Convicted child molester, Darrell Gilyard, has been allowed to preach in the Christ Tabernacle Missionary Baptist church in Jacksonville, Florida. But, Gilyard, 49, is not allowed any contact with minors under the terms of his release from a three-year jail sentence he served for abusing a 15-year-old girl at another church in 2009.

Thankfully, church leaders have made Gilyard’s services for “adults only”, with security guards hired by the church to refuse admission to families with children.

Before his conviction on two counts of molesting minors, Gilyard was a hit in the Baptist community, having spent 14 years preaching to thousands at Jacksonville’s Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church.

Since Gilyard was hired last month, soon after his December 2011 release from jail for abusing a 15-year-old girl at another church in 2009, and sexting another, the church has become somewhat of a mockery amongst churches in the neighbouring vicinities.

The church has also obviously come under fire from protesters and those that can’t actually fathom something like this is possible.

The New Black Panther party – a group of protesters strongly against the pastor – clashed with churchgoers and promised to protest every time Gilyard led a service. Mikhail Muhammad, the group’s leader, explained:

We came because the children who we should be teaching and preaching to cannot come out today. The black ministers in the city of Jacksonville ought to be ashamed of themselves. How can you say you’re a follower of Christ but you won’t stand up and speak out against this injustice?

Another minister, George Harvey, had strong words too:

A minister who has done such evil should not be restored to the pulpit until his repentance is as notorious as his sin.

Deacon Paul Newman, chairman of Gilyard’s church ministry, chose to defend Gilyard, and said:

He was down on the ground, and the church was down on the ground, and we both needed to get up.

Gilyard has remarkably increased attendance at the Christ Tabernacle Missionary Baptist church, with numbers soaring from the regular five to 10 attendees, to around 150 at one particular service recently.

[Source: Guardian]