Preacher Fired for Sex with Teen When Deacon Finds Makeout Pic on Cell Phone

Fundamentalist mega-church pastor Jack Schaap of First Baptist in Hammond, Indiana, was fired for an alleged sexual affair with a 16-year-old parishioner after a deacon found Schaap’s cell phone on the pulpit — and discovered a photo of the sinful lovers “making out.”

The Daily Mail reports the church not only fired Schaap but contacted the cops:

The deacons also felt it appropriate to turn Schaap’s case over to the authorities, ‘for the sake of transparency and honesty,’ and not because they believe the former pastor committed a crime.

Schaap had been “counseling” the teen, according to former church member Trisha Kee, who founded a Facebook page for ex-members. She spoke with CBS:

Jack Schapp had left his cell phone on the pulpit and a deacon had seen it on the pulpit and had picked it up to bring it back to him. From what we understand, the deacon then saw a text come through from a teenage girl in the church, and it was a picture of Jack Schaap and this girl making out.

Kee said “another young woman has also come forward.”

Schaap delivered multiple sermons each Sunday to crowds 7,500 strong in the 15,000-member church, and his alleged “sin” hasn’t turned all his followers against him, the Mail reports:

Aranda White said: ‘To me, he was teaching to word from the Bible. I have nothing bad to say about him.’

Schaap, 54, is married to the church’s founder and has two children. The FBI and local sheriff’s department are investigating.