Pastor Convicted for Child Porn Now Arrested for Trying to Meet Teen Boy for Sex

This is a typical case of something that should have been stopped before it happened.

An Arkansas pastor who was previously convicted on child porn charges was allowed to continue his work as a pastor, and now — years later — he’s been arrested for trying to meet a 14-year-old boy for sexual acts.

Pastor Timothy Lee Reddin, currently with the Turner Street Baptist Church in Springdale, was caught by an undercover officer.

Reddin, who served as a part-time pastor at Turner Street Baptist Church in Springdale, messaged an undercover Homeland Security Investigations agent in July about meeting to have sex.

Writing to who he thought was a teen, Reddin said he would take him for lunch and could “coach” him to perform oral sex.

Reddin also wrote that he was a “gentle guy really,” and that there was “no pressure to do anything else until another time.”

During their conversation, the agent said Reddin sent four images of an adult’s penis and one of a naked man’s butt, according to the complaint.

Reddin is also listed as a faculty member (starting in 2017) on the website for a small Bible school, Ecclesia College. In April, the president of that Christian college resigned and entered a conditional guilty plea on charges of fraud. The two cases aren’t linked, but that school may want to start conducting more thorough background checks.

Perhaps most notably, this isn’t Reddin’s first offense. He was previously found guilty in a similar case involving sexual abuse against children, yet he was allowed to work as a pastor around kids for years.

Reddin was sentenced in September 2000 in a Little Rock federal court to 27 months in prison after pleading guilty to possessing 10 illegal images — including one depiction of a child younger than 12, according to the Associated Press.

At the time, Reddin said he possessed the images, but he would never physically hurt anyone. That appears to have been a lie.

It’s one thing to forgive, but how could any church or college hire a man like that? Did they fail to do their jobs or did they just not care? In both situations, he was going to have access to people much, much younger than himself.

Either way, there was no accountability. Being a “man of God” doesn’t make you a good person, and it’s certainly no reason for anyone to trust you with their kids. Thanks to an undercover cop, at least one child was spared.