Silas Shelton, an Ohio pastor who publicly objected to an LGBTQ-themed book series at a school book fair by claiming it encouraged children to “explore their sexuality,” has been accused of grooming an underage girl.
The 52-year-old was arrested on October 15 and charged with four felonies: rape, sexual battery, unlawful sexual conduct, and gross sexual imposition. He has pleaded not guilty to all counts, according to court records.
In a statement posted to social media, the Wilmington Police Department said Shelton was taken into custody in connection with an ongoing sex offense investigation. He is being held at the Clinton County Adult Detention Center on a $2 million bond.
Shelton, the pastor at Blanchester Community Ministries in Morrow, Ohio, is scheduled to appear in Clinton County Municipal Court on Friday, October 24, for a preliminary hearing.
The Wilmington Police Department said it would withhold identifying information out of respect for the alleged victim and would not provide further details about the crime, citing concerns that doing so could compromise the investigation or future court proceedings.
Court records list the date of the alleged offenses as September 15, 2019.
According to Cincinnati NBC affiliate WLWT, Shelton allegedly began inappropriate sexual contact with the girl when she was 14 or 15. A detective told the station the alleged victim and her family were members of Shelton’s congregation at the time.
The lead detective wrote in a probable cause statement that the abuse continued for about six years, ending only a few months ago. The statement described a complex dynamic in which the young woman felt groomed, trapped, and manipulated because of Shelton’s role as a religious authority. The alleged assaults took place at Shelton’s home, at Cowan Lake in Clinton County, and in local hotel rooms, according to WLWT.
“Crimes of this nature are concerning,” Detective Codey Juillerat told the Cincinnati-based newspaper The Enquirer. “Especially when the person was in a position of religious authority.”
In 2023, Shelton spoke at a meeting of the Little Miami School District Board of Education, criticizing the presence of LGBTQ books at the district’s Scholastic Book Fair — specifically author Alice Oseman’s graphic novel series Heartstopper, which features gay characters — for allegedly encouraging children to “question their sexuality.”
“I don’t think kids should ever question their sexuality. I don’t think kids should ever explore their sexuality. I don’t think any of that stuff ever ought to be in our school,” Shelton said. “But [my daughter] come home asking me why certain books were in that book fair, which were pertaining to books of gay. One of them was Heartstopper, which is where a gay boy pressures a straight kid into kissing him.
“I don’t understand why we have this kind of stuff in our libraries, in our book fairs,” he added. “I tell you, I got sick reading that stuff today,” Shelton said.
He also lamented that parents “aren’t allowed to talk about the health risks of kids being gay,” and complained about Pride flags in classrooms, which he called “a disgusting display” that causes division.
Despite Shelton’s claims, Heartstopper was neither assigned reading in any classes nor regularly stocked on school library shelves, according to The Enquirer at the time.
Following Shelton’s remarks, the district temporarily halted all book fairs — which had been used to raise money for schools — and formed a committee to review titles before sale. It also limited future book fairs to two days instead of ten and restricted them to evenings coinciding with parent-teacher conferences to ensure students were supervised by parents while browsing.
The FBI has arrested a Texas man for allegedly threatening to carry out a mass shooting at a local Pride event.
Joshua Cole, of Anson, Texas, allegedly posted a Facebook comment earlier this month criticizing the Abilene Pride Alliance for banning weapons and certain bags at its annual indoor festival, held September 20 at the Abilene Convention Center on the same day as the group's Pride parade.
The original poster argued the group could not legally stop people from carrying guns into a city-owned building and shared a screenshot of the event flyer listing the venue and restrictions.
Former Campbell County Public Library director Terri Lesley will receive $700,000 in a lawsuit settlement after being fired amid community backlash over LGBTQ-themed books and the library’s acknowledgment of Pride Month.
Lesley, who had worked for the library system in Gillette, Wyoming, since 1996 and served as director from 2012 to 2023, was dismissed following a 4–1 board of trustees vote that cited performance issues -- a move that came after two years of conservative pressure over LGBTQ content in the library’s teen section.
An unruly airline passenger ranting about anti-LGBTQ conspiracy theories was arrested after flight crew diverted the plane to Chicago out of concern for the safety of others onboard.
The man was aboard a Sun Country flight that left Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport at 7:13 a.m. on October 3. According to passenger Seth Evans, a Minnesota native who now lives in New York, the man acted erratically throughout the flight.
Evans told the Minnesota Star Tribune that the man repeatedly stood up and screamed in between playing rounds of Candy Crush on his phone.
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