Southern Baptist Pastor in Waynesburg, Kentucky, Charged With Sex Crimes as Critics Question Church Oversight

Scott Hughes, 54, of Pleasant View Baptist Church in Waynesburg, Kentucky, was taken into custody on October 2, 2026, according to a report from churchleaders.com. The church is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention and issued a statement the same day confirming the arrest.

The church placed Hughes on administrative leave and relieved him of all duties until the investigation is complete, a step of accountability for a leader (Luke 12:48). The report does not describe the investigation’s scope or timeline beyond that.

Hughes was initially arrested after an adult male alleged that Hughes began sexually abusing him at age 10 and that the abuse continued for several years. According to the same report, a second person has since come forward to accuse Hughes of sexual abuse, claiming incidents occurred between 2012 and 2013. Hughes previously worked at Sunrise Children’s Services, a faith-based organization, in its Adolescent Alcohol and Other Drug Entity program.

The churchleaders.com report lists the charges against Hughes as first-degree sodomy, second-degree sodomy, first-degree sexual abuse, human trafficking of a victim under 18, and incest of a person under 18 by a person three or more years older. These are charges as reported, and the report does not state any finding on them.

A separate report from forwardky.com describes the case in less detail. It says a pastor from Pleasant View Baptist Church in Waynesburg was recently arrested on charges of sexual abuse, sodomy, and incest, and that he faces multiple offenses. That report does not name the pastor and says it provides no specific details about the allegations or the legal proceedings. Its account therefore differs from the churchleaders.com report, which names Hughes and lists more specific charges.

The forwardky.com report is an opinion piece by a former member of the church who has not been affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention since 1994. The writer says the reflections are personal observations and not an indictment of any specific congregation or denomination. The writer argues that many Southern Baptist churches lack standardized hiring and training processes for pastors, and that smaller churches may have none.

The writer identifies three concerns: the absence of centralized pastoral hiring oversight, minimal or absent educational requirements for pastoral staff, and potential institutional complacency toward misconduct. These are the writer’s views and are not findings about the Pleasant View case. The report does not provide any specific findings or outcomes related to that case.