By SHERRY DIGMON
News Publisher
In the April 19 edition of Atmore News, we printed an article naming Leonard Lashawn Hixon as pastor of The Christ Temple Church – The House of Prayer. In the article, Mr. Hixon had been arrested for alleged sex crimes.
The following morning after the paper came out, we received two phone calls, letting us know that Hixon was not the pastor. One caller said he was or had been a member of the church, but was not the pastor.
Thursday, April 20, we received the following email from Brian Willis on behalf of the church.
“We are writing on behalf of The Christ Temple Church – The House of Prayer regarding an article that was recently published in your newspaper. We were disappointed to find that the article contained several factual inaccuracies, specifically regarding the leadership of our church.
“In the article, Leonard Lashawn Hixon was referenced as the Pastor of The Christ Temple Church – The House of Prayer. We want to clarify that this is not the case. Mr. Hixon is not the Pastor and we request that you immediately remove any reference to him as such.
“Furthermore, we request that you issue a correction to your readership to clarify that the information previously published was inaccurate. We take our reputation and public image very seriously, and we cannot allow false information to be circulated about our church.”
Of course, we would not intentionally publish false information and certainly would not seek to cast a shadow on a church congregation. We, too, take a church’s reputation and public image very seriously. Our apologies to The Christ Temple Church – The House of Prayer.