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Post by JustJohn or JJ on Apr 3, 2016 5:14:36 GMT -7
Jesus wept: There were 12 reported incidents of Christian pastors molesting kids — in just the last month
Tom Boggioni
02 Apr 2016 at 15:39 ET
The arrest of a Christian school principal in Port Angeles, Washington for sexually assaulting two pre-teen girls brings to light, once again, what appears to be an epidemic of sexual predators in Christian churches and schools.
According to the Crimes Against Children Research Center, 1 in 5 girls and 1 in 20 boys is a victim of child sexual abuse. The exact number of actual sexual assaults is unknown since many victims never speak up or, in some cases like Florida, the sexual assault is hushed up.
Sexual abuse within the Christian community that either ignores it or attempts to sweep in under the rug became a hot topic in 2015 after it was revealed that popular Christian celebrities Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar attempted to hide the fact that their son Josh had molested several of his sisters when they were younger. The resulting scandal forced the family’s popular reality show off the air after sponsors fled.
According to Christian writer Tom Challies, sexual predators gravitate to churches because Christians are taught to submit to authority in an atmosphere that encourages trust. Church programs also offer easy access to the children of parishioners.
Quoting from writer Deepak Reju’s On Guard: Preventing and Responding To Child Abuse At Church, Challies writes: “Many Christians don’t know how to distinguish likability and trustworthiness. They confuse the two categories, assuming that if someone is courteous and nice, they must also be trustworthy. Moreover, some Christians behave as though the problem doesn’t exist, and some look with suspicion on reports of abuse. They believe children are lying and are more prone to take an adult’s word. Sexual predators know that these dynamics operate in churches, and they know they can get away with a lot on account of it”
Since the beginning of March 2016, there have been 12 assaults — including the Port Angeles principal — reported, or verdicts handed down.
According to PennAlive, former pastor Raymond P. Buhrow, 65, of Calvary Temple Holiness Church in South Middleton Township pleaded no contest to molesting two pre-teens between 2009 and 2014.
BDN-Maine reports that Lucas Savage, 37, of Youth Haven Ministries in Canaan was taken into custody on March 18, and accused of unlawful sexual contact involving a young girl.
Former Las Vegas church pastor Otis Holland — already facing life in prison for sexually assaulting teenage girls in his congregation — was called up on similar charges in a separate case on March 23 in Henderson, reports KOLO.
Youth pastor David Thorne, 35, of Goodyear Baptist Church in Picayune has been accused of sexually molesting a 15-year-old who police say may have been a parishioner at his church. Thorne is also sought in Pearl River County on a similar sexual battery charge, the Picayune Item reports.
In California, youth pastor Daniel James Moreno, 25, has been charged with seven felony counts of sex crimes with a minor female as well as using force to keep his wife from turning him in, reports the Lompoc Record.
Pastor Keith Frye, 54, of the Mt. Olive Missionary Baptist Church in Lilbourn, Mo. was taken into custody on March 21, and charged with raping a 4-year-old child, reports KFVS.
The Tennessean reports that Christopher Douglas Ross, 44, of Fairview Church in Lebanon pleaded guilty to two counts of statutory rape with a 15-year-old when he was a youth pastor there.
Chad Apsey, a youth minister at Believers Christian Church in Eagle was convicted of sexually assaulting a teen under the age of 15 after the teen turned to the pastor for help with family problems, reports the Lansing State Journal.
WCPO reports that Rodney Mathews, 24, a youth pastor at the Versailles Church of Christ was taken into custody on two counts of child seduction and two counts of possession of child pornography, tied to his relationship with a 15-year-old.
Scott D. Stockton, 44, a youth pastor and mentor working with several churches in Tonawanda, New York was arrested on child pornography charges on March 28, reports WGRZ.
Lloyd Schallenberger, a youth group leader with the First Baptist Church of Richland, in Polk County, Mississippi, was taken into custody for sexually abusing a minor, and having contact with a 9-year-old boy, reports The Ledger.
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Post by pieter on Apr 3, 2016 10:51:27 GMT -7
Dear John,
This has to do with the corrupted nature of the churches and power structures which have nothing to do with the christian faith, but evil men who deliberately abuse churches and their position as pastors to give in to their lust, sins and rhus crimes. Parents shouldn't be naive and shouldn't leave their children under the custody of clergymen. Parents shouldn't always have an eye in their children.
Cheers,
Pieter
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Post by pieter on Apr 3, 2016 10:51:33 GMT -7
Dear John,
This has to do with the corrupted nature of the churches and power structures which have nothing to do with the christian faith, but evil men who deliberately abuse churches and their position as pastors to give in to their lust, sins and rhus crimes. Parents shouldn't be naive and shouldn't leave their children under the custody of clergymen. Parents shouldn't always have an eye in their children.
Cheers,
Pieter
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Post by Jaga on Apr 3, 2016 11:48:44 GMT -7
John,
it is a bit provocative but good question. I am not sure what is going on, but the good and evil were always interlinked. There were also many church related wars, therefore some people just hate churches.... on the other cases, religion brings lots of positivity in human life.
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jeanne
Cosmopolitan
Posts: 544
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Post by jeanne on Apr 3, 2016 16:53:45 GMT -7
Dear John, This has to do with the corrupted nature of the churches and power structures which have nothing to do with the christian faith, but evil men who deliberately abuse churches and their position as pastors to give in to their lust, sins and rhus crimes. Parents shouldn't be naive and shouldn't leave their children under the custody of clergymen. Parents shouldn't always have an eye in their children. Cheers, Pieter Pieter, I agree with your point about power structures and evil men abusing their positions to commit this abuse of children, but I do not believe it is limited to churches. I believe it exists across the board in our societies and cultures and can be found wherever adults with authority come in contact with children...be that schools, camps, athletic teams or churches. Parents must be carefully vigilant in all settings when their children are under the care of others. This characteristic of mankind to tend toward evil is known as "concupiscence,"and is something we all struggle against. Some of us win the battle, and others don't, thus evil acts are committed... |
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Post by pieter on Apr 4, 2016 7:14:44 GMT -7
Also mosques, synagogues, temples and other places of worship ofcourse and secular and atheist places and organisations too. It's like John's title says; " The human race is genetically programed to be evil!" With my statement added to that, ' The male section of the human race is genetically programed to be evil!' Most women have to much mother, sister, aunt, grandma, cousin or niece in them to be child abusers. |But unfortunately there are female childabusers and murderers too, and accessory to male sex offender. I think about Michelle Martin, the wife of the notorious Belgian serial killer and child molester, Marc Dutroux. She was an accomplice to that psychopatic e paedophile, and did nothing to save the innocent girls who were abused and starved to death by this monster. There are evil women too. But stil there are more male abusers, because most women are mothers and have mother feelongs of empathy for other children too. But also female religious people like nuns can be abusive and dangerous for children. I heard of cases of abuse of children by nuns in monastries in Europe too. Often in these cases it is about sadism, beating and mental abuse.  Michelle Martin, wife and collaborator of the notorious Belgian paedophile Marc Dutrouxen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_DutrouxAnother notorious sex scandal with young children involved was the 'Amsterdam sex crimes case'. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsterdam_sex_crimes_case |
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Post by pieter on Apr 4, 2016 8:16:08 GMT -7
Also in the Netherlands there were reported cases of child abuse in very strict protestant christian communities which are very isolated, puritinical and closed for the outside world. In these communities some people have no television, don't allow their children to be vaccinated against certain deseases and who are hostile or rejectionist towards the secular society that surround them in general. We call it the orthodox protestant communities, the most strict Calvinist Dutch Reformed churches.
I worked with a young lady in the hospital in Arnhem who also worked in the local court for the reformatorian newspaper Reformatorisch Dagblad (Protestant christian newspaper) to legal abuse cases against protestant christian child abusers from the bible belt, the countryside near Arnhem, the rural farmland region, de Betuwe, which has, what we call, black stockings communities or villages, very strict Calvinist christian farmers villages. She said there were a lof of legal cases in that Arnhem court against sex offenders within that communities. Both from ministers and incest cases. Again a story of closed, strict, isolated communities with a lot of social control, dogma and some sort of christian honour culture. Ofcourse child abuse unfortunately takes place in non-religious and religious families and communities. It is true that not only the Roman-Catholic church is a place in which abuse took and takes place, also in Protestant and Orthodox churches this takes place and within other religious communities (Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and etc.) unfortunately.
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Post by JustJohn or JJ on Apr 12, 2016 4:37:01 GMT -7
Dear John, This has to do with the corrupted nature of the churches and power structures which have nothing to do with the christian faith, but evil men who deliberately abuse churches and their position as pastors to give in to their lust, sins and rhus crimes. Parents shouldn't be naive and shouldn't leave their children under the custody of clergymen. Parents shouldn't always have an eye in their children. Cheers, Pieter Pieter, I agree with your point about power structures and evil men abusing their positions to commit this abuse of children, but I do not believe it is limited to churches. I believe it exists across the board in our societies and cultures and can be found wherever adults with authority come in contact with children...be that schools, camps, athletic teams or churches. Parents must be carefully vigilant in all settings when their children are under the care of others. This characteristic of mankind to tend toward evil is known as "concupiscence,"and is something we all struggle against. Some of us win the battle, and others don't, thus evil acts are committed... I really didn't understand the word "concupiscence" so I had to investigate more. The following presented a more informative understanding. C atholic and Protestant beliefsThe primary difference between Catholic theology and the most of the many different Protestant theologies on the issue of concupiscence is whether it can be classified as sin by its own nature. Different Protestant denominations tend to see concupiscence as sin itself, an act of the sinner. The Catholic Church teaches that while it is highly likely to cause sin, concupiscence is not sin itself. Rather, it is "the tinder for sin" which "cannot harm those who do not consent" (CCC 1264).[7] This difference is intimately tied with the different traditions on original sin. Much Protestant theology holds that the original prelapsarian nature of humanity was an innate tendency to good; the special relationship Adam and Eve enjoyed with God was due not to some supernatural gift, but to their own natures. Hence, in some Protestant traditions, the Fall was not the destruction of a supernatural gift, leaving humanity's nature to work unimpeded, but rather the corruption of that nature itself. Since the present nature of humans is corrupted from their original nature, it follows that it is not good, but rather evil (although some good may still remain). Thus, in some Protestant traditions, concupiscence is evil in itself. The Thirty-nine articles of the Church of England state that "the Apostle doth confess, that concupiscence and lust hath of itself the nature of sin".[8] By contrast, Catholicism, while also maintaining that humanity's original nature is good (CCC 374), teaches that even after this gift was lost after the Fall, human nature still cannot be called evil, because it remains a natural creation of God. Despite the fact that humans sin, Catholic theology teaches that human nature itself is not the cause of sin, although once it comes into contact with sin it may produce more sin, just as a flammable substance may be easily ignited by a fire. The difference in views also extends to the relationship between concupiscence and original sin. Another reason for the differing views of Catholics and certain Protestants on concupiscence is their position on sin in general. Certain Protestants (for instance the magisterial reformers) hold that one can be guilty of sin even if it is not voluntary; The Catholic Church, by contrast, traditionally has held that one is objectively guilty of sin only when the sin is voluntary. The Scholastics and magisterial reformers have different views on the issue of what is voluntary and what is not: the Catholic Scholastics considered the emotions of love, hate, like and dislike to be acts of will or choice, while the early Protestant reformers did not. By the Catholic position that one's attitudes are acts of will, sinful attitudes are voluntary. By the magisterial reformer view that these attitudes are involuntary, some sins are involuntary as well. Since human nature (and therefore concupiscence) is not voluntarily chosen, the Catholic Church does not teach that it is sinful; some Protestants believe that, since some sins are involuntary, it can be. Some Protestants believe that concupiscence is the primary type of sin; thus they might refer to it simply as sin, or, to distinguish it from particular sinful acts, as "humanity's sinful nature". Thus, concupiscence as a distinct term is more likely to be used by Catholics. Catholic teaching The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) teaches that Adam and Eve were constituted in an original "state of holiness and justice" (CCC 375, 376 398), free from concupiscence (CCC 377). The preternatural state enjoyed by Adam and Eve afforded endowments with many prerogatives which, while pertaining to the natural order, were not due to human nature as such. Principal among these were a high degree of infused knowledge, bodily immortality and freedom from pain, and immunity from evil impulses or inclinations. In other words, the lower or animal nature in man was perfectly subject to the control of reason, the will (subject to GOD,) and most importantly, GOD. Besides this, the Catholic Church teaches that our first parents were also endowed with sanctifying grace by which they were elevated to the supernatural order.[9] By sinning, however, Adam lost this original "state," not only for himself but for all human beings (CCC 416). According to Catholic theology man has not lost his natural faculties: by the sin of Adam he has been deprived only of the Divine gifts to which his nature had no strict right: the complete mastery of his passions, exemption from death, sanctifying grace, and the vision of God in the next life. The Creator, whose gifts were not due to the human race, had the right to bestow them on such conditions as He wished and to make their conservation depend on the fidelity of the head of the family. A prince can confer a hereditary dignity on condition that the recipient remains loyal, and that, in case of his rebelling, this dignity shall be taken from him and, in consequence, from his descendants. It is not, however, intelligible that the prince, on account of a fault committed by a father, should order the hands and feet of all the descendants of the guilty man to be cut off immediately after their birth.[10] As a result of original sin, according to Catholics, human nature has not been totally corrupted (as opposed to the teaching of Luther and Calvin); rather, human nature has only been weakened and wounded, subject to ignorance, suffering, the domination of death, and the inclination to sin and evil (CCC 405, 418). This inclination toward sin and evil is called "concupiscence" (CCC 405, 418). Baptism, Catholics believe, erases original sin and turns a man back towards God. The inclination toward sin and evil persists, however, and he must continue to struggle against concupiscence (CCC 2520). Sensuality Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century described two divisions of "sensuality": the concupiscible (pursuit/avoidance instincts) and the irascible (competition/aggression/defense instincts). With the former are associated the emotions of joy and sadness, love and hate, desire and repugnance; with the latter, daring and fear, hope and despair, anger. Islam Al-Ghazali in the 11th century discussed concupiscence from an Islamic perspective in his book Kimiya-yi sa'ādat (The Alchemy of Happiness). In this book amongst other things, he discusses how to reconcile the concupiscent and the irascible souls balancing them to achieve happiness. Concupiscence is related to the term "nafs" in Arabic.[11] |
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jeanne
Cosmopolitan
Posts: 544
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Post by jeanne on Apr 19, 2016 17:50:23 GMT -7
Pieter, I agree with your point about power structures and evil men abusing their positions to commit this abuse of children, but I do not believe it is limited to churches. I believe it exists across the board in our societies and cultures and can be found wherever adults with authority come in contact with children...be that schools, camps, athletic teams or churches. Parents must be carefully vigilant in all settings when their children are under the care of others. This characteristic of mankind to tend toward evil is known as "concupiscence,"and is something we all struggle against. Some of us win the battle, and others don't, thus evil acts are committed... I really didn't understand the word "concupiscence" so I had to investigate more. The following presented a more informative understanding. jj, This is a good explanation...I hope it helped you out. Where did it come from? |
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Post by JustJohn or JJ on Apr 20, 2016 3:46:52 GMT -7
I really didn't understand the word "concupiscence" so I had to investigate more. The following presented a more informative understanding. jj, This is a good explanation...I hope it helped you out. Where did it come from? Concupiscence From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
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Post by Jaga on Apr 21, 2016 13:11:28 GMT -7
I agree with Pieter that the power structure in societies lead to the abuse and it is not only in the churches and against the children. Frankly, how much better it is to start the wars just because there is a need for military-industrial complex to develop and for people to have something exciting to think about it.
I wish we lived in the society that recognizes these problems rather than tries to put heroic coat into the wars, nationalism, religion.
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Post by JustJohn or JJ on Apr 30, 2016 5:36:38 GMT -7
 Fake Nuns Try to Save Spanish Sex PriestTwo devotees have undergone chastity exams to defend their sect’s ex-Catholic prelate, who stands accused of telling female followers his ‘holy’ semen would purify them. ROME — Some people will do anything for love—even deny it. Or at least that’s what it appears two Spanish pseudo-nuns have done in an attempt to save Feliciano Miguel Rosendo, a priest who has been accused of forcing them to take part in orgies by claiming his semen was holy and represented the “body of Christ” and would “purify” them. The nuns reportedly agreed to virginity tests in the Spanish town of Tui to prove that they hadn’t had carnal relations with the prelate, despite eyewitness accounts that imply at least some sexual contact. Rosendo was arrested in December 2014 on charges of sex abuse and tax crimes associated with the Order of Saint Michael Archangel, a Roman Catholic sect whose choir performed for Pope Benedict XVI in 2011 during his apostolic voyage to Madrid. After allegations of sexual escapades and money laundering surfaced, the Vatican relieved Rosendo of his duties—after which the prelate simply changed the name of his sect to the Voice of Serviam and apparently carried on with business as usual, unusual as it might have been. The prelate remains a Catholic priest, but the Vatican has disassociated itself with the sect. Prior to the 2014 arrest, a number of nuns testified that Rosendo persuaded them to perform sex acts on and with him, proclaiming the purifying properties of his ejaculate. One woman, who eventually left religious life and went on to marry, testified that Rosendo even forced her to have sexual relations the night before she got married and after she had wed. “I married Fernando to stop suffering abuse by Miguel, but I was surprised when, after the wedding, the abuse continued,” she told the court, according to the Spanish edition of The Local news website. The original case’s court documents show that Rosendo apparently rotated the religious ladies through his bed in the house in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, north of Madrid, that they apparently all shared. According to local press reports, Marta Pax Alonso, a self-declared nun who has never been actually affiliated with any Vatican-recognized Catholic order, was his chief assistant and lover. Alonso, however, is one of the women who took a virginity test to prove that she had never had vaginal sex. She was also arrested in 2014 for financial crimes. That year, several family members of the nuns in question reportedly pleaded with Pope Francis to persuade the women to leave Rosendo’s alleged sex sect, but the Vatican apparently never responded on behalf of the pope. However, Renzo Fratini, the papal nuncio (or Vatican ambassador) to Spain, is said to have offered his support. Citing Madrid’s College of Physicians, The Local reports the chastity tests showed the non-nuns were, indeed, virgins, stating that they “have an intact hymen with no signs of having had sexual relations, recent or old. We can rule out that they had sex with vaginal penetration and there has been no deflowering.” There are, of course, no tests to prove or disprove the act of fellatio or other sexual activities that fall short of intercourse. Rosendo awaits trial for both sexual abuse and financial crimes. |
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Post by JustJohn or JJ on May 22, 2016 5:51:22 GMT -7
Reports of sexual abuse by US Catholic clergy spike
Priests from the New York Archdiocese exit Madison Square Garden as Pope Francis conducts Mass there,
in New York City on September 25, 2015. (AFP photo)Reports about sexual abuse by members of the US Catholic clergy increased sharply last year, according to an annual audit of reports by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. The audit of reports showed that 838 people came forward from July 1, 2014, through June 30, 2015, to say they had been sexually abused by priests, deacons or members of religions orders while they were children. That is up 35 percent from 620 new reports of abuse a year earlier. While most of the reports are related to cases of abuse from the 1960s, '70s and '80s, there were 26 reports made by young individuals of more recent abuse. The bishops said the increase largely reflected a large number of claims in six dioceses that had either filed for bankruptcy or were located in states that opened windows allowing victims to sue over old cases of sexual assault. The report also found that Catholic institutions spent $153 million on settlements, legal fees and other expenses related to claims of sex assault over the audit period, up 29 percent from $119 million a year earlier. About a dozen dioceses have filed for bankruptcy in the face of extensive lawsuits, claiming they do not have the resources to pay them. Reports of serial sex abuse by priests and systematic cover-ups by the Catholic leadership exploded in the US media in 2002. Approximately 6,900 US Roman Catholic priests were accused of sexual abuse with at least 16,900 young victims between 1950 and 2011, according to data from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. Similar patterns of abuse have since emerged at dioceses around the globe, undermining the church's moral authority and depleting its finances as it paid out billions of dollars in settlements. Pope Francis in 2014 established a Vatican commission intended to establish best practices to root out abuse in parishes. Some theologians have argued that the church's policy on celibacy fosters sexual dysfunction and abusive behavior among priests.  |
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Post by JustJohn or JJ on Jun 25, 2016 4:56:13 GMT -7
Catholic priests in Montreal banned from being alone with children
 The Basilica of Notre-Dame in the Place d’Armes in Old Montreal in Quebec, Canada. Photograph: Alamy Catholic priests in Montreal will be banned from being alone with children to provide a “safety net” against allegations of abuse. Archbishop Christian Lepine has issued a decree to implement the policy, which also covers lay workers and volunteers. According to the decree, the move was to “ensure the safety and integrity of the people to whom we bring the Gospel message and offer our pastoral care”. But, it added, it was also “to preserve the integrity, security and good reputation of God’s people”. In an accompanying letter, Lepine said: “Recent events brought to light the horrific reality of abuse of minors and vulnerable people by members of the church. These intolerable situations have shocked and shaken the Universal Church as well as the entire population.” Pope Francis and his predecessors had issued clear instructions that every Catholic diocese must take necessary measures to prevent the abuse of children and vulnerable adults, the letter said. Implementation of the policy is to begin with a pilot project involving a dozen parishes from September, and will subsequently be rolled out across the diocese. The policy would cover anyone “in the orbit of the church” to create a “safety net”, Canon Francois Sarrazin told the Canadian Press. “Imagine if you are alone in a room and a child accuses you of hitting them, how will you react?” Sarrazin said. “Whether it’s true or not, you need a witness. Not being in the room alone with someone who is vulnerable is simply being prudent.” But Carlo Tarini, representing survivors of abuse by priests, said the move was “too little, too late”, and the church was trying to protect itself from legal action. In February, the church agreed a $30m settlement after around 150 people claimed they had been abused by the Clerics of St Viateur, who ran a school for deaf children in Montreal between 1940 and 1982. The policy was dismissed as “window dressing” by David Clohessy of the US-based Snap (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests). “The single most effective step would be to publicly disclose and discipline every cleric who committed or concealed child sex crimes. That immediately protects children,” he said. “We’ve literally seen hundreds of policies, procedures, protocols and pledges like this that sound good on paper but are virtually never enforced. So we are extremely sceptical.” The new policy is thought to be unprecedented in the Catholic church, although the Anglican church in Australia has had similar guidelines in place since 2004, said Andrew Chesnut, professor of religious studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. “Abuse victims in many countries have been demanding such a policy, in the case of Canada at least since 2007,” he said. The new measures “provide safeguards for vulnerable children against the assaults of paedophile priests or other church workers. Given the volume of cases across time and place, it’s quite shocking that such measure haven’t been adopted in all dioceses across the globe, if for no other reason than for the church to preclude future lawsuits which have cost it billions of dollars in Canada and the US alone.
“Despite its tardiness, the new policy in Montreal should be universally adopted, above all for the protection of children at Catholic churches and organisations.”
Globally, the Catholic church has paid tens of millions of dollars in compensation and costs relating to child sex abuse. An investigation by the National Catholic Reporter last year concluded that the US church alone had incurred costs of nearly £4bn.
Two years ago, the Vatican said that 848 priests had been defrocked and more than 2,500 had been sanctioned. But the church has also been accused of systematically covering up crimes committed by priests.
The issue was the subject of a recent Hollywood movie, Spotlight, which chronicled the expose of abuse by Catholic priests by reporters at the Boston Globe.
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