John Burt (anti-abortion activist)
American anti-abortion activist (1938-2013)
John Allen Burt (March 26, 1938 – April 19, 2013) was an American Christian fundamentalist, anti-abortion activist, and convicted child molester who called himself the "spiritual adviser" to murderers Michael Griffin and Paul Hill and other anti-abortionists. Burt ran "Our Father's House", which began as a Christian ministry and shelter for unwed mothers, later evolving into a private religious reformatory boarding school for "troubled" teenage girls. In 2003, he was arrested for molesting a 15-year-old girl who was living there. He was convicted and sentenced to 18 years in prison, where he died in 2013.
Early life
Burt served in the Marines. He struggled with alcoholism and speed addiction until he converted to born-again Christianity. He also joined the Ku Klux Klan, albeit he later left the organization.
Christian fundamentalism and arrests
In 1984, Matt Goldsby and Jimmy Simmons bombed several abortion clinics. Both had an extensive association with Burt, who called himself their "spiritual adviser," and picketed their trial. He later denied responsibility in influencing the bombers.
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This entry incorporates text from “John Burt (anti-abortion activist)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.