A 69-year-old pastor has been arrested for molesting a five-year-old, blaming the child for the abuse and suggesting it was her fault for what transpired between them. Rodger Strong was taken into police custody two days after the child’s mother alerted the police of the suspected abuse. Strong, who spent over 40 years as a pastor, including his most recent stint at Orland Church of the Nazarene (which shut down after the revelations), faces five counts of child molestation, both level 1 and level 2 felonies.
In the interview with the parents, Strong allegedly said the touching was accidental and he tried to blame the child for the incidents, court records say. In the probable cause affidavit filed in court, the mother said to Strong, “you don’t unintentionally touch a kid’s vagina.” Strong then said he should have told the girl’s parents but “he did not want her to get into trouble twice,” court records said. “(The mother) confronted him by saying that she can’t understand this because she is 5 years old, and it sounds as if he is blaming their daughter for something he did.” The court document went on about that interview, saying “Rodger then stated that ‘If you want me to say I did, then I did it, it was not intentional.’” Strong eventually admitted to touching her several times, including engaging in vaginal penetration.