Editor’s note: This story contains graphic descriptions of sexual violence against children that some readers may find disturbing.

Marcello had just turned 11 when his assigned seat in the pews at Golden Dawn Tabernacle in Tucson, Arizona, changed. He would now sit away from his parents between two grown men. One man was a stranger to him.

Marcello was almost at the “age of accountability” — the age at which children in the fringe Christian church become culpable for their sins and must decide to get baptized or face eternal damnation in Hell, Marcello said.

Church rules dictated that those newly “accountable” children, 12 and older, sat near the front with other unmarried people, including adults, to reflect their newfound religious responsibility. At 11, Marcello was getting a spiritu

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