ARBCA Pastor Jason Walter Has Some Explaining To Do

The Association of Reformed Baptist Churches of America once had eighty or more churches who had joined their “Association.” They lost approximately one-third of their churches in 2015 when they made an issue of  “Divine  Impassability.” This issue was driven by the resident ARBCA scholar, James Renihan, among others. Renihan has been the man largely responsible for pushing ARBCA to establish an independent seminary. (Apparently, because nobody else but the ARBCA inbreds have their doctrine exactly correct.) This seminary, IRBS, is now a reality (of sorts).

Where Renihan and his compadres once proudly advertised their ties to ARBCA, of late they have back-pedaled at a furious pace to cut all visible ties with ARBCA, claiming now that they are a totally independent institution. (This despite the fact that the Seminary is housed at Heritage Baptist Church, an ARBCA church located in Mansfield, TX and all their staff either attend ARBCA churches or attend churches that have recently resigned from ARBCA.) For excellent documentation of the connection between IRBS and ARBCA, see this website.

In the last few years, ARBCA has been bleeding member churches at an alarming rate.  This is largely due to the exposure of the longstanding role ARBCA leadership has played in the cover-up of crimes committed by former ARBCA pastor, Tom Chantry. Chantry, son of the famous Reformed Baptist pastor Walter Chantry (the man largely responsible for the formation of ARBCA), is a convicted pedophile currently serving a 24-year sentence for crimes he committed against children while he was the pastor of Miller Valley Baptist Church in Prescott, AZ.

Below is the latest roster of churches remaining in ARBCA, as found on the ARBCA web page. I do not recommend any ARBCA church (nor any former ARBCA church that has recently withdrawn from ARBCA for purely pragmatic reasons while the corrupt leader(s) remain in office) but it is my view that the churches whom I have placed a red box around are extremely toxic.

It is my intention to write about each of these five churches; today I will deal only with Christ Reformed Baptist Church of Vista, CA.

Let me preface my comments on Christ Reformed Baptist Church of Vista, CA by saying that over the course of factually reporting on the Chantry scandal I and my blog partner have received numerous emails and comments submitted to this blog accusing us of breaking nearly all of the Ten Commandments. I am most frequently accused of breaking the 9th Commandment by Chantry’s supporters. Below is a screen capture of one of the milder accusations we have received on this blog. I have not displayed the whole comment, nor did I publish it. I have good reason to believe the author of this comment was an ARBCA pastor.

The recording states that “voicemails are checked daily” and further stated to “please leave a message including your phone number and someone will call you back as soon as possible.”

At the time of this writing, it has been over four days since I left a message with the pastor with two first names; I have yet to hear a peep. It’s either not been possible to return my call in four days, or, dare I say it (to borrow a technique from the ARBCA boys) – the pastor with two first names is guilty of violating the 9th Commandment! Not only has Walter not kept his word on his voicemail recording, but he has not “maintained the truth” on the church website, specifically the information about James Renihan does not appear to be truthful unless Jason would like to attempt to claim that a man residing in Texas remains a pastor of a church in California.

Still not wanting to “go to press” with my information prior to hearing from Walter, I sent him the email copied below. This is basically the same information I left on the voicemail of CRBC.  I have not received a response to my email.

Convinced that Pastor Jason, like nearly every other ARBCA pastor I have “bumped” into, is not willing to communicate with a guy who searches for truth and publishes his findings on a public forum such as this blog, I figured the pastor with two first-names would not be offering me any assistance in my search for truth. In this search, I have found some interesting information; information that I would never have discovered had Pastor Jason done the courteous thing and returned my call. So thanks, Walter. God works in mysterious ways!

So, what did I discover? Pastor Walter was a member of the ARBCA Membership Committee during the time frame Tom Chantry was allowed to bring his church, Christ Reformed Baptist Church of Hales Corners, WI into ARBCA.

Pastor Walter became aware that Tom Chantry was being investigated for multiple counts of child molestation in January or February 2016. In spite of this fact, Pastor Walter, as a member of the ARBCA Membership team, recommended to the ARBCA Administrative Council (AC) that CRBC of Hales Corners, WI  application for membership be approved!

Thus, the current demise of ARBCA can be directly linked to the unethical actions taken by Pastor Walter!

Below are screenshots of two bulletins from CRBC. The first bulletin is from May 1, 2016; it contains an announcement that Tom Chantry, the ARBCA pastor whom Jason Walter knew was being investigated by Law Enforcement for allegations of sexually molesting children, would be the guest speaker at CRBC in four weeks. The second bulletin is from May 29, 2016; it shows that Tom Chantry was the guest speaker that morning.

Pastor Walter displayed, in my opinion, a total lack of discernment, and a total disregard for the safety of the children at his church by allowing Tom Chantry to preach at his church. Worse, Pastor Walter had not told a single member of his church about the allegations against Chantry! It’s also highly unlikely that a single member of CRBC, other than Pastor Walter, knew of the damage wreaked by Chantry during his reign of terror at Miller Valley Baptist Church in Prescott, AZ from 1995 until he left in December 2000.

Here is a screenshot showing the sermon by Chantry on the Sermon Audio website of Christ Reformed Baptist Church of Vista, CA.  I have a copy of the recording, but I don’t care to share the hypocritical rantings of a pedophile now serving a 24-year prison sentence for the sexual abuse of children with you.

After recording the sermon and taking the above screenshot I contacted CRBC through the Sermon Audio page. Below is a screenshot of my communication. I sent this to CRBC on June 8, 2019. I did not receive any response from CRBC.

Not surprisingly, CRBC has scrubbed the Chantry sermon from the list of weekly sermons on its website. The Chantry sermon has been replaced with one of Pastor Walter’s sermons (I wonder if they told any church member about this?) – but look closely – notice anything unusual?

If you noticed “Mountain Reformed Church” give yourself a gold star.

That’s right, on the day Tommy the pedophile was speaking at Walter’s church, Walter and his family fled the congregation, conveniently keeping his children safe from Chantry!  And remember, not a single member who attended church at CRBC had any idea of Chantry’s attraction to children! No sir, Pastor Walter kept that critical information to himself!

Obviously, Chantry never should have been allowed to preach anywhere, that said, it would have been nice if Walter had been decent enough to let his congregation know that Law Enforcement was investigating allegations of child molestation against Chantry. Walter chose not to afford fellow church members the opportunity to make the same decision he made on May 29, 2016, that is, don’t show up at CRBC while Chantry was there. In my opinion this is unconscionable.

A 9th Commandment violation Mr. ARBCA pastor? No wonder you won’t return my calls or answer my emails. You’ve got a lot to hide. In my opinion, you should immediately resign as pastor of CRBC. You have proven unfit for the job. I must say though, you fit right in with all the other corrupt pastors who were in leadership positions in ARBCA.

Below is a screen capture of the website of Mountain Reformed Baptist Church in 2016. It shows their Worship Service time was at 10:30. This is important because the church presently holds its worship service at 1:30.  Christ Reformed Baptist Church has its Worship Service at 10:45. There is no way Jason Walter could have been at CRBC when Tom Chantry was there.

But wait, there’s more.

You should remember that since the initial arrest of Tom Chantry ARBCA leaders were attempting to quell the questions and undoubtedly the anger of church members across the country. The corrupt leaders knew that Chantry was facing charges of sexual molestation. Several ARBCA men had access to the “Confidential Report and Recommendations of the Informal Council of the Association of Reformed Baptist Churches of America, December 13, 2000 to December 16, 2000.” In the report was this very serious observation:

“The Informal Council members consider this pattern of behavior to be very serious. Taken in its entirety, the question must be raised, did Thomas Chantry use this method of punishment for his own pleasure?”

In Tedd Tripp’s letter to Earl Blackburn, written August 26, 2002 he stated: “Since you, Don Lindblad and Tom Chantry all thought that matters had not been properly handled, you should have called for a formal council. It is my belief that had that been done, Tom Chantry would have been found guilty and formal legal charges would have been filed by the parents of some of the abused children. There is no doubt in my mind that Tom Chantry would have been found guilty in a legal proceeding and may even be in jail today.”

Further, he questioned Blackburn concerning the fact that confidential material from the reports of the Investigative Committee in 2000 were being leaked to ARBCA pastors.

There was a concerted effort by ARBCA leaders to spread the word to church members in 2017 that there was nothing to the charges against Chantry. At worst, Chantry was guilty of spanking a few kids a bit too hard.

When Pastor Walter wrote this email to his congregation in November 2018, Chantry had already been convicted on two counts of assault against children and he was facing another trial in the Spring of 2019 on four counts of sexual molestation of a child, charges Chantry was later convicted of.

It was now clear to the average ARBCA church member that they had been lied to about Chantry. ARBCA had also published a two-part report, both of which contained lies.  In his mailings it is obvious that Walter has been taking some heat, some church members have already resigned and apparently, others are not pleased with Walter’s spewing the company line.

What we see below is, in my opinion, an effort by Pastor Walter to maintain control of a group of people that he is rapidly losing. I would guess he also fears that they are going to connect the dots and realize he has played a major role in the Chantry scandal within ARBCA.

Anyone desiring detailed information on the ARBCA cover-up for Tom Chantry can read Brent Detwiler’s article titled “An Overview of My Ten-Part Series on the Abuse of Children by “Pastor” Tom Chantry & Its Cover-Up by the Association of Reformed Baptist Churches of America.”

Finally, I would urge all those who are still members of CRBC Vista to be the sheep pictured below that has raised his head and is checking things out. Raise your head up, observe what is taking place around you and don’t be afraid to ask the tough questions. Additionally, don’t be fooled by what I call “Christianese.” ARBCA leaders have masterfully used religious language to manipulate people and keep them fearful of firmly asking legitimate questions and demanding honest answers.

For further reading: ‘The tongue is a fire’: Southern Baptist church fractures over secrets and spiritual abuse.”