Baptist Clergy as Sexual Predators?

[BOSSHOG]

Another sight for your library if you choose:

http://stopbaptistpredators.org/index.htm

[madokie]

1. all I know is if I would have been sexually abused as a child by the preacher

I'd be one mad sob right now, prolly in prison for murder

[NeedleCast]

2. Thanks

Thanks for posting that link. Looking forward to reading through it.

[BOSSHOG]

3. Posted

without prejudice. If you find any inaccuracies please share. Thanks.

[Duncan Grant]

4. Tough topic for GD but an interesting link all the same.

I'm filing for future reference. :thumbsup:

[BOSSHOG]

5. I wasn't sure where to put it

I don't think I'm welcome in religion and theology and I just wanted folks to have the opportunity to capture this sight for future reference. No doubt it will come in handy.

[Duncan Grant]

10. Yeah, I see what you mean.

I don't have the link handy but there's an article at the site that talks about why it's so hard for these specific churches to police themselves. Something about the autonomy of each church and no centralized institution to hold any of these preachers accountable. Fascinating reading for a theocracy watch kinda guy like me.

Very much appreciate the link. Your absolutely right, this will come in handy. :hi:

edit: sp

[supernova]

6. Molesters

love to work within a framework of repressed sexuality and deference to the institution. It creates a perfect environment for them to prey on their victims because no one will believe it, or if they do, they won't talk about it.

Ugh. Sad. Sad. Sad.

[BOSSHOG]

7. I've never figured out

why, if a Priest or a Minister were involved with a sexual crime against a minor what part the church had in it? If he/she were a suspected criminal then he/she should be treated by the state like any other suspect. Why do we allow these people to hide behind their churchs? The church should have absolutely no pseudo-legal bearing on adjudication.

[NeedleCast]

8. For the church itself

it's a case of damned if you do, damned if you don't. If they "out" the person in their church guilty of such a crime, especially if it's a leading member of, or the pastor of said church they're going to get a lot of attention they don't want. On the other hand, they're covering up this cruel, criminal act.

And at the end of the day, it seems like the baptist and catholic church are usually willing to "defend their own." I forget his name (I could go google it, but I'm being lazy), but there was the mega-church pastor out in Colorado who got caught in a homosexual relationship with a male prostitute and doing drugs (meth, I think). While there was some out-cry, most of his congregation defended him. He went through a few weeks of therapy to "cure him of gayness" and he's right back at the pulpit now.

[BOSSHOG]

9. Ole teddy haggard

Yeah that "therapy" must be fucking awesome.

Ya'd think that sexually abusing children wouldn't be a tax exempt activity.

[Progressive_In_NC]

11. The SBC has 42,000 churches; this site has 40 cases on it

so lets say I miscounted and round it up to 200. There are over 100,000 pastors and assistant pastors (not to mention staff members) in the SBC (I used to be a member growing up of one of their churches). So this site represents .2% of all ministers in the church at this time. In a perfect world, I guess there would be none.

Now I hope they throw the book at each and every one of them, but I'd guess the existance of incidents like this in society at large is greater than among SBC pastors, lutheran pastors, methodist pastors etc. etc. etc.

We tend to paint with a large brush around here and I can already picture the responses now.

Now to write that email to the SBC asking them to keep these guys in a database, so churches can know who they're hiring.....

[BOSSHOG]

12. I want to be just like these

christians therefore I too paint with an extremely broad brush. However I do not have the luxury of hating with a tax exemption nor the desire to put the "fear of god" into politicians to abuse the constitution as I wish. While loathing the document that provides them with freedoms and protections, religious zealots attempt to use that document as a weapon against those they hate. Ergo my painting style.