US Brookwood church removes registered sex offender from ministry
Brookwood Baptist Church in Simpsonville, South Carolina, USA, has removed Jerry Sidell from any ministry after he had been involved in the congregation’s activities for more than two decades. Sidell, a registered sex offender, joined the church in 1999 and held various ministry roles, The Guardian reports.
Senior pastor Brian Jones told congregants that when Sidell joined the church, he informed its leadership that he had pleaded guilty in Georgia to crimes involving enticing a minor to commit indecent acts and child molestation. According to Jones, restrictions were imposed on Sidell: he could not work with children or take part in youth ministries, or be present in school facilities and the premises used by those ministries.
New attendance rules
Jones, who became senior pastor in late 2022, made it clear that he only recently learned of Sidell’s status as a registered sex offender. According to him, he subsequently told Sidell that he could no longer perform with the church’s adult music group or be a member of a small adult prayer group.
The church has also introduced a procedure for all registered sex offenders who attend services. They must enter through designated doors, check in with security, sit with an assigned guard, who will escort them out of the church after the service ends.
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Pastor J.C. Thompson said that the congregation cares about the safety of its members and that surveillance cameras have been installed throughout the church property. Another pastor, Matt Plunkett, said that all church volunteers must complete a violence-prevention course.
Sentence in Georgia
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, in 1983 Sidell pleaded guilty to five counts of child molestation and one count of enticing a minor to commit indecent acts. The publication wrote that he told detectives about molesting nine boys he had met while working as a youth minister at First Christian Church in Jonesboro, Georgia.
According to the newspaper, Sidell was sentenced to six concurrent 10-year prison terms. He is also registered as a sex offender in South Carolina and Florida. Sidell and Brookwood Church did not respond to The Guardian’s requests for comment.
