Kenneth Miller, Mennonite Pastor, Jailed For Refusing To Testify In 'Lesbian' Custody Case

A pastor at the center of a dramatic and acrimonious custody and kidnapping case has been jailed for refusing to testify in court.

Kenneth Miller, a 47-year-old Mennonite pastor, told U.S. District Court Judge William Sessions on Thursday that he could not answer questions from a grand jury regarding the flight of Lisa Miller and her daughter to Nicaragua to avoid a custody transfer, reports the Associated Press. Lisa Miller (who is not related to Kenneth Miller) took the child overseas in 2009 so she would not have to comply with a court order allowing her former lesbian partner, Janet Jenkins, to see their daughter, reports NBC News.

In August, Kenneth Miller was convicted of helping the mother flee the country. His sentencing begins in March, and he faces a maximum jail time of three years.

The pastor apologized to the court on Thursday and said his "religious beliefs" prevented him from testifying, according to the AP. Miller said that he, and possibly others who may or may not have helped Lisa Miller violate the custody order, were motivated by their conviction in "God's Law," the AP reports.

The reluctant judge replied that while he appreciated the pastor's "faithfulness to your religion and your moral beliefs," the criminal justice system could not function without the grand jury, according to the AP.

The Beachy Amish Mennonites, the Protestant splinter sect that Kenneth Miller belongs to, believes that same-sex marriage is a sin. The group has about 13,000 members worldwide.

The root of the custody dispute and ensuing kidnapping dates back to 2002, when Lisa Miller gave birth to daughter Isabella. At the time, she was still together with her partner Janet, reports NBC News; but the couple was divorced two years later. Some time after that, Miller became a born-again Christian, renounced homosexuality and stopped allowing Jenkins to see Isabella.

The battle between Lisa Miller and Janet Jenkins, as well as the trial of Kenneth Miller has snowballed into a widely publicized debate that pits religious conservatives against LGBT advocates. In August, conservative firebrand Bryan Fischer, who has grabbed headlines in the past for inflammatory comments about Newtown and the LGBT community, said Lisa Miller had a responsibility "to obey God rather than man" and kidnap her daughter, reports Right Wing Watch.

Jenkins has also filed a civil suit in which she alleges that Miller, Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., and the Lynchburg-based Thomas Road Baptist Church all conspired to help conceal the whereabouts of her daughter. The suit is asking for unspecified monetary damages.

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Rev. Larry Tomczak, Pastor Who Promotes Corporal Punishment, Accused Of Abuse

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (RNS) A pastor known for promoting corporal punishment has been accused of physically abusing a woman for 25 years, beginning during her childhood.

The Rev. Larry Tomczak, an associate pastor at Bethel World Outreach Church near Brentwood, Tenn., was named in a Maryland lawsuit that was filed against leaders of Sovereign Grace Ministries, a denomination Tomczak helped found in the 1980s and later left.

The suit was originally filed in October by three alleged victims of abuse and was amended Friday (Jan. 11) to add five others. All eight were given pseudonyms.

It alleges that Tomczak, who lives in Franklin, Tenn., and other church leaders covered up sexual abuse in the denomination and at a Christian school in Gaithersburg, Md., in the 1980s and 1990s.

Tomczak also is accused of repeatedly assaulting a woman (who is given the pseudonym Carla Coe) with plastic and wooden sticks. The alleged abuse began when she was a child and lasted more than two decades. When the woman was an adult, the lawsuit claims, Tomczak beat her bare backside.

The suit doesn't say where those incidents occurred or how he met the woman.

Tomczak denies all of the allegations of physical abuse. He also said that as a parent, he was saddened to hear of the allegations. But he said he knew nothing about sexual abuse in the denomination.

"I had no involvement in any of this," he said.

A book called "The Little Handbook on Loving Correction," for sale on Tomczak's website, advises parents to use a stick to spank their children. He stands by that advice today.

"That book has helped thousands of parents around the world," he said.

Church leaders at his Tennessee congregation were out of town and not available for comment.

The amended lawsuit is the latest bad news for the controversial Sovereign Grace Ministries, which has about 100 churches. Tomczak split from the group in the mid-1990s because of a conflict with his co-founder, the Rev. Charles Joseph "C.J." Mahaney.

Mahaney and other Sovereign Grace leaders had threatened to spread damaging information about Tomczak's then-teenage son, who had confessed to misconduct, according to a later church report.

In 2011, Mahaney, who has close ties to Southern Baptist leaders like Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., took a leave of absence after complaints were lodged about his leadership style.

He was later reinstated as leader of the denomination, which moved to Louisville from Maryland last year. But conflict in the group has continued. In recent months, several churches have split off from Sovereign Grace.

The denomination issued a statement condemning any abuse of children and saying that leaders will investigate the claims in the suit.

"We consider any allegation of harm to a child extremely serious and we have been working diligently in an effort to learn the truth," the statement reads. "We ask for patience as we continue to investigate these new allegations. Please continue to pray with us for all those affected by this lawsuit."

David Clohessy, executive director of the St. Louis-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, a support group for clergy abuse victims, said that Sovereign Grace seems to have no structure in place to deal with abuse allegations.

"These kinds of insular, secretive churches, outside the mainstream, with little or no hierarchy seem especially problematic," Clohessy said.

According to the lawsuit, victims were told not to report the abuse to the authorities.

That's a common mistake made by churches, Clohessy said. "Instead of saying,'Get some therapy and call the police,' they are told to forgive their abusers," he said.

(Bob Smietana writes for USA Today and The Tennessean in Nashville. Peter Smith of The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal contributed to this story.)

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