commentary by Patrick H. Moore
It doesn’t matter where you live – the predators against children are everywhere, even in a supposedly clean-cut, kid friendly state like Minnesota. And with disturbing frequency, the sexual predators are men of the cloth.
David Lohr of the Huffington Post writes:
State and federal authorities are searching two states for Victor Arden Barnard, the leader of a cult-like religious sect who is accused of sexually abusing at least two girls.
According to court documents provided to The Huffington Post, Barnard, 52, is facing 59 counts of criminal sexual conduct related to two young women who claim he abused them for nearly a decade at the church he led.
The two victims, the criminal complaint alleges, were among several girls who lived at the River Road Fellowship compound in Finlayson, Minn., which is located about 90 miles north of Minneapolis.
The River Road Fellowship is an offshoot of The Way International, a nondenominational non-trinitarian (no Father, Son and Holy Ghost) Christian group.
The investigation began when one of the alleged victims (Vic #1) in the case contacted the Pine County Sheriff’s Office in January 2012 and reported that she had been part of Barnard’s “Maidens Group,” which, she says, was made up of young women between the ages of 12 and 24, who were sequestered in an area of the compound referred to as the “Shepherd’s Camp.”
Vic #1 was 11 years old when her family joined the fellowship in 1998. Around the time she turned 13, she reports, Barnard AKA “Barnyard” began having sex with her.
“Barnard repeatedly preached to her that he represented Christ in the flesh, that Jesus Christ had Mary Magdalene and other women who followed him, that King Solomon slept with many concubines, that the firstborn child was to be sacrificed to God, and that it was normal for Barnard to have sex with her because it was in God’s Word,” the complaint states.
Vic #1 left the compound in 2010 when she was 22 years old.
The second alleged victim (Vic #2) told police she was 12 years old in 2000, when Barnard first raped her. She said he said it was fine for them to have sex because he was a “man of God and she would remain a virgin because of it,” according to the complaint.
Vic #2 stayed at the compound until she turned 20 in 2009.
According to the complaint, both victims told police that they were ordered to keep their sexual relationship with Barnyard on the down-low.
Somewhat unbelievably, according to the Pine County Sheriff’s Office, the River Road Fellowship carried on in Pine County for 17 years.
“They were pretty self-sufficient,” Pine County Chief Deputy Steven Blackwell told The Associated Press. “They processed their own meat; they grew their own crops. As much as they could, they kept themselves separated from regular society.”
The 50-member group remained in Pine County until 2011, when it relocated to Washington state.
As is not uncommon among cult leaders, Christian or otherwise, Barnyard not only repeatedly raped the young adolescent girls; he also reportedly had sexual relations with numerous married women within the group with eventually led to a rift which coincided with the remaining members relocating to Washington.
And don’t think Barnyard is in any hurry to turn himself in and face the music. In November 2012, sheriff’s investigators traveled to Spokane, Wash. to question him but surprise surprise were unable to locate him. Police have stated that the other congregation members were unwilling to help them locate Barnyard.
The investigators have worked slowly and patiently for the past two years to build an airtight case against Barnyard. Charges were finally filed last week in Pine County District Court. Since then, a nationwide warrant for his arrest has been in effect.
The Washington State Patrol has announced that it has received 20 or 30 tips concerning Barnyard this week in the Spokane area. Lt. Shane Nelson told the Spokesman-Review that they’re also contacting his known associates
Washington state’s fugitive task force and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security also are searching for Barnyard. Unsurprisingly, members and/or people associated with the group in Washington have been uncooperative, much as they were in 2012. These bastards are protecting him which makes me suspects that at least some of them could be molesters in their own right.
Anyone with information on Barnard is asked to call the Pine County Sheriff’s Office Tip Line at 320-629-8342 or Chief Deputy Blackwell at 320-629-8380.
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I don‘t wish to be unduly churlish but I have to ask: what in the hell is wrong with the parents that join these god-forsaken cults? It’s perfectly fine to remove oneself from mainstream society to a reasonable degree but not at the expense of sacrificing your children’s innocence and freedom.
Barnyard is obviously incomprehensibly evil and will no doubt spend the rest of his life in prison once he is apprehended. But Jesus God, these freakin’ parents ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM. Maybe they should do 10 or 15 years in a Minnesota state penitentiary for aiding and abetting the pervert. And don’t tell me they didn’t know. They knew just as certainly as the sun will come up in the morning.