Samuel G. Wenger

Ohio, Virginia, and South Carolina minister sued for failing to act

In 1990, Samuel Wenger (b. 1950) was sued as part of a lawsuit against Living Word Christian School and Living Word Fellowship Church, in Stryker, Ohio, where Wenger had been administrator and pastor.

In April 1990, Curtis Monk, a former youth pastor at Living Word, pleaded guilty to three counts of felony corruption of a minor in relation to abuse of a student at the school. Later that year, the victim sued Wenger and other leaders for allegedly “fail[ing] to act upon the supplied information of [Monk]’s conduct and attempting to hide the guilt of Monk by directing the blame and humiliation upon the minor plaintiff and making her believe that the actions of Monk were caused by her behavior.“

The case was reportedly settled out of court.

In 2016, SNAP Mennonite received multiple allegations of sexual abuse by Wenger himself during his appointment as pastor at Freedom Fellowship near Broadway, Virginia. After publicly posting documentation of the lawsuit against him, SNAP Mennonite published a press release and sent a letter to his congregation encouraging them to investigate any allegations against him thoroughly.