Waco police this week arrested the former leader of a ministry at Baylor University on charges that he allowed a sex offender he called his “spiritual mentor” to sexually abuse two young relatives, according to an arrest warrant.
Christopher Hundl, 38, of Waco, was arrested Tuesday and charged with continuous sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony. He was released Wednesday from McLennan County Jail on $50,000 bond.
Hundl stepped down early this month from his position as minister for the Baylor chapter of Chi Alpha, a worldwide Christian ministry sponsored by the Assembly of God Church, according to a statement from Baylor University. Chi Alpha is suspended and under investigation at Baylor, and a law firm representing victims has notified several other Texas universities where it believes the sex offender was involved in Chi Alpha chapters.
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“Baylor University is aware of serious allegations of impropriety among leaders of the independent organization Chi Alpha,” the Baylor statement says. “Like all Chi Alpha college-based chapters, Baylor’s organization is led by the assigned Chi Alpha ministers and staff. These individuals are NOT Baylor employees.
“We are deeply disturbed and grieved by these serious allegations against Chi Alpha’s leaders, and we will continue to examine Baylor’s affiliated student organization to ensure our students have a healthy and safe co-curricular environment.”
The warrant names the sex offender, who has not been arrested in this case. The Tribune-Herald is withholding his name at the request of Waco police.
According to the warrant, Hundl brought the two children to the Houston home of the convicted sex offender several times between summer 2021 and March 2022.
Hundl and the sex offender were in a sauna with the children, who were younger than 14 when the offense occurred, when the man instructed the children to masturbate in front of them, the warrant says.
The warrant says similar abuse occurred at Hundl’s home in Waco while the sex offender was present. According to the warrant, the sex offender also abused the two children by touching them inappropriately while Hundl was present.
According to the warrant, Hundl described the man as his “spiritual mentor.” The warrant says Hundl told officers the two met while Hundl was in college and had a sexual relationship with one another that began soon after they met.
According to the Texas sex offender registry, the man was charged in 2012 for sexual abuse of a minor, a third-degree felony. According to court documents, he committed the offense in Alaska between 1995 and 1997.
Chi Alpha was founded in 1953 at Missouri State University and has over 300 chapters in the United States and abroad, its website says. The Baylor chapter of the organization was chartered in September 2019, according to an Oct. 24, 2019, Baylor Lariat article.
The Lariat article describes Hundl and his wife, Hosanna, as Chi Alpha missionaries who moved to Waco to start the Baylor ministry. They formerly worked with a Chi Alpha chapter in Corpus Christi, the article states.
Several Chi Alpha chapters in Texas are facing allegations relating to the sex offender named in the warrant. In April, Scheef & Stone LLP, a Frisco law firm representing victims of the sex offender, released a letter addressed to Texas A&M University, Texas State University, the University of Houston, Rice University and the University of Texas which alleges Chi Alpha leadership was aware of the man’s sex offender status and continued to associate with him and direct young men to him for spiritual guidance.
Baylor’s statement says Chi Alpha at Baylor has been suspended since early this month.
“Given the seriousness of the situation connected to Chi Alpha’s leadership, and while the University continues to investigate any impacts on Baylor students, Baylor proactively suspended all campus Chi Alpha operations in early May — based on potential violations of University event planning and registration guidelines,” the statement says.
In response to an email from the Tribune-Herald, Baylor spokesperson Lori Fogleman declined to clarify further how or whether the event planning and registration issues were related to the investigations involving Hundl or the the sex offender named in Hundl’s arrest warrant.