After weekly counseling sessions that lasted about two months, Bujak, the pastor of her church, spanked the girl with a 3-foot length of 2-inch wood molding, prosecutors say.

ELGIN — The portrait of a local pastor and his independent Baptist church that has emerged since he was charged last week with misdemeanor battery is a familiar one, replete with many of the hallmarks of other such congregations, according to several religious scholars.

As the news of an Elgin pastor's arrest on a battery charge continues to reverberate, church members and the accused are mostly refusing to comment on the case -- which the mother of the alleged victim said wasn't surprising, given the tight-knit nature of the small congregation she belonged to for some 18 months.

ELGIN — As the news of a local pastor's arrest on a battery charge continues to reverberate, church members and the accused are mostly refusing to comment on the case, a development the mother of the alleged victim called unsurprising given the tight-knit nature of the small congregation she belonged to for some 18 months.

Some Baptist ministers said Friday that the kind of physical discipline reportedly meted out by an Elgin pastor to a 12-year-old who claimed she was being sexually abused has no place in the church.

(CBS) A suburban Chicago pastor has been charged with misdemeanor battery after he allegedly spanked a 13-year-old girl with a piece of wood because he thought she was lying about being sexually abused by a relative, authorities said.

The pastor of an Elgin church has been charged with battery after it was alleged that he repeatedly used a piece of wood to discipline a 12-year-old girl.