First the Fox News summary...

Hundreds of Southern Baptist leaders, volunteers accused of sexual misconduct in bombshell investigation
[www.foxnews.com]
Hundreds of leaders and volunteers within Southern Baptist churches across the nation have been accused of sexual misconduct against young churchgoers for decades - many of them quietly returning to church roles even after being convicted for sex crimes.

A bombshell investigation by the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News found that over the last 20 years, about 380 Southern Baptist church leaders and volunteers have faced credible accusations of sexual misconduct. Of those, roughly 220 were convicted of sex crimes or received plea deals, in cases involving more than 700 victims in all, the report found. Many accusers were young men and women, who allegedly experienced everything from exposure to pornography to rape and impregnation at the hands of church members.

The newspapers reported that the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) largely treated the accusations as isolated issues, and took on an "out of sight, out of mind" mentality, even amid growing pressures to create a registry so the accusations wouldn't disappear as alleged perpetrators moved from city to city. The Chronicle and Express-News created a database of convicted sexual abusers with documented connections to the SBC.

The investigation took over six months and involved the cross-examination of hundreds of allegations corroborated by court documents and prison records. The results were startling and reiterated how allegations of sexual misconduct aren't limited to just the Catholic church.

Or perhaps PART 1 of 3 in the Houston Chronicle

Abuse of Faith
20 years, 700 victims: Southern Baptist sexual abuse spreads as leaders resist reforms
[www.houstonchronicle.com]
The investigation reveals that:

• At least 35 church pastors, employees and volunteers who exhibited predatory behavior were still able to find jobs at churches during the past two decades. In some cases, church leaders apparently failed to alert law enforcement about complaints or to warn other congregations about allegations of misconduct.

• Several past presidents and prominent leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention are among those criticized by victims for concealing or mishandling abuse complaints within their own churches or seminaries.

• Some registered sex offenders returned to the pulpit. Others remain there, including a Houston preacher who sexually assaulted a teenager and now is the principal officer of a Houston nonprofit that works with student organizations, federal records show. Its name: Touching the Future Today Inc.

• Many of the victims were adolescents who were molested, sent explicit photos or texts, exposed to pornography, photographed nude, or repeatedly raped by youth pastors. Some victims as young as 3 were molested or raped inside pastors' studies and Sunday school classrooms. A few were adults — women and men who sought pastoral guidance and instead say they were seduced or sexually assaulted.

Read the whole thing- It's worse than you thought

Maybe we will learn that God has chosen Trump to pardon them?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/10/2019 07:12PM by Steve G..

Kind of weakens the theory that if the Catholic priests could just get married.

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Dennis S
Kind of weakens the theory that if the Catholic priests could just get married.

Which was always ridiculous. Marriage doesn't stop predators but it sometimes gives them cover.

It's the lack of youth protection policies and the cover-up, combined with a paternalistic, authoritarian approach that places a great deal of shame on anything to do with sex. There's your formula for widespread, systemic abuse.

No no no, it just means there’s all the more reason the Church should thrive, to help those poor souls who obviously need guidance.

The HC article also makes this point:

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At the core of Southern Baptist doctrine is local church autonomy, the idea that each church is independent and self-governing...

"It's a perfect profession for a con artist, because all he has to do is talk a good talk and convince people that he's been called by God, and bingo, he gets to be a Southern Baptist minister," said Brown, who lives in Colorado. "Then he can infiltrate the entirety of the SBC, move from church to church, from state to state, go to bigger churches and more prominent churches where he has more influence and power, and it all starts in some small church.“

...and the SBC can only wring it’s hands and say, well, there’s nothing we can do - these churches have local control.

Well, except in certain matters:

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Even so, the SBC has ended its affiliation with at least four churches in the past 10 years for affirming or endorsing homosexual behavior. The SBC governing documents ban gay or female pastors, but they do not outlaw convicted sex offenders from working in churches.

This is the morality of the SBC in a nutshell.

If you expect all church members to be perfect, then you don't understand Christian theology. The "you" in the previous sentence applies to both those outside looking into the church--and those inside the church looking at themselves. Forgiveness does not preclude law enforcement. We've always kept a wary eye on the leadership surrounding our children at church activities.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/11/2019 09:26AM by Acer.

Brings new meaning to all their putting hands on nonsense …

Religion is the opium of the people...

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"We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end.
One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution;
one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship."

Honestly there is NO situation in which children are not subject to abuse.
Parents and family ? Ugh. Happens all the time.
Religious organizations ? All the damn time.
Youth groups ? Yeah.
Camps and whatnot ? Yeah.

Why ? Because there are pedophiles all over the damn place. And there are people who use abuse (sexual, mental, physical) as a method of control.

The unforgivable nature of these offenses is amplified when the responsible organization takes steps to HIDE and suppress the crimes. To the extent of moving and thus enabling the criminals to abuse others. And these thrice damned organizations keep doing it !

Basically any group which suppresses normal sexual behavior (fundamentalist religious groups, celibate religious orders) will have a higher than normal level of sexual deviancy.