"Village Rapist" was minister sponsored by FBC-Dallas

In 1988, Southern Baptist minister Gregory Charles Goben was linked to a series of sexual attacks in the North Dallas area.

In many of the attacks, the man broke into a victim’s apartment, tied the victim’s hands with a belt or other article of clothing, and raped her while he wore a ski mask.

He was referred to as the “Village Rapist,” based on the apartment complexes he targeted. For several years, his crimes terrorized women who lived in the area.

When he was finally caught, Goben pled guilty to five charges of burglary and five charges of aggravated sexual assault. As part of the plea agreement, he also admitted to six additional sexual assaults.

Someone recently sent me a couple sentences about the Goben case, and it caught my attention because I remembered hearing about the “Village Rapist” years ago. But I didn’t remember that the man was a Southern Baptist minister. So I decided to pull up a couple old news articles about the case.

Lo and behold, not only was the “Village Rapist” a Southern Baptist minister, but he was a minister connected to one of the most prominent Southern Baptist churches in the country -- First Baptist Church of Dallas.

Goben was the pastor of a suburban mission church sponsored by FBC-Dallas, and FBC-Dallas provided the funds for Goben’s salary.

So, by day, Goben was a Baptist pastor with a wife and two children, but by night, he was a notorious serial rapist.

All of this came to light in the summer of 1988.

That was about the same time period when officials at First Baptist of Dallas were also promoting a troublesome pastor named Darrell Gilyard.

Gilyard was considered a “rising star” and he was mentored by former Southern Baptist president Paige Patterson who, at that time, was president of Criswell College, a school affiliated with and located on the premises of First Baptist Church of Dallas.

In 1987, Gilyard left Dallas’ Concord Missionary Baptist Church in the face of 25 abuse accusations. But Paige Patterson and other FBC-Dallas officials didn’t think those 25 women’s voices were enough evidence, and they continued to recommend Gilyard.

So, Gilyard moved through 4 churches in 4 years, and continued to gather more and more abuse and assault allegations.

Some of the accusations came from Criswell College students – young women who were under Patterson’s charge. But as one woman told the Dallas Morning News, Patterson said “to refrain from speaking about it.”

By the time Gilyard left Dallas’ Victory Baptist Church in 1991, at least 42 known women had reported him to Baptist officials, alleging sexual abuse, assault and rape. But no one took action to remove Gilyard from ministry or to warn people in the pews.

Gilyard moved on to a church in Florida, and in 2009, he was convicted on child sex crimes and put in prison.

It makes me weep to imagine how many women and girls may have been wounded by this man during the years between 1987 and 2009, because Baptist officials turned a deaf ear. It is impossible to look at those Dallas Morning News articles and not see the terrible pattern of denial and victim-blaming that officials at First Baptist of Dallas engaged in.

But here’s the thing that now shocks me the most in this whole sordid saga. Why didn’t Paige Patterson and First Baptist of Dallas officials learn something from their experience with the “Village Rapist”?

Why didn’t their 1988 experience with the “Village Rapist” compel Paige Patterson and FBC-Dallas officials to do a better job of dealing with Darrell Gilyard in 1989, 1990 and 1991?

The “Village Rapist” turned out to be one of their own ministers. Surely they were shocked. But shouldn’t that experience have taught them the terrible truth that ministers can sometimes wear masks?

Yet, in the years immediately after that, Baptist officials still refused to see the mask of pastor Darrell Gilyard. Despite literally dozens of sexual abuse and assault reports, they allowed Gilyard to move from church to church with ease . . . and no one treated the allegations seriously.

Apparently, FBC-Dallas officials learned nothing from their experience with the “Village Rapist.”

And to this day, we have no reason to believe they learned anything from their experience with Darrell Gilyard either.
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The photo is the neon sign of First Baptist Church of Dallas.