Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Evangelical, Pentecostal, and independent Lenoir City, Tennessee, USA · 1948

United States (1948): Baptist pastor's abduction conviction affirmed — a church member 'considerably under his influence'

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

Baptist preacher, pastor of a church near Lenoir City

Organization

No organization assigned

Spiritual nexus

The court's own finding does the work: a congregant girl under her pastor's influence.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 1948-01-01 · conviction affirmed

    Tennessee Supreme Court (Whaley v. State, 187 Tenn. 507, 216 S.W.2d 17). A Baptist pastor near Lenoir City was convicted of abduction for concubinage of a sixteen-year-old girl and sentenced to up to eight years; the Tennessee Supreme Court affirmed, observing that 'she was a member of the defendant's church… she became infatuated with the defendant and must have been considerably under his influence'.

Appellate history

  1. 1948 · undefined

    undefined

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • pastoral influence over a sixteen-year-old congregant, found expressly by the court

Primary record

Sources

official court judgment appellate judgment Whaley v. State, 187 Tenn. 507, 216 S.W.2d 17 (Tenn. 1948).

The appellate opinion.

Related record

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