Three ministers at the Midland branch of Living Word Church have been convicted and sent to prison for sexually abusing children. Two pastors from that same church network were picked by Mike Rogers (MI), the Republican running for U.S. Senate in Michigan, to help lead his campaign's outreach to religious voters.

On Wednesday, a reporter in Saginaw asked Rogers about it. According to The New Republic, he didn't answer. He talked about his opponent's streamer ally instead.

What happened at Living Word Church

The Midland church is part of televangelist Mark Barclay's ministry. Michigan Advance laid out the convictions in May:

• James Randolph — Barclay's son-in-law and the church's former youth pastor — was found guilty at trial of sexually abusing a girl, starting when she was in sixth grade. In March he was sentenced to 25 to 40 years in prison.
• Randy Saylor, a former associate pastor, pleaded no contest to 11 counts of criminal sexual conduct involving minors. He got 10 to 25 years, also in March.
• Brandon Saylor, Randy's son and a former church elder, pleaded guilty to abusing children under 13 over a decade. He was sentenced in 2024 to 5 to 15 years.

Barclay himself has not been accused or charged. But two former church members wrote to the Rogers campaign that he used his TV platform "to call the victims liars and manipulate and intimidate his followers."

Who Rogers put on his team

In November, Rogers named two Living Word pastors to his campaign's faith coalition, which the campaign said would "lead grassroots outreach to faith communities" and mobilize "people of faith across Michigan":

• Tim Cross, lead pastor at the Muskegon branch.
• Brian Ford, lead pastor at the Ludington branch.

Cross has since quit. ABC12 reported that he admitted in a YouTube video that he first did not believe the victims. The reason he gave for leaving Rogers' team was a busy schedule.

Ford is a different story. According to the former members' letter, Ford supported Barclay and Randolph throughout the trial and attended some of the court dates. "Ford kept James Randolph on his own church board during the conviction/trial process," they wrote. They asked Rogers to cut ties with both pastors.

The answers Rogers gives instead

This has been in front of the Rogers campaign since at least May. Its answers have never directly addressed Ford.

When Michigan Advance asked about him, a campaign spokesperson sent a statement that skipped the question and said Rogers, a former FBI agent, "spent his career busting human traffickers and protecting victims." The campaign also stressed that the coalition was made up of volunteers.

Then on Wednesday, in Saginaw, a reporter asked Rogers directly why two Living Word pastors were on his coalition. Rogers turned instead to Hasan Piker, a streamer allied with his Democratic opponent, Abdul El-Sayed: "This is a guy that came to our students and preaching that we deserved 9/11, that's a story."

It is a line Rogers has used before, in a harsher form. In August he said El-Sayed himself "believes America deserved 9/11," and PolitiFact rated that Pants on Fire — the comment belonged to the streamer, not El-Sayed, who had said the opposite.

When Rogers did get around to the pastors, this is what he said:

"Our volunteers, the people that volunteer for us, one of those folks have stepped away from his volunteer work, someone is still in the faith volunteer work, we think the most important part here is about who is stepping up and who is surrogates."

The New Republic noted he would not confirm or deny whether Ford is still on the coalition. "Someone is still in the faith volunteer work" is as close as he came.

Why it matters

Rogers' own campaign answers questions about this by pointing to his years as an FBI agent and saying "keeping Michigan families safe is his top priority." The children abused at Living Word were Michigan children. The former members who asked him to cut ties are Michigan families.

The question has been public since at least May. Five months later, Rogers still won't say whether the pastor they warned him about is on his campaign team.

What the record shows

Mike Rogers (MI) put two pastors from Living Word Church — where three ministers have been convicted of sexually abusing children — on his campaign's faith coalition. One, Tim Cross, resigned after admitting he first didn't believe the victims. The other, Brian Ford, supported the convicted youth pastor at trial, according to former church members, and Rogers still won't say whether Ford is on his team; asked on Wednesday, he changed the subject to his opponent's streamer ally and the streamer's 9/11 comment.

Source

• The Church Sex Abuse Scandal Mike Rogers Won't Talk About — The New Republic