Some ministries do Christian newsgathering out of a love for church. Others like The Roys Report, led by Julie Roys, do so out of a hatred, so that even when some of who they go after include shady characters, they also attack legitimate pastors for doing good deeds as well. Sean Feucht is a shady character to put it mildly. Evangelical Dark Web did a deep dive on him last year. However, there are substantive critiques and there are salacious headlines that reach far and wide amounting to little and that’s what the Julie Roys published last night. Last year Julie Roys was discredited when portions of her book went viral for depicting her as a lesbian groomer by her standards.
The Roys Report published an article titled Sean Feucht’s Criminal Record Raises Integrity Concerns. The article juxtaposes a 2016 book Integrity in which Feucht was one of several coauthors with his petty crimes and infractions following the book’s publish.
However, it must be noted that Steve Baughman, the writer of the article is an avowed atheist with the handle @BanjoAtheist. So apparently atheists can do Christian journalism.
Long story short, Sean Feucht in November 2017 ran afoul of California law when he killed a turkey in or around his property within 400 yards of a bait setup. Feucht tried to cover it up but only incriminated himself because he was confiding in the person who turned him in to police. He plead no contest to the charges in 2018. The article shows a 2021 picture of Feucht holding a turkey as representative of the 2017 offense.
The 2018 conviction for illegal hunting is just one of several minor criminal convictions Feucht has had over the past few years.
In June 2018, he was charged in Cumberland, Pa., with failure to maintain weeds on his property. The code requires that the violator be given notice and an opportunity to correct the violation before being charged. Feucht failed to correct and pleaded guilty in court two weeks later.
It’s worth noting, by Grand Theft Auto standards, I am not even sure Sean Feucht achieved 1 star on during his criminal escapades.
Buried at the bottom of the article are half-baked allegations of financial impropriety that are not original reporting.
In addition to these criminal offenses, the Christian watchdog organization MinistryWatch has reported concerns about “the integrity of (Feucht’s) financial claims.”
For example, MinistryWatch noted that in 2020, Feucht’s nonprofit, Light a Candle, raised $19,320 for work in Iraq but used only $9,000 on program expenses. Yet, in a self-produced documentary, the nonprofit claimed it had spent $100,000 in Iraq that year, MinistryWatch reported.
This is potentially an actual story, but if Baughman and Roys do not expand on it, which they don’t, then their only contribution to discrediting Feucht’s reputation are drumming up his petty crimes. The inconsistent statements is an actual issue that the public would be concerned about but it’s treated as a last but not least in a nothing burger story.
Another red flag concerns the composition of the board of Sean Feucht Ministries. According to the nonprofit’s latest 990 IRS filing, its board has only three directors, one of whom is Feucht himself.
According to the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, nonprofit boards should have at least five board members “to avoid a very small group from controlling the organization.”
It’s worth noting that the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability isn’t a governing authority on Christian ministries, yet Sean Feucht’s lack of adherence to some ministry’s standards are treated as a red flag, when at most its a yellow.
Steve Baughman is a lawyer, musician, and part-time student at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. He also is the author of Cover-Up In The Kingdom: Phone Sex, Lies and God’s Great Apologist, Ravi Zacharias.
The description of the author at the end of the article conveniently leaves out that he is an atheist.
You’re missing all the covid crimes I committed and the fines I was given. Please try better Julie. Dig a little deeper next time.🙏🏼 https://t.co/NkMNILzDnM
— Sean Feucht (@seanfeucht) August 22, 2023
Sean Feucht responded by highlighting that Baughman didn’t drum up his Covid defiance offenses shying away from that debate and also highlighted that Julie Roys is disgraced. Julie Roys continues to represent all that could be wrong with Christian newsgathering.
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