrested and at least six pastors from Chi Alpha, leaders and students who studied under him were accused of sexual abuse.
The revelations shaken Chi Alpha and the Pentecostal name that manages it, the assemblies of God, which has nearly 3 million members in 13,000 churches across the United States while Savala, 69, awaits the trial in Waco, Texas, the assemblies of God have sought to be self-sufficient, affirming that Savala was not used by Chi Alpha and was never created name.
But an NBC News survey, based on interviews and an examination of emails, judicial archives, photographs and publications on social networks, shows that Savala has been deeply rooted in Chi Alpha, some leaders creating it for the rapid growth of the ministry in recent decades. The report reveals that the assemblies of chiefs of God – to the national superintendent of the name – have been warned several times from the disturbing history of Savala but have not cut its influence. These failures have enabled more children and young men to be mistreated, according to reports.
It was not the first time that the officials of the assemblies of God, the largest Pentecostal name in the world, have been accused of having poorly managed the allegations of sexual abuse. In May, an NBC News investigation revealed how church leaders rejected allegations of repeated abuse against a charismatic pastor of children named Joe Campbell in the 1980s, allowing him to stay in the ministry for years while more and more alleged victims were manifested.
Do you have a story to share on the assemblies of God’s management of sexual abuse? Report by email Mike Hixenbaugh.
Chi Alpha had a clear opportunity to break the links with Savala in 2012, when the Alaska authorities accused him of mistreatment of boys as Minister of Youth in the 1990s. Instead, the leaders of the Ministry in Texas rallied to his defense, sending a member of the staff in Alaska to pay his deposit and – after Savala pleaded guilty of a minor – Letters to request the judge from Clémence. After a visit to prison, Savala returned to welcome students from Chi Alpha at his home in Houston.
During the decade which followed, at least half a dozen people contacted the assemblies of the officials of God in Texas and at the national siege of the name in Springfield, Missouri, alerting them that Chi Alpha exposed students to a sex offender. These denunciators wrote emails, passed telephone calls and spoke during internal meetings. Over the past, they have been dismissed or ignored, noted NBC News.
“The hiding place is the ally of the abuse,” said Anthony Soma, a pastor who resigned from a position of management of the Assembly of God in Texas after having declared that senior officials of the name had not acted in his warnings on Savala in 2023. “The Bible speaks of bizarre light in dark places. But the leadership in the assemblies of God, oh, Oh, oh, does not shine in our dark places. “”
Rather than considering how the church leaders welcomed a sex offender in the lap, the accusers of Savala say that the assemblies of God have taken a defensive position, refusing to disclose an internal investigation and rely on non-divulgation agreements to prevent the story from spreading.
Critics, including several current and ancient assemblies of Pastors of God, claim that this response exposes a culture of leadership of the Church which is more concerned with avoiding legal responsibility than protecting vulnerable. They call on God’s assemblies to command an independent examination of his management of allegations of sexual abuse to ensure that nothing like he is reproduced.
“ Pastors and prey ”: NBC News investigation into sexual abuse in the assemblies of God churches
In a statement to NBC News, the assemblies of God said that she had ordered Chi Alpha leaders to stay far from Savala after having received a report on her subject in 2018. Five years later, after having received “sexual abuse”, the name declared that she “had taken the appropriate measures”, which led to the rejection of more than half a dozen ministers.
“We had a broken heart to hear allegations linked to Daniel Savala and to the pain that his actions reported caused,” the statement said. “The assemblies of God are strongly opposed to the teachings and practices he has followed.”
The names of name refused interview requests and did not answer detailed questions.
Savala did not plead on his accusations in Texas, and he and his lawyers did not respond to requests for comments. But in April 2023, when the accusations rose, he recorded the confession in his living room; We don’t know what led him to do it. The house grainy video then circulated among the accusers of Savala and was shared with NBC News.
By reflecting on the way he managed to hide his misdeeds for so long, Savala’s eyes move temporarily, then his gaze returns to the camera.
“I have them all very well in love.”
