Bruce Smith, the reporter who did a five part series on the ntcc for The Dispatch, now has his own online News Site, called The Mountain News, WA. We have included it in our "What's New On the Blogs" sidebar feature that shows new posts as they appear. Bruce Smith's detailed work can be found at:
Michael Fontenot, Former NTCC Minister, Staff Member and Convicted Child Rapist Read More>>
I just read this. What a story. The NTCC leadership is totally at fault.
ReplyDeleteYou are completely right. The ntcc has created an environment that nurtures this type of criminality. I shudder to think of how many cases of unreported child molestation and child rape that have been swept under the filthy ntcc carpet. What really makes this bad is that Rwd and his cohorts probably know about much of it and have chosen to turn a blind eye.
ReplyDeleteThey knew about Fontenot's status of being a sex offender and did nothing to warn anyone. They put a lot of children at risk. This child molester was let out of prison multiple times and had contact with ntcc'rs. The ntcc doesn't care about children. They don't care about souls. They don't care about people. They have one purpose and one mission and that is accumulate wealth.
How could you sit back and say nothing about a convicted child molester and say you love God. There is no telling how many children this guy has been around. The ntcc cares more about it's image than it does about the lives of children being ruined by a sick perverted ntcc minister who is allowed to roam like a wolf among sheep. How many other child molester's are the ntcc leaders harboring? How many child molester's and child rapists have the ntcc harbored in the past?
Think about this folks. Are your children safe in the ntcc? Think really hard before you drop them off at children's church. Why is it that the ntcc does not do any criminal background checks on it's own ministers? I know you think us X-ers hate God and that our sole purpose in life is to tear down the ntcc, but listen to reason on this issue. Pray about it really hard and then use your brain and think. Do you want to put your children at risk? Do you want your child around someone that has an insatiable desire to molest children?
DnA
How can I get ahold of someone to talk about Cori Lewis' murder?
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone have any specifics for as to why Kelly Merz was kicked out of the church? This is Cori Lewis' ex-husband, Bill..Thank you
ReplyDeleteBill said:
ReplyDelete"Does anyone have any specifics for as to why Kelly Merz was kicked out of the church? This is Cori Lewis' ex-husband, Bill..Thank you"
DnA said:
Unfortunately the ntcc is a cult and everyone that is in the ntcc and has knowledge of why Merz left the ntcc is tight lipped and you can't get much out of them. Cult members are taught to keep their mouths shut about such things because it implicates the ntcc. We have not heard anything other than supposition in regards to why Merz left the ntcc. Maybe someone out there that reads this and is privy to this info will share. We are sorry for your loss Bill and hope you can find the answers you are looking for.
DnA
I remember the time that we went to a conference and fontenot was the song leader, we thoght that finally his star was finally rising in the ntcc.
ReplyDeleteAs I recall he had a brother and sister too. Are they stll around the ntcc?
That's a good question, Anon. We have never heard of fontenot having a brother or sister around ntcc.
ReplyDeleteAs I recll, somebody by the name fontenot was pastoring in texas somewhere, but I don't know if he was the one pastoring or his brother, because this was around 5years ago.
ReplyDeleteI remember also, that somebody said that he was a good artist.
Somebody mentioned that he was the one who painted some type of logo into rwd's rv.
Fontenot was a graphic artist; he worked for some textile place designing necktie patterns in St. Louis, and continued to moonlight doing that when he moved to Graham. We worked together at a print shop in Puyallup, where I helped him get a job. He asked me about how the income from his moonlighting should be handled on his tax return, and I gave him my opinion that he had to pay self employment taxes. During this conversation, I mentioned in passing that the IRS would probably take a dim view of NTCC's practice of treating its employees as if they were private contractors for pay purposes, when clearly they had no control over their work duties or schedules whatsoever. Well, Michael narked me out for that. Not long after, DiFrancesco informed me in the fellowship hall after church one night that RW wanted to see me in the office. So he led me over there, and when we went in, the whole board was there, lying in ambush. I wasn't invited to sit down, and RW told me that Fontenot told him what I'd said, and that they had lawyers and accountants advising them, and that everything they did was legit, yadda yadda.... I apologized and told him I meant no harm; it was just an opinion that I could be wrong about.
ReplyDeleteThe running-off process began in earnest then, and soon we left. I still worked with Michael, and one day his supervisor came to me looking for him. He'd been seen earlier, but no one could find him. Later she found a note on her desk stating that the previous day was his last; he had quit to run the NTCC print shop (which I was doing, before we left the org, though not full time). It made me wonder if he didn't intentionally sabotage me just to get that gig, but he did me a huge favor.
Regarding my opinion, I think it was right, and I've heard that workers get W-2s now. Maybe they changed lawyers/accountants. I wish the IRS would put them under the microscope (although they probably wouldn't even need a magnifying glass to nail these religious hucksters).
Anonymous said,
ReplyDeleteAs I recll, somebody by the name fontenot was pastoring in texas somewhere, but I don't know if he was the one pastoring or his brother, because this was around 5years ago.
DnA say,
That needs to be looked into, to nail down the dates. michael fontenot was convicted of two counts of child rape in the second degree in 2006 ("around five years ago").
His then-time wife, the mother of the victim, told rodger davis and micheal kekel of this.
At that time michael fontenot's ministerial credentials should have been revoked.
Furthermore, davis and kekel should have warned the congregation that a convicted child rapist was among them!
This is usually done by announcing a meeting for the intent of informing people of the dangerous sexual predator. At such meetings a paper with a photo of the predator and a list of the convictions is given to folks. People are also instructed to not become vigilantes, to not take the law into their own hands.
davis and kekel did not warn people that michael fontenot was a convicted child rapist!
In ntcc michael fontenot held three positions considered to be "positions of trust" being endorsed by davis and kekel.
1) mf was a song leader and member of the quartet, seen on the platform or altar as someone to look up to, in a position to admire.
2) mf was a faculty member of the ntcc seminary. I sat in his Leviticus class. Another position of trust.
3) mf also ran the ntcc print shop and amongst other duties produced the ntcc's monthly magazine called "The Trumpet".
Each of those jobs gave mike fontenot "credibility" in the eyes of other members, especially since davis would frequently boast that he would not have a 'sinner' as his song leader. Or an adulterer on the board. Once again, davis talks a big show; but facts state otherwise.
Getting back to michael fontenot: He clearly is a threat to children.
But the ntcc leaders never warned anyone to protect their children.
In fact, michael fontenot's then-time wife was teaching children's church!
ntcc willfully repeatedly endangered the children by exposing them to a known convicted child rapist without warning the parents.
davis and kekel only care about protecting the ntcc image, even at the cost of endangering your children!
Vic said,
ReplyDeleteThe running-off process began in earnest then...
Sounds similar to what happened to Moreno. Vic unwittingly exposed a sin in the ntcc. So the ntcc leadership targeted him to get rid of him.
That's the ntcc pattern: Get rid of anyone who sees the truth about the ntcc.
What an eye opener this whole story is.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if all the work that he did around graham including the painting he drew for rwd's rv was painted over. I think he did the cloudy sky in the background in the graham church. Hopefully I'm wrong about this, but
I don't think I would be willing to have something that reminded me of one who had molested a little innocent girl!
I think kekel painted the cloudy sky scene behind the pulpit in the Graham chapel dedicated in 1999.
ReplyDeleteDnA
I was thinking about this story last night and I began to feel helpless becsuse this sister apparantely didn't have any support from anybody, many times we just go to church and stay in our little clique and never reach out to others.
ReplyDeleteI'm so dissapointed because instead of reaching out to this poor sister they treated her and her daughter like damaged goods.
I never had the pleasure of meeting them, just fontenot when he was going to bible school, but after that I didn't know what happened to him.
I was thinking that in that big church, surely there would be somebody that could reach out to them, instead of treating them like they also were at fault for fontenont's sins.
Hopeully the mother and daghter are doing well after such terrible ordeal.
It doesn't seem to work that way in the ntcc. The important causes that deal with true love and charity seem to get swept under the carpet because they take away from what's really important to the ntcc leadership. It is our experience that individual needs get little or no attention from their leaders and this is especially true with any kind of financial assistance.
ReplyDeleteThis sister and her family needed help but they were not given any. In many cases She was like a Widow in that her husband was dead spiritually and departed from her, leaving her in a huge financial and emotional bind. The ntcc would rather run someone off than to help them and this is not just an isolated case. This is standard procedure that has happened over and over and over again.
Sadly to say, the ntcc leaders usually display the opposite to charity, which is love. The ones that need help seldom get it. The ones that have a higher potential to contribute to the wealth and success of the rich and famous are the ones who receive more attention.
DnA
I grew up with Michael and personally i believe he needed help long before joining this church. He was tortured after his biological father committed suicide. His mother remarried and he suffered unimaginable acts of cruelty at the hands of his mother and her new husband. I feel for his daughter and pray for her, but I also pray for him. I can only imagine the demons he must fight every day.
ReplyDelete