The Message and Sexual Abuse
Responses to The Park Abuse
In Prescott, Arizona, William Branham's "tape boys" Leo Mercier and Gene Goad ran a commune called The Park where 100+ children were systematically beaten, tortured, and sexually abused over nearly a decade. Branham personally visited, endorsed the commune, called Mercier "Our Shepherd," and told families who wanted to leave to stay. Every senior Message leader knew. None called police. How do today's ministers respond to this documented history? See Message Research's full evidence page for details.
The Silence of 80+ Message churches shows a movement-wide pattern.
Across 80+ pro-Message YouTube channels in our transcript database — representing thousands of sermons — not a single one mentions The Park, Leo Mercier, Gene Goad, or the abuse of 100+ children. The silence is total.
“Voice of God Recordings and message ministers do everything they can to distance themselves and separate themselves from these things... the horrific stories about the park.”
— Tim Krauss, Believe The Sign, "YOU FORGOT SOMETHING!!" (2024-12-16) [Watch ▶]
Analysis
We searched every transcript in our database — over 43,000 sermons from 90+ channels — for any mention of The Park, Leo Mercier, Gene Goad, Deborah Thibodeau, or the Prescott commune. The results from pro-Message channels:
- Cloverdale Bibleway — zero mentions
- Believers Tabernacle — zero mentions
- Harvest Time Bride Tabernacle — zero mentions
- Word of Life Church (Donny Reagan) — zero mentions
- Faith Assembly Church — zero mentions
- All other pro-Message channels — zero mentions
This silence is particularly striking for churches where Daulton family members actively preach — the Daulton name is directly connected to The Park through Deborah Daulton Thibodeau, the survivor who wrote The Serpent's Tail.
Until recently, VGR sold memorabilia celebrating Mercier and Goad on their online store, referring to them as "the tape boys." Most products were removed only after public exposure.
Sources & References
Why This Matters
Silence about documented abuse is not neutrality. When 100+ children were brutalized in a commune endorsed by your movement's founder, and your response across thousands of sermons over decades is to say nothing, the silence itself is a position. It communicates to survivors that their suffering does not merit acknowledgment, and to current members that these facts are too dangerous to discuss.
"You Take Something to the Law and You Take It Out of the Lord's Hands"Named in publicly available sermon transcripts onlyContradiction🎥🔊📄In 2025, a Message church leader was recorded directing his congregation not to report abuse to police but to handle it within the church. A former associate pastor of the same church documented on video that he was personally present when coverup decisions were made.
“You take something to the law and you take it out of the Lord's hands. Amen. You take something to a court of law and you've taken it out of the Lord's hands and the church has nothing to do with it. Brother, sister, you agree with me? Amen.”
— Recorded clip played on Christian Gospel Church channel, "Is Kevin Crase directing Faith Assembly Church to violate the law?" 2025-08-19 [Watch ▶]
Context
This statement was made from the pulpit while the state of Indiana is a mandatory reporting state — meaning ministers are legally required to report child abuse to authorities. Instructing a congregation not to go to the law is itself a crime under Indiana mandatory reporting statutes.
“I was there when these things were reported. I was in the back room when it was reported. Nothing was done. Nothing was reported. And I was there and I witnessed the decision to make the cover up.”
— Former associate pastor, Christian Gospel Church channel, 2025-08-19 [Watch ▶]
Context
A former associate pastor of the church states on video that he was personally present when decisions were made to cover up abuse and not report it to authorities. This is a first-hand eyewitness account.
“Not only were the molesters arrested, but the preachers who instructed the people to cover it up and keep it within the church were also arrested and indicted because that is a crime.”
— Former associate pastor, Christian Gospel Church channel, 2025-08-19 (referring to arrests in the Tucson Message community) [Watch ▶]
Context
Documents that in the Tucson Message community, both the abusers AND the ministers who directed coverups were arrested and indicted. This establishes legal precedent: covering up abuse in a church is a criminal offense.
“Pretty plainly and clearly, these sort of things have been going on in the Jeffersonville message community for some time. There has been a lot of very inappropriate behavior that has occurred over the years. I have personally been in meetings — I'm formerly the associate pastor of the second oldest church, and what was for most of my life the largest message church in Jeffersonville. There have been, over the years — and I've been in the meetings when it's happened — directed coverups of these things. There have been instances where young people have been abused, sometimes sexually, and decisions were made in the church by the leaders, when I was in the meetings, to not report it to authorities, to cover it up, and to handle it privately.”
— Former associate pastor, Christian Gospel Church channel, 2025-08-19 [Watch ▶]
Context
The most comprehensive first-hand testimony of systematic abuse coverups in the Jeffersonville Message community. This is not hearsay — the speaker states he was personally present in these meetings.
Analysis
This entry documents what may be the most consequential pattern in the Message movement: the systematic direction to not report abuse to authorities.
The theological justification — "you take it to the law and you take it out of the Lord's hands" — is built on a misapplication of 1 Corinthians 6:1-7 (lawsuits between believers). But Paul's instruction was about civil disputes between Christians, not about criminal acts against children. No mainstream Christian denomination interprets this passage as prohibiting the reporting of child abuse to police.
The consequences have been real:
- In the Tucson Message community, both abusers and ministers who directed coverups were arrested and indicted
- Indiana is a mandatory reporting state — ministers who fail to report child abuse are committing a crime
- A former associate pastor states on video that he was present when coverup decisions were made, documenting a pattern spanning years
When a minister stands in a pulpit and tells his congregation "you take something to the law and you take it out of the Lord's hands" while children in that congregation may be in danger, that minister is not protecting God's flock. He is protecting the institution at the expense of the most vulnerable.
Why This Matters
This is not a doctrinal disagreement. This is documented direction from a pulpit to not report crimes against children. The speaker's congregation responded "Amen." A former leader of the same church confirms on video that he was present when coverup decisions were made. In any other context, this would be front-page news.
Footnotes