Cornerstone Baptist reportedly proselytizing D-11 students

A Colorado Springs church with a history of controversy over its attempts to bring children into its fold by saving and baptizing them has been evangelizing recently outside at least one middle school and two elementary schools.

Cornerstone Baptist Church fell into the spotlight again after an incident Thursday near Russell Middle School.

According to Colorado Springs School District 11 officials, a church group tried to lure a seventh-grader into a church van after school, and the girl went home and told her parents. The incident was reported to the Colorado Springs Police Department, but spokesman Lt. David Whitlock said he hadn't been able to track down a report to confirm details.

D-11 spokeswoman Elaine Naleski declined to name the church, but a source said it was Cornerstone Baptist. Assistant pastor Ford Glover did not deny the allegations, but declined to comment.

Naleski said proselytizing near Russell has been an issue for more than a week. After Thursday's incident was reported, children from two nearby elementary schools - Keller and Fremont - also reported that people from a church approached them in recent weeks as they walked to and from school. Still, she said, the district was surprised by the apparent attempt to get a child to go in a van with strangers.

"We have never had a problem like this before," Naleski said. "We are shocked by their actions."

Principals at Russell and Keller sent home letters encouraging parents to talk to their children about not talking to strangers. The district also is stepping up security patrols around the schools.

Cornerstone is about 2.5 miles from Russell and has created public uproars in the past for baptizing children without their parents' permission. The church was sued by eight children in the mid-1990s, but a jury decided the church was guilty only of deception.

Russell officials recently met with the church's leader to complain about members coming onto school property to preach the Bible, Naleski said. But rather than stop, church members started proselytizing from public sidewalks outside the school.

The school will seek a no trespassing order if church members resume harassing children on school property, Naleski said, but it will be up to parents to take legal action against the church if their children are approached in public areas outside the school.

The church's Web site says, under its "doctrinal statement," that "We believe the church is a local, separated body of believers who are sent forth into the world to get people saved, baptized, and added to the church."

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Cornerstone Controversies

JULY 1976: Cornerstone Baptist Church founded by Dean Miller.

MAY 1993: First public complaint from parents that children lured to a carnival were being baptized without their permission.

JUNE 1997: A civil court jury decides that eight children who sued the church were not harmed by baptisms, but said they were deceived by the church. Each child was awarded $664.

MAY 1998: Parents complain publicly that children attending an event at the church were baptized without their permission.
1999: Five women reported they had been sexually assaulted as teenagers by Charles Dean Miller, Jr., the church's music director and senior pastor's son.

MARCH 2000: Charles Dean Miller Jr. pleaded guilty to two felony counts of sexual abuse of a child by a person in a position of trust. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
He was released from prison on May 9, 2008, and is listed on the Oklahoma sex offender registry as living in Dewey, Okla.

MARCH 2003: The mother of an 8-year-old girl complained to police that her daughter was forced to disrobe and be baptized when she went to an event at the church.

APRIL 2009: Complaints that church members are proselytizing elementary and middle school students on their way to and from school surface after a couple reportedly tell police that church members tried to lure their 12-year-old daughter into a church van after school.

To see the letters that schools sent home with parents, and to view archived stories about Cornerstone's baptisms, click on the links to the right of this story.