A Texas school board that removed an illustrated adaptation of Anne Frank's diary invited a Messianic "rabbi" accused of sexual assault to open a meeting with a prayer.
The Keller Independent School District earlier this year ordered its libraries to remove all copies of a 2018 graphic novel adaptation of "The Diary of a Young Girl," written by the teenage Frank while in hiding with her parents before they were sent to a Nazi concentration camp, and on Monday introduced a prayer leader as "Rabbi Griffin," reported the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
“Last night we were shocked but excited when we saw a man who said he was a rabbi come up to pray,” said parent Laney Hawes, a frequent critic of the board's decisions. “We then realized why the school board was letting [Griffin] pray, because he was praying to Jesus.”
But a "quick Google search" revealed the "rabbi" was Mark Aaron Griffin, who leads a congregation in nearby Saginaw that blends Christian beliefs and Jewish practices, and is currently awaiting trial on four counts of sexual assault.
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Griffin was indicted in March 2020 after a woman told investigators that he used his stature as a religious leader to coerce her into becoming his "concubine," after telling her that Abraham and Jacob also had multiple sexual partners.
The woman told authorities that Griffin assaulted her at his congregation, including his office, and DNA samples seemed to corroborate her allegations, according to court documents.
Griffin's congregation, Sar Shalom Synagogue, follows the teachings of Jesus, and mainstream Jewish denominations consider the Messianic movement to be Christian and hostile to traditional Judaism.
The school board returned "Anne Frank's Diary" to circulation a week after its decision sparked nationwide outrage, and it started opening meetings with convocations after several right-wing candidates were elected in May, but Hawes said they had never invited spiritual leaders from non-Christian faiths to participate.
Hawes asked two board members if they knew about the charges against Griffin, and she said they explained he hadn't been convicted yet, and they also said the prayer was intended only for the school board trustees, all of whom believe in Jesus.
