Expos Reveals Network of Baptist Institutions That Shielded Child Molesters

[NeoGreen]

https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2018/12/10/expose-reveals-network-of-baptist-institutions-that-shielded-child-molesters/

Exposé Reveals Network of Baptist Institutions That Shielded Child Molesters
By Terry Firma, December 10, 2018

Move over, Catholic padres.

“My earliest memory of being molested was when I was four years old. It was Sunday school.”

So begins the fourth and final installment of an extraordinary Fort Worth Star-Telegram investigation into child molestation in and around independent Baptist churches. Published yesterday after eight months of information-gathering, the story by journalists Sarah Smith, Shelly Yang, and Neil Nakahodo reveals how a network of churches and schools covered up nationwide sexual abuse — and, in an all-too-familiar pattern, helped relocate the evildoers.

Here are a few gut-wrenching passages.

On religious impunity:

Even if criminal charges are brought against a church leader, he might be allowed to continue in ministry. Facing charges that he had sex with a 14-year-old, a pastor left his Indiana church for Miami, where he told his new congregation that the girl was “promiscuous.” Though he pleaded guilty to felony stalking in 2009, he didn’t leave the church until 2014. He maintains his innocence. He’s one of nearly four dozen men who were allowed to continue in their ministry after facing sexual abuse allegations — and even convictions, the Star-Telegram found. …

A man convicted of sexual battery in 1999 went on to serve as a youth volunteer in Georgia, where he abused three more girls. He pleaded guilty in 2016 to sexual battery.

A principal at a Christian school affiliated with Bob Jones University was moved out of state when sexual abuse allegations came to the pastor’s attention. The deacons, said one deacon’s wife at the time, convened a secret meeting and then spirited him away, on the advice of Bob Jones University officials.

Et cetera.

[trotsky]

1. Some people will do anything to prevent discussion of the role of religion in this.

Religion as an institution has unique features that help empower and protect abusers, starting with the repulsive notion that those in positions of power have authority sanctioned by the divine.

[MineralMan]

3. I'm sure someone will be along shortly to explain that

such things happen in other places, too. Whatabout that?

[Major Nikon]

4. Religion doesn't cause child molestation

It just makes it much more efficient for molesters.

[MineralMan]

2. I think this is endemic in many religious organizations.

It's nothing new, either. Sex-offending pastors have been shifted around to other churches since forever. I remember when it happened at my small-town church back in the early 1960s. Caught in the act, our "youth pastor" was gone the next day, only to turn up doing the same job at another church less than 100 miles away.

That church was informed of his offense, and fired him. He moved on a couple hundred miles more and continued youth-pastoring and preying on vulnerable teen girls. I lost track after that.

I'm not exactly sure why this happens so often. It's possible that a "sincere confession and penitence" was good enough for some to "forgive and forget."

The victims? Well, it was probably their fault for "tempting" the youth pastor.

[gtar100]

5. You know what's equally disturbing about this

The people who made the decision to move these pedophiles to new locations, what could they possibly be thinking! If I were part of that church, and especially if it were my son or daughter being molested, my instinct would be rage, I'd want the sick SOB to suffer worse than I'm willing to say here. So what kind of people shuffle off pedophiles to somewhere else where they can continue to harm children? On the surface they may say they're trying to not tarnish their church's reputation, but I think it's worse than that. These perverts are just the ones who didn't get caught.