More than 100 Southern Baptist youth pastors convicted or charged in sex crimes

[MineralMan]

Attention is shifting now from child sexual abuse by Catholic priests to pastors of other denominations. Apparently, there has been an epidemic of such abuse across the board by ordained Protestant ministers too. It almost beggars description that people with the trust of others, due to their supposed faith, would take advantage in that way of those over which they wield religious power. Where will this end, when all of the abuse is exposed? These are supposedly "men of God." Why does not their deity strike them down for their actions to harm children?

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/investigations/article/All-too-often-Southern-Baptist-youth-pastors-13588292.php

Preying on teens

Chad Foster, a former firefighter from Missouri, arrived in Texas soon after his divorce and with his 30th birthday fast approaching. He described himself as a fairly new Christian with a history of hard drinking.

He was hired and later ordained as a youth pastor by Houston's Second Baptist Church, one of the largest Southern Baptist congregations in the country.

"When I took the job," Foster later said, "I didn't know anything about it."

Foster preached abstinence and urged teens to sign a contract to save themselves for marriage. But he soon targeted underaged girls at the church's Cypress campus for intimate text messages and physical contact. His brief career as a youth pastor ended in 2013 with guilty pleas to three counts of sexual assault of a child and two of online solicitation of a minor.

Much more, many pages more, with far more information, at link...

Note: This is Part 3 of a three-part investigative report. Links to Part 1 and Part 2 are shown below in a reply.

[MineralMan]

1. Here are links to Part 1 and Part 2 of this investigative report

Part 1
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/investigations/article/Southern-Baptist-sexual-abuse-spreads-as-leaders-13588038.php/

Part 2
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/investigations/article/Southern-Baptist-churches-hired-ministers-accused-13588233.php

[Dawson Leery]

2. The Conservative/Traditionalist are going to face justice for their crimes.

[RKP5637]

3. Masters of Psychological Projection. ... always the other guy they say as they ferret out supposed

sexual predators to mask their own nefarious activities.

[MineralMan]

4. Yes. One wonders if they teach courses in grooming victims

at seminaries and bible colleges. Or, maybe it's on-the-job training, where one pastor teaches another.

The pattern is really clear in all of this. Youth ministers, in particular, have access to adolescents. They can identify the ones who have self-esteem issues, and then build them up and "show them the way." They begin from a position of trust, based on their jobs, and have the time and opportunity to slowly increase that trust to the breaking point.

It's not something that "just happens." Instead, it's planned and carefully executed by these predators. The same story is told over and over again, following the same disgusting pattern. While such abuse is not unique to ministers, pastors and priests, they have a unique position from which to operate, being "men of God," after all.

The harm these men do is lifelong.