[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
Once again, a youth pastor is being accused of horrible crimes against children.
Zachary Joseph Radcliff is a rising right-wing voice. Unlike most musicians, he’s a huge Donald Trump supporter, so they’re of course happy to have him. He’s even played at a CPAC event! Here he is with Jerry Falwell Jr., Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle in 2019.
We’d probably never have heard of the musical stylings of Zach Radcliff — we aren’t exactly in the demo. Except now he’s on our radar because he’s been charged with some truly horrific crimes.
The 29-year-old singer is also a youth pastor at Oakwood Church in Augusta Township, Michigan — at least he was. Not anymore. See, he was charged Sunday with multiple child sex crimes. Yeah…
Related: Trump Was Accused Of Raping A 13-Year-Old Girl With Jeffrey Epstein
Radcliff was arraigned on two counts each of aggravated child sexually abusive activity and child sexually abusive activity, as well as six counts of using the internet to communicate with another to commit a crime. That last one is, as you may have guessed, about CSAM.
Michigan State Police began investigating Radcliff just this month when they were made aware of allegations he had solicited child sexually abusive material from a minor. They searched his home and office, finding evidence of acts of child sexual abuse — of multiple victims.
Radcliff worked as the music and youth director at Oakwood Church — kind of an inherited position as his father is the senior pastor. He allegedly used his position there to try to coerce minors into sexual activity. Per a charging document obtained by Law&Crime, the alleged victims were between the ages of 13 and 15. The crimes go all the way back to 2014, when Radcliff was just 19 years old. So he’s been at this a long time — presumably including when he wrote his conservative anthem I’ll Stand.
His father’s church first suspended him when made aware of the allegations. Later they fired him completely. In a statement Monday, they wrote:
“We received some very disturbing news about our music and youth director, Zachary Radcliff who is also the son of our senior pastor, Frank Radcliff. We realized while talking to him that there was more to the situation than was being expressed. He was suspended with pay on October 3rd, pending further investigation.”
It sounds like he tried to talk his way out of it. We wonder if he called it a WITCH HUNT. The statement continued:
“More information was given to us on Saturday, October 12th, at 4:00 in the afternoon. Pastoral staff met with our church that evening and Sunday morning. Zach was terminated from his job, without pay effective Saturday, October 12th.”
The church hinted there was more, writing:
“The information that we received was shocking. We were told that Zachary had been soliciting inappropriate photos and possibly videos from teens. We have also heard other stories. This information has ripped our hearts apart.”
Sounds like they’ve heard even more details than have been made public by the police. They then defended the church, saying:
“The safety and protection of the individuals in our church is what is paramount to us. We are devoted to doing what we can for the care of the victims of these crimes. Every one of our staff members and individuals working with our children, teens, and adults go through background checks. We do our level best to make sure all are protected.”
Really? The pastor’s son went through a background check? How did that go? Well, we guess we know since they let him work there and allegedly try to sexually abuse children for several years.
Apropos of nothing, we’d just like to point out that Zach Radcliff is not a drag queen, nor a member of the LGBT community. Nope.
[Image via Zach Radcliff/Instagram.]
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