Editor’s note: This story contains explicit descriptions of sexual acts. Local resources for anyone experiencing sexual harassment or assault are listed at the end of this article.
Sarah normally would have been concerned about being in an office alone with a man, particularly because her Pentecostal faith frowned on a married man and unmarried woman being left alone.
But he was a pastor. She had even met his wife, been to their home and babysat their child, she said during an interview.
“I was safe,” she told The Stockton Record.
But by her account, the then-23-year-old college student was not.
And it was not until more than two decades later that she came forward to tell others that she was not.
In complaints she and another alleged victim filed in 2019 with the Western District Board of United Pentecostal Church International, she says John Shivers, a well-known pastor of a Stockton-based Pentecostal church, sexually assaulted her more than two decades ago while she volunteered for his family’s business.
The Record is using a pseudonym for Sarah to protect her identity as a victim of an alleged sexual assault. She is one of two women who in 2019 filed sexual abuse and harassment complaints against Shivers with UPCI, which serves as the global governing body of Pentecostal churches.
Sarah’s account has been corroborated by emails between complainants, UPCI church officials, other church members and in-church investigative reports obtained by The Stockton Record. …
Cassie Dickman 