NC Pastor Apologizes for Rape Remark, Inflames School Voucher Debate

Affiliated School Received Over $3.3 Million Through Popular Voucher Program

“I am sorry for any hurt. I was wrong.”

The apology on the church marquee, coupled with a more detailed statement posted on Bible Baptist Tabernacle’s website, signaled deep remorse, but the damage was done—to sexual assault victims, to the Monroe congregation, and to the tens of thousands of families depending on North Carolina’s voucher program to put their children in private schools.

The scandal began when an X social media account, Bad Preacher Clips, shared six-month-old video footage of Rev. Bobby Leonard seemingly excusing the rape of women who wear shorts.

“If you dress like that and you get raped and I’m on the jury, he’s gonna go free,” Leonard said in a sermon filmed on Aug. 15. “You don’t like that, do you? I’m right, though. Because a man’s a man.”

After his comments went viral, the pastor quickly changed his tune.

“As a pastor, I failed to uphold the biblical values of love and compassion,” Leonard said. “I apologize for the pain caused and commit to learning from making this foolish and sinful statement. Bible Baptist Tabernacle and I unequivocally stand on the biblical position that rape under any circumstances is a heinous crime to be punished severely and is never excusable.”

Nevertheless, the video sparked ongoing protests outside the self-described “independent, fundamental, baptist” church by local community members, including at least one former member of Bible Baptist Tabernacle.

The Voucher Debate

The controversy also caught the attention of North Carolina Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper, who seized upon the outrage to fuel his war against the state’s popular Opportunity Scholarship private school voucher program. That’s because Leonard’s church runs a school that has received more than $3.3 million in vouchers over the last five years.

Leonard founded Tabernacle Christian School in 1970, and today his son, Stephen, serves as its head administrator. Most of the students receive vouchers, at an average of $6,000 per student per year, which is one of the highest in the state. (By comparison, North Carolina’s per-pupil revenue for public schools in 2021 was $11,592.) For the 2022-23 academic year, Tabernacle received $923,328 for 152 students.

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In response to the viral video, Cooper railed against the use of taxpayer money to fund schools with limited government oversight.

“I’m not against private schools, but I am against sending taxpayer dollars to private schools with no accountability and extreme social agendas at the expense of public schools,” Cooper said. “Over the past several weeks, public reporting has raised serious questions about schools receiving taxpayer money despite extreme social agendas, like defending rape.”

By contrast, one reason many advocacy groups are pushing for stronger school choice options, such as vouchers, is because they perceive public education to be largely unaccountable to parents—an issue that has rocketed to the forefront nationwide as many schools have embraced far left sexual ideologies and removed protections such as gender-specific bathrooms.

According to the North Carolina Coalition for Educational Opportunity, “School choice programs offer the highest level of accountability to taxpayers, because they empower parents, not the government, to choose the educational environment that is the best for their child. Parents can voluntarily move their children out of a school of choice that is failing to meet their child’s educational needs.”

To make their case, school choice advocates need look no further than Cooper himself, who opposes restricting young children’s access to sexually explicit literature in school libraries, and who led the charge to defeat the state’s “bathroom bill,” HB2, which would have required students to use bathrooms and locker rooms based on their biological sex.

Last year, the governor declared a “state of emergency” in response to a series of education bills being pushed by state Republicans to expand the voucher program, protect children from sexual content and give parents more control over curricula.

While state Democrats and Republicans have fought this ongoing tug-of-war over LGBTQ policies and sex education in public schools, the Opportunity Scholarship program has grown year by year. Since its launch in 2013, the program has been modified with funding increases and loosening of eligibility restrictions, though the main focus has always been students from low-income households. There are 32,341 Opportunity Scholarship students for the current academic year, and the program recently received a record-breaking surge of new applicants—72,000—far exceeding the budgetary limit.

Seeking Forgiveness

For Bible Baptist Tabernacle, the more pressing concern may be whether its local reputation can recover.

“I deserve for folks to be extremely upset with me, but I ask you to please forgive me,” Leonard wrote.

But for some, the pastor’s gesture was too little too late.

“That apology falls on deaf ears,” said community member Leslie Schlappich, who called Leonard’s rape comments “disgusting.”

“It’s not of Christ. It’s not representative of our community. I grew up here,” Schlappich said.

Another community member, Crystal Nichole, suggested a way forward. “I would like Pastor Bobby to issue a verbal, on-camera statement to the community to where he’s truly showing his emotions about being sorry.”

To date, the pastor has not released any further apologies, and interview attempts by media outlets have gone unanswered except to direct them to Leonard’s published statement. The sole communication from the school has been a notice that it planned to increase security to help parents and children feel safe, although no threats were made against Tabernacle.

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