Luke Cunningham, 42, a former Lubbock youth pastor, is staring down a December 1 trial date after being re-indicted on a staggering 16 counts of Sexual Assault of a Child and Bigamy. Prosecutors clarified the new charges don’t involve fresh victims but break down multiple incidents with two underage victims between September and December of 2018.
Cunningham’s original indictment covered abuse stretching back as far as 2013, with specific accusations from 2016 and 2018. Authorities said he even admitted to “a certain level of abuse” of one of the teens—a phrase that belongs in a horror story, not a courtroom transcript.
He previously served at Turning Point in Lubbock and later at Lakeside Baptist in Granbury, continuing the all-too-familiar trend of church leaders using the pulpit as cover for predation. As of now, Cunningham remains in the Lubbock County Detention Center on $400,000 bond, awaiting his day in court.
Sixteen counts, two victims, and years of abuse—and yet somehow this guy was still bouncing between churches. At what point do we stop calling it “turning a blind eye” and admit it’s willful negligence?
