Christian Leader Of Anti-Gay Rights Movement Exposed As Convicted Serial Rapist

I have noted before that it never seems to fail that the "godly Christian" zealots who are most hysterically anti-gay and homophobic and who act all pious and sanctimonious often have their own sexual hang ups and dirty linen that they hide from the public not to mention the morons who mindlessly follow their anti-gay exhortations.  A case in point?  Acra Lee Turner, the pastor of Penn Memorial Baptist Church in Eureka Springs who is leading an effort to repeal that city's non-discrimination ordinance,   It turns out that Turner served prison time for serial rapes.  Once again, it would seem that any sexual predator can find a way to the pulpit.  The Arkansas Times has details.  Here are highlights:

The Arkansas Times has confirmed that a Baptist preacher in Eureka Springs who features prominently in a new video urging repeal of the city's Ordinance 2223, which protects LGBT people from discrimination, pleaded guilty to a series of violent rapes in Oklahoma in 1977. 

Acra Lee Turner, 60, currently serves as a pastor of Penn Memorial Baptist Church in Eureka Springs. In an interview with the Times, he confirmed that he is the same Acra Lee Turner who, as a 22-year-old man, was convicted of three counts of rape in Stephens County near Lawton, Okla. In April 1977, he was sent to prison for three concurrent sentences of 30 to 60 years for those crimes, including — according to this story from an Oklahoma newspaper — the rape of an 80-year old woman who was beaten so badly that she was almost unrecognizable. 

Turner was released in August 2000. According to reports in The Oklahoman and Tulsa World newspapers, the victims and their relatives repeatedly petitioned the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board to keep him in prison.

According to The Oklahoman, Turner’s first victim delivered 4,861 signatures to the Pardon and Parole Board in 1991. It was the sixth such petition she’d delivered.

"It's been difficult, but this is the only way I can stay ahead of him," the victim told The Oklahoman in 1992. "I believe if he gets out, he will commit the crime again, and this time he won't leave a witness. "

The son of the 80-year-old woman beaten nearly beyond recognition by Turner assisted on the petition drives. He told The Oklahoman he blamed Turner for the death of his mother, whose health declined after she was raped.

Turner's crimes predate the establishment of the Oklahoma State Sex Offender Registry, and parole and probation officials in Oklahoma could find no record that he is currently being supervised by that state as a parolee. After being released, Turner said that he worked as a basketball coach at a Pentecostal college in Joplin, Mo. He previously served as the pastor at Rock Springs Baptist Church in Eureka, and started as the pastor at Penn Memorial Baptist Church on April 15.

In a phone interview, Turner said he has turned his life around. . . . . . Turner likened the questions about his past to news stories that try to take the focus off important stories, in this case, Ordinance 2223. Turner refused to say whether those involved in the Repeal 2223 effort knew about his convictions prior to his involvement in the video, which is titled "Vote Against 2223 to Defend Jobs, Faith, Freedom & Bathroom Privacy."

Violent serial rapist to Baptist preacher.   In one instance, it's physical rape and abuse and in the other it is intellectual and psychological abuse.  Meanwhile, the hypocrisy is beyond belief.