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Fact check: Who is Reverend David Black and has he been in the news at all in September or October 2025?
Executive Summary
Available reporting points to an obituary for a David G. Black who died on September 4, 2025, but there is no clear evidence in the supplied material that this person was a Reverend David Black or that a person by that formal title appeared in news coverage during September–October 2025. Multiple items reviewed either identify an obituary for David G. Black (with no clerical title) or are unrelated local news and background pieces that do not substantiate the claim that a Reverend David Black was in the news in that period [1] [2].
1. What the most direct documents actually say about “David G. Black” — obituary details that matter
The clearest, directly relevant item in the provided set is an online obituary listing for a David G. Black who died on September 4, 2025; that obituary includes personal details such as life interests and surviving family members but does not ascribe a clerical title or describe public controversy. The obituary is dated September 19, 2025, and functions as a standard death notice rather than investigative or breaking news reporting, so it establishes that a David G. Black passed away in early September 2025 but does not support the identification of that person as “Reverend David Black” or indicate broader news coverage tied to his religious role [1].
2. What the other local news and headline collections show — absence is evidence here
Several of the other provided items are general local-news compilations, headline pages, or unrelated features that do not mention David Black by name; these include a community news site and a headline aggregator that focus on local crime, sports and general headlines but contain no reference to a Reverend David Black or to the David G. Black obituary, suggesting that if there were significant controversy or wide public reporting about a clergy member named David Black in September–October 2025, it does not appear in these collections [2] [3].
3. Disentangling similarly named individuals — who is not Reverend David Black
The materials include a human-interest profile about a different pastor, Bill Blackmon, who became a truck-stop minister and is unrelated to the David G. Black obituary; this demonstrates the risk of conflating similar names in searches for clergy-related news. That profile documents a distinct life story and ministry and does not link to David G. Black or suggest that David G. Black served in the same ministry or was the subject of that article, underscoring gaps in connecting the obituary subject to any clerical identity [4].
4. Claims about church scandals or clerical misconduct — none tie to “Reverend David Black” here
One supplied item discusses broader church controversies and scandals without naming David Black; it addresses topics like the “Bishop Ellis scandal” and systemic issues in certain church communities, but it does not mention Reverend David Black or the David G. Black obituary. That absence means the provided scandal coverage cannot reasonably be used to assert that Reverend David Black was involved in or reported on in those contexts during the September–October 2025 window [5].
5. Conflicting or irrelevant documentation — how to weigh the evidence
One of the supplied documents appears to be an unrelated terms-and-conditions page and provides no substantive journalistic content; its inclusion highlights the mixed quality of the dataset and the need to treat each item as individually probative. Given that only the obituary item directly references a David G. Black and the others either omit the name or address other persons or topics, the preponderance of evidence in this collection supports a narrow conclusion: an obituary exists, not that a Reverend David Black was the subject of newsworthy coverage in September–October 2025 [3] [5].
6. What remains unresolved and what further evidence would close the question
Key gaps remain: the obituary does not list a clerical title, and there are no corroborating news reports in the provided set establishing that the obituary subject served as a reverend or was otherwise newsworthy in a clerical capacity. To close the question authoritatively we would need additional contemporaneous sources such as a church announcement, denominational obituary listing, local newspaper coverage explicitly calling him Reverend David Black, or police/organizational records if the prompt implied controversy; none of those are present in the supplied items [1].
7. Bottom line for readers: what can be stated as fact from this dataset
From the supplied material we can factually state that a person named David G. Black died on September 4, 2025, and an obituary was published on September 19, 2025, but we cannot factually state that he was “Reverend David Black” or that any individual by that clerical title was in the news in September or October 2025. The dataset contains no direct evidence linking the obituary subject to a ministerial title nor any independent news stories from that timeframe naming a Reverend David Black [1] [2].