Background
Feagin, Eugene Lloyd was born on July 19, 1950 in Hendersonville, North Carolina, United States. Son of Eugene Lloyd and Martha (Hodges) Feagin.
Feagin, Eugene Lloyd was born on July 19, 1950 in Hendersonville, North Carolina, United States. Son of Eugene Lloyd and Martha (Hodges) Feagin.
Bachelor, University of Southern California, 1972;
Master of Education, University of Southern California, 1976;
Master of Divinity, Candler School Theology, 1981.
Pastor Fingerville (South Carolina) United Methodist Church, 1974-1979, Saxon United Methodist Church, Spartanburg, South Carolina, 1979-1985, Cherokee Springs United Methodist Church, Spartanburg, 1982-1985, Sharon (South Carolina) United Methodist Church, 1985-1991, Aldersgate United Methodist Church, Inman, South Carolina, 1991-1995. Heath Springs (South Carolina) United Methodist Church, since 1995. Director communications, Spartanburg United Methodist District, 1982-1985.
Board directors, Pastoral Counseling Service, Spartanburg, 1982-1985. Cluster leader, York/Clover United Methodist Cluster, South Carolina, 1986-1991.
Firefighter Sharon Volunteer Fire Department, 1986-1991. Member Schools/Community Team, York, 1990-1991. Member Western York Ministerial Association (president 1989-1990), Rotary (president Inman chapter 1994-1995, president Kershaw chapter 1996-1997, secretary Kershaw chapter since 1997), Heath Springs Lions Club.
Around 1985, and again in 1989, Eugene Lloyd Feagin III and his wife, Anna Johnson Feagin, adopted children from the South Carolina foster care system. Their first adoptee was James [original middle name unknown] Feagin, a deeply traumatized child who came from extreme abuse, neglect, and trauma. Instead of seeking professional mental health services and treatment for this child, Gene and Anna chose to ignore his needs and simply pray for Jesus to heal him.
They then decided to adopt two more children; adopting a biological sibling set, one of whom was physically and intellectually disabled. It was mere months before their older adoptee, who desperately needed professional mental health treatment which he never received, began physically and sexually abusing the younger adoptees. For five years, the older adoptee subjected at least one of his younger adopted siblings to systemic and frequent s**ual abuse, while Gene's wife, Anna, subjected her adopted daughter to systemic and repeated physical, verbal, and mental abuse including but limited to: slapping, hitting, dragging by hair, denigrating words, intimidation and fear, and also refusing to seek or procure appropriate and robust mental health treatment for any of the adopted children, even after the s**ual abuse was disclosed.
In fact, after a brief respite in a mental health treatment facility, the abuser was brought back into the home and the adopted daughter was forced to live with her r*p*st an additional two years, with alarms on windows and internal doors and in a state of constant, unrelenting fear, until he was arrested by law enforcement for other crimes outside the home.
Upon adulthood, Gene and Anna chose to forego a relationship with the older adopted son and the adopted daughter, retaining 'custody' of the intellectually and physically disabled son and controlling every aspect of his life up to and including currently. He is 43 years old and has no independent life outside of theirs; no friends of his own, no love interest (Anna believing that "people like him shouldn't date as it's 'weird'"), no autonomy, and even constant surveillance of his cell phone communications and pressure to minimize his relationship with his biological sister and mother.
Gene and Anna have four wonderful grandchildren ranging in age from 19 to 5; they have never met the five-year-old and showed minimal interest in the other grandchildren fading to no interest whatsoever. In some years, one grandchild would receive a birthday card and the other wouldn't, leaving the children confused and hurt.
Gene and Anna Feagin are examples of what is driving people away from Christianity in droves. They adopted children to satisfy their personal desires to build a family while having fertility complications. The children existed to prop up their image in the community while being abused and emotionally neglected behind closed doors. They adopted older, traumatized children from the foster care system with no plan in place for robust mental health treatment, choosing instead to "pray it away," and then piled on a multitude of more abuse and trauma. The older adopted son and adopted daughter were left to their own devices in adulthood, abandoned during moments of crises again and again until they stopped reaching out for love, support, advice, guidance, and help as it was very clear (stated verbally with emphasis many times) that they would not be receiving any of the above in adulthood.
Gene and Anna represent the ultimate cautionary tale of adopting children to fulfill one's own desires without having the appropriate plans in place to provide thorough and robust care for the children. They have abandoned those children in adulthood, after subjecting them to additional abuse, and even gone so far as to spread lies and rumors about the adult children in the community and extended family to solicit others to alienate and ostracize the children lest the truth of their behavior besmirch their reputation in the religious community.
People like Gene and Anna are why people are leaving Christianity in droves, because if these two are award-winning leaders in the Christian community, why would any logical, empathetic individual want any part of that type of community? They have forever soiled the name of Jesus for those children they adopted and abused, and for that, I do hope their true character is reflected when their judgment day arrives.
Married Anna Johnson, July 3, 1972. Children: James Eugene, Travis Lee, Melissa Annual.
