Alleged Sexual Abuse Continued for Years at Local Mega-Church

A North Texas woman has accused leaders of the non-denominational Denton Bible Church in Denton of covering up allegations of sexual abuse after a third-party investigation revealed a youth pastor had allegedly abused at least 14 girls at two different churches. The investigation uncovered a multitude of missed opportunities for church leaders to put a stop to the abuse.

In May of 2022, the Denton Bible Church Elder Board shared a letter with congregants explaining the results of the investigation, which the Board commissioned in 2019. The report focused on the activities of Robert Shiflet, who began volunteering in youth ministry at the church in 1993 and was hired to work with middle school students from 1996-2001.

The letter states that in 2005, a 19-yr-old female began seeing a counselor at the church’s Counseling Center and revealed Shiflet’s grooming behavior and sexual contact that had occurred when she was 13-14 years old. She also introduced the counselor to another of Shiflet’s victims. 

In 2005 The Elder Board voted to revoke Shiflet’s ordination, but no report was made to the police or CPS, and no follow-up care was given to the victim. 

According to Pastor Tommy Nelson, “All of this happened in the late 1990s. It came to our attention in 2005. We didn’t know it.”

However, according to the investigation, church leaders had heard allegations about Shiflet several years prior to 2005 but took no action. Other youth workers expressed concern to church leadership about Shiflet’s behavior during the time he worked at the church, according to the investigation. Pastor Nelson told Shiflet’s supervisor that Shiflet should not be meeting alone with girls, but no further disciplinary action was taken at that time.

In 1998, a college intern working with Shiflet reported his inappropriate behavior and what she saw as “red flags.” Church leadership confronted Shiflet and told him to write a letter of apology, which he reportedly never did, according to the investigation. No further action was taken.

In 2001, the church leaders declined to give Shiflet the position he was seeking as high school pastor because of his pattern of being alone with girls and not focusing enough on ministering to the boys in his youth group. Shiflet subsequently left Denton Bible Church to become a youth minister at Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock, Arkansas. According to Fox4 News, Nelson recommended Shiflet for the position.

Shiflet was fired from Fellowship Bible Church in 2003 for sexual misconduct with girls in the youth group and moved back to Denton.

In 2019, the same two victims who came forward in 2005 reported the abuse to federal authorities, leading to an FBI investigation and Shiflet’s arrest.

“I feel like a light bulb went on for me that Rob was still living in North Texas and wasn’t in prison,” one victim said. She wanted Robert Shiflet’s story to be “a warning to the global church that you cannot silence sex abuse victims in the church and expect to get away with it.” 

In June 2021, Shiflet was sentenced to 33 months in prison and a lifetime of supervised release as part of a plea deal agreement. He will be released from prison in April 2023.

The victim, who did not want to be named for security reasons, said that she and the rest of Shiflet’s victims were told many times by church leaders, “we did not know what to do.”

“I don’t have words for that,” she said. She believes that it doesn’t take a seminary degree to do the right thing. “Take care of the victims and report to police and CPS.”

“We were 19 when we [first] reported,” the victim said in the interview with Fox4 News. “To navigate that on our own and be abandoned by the church is devastating.”

The victim said Nelson’s version of events is that there was no cover-up of the allegations. “If there was no cover-up, what did you do in 1999? If there was no cover-up, what did you do in 2005, 2015?” she asked. 

“We need to remember abuse thrives in silence,” said Lana Ahrens of the Dallas Children’s Advocacy Center.

Since 2015, Texas law has required anyone who believes a child has been abused or neglected to report it to the Department of Family Protective Services or law enforcement where the abuse happened.