An anti-LGBTQ pastor was arrested and charged with felony sexual solicitation connected to a human sex trafficking investigation.
As reported by KDFW, Plano police arrested Terrence "Terren" Dames, 51, the senior pastor at North Dallas Community Bible Fellowship, as part of its ongoing trafficking investigation.
Dames Responded to Ad Used to Solicit Sex for Money, Offered to Pay $150 for the 'Full Service'
According to the affidavit, an undercover Plano officer posed as a sex worker and placed an ad on a website commonly used by individuals to solicit sex for money. On May 2, Dames called the number in the ad and offered to pay $150 for the "full service," which the affidavit explained is a slang term used for sexual intercourse.
Less than 30 minutes later, Dames arrived at the motel room where the rendezvous was supposed to take place. He left after no one answered the door, but he was later arrested during a traffic stop.
Police said Danes claimed he was meeting a friend at the motel. While in custody, authorities said the pastor experienced an unspecified medical episode but refused medical care. Danes was indicted in June and charged with felony solicitation
Danes' Anti-LGBTQ Remarks
Following his arrest, the church said he was removed from his position in May because of "moral failure." As pastor at the evangelical North Dallas church, Dames often railed against moral decay in American society and among religious organizations.
"We're living in a place that's bringing down the same thing that happened in Sodom and Gomorrah! We have legalized it! The wrath of God is going to come down and judge with wickedness of man!" Dames said in a recent sermon still posted to Facebook.
In the biblical story, Sodom and Gomorrah are two towns that God destroyed for being inhospitable to his angelic messengers. Anti-LGBTQ+ Christians often claim that God destroyed the towns over their citizens' homosexuality, according to LGBTQ Nation.
In the aforementioned sermon, the preacher also criticized homosexuality and transgender people in particular.
"Pastors and preachers right now are ordaining homosexuals! And we wonder where the men are. They're being told they're women!" he said. "When a man thinks that he can go to a doctor and have him manipulate his flesh–and so can a woman too–if we who call ourselves Christians don't stand up and condone this evil and immorality, we are cursing God to his face and saying, 'Your image is disgusting and I will twist it to how I want it to be.'"
"Why do we accept this perversion?" Dames asked.
North Texas Pastors Arrested for Sex Crimes in Recent Times
This is the fourth pastor in recent times to have been arrested for sex crimes in North Texas. Robert Morris, the pastor of Gateway Church in Southlake, recently stepped down from his duties over allegations that he sexually assaulted a young girl decades ago.
In Arlington, Ronnie Goines, the pastor of Koinonia Christian Church, turned himself in to city police after a pair of warrants for his arrest were issued. He has been accused of indecent assault and sexual assault.
The lead pastor of Cross Timber Church in Argyle, Josiah Anthony, has also stepped down. He left his position citing mental health issues and alleged inappropriate interactions he had with members of his church.
