Surveillance video from October 7, 2025, appears to show Pastor Lorenz Roseman pushing Elise McTaw, a longtime church elder and senior citizen, down concrete steps outside Beulah Land Missionary Baptist Church in Gardena, California.

According to the NY Post, McTaw is seen holding onto a metal gate to steady herself before losing her balance. Seconds later, she is sprawled on the ground outside the church.

After just two days in custody on a promise to return to court, Roseman returned to the pulpit. He has since asserted that a majority of his congregants voted during a business meeting to allow him to stay on as church leader, according to KTLA.

On Sunday, church members gathered outside the building to call for his dismissal.

The Video and the Victim

The surveillance footage, captured late last year, shows Roseman shoving McTaw through a metal gate and to the ground while she stood at the doors of the church. McTaw claims her wrist and toes were fractured from the fall.

Community activist Najee Ali, who works with Project Islamic Hope, pointed to a brace worn by McTaw while addressing the situation.

"This is what the pastor did. That's why the members of the church are asking him to step down."

Congregant Dr. Ta-Taneisha Thames was equally direct in her comments to KTLA:

"He does not get to put his hands on anyone. That is not okay. He has to go."

There is no ambiguity in what the video captures. A man identified as the pastor of the church physically shoves an elderly woman down concrete steps. She ends up on the ground. She claims broken bones. And the man responsible spent two days in custody before resuming his role as spiritual leader of the congregation where it happened.

Roseman's Defense

When asked about the case against him, Roseman offered a statement that had remarkably little to do with shoving an elderly woman down a flight of steps. Instead, he framed himself as a reformer punished for rooting out corruption:

"The whole unfortunate event began when I was informed that certain influential members, who held positions of power, might be engaged in unethical or illegal activities. After conducting an investigation and confirming the allegations, I removed them from their positions."

He continued:

"When these individuals could not oust me through our church policies and procedures, they began to attack my character and weaponize the legal system against me. However, judges have dismissed these suits as frivolous and lacking standing."

Note what's missing from both of those statements: any mention of the woman he allegedly pushed, any expression of remorse, any explanation for what the camera plainly captured. The entire defense pivots to internal church politics and unnamed adversaries. The video exists. McTaw's injuries exist. The pivot to "they're out to get me" does not make either disappear.

Two Days and Back to the Pulpit

The detail that should stop every reader cold is the timeline. Two days in custody. That's it. Then back behind the lectern, asserting that a congregational vote gave him the mandate to continue leading.

Whatever the internal dynamics of Beulah Land Missionary Baptist Church, the question isn't whether a business meeting ratified Roseman's leadership. The question is how a man captured on camera shoving a senior citizen down concrete steps faces so little apparent consequence that he is back at work within 48 hours.

This speaks to a broader reality that conservatives have long recognized: institutions that police themselves often protect the powerful at the expense of the vulnerable. It doesn't matter whether the institution is a government agency, a union, or a church. When leadership and accountability are concentrated in the same hands, accountability loses every time.

A Church Divided

The members who gathered on Sunday are not outsiders or agitators. They are congregants of the same church, people who presumably sat in Roseman's pews, tithed into his collection plates, and trusted his spiritual authority. That trust is now shattered for at least a visible faction of the membership.

Roseman's claim that a majority voted to keep him raises its own questions. No details about the meeting's date, how the vote was conducted, or who was eligible to participate have been made public. A "majority" of attendees at a single business meeting is not the same as a mandate from the full congregation. Especially when some members are standing on the sidewalk outside holding signs.

When Leaders Fail the Flock

Churches thrive on moral authority. A pastor's role is not merely administrative. It is pastoral, a word that literally means shepherding. When the shepherd is on camera putting his hands on the most vulnerable members of his flock, the institution faces a legitimacy crisis that no congregational vote can resolve.

McTaw is described as a longtime church elder. She gave years to this congregation. What she received in return, according to the video, was a shove through a metal gate and a fall onto concrete.

Two days in custody. Then back to the pulpit. That's not justice. That's not even close.