Ron Bloomingkemper: SLAPPed for Speaking Out on Sexual Harassment
Ron Bloomingkemper Jr. is a graphic designer based in Texas who founded the XA Lion’s Den forum and Wrestling Lions, a media and nonprofit organization equipping young adults, parents, and campus leaders to recognize, resist, and report spiritual and sexual abuse in Christian ministries. Through education, survivor advocacy, and investigative storytelling, Ron exposes abuse and the cover-up culture inside the Assemblies of God and its campus ministry, Chi Alpha. His mission is to expose corrupt religious systems, seek justice for survivors, and help build healthy communities with the discernment this generation deserves. Ron faced a SLAPP suit for speaking out against injustices he witnessed at his place of worship.
Ron’s answers have been edited for clarity and length.
How did all this begin for you? Why was this so important?
In 1998, while I was a student at Sam Houston State University, my Chi Alpha mentor, Daniel Savala, invited me to his house to masturbate in front of him. I didn’t realize I was being groomed by someone I trusted. I just knew something was deeply wrong. I refused, but the psychological fallout stayed with me for years.
I told a few trusted people. Then, in 2012, after Savala was convicted on eleven counts of child molestation in Alaska, I spoke up again. I warned the Assemblies of God that Chi Alpha leaders were still promoting a registered sex offender. They dismissed it. A South Texas district superintendent literally forgot I called.
By 2022, I learned Savala was still influencing college students. That snapped everything back into focus. I warned the parent who hosted the Chi Alpha party, and the truth finally started to unravel.
This matters because our warnings in 2012 went ignored, and in that silence, many more students and even minors were groomed and abused. NBC’s Pastors & Prey exposed what survivors already knew: the Assemblies of God didn’t miss the warning signs. They buried them. What they called “discipleship” was actually grooming young Christians not to ask questions.
In 2012, this was personal. By 2023, it became my calling. My mission is simple: expose evil, seek justice for survivors, and revive lives. That means defending anti-SLAPP laws, pushing Trey’s Law to stop NDAs (Non-Disclosure Agreements) from hiding abuse, and fighting to remove the statute of limitations so every survivor finally gets their day in court.
Why did you decide to speak out against this?
The simple answer is that nobody else would. Not the dad. Not the church. Not the denomination. Not the campus ministry. Everyone wanted the problem to belong to someone else. After my friend and I couldn’t accomplish anything in 2012, I felt I was given another chance to speak out.
My deeper reason is personal. I was that college kid who trusted spiritual leaders who were quietly controlling and emotionally abusing me. I narrowly escaped being sexually abused by my mentor. I wish someone had fought for me. So I refuse to sit quietly while another generation walks into the same trap.
Humans are wired for justice. Silencing a survivor – with NDAs, intimidation, or retaliation – is one of the most wicked things a church or minister can do. It’s abuse disguised as fiduciary responsibility, prioritizing the organization over the people.
The final reason is I can’t stand bullies. And when institutions use their power to pressure, intimidate, or silence the vulnerable, someone has to push back. And on our watch, the silence ends.
A SLAPP is a powerful institution acting like a bully, trying to humiliate or silence someone for speaking the truth.
How has this impacted you and your community?
I get messages all the time like:
“I’ve not seen something like this before, but prayed for it for years. The calling you had to start the healing process is already at work. You all have created and cultivated this space, and it feels like we are on the verge of change, deep-rooted change, reformation-type change.”
“Thank you for all that you are doing with the Lions Den. Until all this started coming to light, I used to think that something was wrong with me, rather than them.”
I never get tired of reading that. Because what we’re witnessing is historic. A 100-year-old Pentecostal denomination is being exposed for decades of systemic spiritual and sexual abuse cover-up – and for the gross negligence of national, district, and local leaders in the Chi Alpha scandal. To date, no leader has publicly repented or taken responsibility.
Speaking out and creating a forum/website forced conversations that should have happened twenty years ago. And it proved this wasn’t “a few bad apples.” It was a rotten barrel. A culture that groomed young Christians to honor leadership that turned into idolatry, never ask questions, and fear the consequences of telling the truth.
The forum exposed a system built on retaliation and silence. This is such a timeless story. God loves using a small group of broken people to change the world. This is David and Goliath. This is Gideon’s 300 standing against 130,000.
And look at what this small community has done: Six arrests, the most influential leaders in Chi Alpha and the Assemblies of God removed, others fired, forced to retire, or finally exposed. Reforms that would’ve never happened without survivors speaking out, lawsuits being filed, and journalists shining a light.
And somewhere in the middle of this, I became something I never expected – a graphic designer putting predators in jail.
The truth doesn’t care about your title. Nothing changed because the AG wanted to change. Everything changed because people refused to stay silent.
What was it like when you found out you were being sued? Did you deal with the church’s representatives?
One moment I was helping survivors. The next, I was getting hit with cease-and-desist letters from lawyers who treat truth like a liability. The ironic part? The forum is anonymous, so they were sending threats to people they guessed might be posting. That wasn’t legal strategy. That was intimidation.
When I got served, it was the classic SLAPP move – scare the truth-tellers, shut down the conversation, and make everyone disappear. A church and a leader’s father were furious that people were finally talking about years of abuse in their ministry. Their solution was to sue us for a million dollars each.
We didn’t back down.
I didn’t deal directly with their representatives – our attorney did. But I did warn their pastor and associate pastor about the abuse scandal. That’s when we discovered their young adult leader had been taking students to a registered sex offender’s home for years.
Our attorney’s response was brutal in the best way. He laid out the law and made it clear they didn’t even understand the basics of defamation or Anti-SLAPP. Until that moment, I had never even heard of Anti-SLAPP protection. But once I understood it, everything changed. The law was built for exactly this situation – powerful institutions trying to silence public concern.
And yes, it’s nerve-racking opening your mailbox to find a threat letter saying someone with more money and more lawyers wants to crush you. That fear is real. But it’s also the moment you see what they’re truly afraid of.
They weren’t afraid of me.
They were afraid of the truth finally being spoken out loud.
Have you ever been involved in free speech activities? What is your history with speaking up? What does speaking up mean to you? Has this changed how you think about free speech?
I have never been involved in free speech activities like this. I’ve gone to a few rallies, sure, but my history of speaking up has always been rooted in justice. At previous jobs, I would literally take the company values off the wall when we weren’t living them. Speaking up is my nature. I even got fired once for calling out incompetence.
My personal motto is simple: If the truth can destroy it, then it deserves to be destroyed.
I’ve always believed in free speech, but this experience turned it from an ideal into armor. I learned that free speech isn’t free. Speaking up has a cost, and not everyone is willing to pay it. I’ve lost friends and finances. I’ve been sued twice. My name has been slandered, my credibility questioned, and my motives attacked. I’ve been threatened, kicked out of a church district conference, spent hundreds of hours on the phone with survivors from early morning to midnight, and even lost my appendix right after launching the XA and the Lion’s Den forum.
As one man told me, “No one trashes your name better than the person terrified you’re about to tell the truth.”
Early on, I asked my attorney what I could say to avoid getting sued. He said, “You can get sued for anything. Just tell the truth.” Truth is always the safest path. And thankfully, we have the Anti-SLAPP law on our side.
Because free speech isn’t just the right to praise what’s good, it’s the responsibility to confront what’s evil.
The moment a survivor opens their mouth, the system tries to close it. That’s why you need people who choose the risk of truth over the comfort of silence. No one should be afraid to speak up in their organization – especially the church.
Why didn’t you give up? Was quitting ever an option? This massive church came after you; you could have walked away, but you didn't. Why?
I actually did give up in 2012. My friend told me, “If we quit now, how many more guys will get hurt because we didn’t see this through?” That line still haunts me. At the time, I was dealing with anxiety, panic attacks, and the resurfacing trauma I had buried since the mid-90s. I took the warning as high up the chain as I could. No one cared. So I walked away.
Years later, after real healing, when the truth resurfaced in 2022, I didn’t hesitate. I heard survivor stories that shook me to my core and realized there were more voices still in hiding. That’s when it stopped being a burden and became a calling.
Kate Snow from NBC asked me the same question: “Why are you doing this? Why spend this much time, energy, and money?”
I finally understood the answer. I want to be the leader I wish I had in college – someone who could teach discernment, courage, and how to stand up to abusive authority. I came out of an abusive church. I refuse to let the next generation walk into one unprotected.
Quitting wasn’t on the table. When God calls, you don’t hesitate. We love reading about David facing Goliath, but we never imagine we’ll be in the story. We preach about Gideon tearing down idols with 300 men against 130,000, and forget that God still calls ordinary, broken people to impossible battles.
The Assemblies of God is a multi-billion-dollar religious brand. I’m a guy in my bedroom running a freelance business. We had no money. Yet somehow, every bill was paid. We ended up with the best lawyers in the country.
Once you know the truth, you’re responsible for it. Every survivor deserves someone who won’t fold. Every college student deserves someone who won’t back down.
The institution counted on fear to win. They forgot one thing. Courage is contagious.
What would you say to someone facing a similar threat?
You are not alone. You are not crazy. And you are not the only one.
Jesus flipped over tables to expose corruption in a place that had forgotten its mission. If you’re going to speak out, expect splinters. Corrupt systems don’t fall quietly.
Don’t let fear dictate your decisions. The amount of fear I’ve seen in the last three years is staggering. I get messages that say, “I have a story, but don’t use my name,” or “If this gets out, I’ll lose everything.”
Document everything. Record conversations if your state allows it. Keep a journal. Date-stamp everything. More than once, the only thing that saved me was a recording. Without evidence, you’re just one more voice against a machine that lies with confidence. I use the Notes app on my iPhone. I had emails from 12 years ago that showed my story has been consistent. You have to bring receipts if you want credibility.
Tell the truth relentlessly. The truth doesn’t need revision. I’ve been telling the same story for over a decade, and under oath, a superintendent claimed he never spoke to me – even though he did. That’s what you’re up against.
Find your community – allies who care more about justice than optics. Movements grow through momentum. One person speaks up and looks foolish, then another joins, and another. It’s the concert dancer principle – someone has to be the first one on the hill.
And remember this: abusers and institutions fear three things: sunlight, accountability, and people who refuse to stay quiet. If a church, ministry, or corporation tries to sue you into silence, it means you’ve hit the truth they’re terrified of.
Stand your ground. You’re not alone. And the story constantly expands when one person decides not to bow.
Their strategy is that you will eventually get tired and go away. We were told by an insider in the Assemblies of God that they have never had someone put their foot on the gas and never take it off.
Ron’s testimony from earlier this year in the Texas House opposing HB 2988 – legislation designed to weaken Texas’s anti-SLAPPs laws.
Chairman and Members of the Committee,
Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Ron Bloomingkemper, and I respectfully oppose House Bill 2988.
I’m the founder of the Chi Alpha and the Lions Den Forum, which has reached over 4 million page views since April 2023. Hundreds of survivors of spiritual and sexual abuse in Chi Alpha campus ministries have courageously shared their stories on this platform.
This is now the largest documented abuse scandal in Chi Alpha’s history–the college missions arm of the Assemblies of God denomination. And yet, we were told this was an “isolated event.”
Soon after I launched the forum, many others and I were hit with legal threats–including two separate demands for $1 million–simply for giving survivors a place to speak.
If not for Texas’s anti-SLAPP law, survivors and their advocates would have been silenced and potentially bankrupted.
Because we were free to speak, a decade-long registered sex offender and Chi Alpha mentor–Daniel Savala–is finally in jail awaiting trial.
Without the protection of the anti-SLAPP law, we would not have seen:
Six arrests, including three indictments for sex trafficking.
Dozens of pastors and staff were fired or had their credentials revoked.
Multiple civil lawsuits–one recently settled while AG lawyers tried to silence the victim with an NDA. (Trey’s Law)
And most importantly: countless survivors finding hope, healing, and justice through real accountability.
Whistleblowers inside AG and Chi Alpha tell me this: public exposure is the only thing that’s moved the needle for change. Nothing else has worked. (The forum stories, lawsuits, and news media.)
We still don’t know how many victims/victors and predators and their protectors remain in these ministries.
But on one campus alone, the number of known sexual abuse survivors is close to 50. Just last week, I received new reports of leadership abuse from multiple universities.
When survivors are ready to speak, they deserve to know there’s a safe place to do it–without fear of being sued into silence.
Just weeks ago, this committee unanimously passed Trey’s Law. It sent a clear message: silence is no longer for sale in Texas. But if HB 2988 passes, silence goes back on the market.
For more about state anti-SLAPP laws see the Public Participation Project’s mapping.
And for information on the importance of defending the anti-SLAPP law in Texas see here.
