Rev. Ron Stringfellow, using the online handle “Diablos4u2,” engaged in sexually explicit chats on an unspecified BDSM website, according to San Antonio-based NBC TV affiliate WOAI.
The preacher’s activities were brought to the TV station’s attention by a woman who declined to be identified, but who provided convincing documentation of her claims, including chat logs and a webcam photo of a man who appeared to be Stringfellow.
The woman, identified in WOAI’s reports only as “Annie,” told WOAI that during their chat sessions, Diablos4u2 described “extreme deviant sexual acts” that he wanted to perform on her.
“[He wanted to] drag me around by my hair,” Annie said, adding that the man wanted to make her engage in “forced oral gratification” and “forced sexual servitude.”
When Annie asked Diablos4u2 who he was, the man replied that he was “a public speaker in San Antonio,” and said that “[d]iscretion is a must for me.”
“I am respected in this community for the facade I present,” he wrote. “It has to be maintained.”
Her curiosity piqued by these and other details Diablos4u2 shared, Annie set out to find out more about her online suitor, who had boasted about cheating on his wife with women he met online.
When her research led her to a church website and the name Rev. Ron Stringfellow, Annie said she was stunned and incredulous.
“I kept thinking I was wrong,” Annie said. “The very first thing I thought was, ‘No way. That couldn't possibly be him.’”
When confronted outside his church by WOIA and asked about his online chat sessions, Stringfellow said, “I don’t know anything about what you’re talking about,” although he conceded that the image from the webcam looked like him. Stringfellow then entered the church and told the news crew to stay off church property.
Stringfellow later called WOIA and told them he had resigned and was no longer a preacher. While he denied making the more explicit comments contained in the chat logs provided by Annie, and noted that chat logs can be altered, Stingfellow admitted that he had said things during online chat sessions that are not appropriate for a preacher.
Asked why she came to the news media with the information, Annie indicated that it was the double life Stringfellow was leading that prompted her decision.
“If he wants to be a playboy, then be a playboy,” Annie said. “If he wants to be a preacher then be a preacher; but you can’t be a preacher and a playboy.”
