Megachurch Pastor Accused of Sexual Abuse is Still Preaching

the church and like black communities the preachers like the head man in charge stop setting up and I'll go God says go and I'll set it up you don't trust him as its role that he is up trying to better you [Applause] when you stop you start Satan will start speaking like that some of you are where you are now because God knows he's speaking to you but the devil says I'm not putting you loose I believed he loved me I believe that this man saw me and had a true desire to help since the 90s Pastor Ricky Rush has been a fixture in Dallas drawing thousands every Sunday to his mechachurch the inspiring Body of Christ known as IBA that was easy for him to take advantage of because I was green to the real world but in recent years a growing number of former members have accused him of creating a culture of abuse from violent beatings to sexual assault sisters Renee Phillips and Donna Fields say they were two of his victims he guided me to the table and unzipped his pants and started trying to insert me and I was like no no stop no words just guiding me to the ground and that's where in that room um he raped me you know it wasn't it wasn't six because I was a kid what did Rush do to you as a family it blew us all apart what he caused changed me permanently the sisters were in high school when they first met Rush so Mr ish was my teacher he was starting a church [Music] and he was looking for members he was always looking for the misfit if you didn't fit in he was trying to look for you to pull you in they say they initially saw him as a father figure who lavished them with attention they weren't getting at home when Fields became pregnant by a classmate her junior year of high school Rush supported her he was like you're gonna be right here with me I'm going to take care of you it's like you need to come to my church he told me that he would you know take me under his wing so I just held on to him for dear life the sisters now describe Russia's Behavior as grooming that he gained their trust to manipulate and abuse them he was telling me that you know I needed to wear clothes that were appropriate for someone that's pregnant so he was like I'm gonna have to show you how to dress I remember him pulling my shirt up and saying you you're not going to be able to wear that bra you're gonna have to get some maternity bras while he's asking me questions about them being tender he would be touching me around my nipples and then you know pulling my my pants open you're not going to be able to wear those kind of panties you're going to have to get maternity panties and I'm like okay and then he bought them he bought the things that I needed and so I would wear them and then he would check on me to see you know are you comfortable are you okay and do you feel at this point like he's still in this position no power over you yeah well I did I just thought we were friends and no man should be a friend to a young girl like that so he pulls me in this room he kisses my stomach and then he starts to go under my clothes and you know eventually led me to the ground I didn't know I just I followed whatever he said because I'm trying to think who saw did anybody hear this you know did anybody see us in this room you know who do I go to do I supposed to just not say anything who's gonna believe me how old are you I was 16. he guided me to the floor and he penetrated me on the floor of that church and he begged me not to tell anyone and I kept um his secret I um just isolated myself just for some sanity what do you do when you're um when you're hurt is from your pastor I said what do you do Philip says the sexual assaults continued for two years she quit the church and kept it a secret even from her sister and they grew estranged but in 2017 inspired by the metoo movement she came forward leading fields to reveal she too had been raped by Rush the sisters reunited with a mission to expose the truth [Music] they brought their allegations to the Dallas Police Department detailing years of grooming while they were teenagers and pressure to keep quiet [Music] read that let me see they also posted their stories to social media the reaction from the eibach community was explosive you have thousands yeah there's almost 3 000 comments yes you have those that are dedicated that's been there for decades they feel like they can dismiss our experiences being loyal to him you know and then you know it was a it was a mixture people were saying like I'm proud of you I've heard some things this is not new and and then they start sharing some of their own stories this one young lady says nothing but facts he made me watch him beat the out of this boy I was dating at the time but ass naked well this is a video of when we were out protesting the dad just came out walked up to us and seen that his own son was at least I think he mentioned on here seven or eight when he was um beat by him paddled excessively one lady came to me and said her brother was raped by him how many other boys that are too ashamed to say yeah that happened to me too you know a lot of these victims are still Anonymous a lot of those people are not willing to come forward exactly that's our thing like they'll come to us and say you know this happened and we'll say we'll go to the authorities and they clam up then we never hear them hear from him again A lot of people are afraid of what he's going to do the sisters chase down every tip and contacted reporters from the Dallas Morning News who investigated their claims and identified a dozen former church members who said they were sexually or physically abused by Rush many of these alleged victims describe Rush routinely beating them as children one said he was six years old when Rush strapped him face down on a table pulled down his pants then thrashed his bare skin many did not want to be identified saying they feared backlash from family members who still attend eibach or from Rush himself the paper also reported a 2011 civil court case against rush in which two teenage girls describe being brutally beaten with a paddle one so violently she blacked out Rush quietly settled that case but in a deposition obtained by Vice news a witness testified that Rush felt he had the right to paddle the church's younger members and that should anyone have an issue with it that's what we have lawyers and insurance for that witness also detailed hearing Rush beat a child behind closed doors that child was fields's youngest son Marcus Bell Jr who she'd raised in the eibach community despite the abuse she says she experienced as a teenager she'd stayed at the church and close to rush I never saw him as a predator I only saw him as a man that loved me and I'm trying to teach my son to trust God and to be spiritually minded how did your son get to be involved with Rush he's always been there since he was a baby he's like this could be the next preacher because I have to be able to pass this church over to somebody I kept all of his letters every last letter is in this box years of Correspondence of him writing me in 2018 Belle went to prison for robbery there he wrote dozens of letters home it was in one of these messages that Fields learned what her son said Rush had done to him as a young boy one of the main people I loved looked up to used to beat my ass and yeah I got raped by the dude I came out with no shoes on bruise is all on my back humiliated [Music] in front of 100 men who didn't know the truth of what happened after that I became even more lost depressed suicidal I was 12 or 13. at that moment I changed it's one thing when you do something to me and then you hurt my sister but then you touch my kids I call the detectives and I'm like what do I need to do I got this letter and y'all somebody needs to go to my son and find out what did that man do to him because too much no kid at 13 should ever have to go through that I know my son would not have ended up in prison foreign in September Bell's family including his mom and his children got ready for his release from prison well you're just gonna miss school one day just to go visit Daddy okay we're gonna drive to get Daddy we're making a memory yeah as soon as we're done as soon as we're done we're driving down y'all have been so supportive all this time this story is um not just an average release for our family this represents a whole lot he's been locked up for six years and they 've been solitary most of that time just excited I'm just excited my son is getting out today so okay it was the first time the family would be reunited since learning about each other's abuse [Music] foreign [Music] I could say she a free spirit but I feel like religion had handcuffs I'm gonna put it like this that's how she grew up the energy that she got for Christianity it flowed into me it was a big part of your life yeah it was really a big part of my life Outback was like Chuck E cheese that's the place to go what was rush like when you were a kid what kind of stuff did he say to you at the time um basically like you're gonna be next in line This is Gonna Be Your flock things like that you looked up to him I lied what was the role of discipline at church he was the disciplinary I don't know if you caught it discipline you know I'm saying how I look underneath what would you call it now traumatizing but I looked at it like I'm getting in trouble so this is my discipline did it escalate [Music] he escalated over time and it started getting more Hands-On more of grabbing you by the shirt grabbing me by the neck and getting real real aggressive I was in there getting beat on you know I'm saying with a paddle no clothes on it's like really real life getting beat on you know I'm pleading with them please stop please I'm sorry he steady telling me drop him drop him drop him so after a while I got to drop him because he's steady putting his hands on me smacking me around that's when the sexual assault happening sexual abuse habits put what what did he do he you know have a sexual abuse go he raped you right he got a green catch right here and I'm all up against I I can't do nothing he oh he outpelled me so when I felt what I felt I zoned out how you telling me get up you better not tell nobody about what happened in this office because I would bleed you know what I'm saying so I wiped the blood up whooping out there and got myself together you know I'm saying really would get my thoughts together on like what really just happened and I just looked in the mirror you know what I'm saying they just looked at myself and cried my look too is that whooping outlet and I walked out of there how a different person [Music] [Applause] happy birthday to you make your way what do you wish would happen I want people to speak up like I'm doing I'm right here talking to you right now my face is on display right now but we're helping me tell your story your story matter it really do count Dallas Police ultimately told fields and Phillips their allegations were too old to be prosecuted but Belle's story fell within the statute of limitations in January 2022 police referred a criminal case against rush to County Prosecutors it included two accusers one who remains Anonymous and Bell [Music] the Bible tells us that God's going to bless you without moving you he'll bless you right in the presence of your enemies God said not what I'll do is I will let those who came to seek your destruction I will let them watch your Resurrection so we've tried to get a hold of Rush several times over the past few months we've contacted his church no one has responded to us we've reached out to his lawyers they've refused to make him available so we're trying to see if we can meet him in person and we're heading over to his church where he's supposed to lead Sunday services this morning we were hoping to speak with Pastor Rush we've been trying to get a hold of him for a little while okay that'd be great thank you so much we are so grateful that you are here to experience iboc what in regards to um you know there's been a series of allegations against him over the past few years and we were just hoping to see if he would be willing to speak with us um you know comment on that at all not on a Sunday I mean he's focused on the word today I mean that's long gone and passed and we're done with that we've moved on with that when presented with a detailed list of the allegations in this story a lawyer for Rush once again declined our request for an interview and told Vice news via email there will be no comment for pastor Rush regarding these baseless stale allegations it is a shame that he has to once again face the Specter of these scurrilous accusations being circulated our peace in August 2022 a grand jury decided there wasn't enough evidence to support bringing charges against Rush Bell's case would not go to trial we're gonna say pastors like prison and daddies I don't care who the mayor is in Dallas right now I don't care who the police chief is he playing good good chase you know what I'm saying he got very powerful pieces around him unless new accusers Whose claims fall within the statute of limitations come forward or a different district attorney decides to take on the case Rush is unlikely to face charges the sisters have lost hope that he will ever be held accountable [Music] so this is going to be our prop instead of acting out things on a person they're now determined to prevent others from going through what they experienced heard the word abuse at school maybe at home if anybody forces you to undress if you feel scared or hurt yucky shy and uncomfortable just know you can say No don't touch me thank you everybody foreign oh my God all right all right here I go I'm proud of her to share her story because it was needed and it brought us together because he actually thought he kept us divided permanently and we proved him wrong you're not gonna see us crying in eyelid what you're gonna see us and stomp down ten toes and we're gonna keep on watching for it what does the future look like for you with the future in the life of me you know how many stars is in the universe [Music] can't count how many stars in the universe is too many too many stars so in my future is just there's too many options my future is in my hands he's actually in my hands now foreign

Channel: VICE News

Views: 860,418

Keywords: VICE News, VICE News Tonight, VICE on HBO, news, vice video, VICE on SHOWTIME, vice news 2023, mega churches, megachurch, mega church preachers exposed, mega church preachers, mega church scandals, megachurch pastor

Id: qtNvu6J1CAQ

Length: 19min 2sec (1142 seconds)

Published: Sun May 21 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/Rebelscum320]

"B-b-but the drag queens," - Every far right Republican.

Yet notadragqueen again though, almost like these bible-thumping far right senators/representatives are hiding something.

[u/trebek321]

“Mega church pastor” you can just say con man, these places are no more a place of god than a casino. Only difference is when you give your money to a casino you at least have a chance of getting something back.

[u/Pandarah]

A couple of things really resonated with me, but the biggest one I think was the "representative" that came out to meet with the journalist when they asked to speak to Pastor Rush about the allegations. The representative replied something along the lines of "it's Sunday so he's busy" and that he'd "put it behind him".

I don't think his victims have that luxury, and I'm grateful that even though the legal system failed them it takes someone made of stronger stuff to share their own experiences and trauma as a way to support their community.

[u/gregtx]

https://www.ibocchurch.org/new-here/our-pastor

This is the guy. He’s accused of raping a male parishioner. A grand jury declined to indict him and its widely accepted that prosecutors blew the case. That’s why he’s out and still preaching.

[u/Hishui92]

Ah, the bible belt in action.

[u/Successful_Tea2856]

...is anyone surprised?

[u/Beta_Ray_Blu]

Wow, I see his face all over billboards in Oak Cliff.

[u/PrincelyRose]

The fact that I wasn't sure which megachurch pastor they were talking about says a lot.

[u/s1owpoke]

Good ol’ “do as I say, not as I do”