American pastor charged for rape, sexual abuse of minor

An American pastor, Zachary King, has been charged with the rape and sexual abuse of a minor, Crosswalk Headlines has reported.

King, a megachurch pastor in Kentucky, was also charged with the unlawful use of electronics to engage in sexual acts with a minor.

According to a statement from the office of the Attorney General of Kentucky, the 47-year-old clergyman has “significant experience serving in youth ministry” at multiple megachurches.

It said he preached in LexCity Church in Lexington, Kentucky, three months ago and resigned as executive pastor.

Lex18 reported that King, who is currently detained in Fayette County Detention Center, was charged with first-and second-degree rape as well as first-and second-degree sodomy.

It said during his arraignment, the embattled pastor’s attorney asked the judge, John Tackett, to set his bond at $50,000, allowing him to pay $5,000 or 10 per cent of the bond to be released. However, the judge set the bond at $250,000.

Lex18 also said King’s arrest citation showed he confessed that he “engaged in a sexual relationship with a minor over the course of the last year and a half.”

 Christian Post newspaper also reported that the pastor confessed that he had “sexual intercourse with the minor at age 15 in January 2023, continuing until April 2024.”

The pastor also confessed that he had “sexual intercourse in the minor’s home, at his residence, and at the church where he was a former pastor.”

Fox56 reported that King admitted he communicated with the teenage girl through Snapchat and WhatsApp, including arranging meetups and receiving explicit photos. He also confessed to picking up the girl from her home and would drive up the road to have sex in his car.

He resigned from LexCity Church after the congregation confronted him.

King had preached at Craig Groeschel’s Life Church and Metropolitan Baptist Church in Houston, Texas, where he spent over eight years.

 Crosswalk Headlines reports that he once admitted that he was struggling in his 24-year-old marriage because he felt his needs were not being met.

He said at the time, “At times, where I’m frustrated, and my needs are not being met, and (I’m) annoyed by things I shouldn’t be annoyed by is when my wife and I are disconnected, and we haven’t talked about it, and we just kind of let it sit.

“We become really good co-parents and roommates in those seasons where it’s like, we just got to get the kids to the next place and get through the next day, almost like surviving until you can go to bed.

“So things that would never really bother me, normally you are treating the symptoms, but you are not treating the root of the problem, and I just have to sit there and pray and ask the Lord to reveal the root – typically it’s me – my frustration is actually something I’m not doing, so it is really a not you, it’s me in this scenario.”

 The Christian reports that King has become the second American pastor to have been entangled in sexual allegations in the last few months.

Pastor Robert Morris of Gateway Church in Texas was recently accused by Cindy Clemshire of sexually abusing her when she was a minor in the 1980s.

Pastor Evans of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship, Dallas, Texas, recently resigned over a past sin.

Cindy Clemishire, 54, alleged that Morris abused her in the 1980s