Predator in the Pulpit: Four Decades of Evangelist/Pastor Rick Ousley’s Abuse

Chapter One: An Introduction to the Predator in the Pulpit

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For years I have known that this might be happening. I had my suspicions – I just didn’t have the proof.

Then one day I got an email… then another… Then the phone calls.

Women. All hurt, embarrassed, humiliated, disgusted – and scared to death that he was going to do it again.

I read your blog, can you help me?

I can try, tell me what’s going on…

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From the moment @RickOusley came on the scene at North Phoenix Baptist Church – I had my reservations…

Frankly, I was shocked by the way the college-age girls at youth camp threw themselves at him and no one said anything – not even the church leadership entrusted to protect.

I knew that the flirtatious behavior by a visiting “pastor” was not appropriate – but no one said anything.

As a matter of fact, at the youth talent show four of the college women sang a song to Rick. It went like this:

“Somebody’s knockin’ should I let him in.

Lord it’s the devil. Would you look at him.

I heard about him, but I never dreamed….

He’d have blue eyes and blue jeans…”

Looking back at that now, it was almost providential…

Rick Ousley was hired to be the youth pastor at NPBC. He came on the scene somewhere around 1982ish. He brought along his new bride, Joyce. She was divorced—well, they both were, for that matter. This was their second marriage each.

NOTE: I (Holly) have searched multiple databases in Alabama and Texas, where Rick reportedly was betrothed… But there are no marriage records to be found – not even an application for a license – this interesting tidbit will come up later as we discuss Rick’s multiple “commitment ceremonies” that took place or were in the planning stage, with multiple women at the same time he was either “married” to or engaged to another. (Update: Found it!)

Joyce had lost custody of her daughter, which I also found odd. How does a mother lose custody of her daughter?

I wonder if the “no drinking” legalist and Senior Pastor Richard Jackson knew that they met in a bar?

I doubt it – Rick would tell one of his many women that one of the reasons he had to marry Joyce and not her, was that Joyce was “teachable….” and he could “teacher her how to act in church.”

So, I am sure the bar thing was left out…. part of the “training” program.

Certainly, there was someone who had been at that youth camp in 1980 that reported his inappropriate behavior toward the young girls.

Didn’t they?

Wouldn’t they?

Of course not!

No one said anything about Karen either. The young high school girl Rick Ousley impregnated and then paid the fee to have the unborn child murdered –

So… Maybe not.

But – he was gone almost as quickly as he arrived.

No explanation. No announcement. Not even a “love offering” thanking him for his “service.”

Rick and Joyce just disappeared.

I remember sitting at Wednesday night fellowship dinner with my parents and their friends, listening to them talk about the fact that no one tells them anything – people just come and go – and how that was so odd to not even have the respect to inform the youth group or the congregation as to why.

Then he came back! But it was brief. Before I knew it, he and Joyce were back on the road again – But, this time for good.

Not from the ministry, though. Just NPBC.

Just like every other “indiscretion,” – North Phoenix Baptist Church and the staff and parents of the children molested and violated swept it under the rug, wiping their hands, “Nothing to see here folks… move along…”

Most recently, Dr. Seven Lawson – and his “indiscretion.” The SBC and 750 sexually assaulted women… another “indiscretion.”

“Just step away and move along…”

Cowards.

Worthless servants.

The world uses terms such as “indiscretion.”

But we are “not of this world.”

The Bible uses words such as “Violation.” The Bible tells us God hates evil and He hates the evil doer.

“The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.” (Pr. 8:13)

These maladaptive sexual predators are nothing but destined for hell. And you have the arrogance to join with them by way of thinking… BELIEVING that YOU have the Holy Spirit’s power to change their wicked hearts – All while ignoring the command to HATE THE EVIL DOER (Ps. 5:5).

So, tell me again – who do you serve? Because it certainly isn’t the God of the Bible.

One thing I hear over and over – “He hasn’t done anything illegal…”

Who cares?

What does man’s law have to do with the law of the thrice holy God of the Universe?

Remember Him? The high priest… King of kings, Lord of lords… the One who sits on the throne… The One who says present my bride holy and blameless?

The head of the church who commands His people to be pure and faultless in our religion by taking care of widows and orphans (Js 1:27). To not be polluted by the world (Eph 6:4), to not exasperate – but to bring our children up in the instruction of the Lord (Ps. 127:3).

Any man who exploits the vulnerabilities of a child, widow, orphan, or “the weak, poor, and needy (Pr 14:31; 17:5; 19:17; 31:8-9) for his own sexual perversions and self-gratification, needs to be taken down, turned over to Satan – “so that he learns not to blaspheme.” (1 Tim 1:20).  And “let no one help him” (Pr. 28:17).

But church leaders do not do any of that.

We have many unrepentant men standing in pulpits all across America – and when good Biblical men call out and demand accountability for men like Rick for his well-documented, continuous, and habitual patterns of sexual addiction and told him to step down and never do ministry again – the other “church men” respond by blaming the victims!

“You know how women lie…” was one message captured in a text.

“I’ve known him for years… He stumbled… We must forgive him, he is so broken…”

Broken? He’s not broken. Nor his he contrite.

He is a psychopath. A sexual predator that has preyed on women for decades and decades and decades.

And you have allowed this!

You are complicit – and you will be held accountable as you pat these vipers on the back, justify and excuse their violence while they shed their manufactured and perfected (as if right on cue), tears of sorrow, and send them off with a “love offering” as they go on to violate women at their next destination.

• In the name of grace, of course.
• Blah… blah… blah… twisted Scripture to meet your pathetic, delusional religion.

And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. 1 Samuel 3:13

In this passage, Eli is the high priest and is responsible for those priests under him, including his sons, who were both priests.  God is saying that He holds Eli responsible for the evil actions of his sons (1 Samuel 2:22: “Now Eli was very old, and he heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they slept with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting”).

As the high priest, Eli must demand that the priests under his watch be exemplars of holiness and purity. Eli had the holy duty and divine authority to correct the evil his sons had done.

But he did nothing like most church leadership and oversight.

He was a coward.

Much like the church today.

All in leadership must be held accountable and responsible for the actions of those whom they are charged to watch over. If they give in to weakness and cowardice, they will exact the same punishment as those who commit evil deeds.

So here we are today, thousands of years later, and there are those who still fail in their responsibility to protect the vulnerable sheep from the destructive effects of sexual abuse by a predator pastor. When a sin of this magnitude takes place, those who refuse to correct the evil done by these evil “wolves in shepherd’s clothing” are guilty of the same sinful neglect to God’s people as Eli was, and they, too, should be held accountable and responsible for the damage done to the victims.

This is why church discipline is so important. However, for many churches, church discipline has left the building.

Denominations, elder boards, deacons, congregations you must make a bold and courageous decision when these evil moral issues threaten to destroy the lives of its members. The holiness of God and the purity of the Church demand it!! Be strong to do what is right.

Paul knew what to do when sexual immorality was hurting the church and the same should be done today.

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.  1 Corinthians 5:1-2

When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.  1 Corinthians 5:4-5

But understand this: In the last days terrible times will come. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, without love of good, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,  having a form of godliness but denying its power. Turn away from such as these! They are the kind who worm their way into households and captivate vulnerable women… 2 Timothy 3:1-6a

To those predator wolves in shepherd’s clothing and the cowards who look the other way or refuse to believe the victims, YOU ARE A STENCH IN THE NOSTRILS OF GOD. And to those who PREY from the pulpit, you are “sons of disobedience.”

It wasn’t enough that you allowed Rick Ousley the opportunity to slither out of Texas… then, Arizona  like the snake he is – Even after molesting teenage girls, murdering an unborn child, and committing adultery  – But then you opened up your doors to him  – even after the 2007 news reports exposed his molestation of his baby-sitter – turned predatory-manipulation… and all he had to say to you was that it was an indecent proposal that he just couldn’t turn down.

From Donna (Texas):

“Rick was asked to leave First Baptist Church (Texas)  and Deb (wife #1) filed for divorce.

He came to speak at our church… he was flirty.

He gave Bibles to those who brought the most people. I would bring my girlfriends to see him… we all thought he was dreamy! I got two Bibles in one month.

He asked me to babysit his two girls (he got them on the weekends).

He knew what I needed to hear… He said all the right things…. As I got older he would tell me “You’re going to have big t*%s… they’re getting bigger.”

He took my virginity at 18… It all started from there… I would babysit and we’d have sex.

What were “all the right things” to say?

Well, from multiple women that I have interviewed it was the promise that “we would always be together…. You’ve just got to hang in there with me…. We have to do it this way… (after explaining why they couldn’t go to his church, or they had to hide in the car at the hotel until the “hall was clear,” or they had to have a commitment ceremony rather than a wedding).

But the most disgusting: “We are already married in the eyes of God.”

One woman, a very brave widow, whose story will be expanded on later in this series, told me that Rick “explained” to her that he did not feel he was doing anything wrong… that if a woman felt bad about herself and he made her feel better – then he was doing nothing wrong – and that his “gift” was making people feel good about themselves.

Besides outright psychopathic behaviors – This is not someone that should be treated as a believer!  

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(From Pastor David Ashley):

It is therefore no wonder that the top 10 careers chosen by psychopaths include being a pastor.

It is the eighth most popular profession chosen by predators.

How dare they manipulate their congregation into thinking they are “God’s anointed” while privately they are victimizing a vulnerable member of their flock, sometimes while they are married. They are manipulating liars, hypocrites, and cowards; they are of their father, the father of lies, the devil.

Within the clergy… there appears to be much higher levels of the most destructive expressions of narcissism than in the general population. The problem is real, and it seems that ministry attracts narcissists for the same reasons that elementary schools and playgrounds attract pedophiles: these institutions provide access to victims (Ball and Puls, 2015).

The base patterns of all of the latest predators in the pulpit are textbook definitions of psychopathy. In the last 13 years, my wife, who specializes in and holds degrees in forensic psychology, has introduced me to this pattern of sin. Primarily within domestic and sexual violence, but how it spills over to the pulpit, and I am filled with righteous anger, not only for those in the pulpit but also for those who allow them to continue this evil, disgusting sin.

The psychopathic pastors present themselves as attentive leaders, polished and full of love, but their real intentions are the worst of all. On the outside, always impeccably dressed, bordering on narcissism. On the inside, a dirty rag. Behind the seductive charisma, a persistent liar, a manipulative, scheming person. They always act by predicting the reaction of the ones that they intend to victimize. To them, life is nothing more than a chessboard. If somebody stands in their way, they run over like a steamroller without pity or mercy.

Whoever sees them cry in their pulpit performances, can’t imagine the cold human being that is hidden behind the cloak. If caught, they play with words and gestures trying to revert the game in their favor. They know how to play victim without leaving any traces. They are always surrounded by accomplices that allow themselves to be foolish by their convincing arguments, being capable of putting their hand in fire for their leaders. (source unknown).

And shame on you for allowing it!

For at a minimum of four decades you have allowed Rick Ousley to manipulate women, sexually violate them, liar to his congregants, and desecrate the church.

Where are all the men with righteous indignation at what is going on in the house of God? Where are all the real men that know when this issue comes up the first thing you do is BELIEVE THE VICTIM. Believe them until there’s a reason not to believe them based on evidence and not your opinion about anyone’s character. We have enough cowards in the pews, we don’t need anymore, that job is filled.

What we need is men with a zeal for the holiness of God and the purity of the church. What we especially need in the church are men who act like men, who actively repent of their softness and embrace the kind of biblical hardness God has called us to.

Men, be brave, be hard, be dangerous. Don’t be soft, and don’t be a coward because soft men and cowards go to hell.

This isn’t over.

Stay tuned. We’re just getting started.

–Pastor David and Mrs. Holly T. Ashley

  Cross Strength Ministries