Christian pastor arrested for child pornography in Florida

A Christian pastor was arrested Friday in Florida for purchasing child pornography online, according to local law enforcement.

The Manatee County Sheriff's Office said Jonathan Edward Elwing, a 43-year-old senior pastor at Palm View Baptist Church in Palmetto, Fla., was charged with four counts of possession of sexual abuse images on children.

The arrest comes after sheriff's office detectives received information Thursday that Elwing used cryptocurrency to make an online purchase of the images.

According to the sheriff's office press release, when authorities executed a search warrant Friday at Elwing's home and church, officers said they found four “sexually explicit photos of children” on his cell phone. .

Prior to his arrest, Elwing resigned from his position, the sheriff's office news release states. Elwing is now being held without bail at the Manatee County Jail.

While the investigation is still ongoing, the Sheriff's Office is asking anyone with information about crimes that may involve Elwing to call them at (941) 747-3011, or to remain anonymous and be eligible for a reward cash, contact Manatee County Crime Stoppers at (866) 634-8477 (TIPS) or online at the Crime Stoppers website.

News week contacted the Manatee County Sheriff's Office via email for comment.

This is not the first time a pastor has been implicated in child pornography accusations.

In April 2023, a young Florida pastor was accused of using his church's Wi-Fi to access child pornography, following a nearly year-long investigation by police following a online information.

Edward Wilds III of Palatka, Florida, was arrested and charged with “possession of child pornography and use of a two-way communications device to facilitate a crime” by the Putnam County Sheriff's Office, according to a report from Miami Herald. He allegedly stayed behind after a Wednesday evening service at the Palatka Baptist Temple last spring and used the church's Internet connection to download child pornography, with tens of thousands of such images found on devices associated with him during the investigation.

“Detectives were alerted to a possible distribution of child pornography through a cyber tip from a social media site on May 22, 2022,” the sheriff’s office said in an official statement. “Detectives discovered [that Wilds] had downloaded pornographic images from the Palatka Baptist Temple's Wi-Fi after a Wednesday evening service. In total, 54,000 images were discovered on accounts and devices associated with Wilds. The majority of the images were pornographic… Detectives discovered messaging conversations during which another user asked Wilds for images of children aged 14 to 16. He sent 42 images.”

Wilds also worked as a teacher at nearby Middleton-Burney Elementary School until investigators notified the Putnam County School District of his arrest, at which point he was “suspended and terminated.”