 |
| Steven P. Sabin |
 |
| Pastor Steven P. Sabin |
 |
| Bishop Guy Erwin was the professor of Lutheran Confessions before his rapid promotion to the pastorate and the fish hat. |
Sunset District church pastor among men arrested in child porn stings
By Michael Barba on November 20, 2018 3:52 pm
The pastor of a Lutheran church in the Sunset District is among the five men who have been arrested in San Francisco for allegedly having or distributing child pornography since last month, police announced Tuesday.
Rev. Steven Sabin, a 59-year-old pastor at Christ Church Lutheran at Quintara Street and 20th Avenue, was arrested last Thursday on suspicion of having hundreds of pictures and videos of children being sexually assaulted.
Since October, the Internet Crimes Against Children Unit has arrested Nicholas Fong, 24, a resident of North Beach; Donald Wright, 58, a San Francisco resident and information technology specialist; Elihu Hernandez, 43, a resident of the Tenderloin; and Trevor Schlesinger, 37, a Marina District resident.
The San Francisco Police Department said the men were booked into County Jail on suspicion of child pornography-related charges, but it is not immediately clear whether the District Attorney’s Office filed criminal charges against them.
Sabin was arrested after investigators looking into child pornography posts on social media conducted a search warrant at his home on Market Street between Ninth and Tenth streets and allegedly found child pornography on his cellphone and on a cloud storage device.
No one answered the phone Wednesday at the Christ Church Lutheran where Sabin serves as senior pastor. Sabin previously made headlines in 1998 when he was dismissed from the Lutheran Church in America for being gay.
Lutheranism has numerous sects, each with different teachings on homosexuality and same-sex unions. Sabin joined Christ Church Lutheran in 2001, according to a biography for him on the church website. In 2010, Ecumenical News reported that Sabin was reinstated to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, considered to be the most pro-LGBT segment within the overall denomination.
--
---
Senior Pastor
The Rev. Steven P. Sabin was ordained to Word and Sacrament ministry by the Lutheran Church in America in June 1985. Before coming to CCL in April 2001, Pastor Steve was the Pastor of Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Ames, Iowa for 16 years. In addition to his parish responsibilities, Pastor Steve has served as a national leader in ecumenical relations and has extensive experience in social advocacy and community development.
Pastor Steve graduated from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago with a Master of Divinity degree. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology with a minor in Classics from the University of Iowa. Pastor Steve took his chaplaincy training at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Hospital and Medical School in Chicago, and did an internship at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Manchester, Connecticut.
When he accepted the call to be Senior Pastor at Christ Church, Pastor Steve described his ministry in these words:
"You call me to be your pastor, a word that means shepherd. I know that only Christ is the Good Shepherd. I am the Shepherd's dog to seek the lost, bring aid to the injured, and sound the alarm at danger.
"You call me to preside at the Eucharist. The table belongs to the Lord and I am the waiter at his meal. I will baptize in your midst, but it is God who gives new life and makes us sisters and brothers together in Christ. I will preach to you, but will proclaim only Christ, and him crucified. I will speak to you the words of absolution to remind you that God forgives our sins and loves us unconditionally."
Contact Pastor Steve: pastor@christchurchlutheran.org
===
ELCA Removed Sabin from the ministerium.
More about Sabin and his California bishop.
Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries approved Sabin for reinstatement. I ran this story at the time.
This link contains quite a complete history of regress in ELCA, and LCMS-WELS-ELS are happy to work with them on many different religious projects.
 |
| Working with Liz Eaton while she calls the shots - no problem! These are bought men. |
 |
| The LCMS published a Book of Concord jointly with ELCA, the other editor being Timothy Wengert, ELCA gay activist, another expert on the Confessions. Quia? |
