Hundreds Accuse Independent Baptist Pastors of Abuse

[MineralMan]

Protestants needn't gloat about the Roman Catholic Church's long history of child sexual abuse by its priests. Their ears aren't all that clean, either. Independent Baptist Church leaders have been doing the same for a long time, as well. The RCC's moral failings in this regard have caused people to look into other churches to see if they had been taking sexual advantage of innocent children, too. While this investigation looked only at Independent Baptist churches, others are looking closely at all denominations to shine sunlight on their past performance, as well.

https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2018/december/independent-fundamentalist-baptist-church-abuse-scandal.html

Hundreds Accuse Independent Baptist Pastors of Abuse

Hundreds of women and men have accused leaders of independent fundamental Baptist churches of sexual misconduct in a major investigative report published last weekend by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The series uncovered 412 allegations of abuse across nearly 200 churches and institutions, which by definition exist apart from denominational affiliations and in contrast to more mainstream Baptist or evangelical bodies like the Southern Baptist Convention.

“From Connecticut to California, the stories are tragically similar: A music minister molested a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina and moved to another church in Florida,” the Star-Telegram wrote. “Another girl’s parents stood in front of their Connecticut congregation to acknowledge their daughter’s ‘sin’ after she was abused by her youth pastor, beginning at 16. This year, four women accused a pastor in California of covering up sexual misconduct and shielding the abusers over almost 25 years.”

{snip}

More than 130 of them have been found guilty of rape, kidnapping, sexual assault, and a litany of other crimes, with most victims being children and teens, according to a database compiled by the Star-Telegram. Dozens of abusive pastors had multiple victims—one raped 11 girls in his congregation—and several had abused children as young as 7 years old.

More at link...

[Achilleaze]

1. Wow

Gag me with a church leadership full of sexual assaulters and hypocrites.

[RKP5637]

2. I guess "The Devil" made them do it! More good hair good guy religious hypocrites. n/t

[Girard442]

3. From the article: "Honesty and integrity are the backbone and the bedrock of all that we do."

Makes a person outright proud to be an atheist.

[MineralMan]

5. Honesty and Integrity - My Red Ass.

Taking advantage of kids and teens in that way should be unthinkable by people who hold themselves up as "men of God." Apparently, though it's not unthinkable, since many appear to think more about how to do it and get away with it.

[erronis]

6. And I'm a proud atheist, too. Altho depravity is not reserved for those religious cults.

Lying, cheating, fornicating, etc. seem to be prevalent in organizations that promote obedience and people with power.

Try telling an atheist when to kneel, when to stand up, when to spout meaningless words, when to raise your arms in allegiance.

[MineralMan]

4. It's a widespread problem.

It happened in my childhood church, a Presbyterian church. The youth pastor was caught in the act with a 14-year-old girl. He was fired, but soon showed up doing the same job at another church about an hour's drive away. No police report was filed and no charges were made. The girl and her family moved to another town. That was while I was a high school senior, myself, at the time. I knew the girl, who was a very shy person who kept to herself. That youth pastor manipulated and groomed her for the abuse.

It was sort of a last straw for me, really.