Texas megachurch pastor resigns after admitting to molestation claims in 1980s
Texas megachurch pastor resigns after admitting to molestation claims in 1980s
Makes sense that he was Trump's spiritual advisor.
I assume he was also Epstein's spiritual advisor.
*Religious advisor, ain't nothing spiritual about a man who follows dogma and I'm tired of people confusing spirituality with religon
Two piles of the same bullshit.
One of the older meanings of "spirituality" was the idea of finding the origin of your thoughts and feelings with self-exploration and meditation, it's about asking "why" of yourself about your experiences until you find some level of more pure truth. It had very little to do with anything mystical or even religious.
Everything that happens in the world happens in your own mind, spirituality is just the exploration of the mind to better understand the world.
So yeah, fuck those scumbags and pedos for abusing yet another good thing and perverting the meaning of the term even further.
About ten years ago, I worked for a small firm where most of the partners attended this very church.
One of the reasons I left was that I felt completely out of place as they integrated their religion into the office culture.
When I left, the managing partner would send me handwritten letters for YEARS effectively telling me that while I had chosen damnation for myself, I owed it to my daughter to have the opportunity for salvation by attending this specific gateway Church in Southlake.
If I didn't have so much disdain and bitterness, I'd be tempted to send him this article.
Write him back about concern about his children getting molested at the church
Do it! And the only hand writing from you say something like "just as I suspected"
Send it
God, I hate Southlake.
I do wish I could go back to hating them just because of their smarmy spoiled football team.
God I was going to UNT football games when Todd Dodge was there. It seemed like all of Southlake was attending those games. I hate him with a white hot intensity. I hate his acolytes orders of magnitude more.
The few times I've been through Southlake, I felt like a needed a shower with some 36 grit sandpaper as a loofa.
What’s with Christians and raping children?
The religion itself has nothing to do with it. It's the position that attracts the abusers. A pastor is a person that members will implicitly trust to be a good person. They won't even think twice about leaving their children with them. It never occurs to them that a pastor could lie about that just like anyone else.
For an abuser, faking piousness in exchange for direct unfiltered access to your preferred victims is an easy choice. Heck, you're even paid to do it.
There's also the power dynamics involved in a spiritual leader having sway over a naive person.
The more rigid and fundamental the sect is, the more likely children are being abused. Not just kids by the way, women and men as well.
It also applies to all received religion.
Its easy to understand: they like children and rape, so they put them together to make child rape.
What the fuck is wrong with these people? I’ve made it through my entire adulthood without molesting any children…. WITHOUT EVEN TRYING. It’s real easy, the only thing you have to do is not fuck any kids. Do they need to teach that in church or something?
And they think they can still hold some kind of moral authority? What a sick joke.
Are you a paedophile? No? Then that's why you find it easy.
Not defending this guy or anyone who harms kids, but to try and compare how easy it is for you not to do, to how easy it should be for those who have urges you and I can't even imagine not to do, isn't really productive - it completely ignores the core of the issue - for some people it isn't that easy, and they need serious help, before they cause harm, not for their struggles to be brushed off as something that isn't real because the rest of us don't experience it.
And just to reiterate, this isn't a defence, and those who do harm others should absolutely suffer the consequences, but you're never going to stop that kind of harm from happening again and again if you pretend the problem that causes it doesn't exist.
Well this is a whole community that messed up. His church knew his past and decided to still put him in positions of trust and authority. They could’ve had him do work as a church landscaper or some other non-leadership role if they wanted to still keep him gainfully employed while going through treatment for his issues. Nobody forced the rest of the church leadership to keep him as a minister and pastor when they knew he was capable of abusing a young child for years on end. It is also the responsibility of pedophiles to not put themselves in positions where they have access to children. They might not be able to help their urges, but they can choose not to work around children or share a home with children. There are lots of jobs where children aren’t involved.
Hell, the church cultivates pedophilia by fetishizing virginity from an early age. You don't push purity culture without fucking up people mentally.
Who is pretending it doesn't exist? I'd really enjoy robbing a bank so I didn't have to work anymore, but I don't because it's wrong. No matter how much I want that money. I get the urge to smoke weed and play video games all day but I don't because I have responsibilities. The urge isn't the problem. I understand that they probably don't want those urges and it's either brain miswiring or due to their own abuse earlier in life, but having an urge and acting on it are two totally different things. Their lack of self control is the issue. The coverup and then having the AUDACITY to tell other people how to live their lives, like this asshole was doing, is the icing on the cake.
I have unhealthy urges due to acute anxiety. If untreated, it can absolutely mean I'm behaving in ways that harm me and those around me. Since I care about others and my own well-being, I go to therapy and take medication.
I don't like it when mentally ill adults*, who don't care enough to pursue treatment, get let off the hook. He knows that he's trading these kids' futures for his own gratification and he doesn't care. Not all PDFs are like this--but this motherfucker is and therefore gets no sympathy from me.
*This doesn't include people who have illness, delusions, or lack of resources, preventing them from getting regular treatment.
Huh, so the right wingers who rage and scream about pedophilia and use that demonize anyone who disagrees with them on any issue, with zero facts, are the actual pedophiles? Color me shocked. If you run across a right winger who is freaking out about pedophiles to the point that they've regressed into all caps and are calling you evil while foaming at the mouth.... you're dealing with classic projection.
I simply must repost these images whenever I get the chance because just looking at the facts always shows how utterly full of shit conservatives are:
Please keep up reposting these! You're doing amazing work.
Too bad we can't get get the granularity of congressional district on these...
Another pastoral pedophile. The church has controlled people through demonizing human sexuality, and kids are at the bottom of the pecking order.
Sounds too hard to fight religion, let's just ban books about gay bunnies and farts instead. That'll save the children.
See you in 10 years after you have a long heart to heart with Christ and he tells you to get back into the ministry and stay molesting children again.
Nah, he'll be running for office, probably be a close race too.
Ten years? My dude, he’ll write a book about his “walk through the valley of the shadow of death and redemption through the grace of Christ” and publish it next year
He already quit and came back after two years. My bet is he makes another comeback. Fuck this guy and his enablers.
Neusthetic counseling or WTF the fundies call their fake therapy and then he’s fine. They will call him a recovering sex addict (I.E. On the same level as a married man who watches porn, in their usage of the phrase) and who will dissociate when you try to talk to them about what he actually did.
do we have a c/notadragqueen yet..
there's a priest arrested.
so... jail time? or at least a case? or is that so long ago that statute of limitations is involved?
I looked it up, 20 years past 18th birthday… unless, for example, it was continuous. Then there are none.
It was continuous. It lasted for five years. So, by TX CCP, there is no time limit to indict him. But, he's a conservative leader in a red state. He's never going to be charged.
If you have carnal desires so strong as to target underage partnering, and religion being unable to inhibit that mentality, you should steer clear of the organization. Getting into it seeking absolvence will only accentuate your perversity. Self control is called self control because only you can control yourself.
People don't rape children, or anyone, because they are just too horny and can't restrain themselves. People who seek positions of power that often give them a huge Benifit of the doubt and then rape children, didn't end up in that circumstance by accident. Rape isn't sex. It isn't about being so sexually stimulated you must force someone else to have sex with you. Rape is abuse, and the point of it is harm and domination. There's a lot of data that supports these facts, particularly psychological studies, but there's even more than that, let's look at some data about rape. The vast majority of rapists abuse a victim that knows them well. Friends, family, or even their spouse or partner are the most frequent victims. This is not spontaneous behavior, victims are carefully chosen and often groomed for the abuse. This can be years of preparation. This isn't something you do because you are just too horny. Next let's look at the victims they choose, who is more likely to be raped, a child related to the rapist who is old enough to talk and talk clearly, or a child too young to speak at all, or too young to communicate what's happened to them? The child less able to talk is higher risk. Is that spontaneous ''I'm just so horny'' behavior? No, that's calculated behavior. Children with disabilities, particularly disabilities that make it hard or impossible to communicate effectively, are also higher risk of being sexually abused than children who don't have these characteristics. Looking at adult victims, elderly people with disabilities that prevent them from communicating are also higher risk for sexual abuse than elderly individuals who can communicate. If a rapist is selecting victims who are, very young, very old, or disabled, do you honestly think the motivation is sexual arousal? These are not people considered sexually appealing in western culture right now. Another point is career choices. Rapists tend to look for jobs, even getting years of education to obtain these jobs, that give them access to ideal victims, children, the elderly, disabled children, and so on, preachers, youth pastors, school teachers, law enforcement, any position in hospitals from doctors to orderlies, nurses, imaging techs, or janitors, some of these professions are aware of this, and go to great lengths to make these jobs have very limited access and opportunity to harm potential victims, and some don't, but again, is a rapist going to get a 4+ year education, or work their way up through a profession to get access to victims if the motivation was being sexually frustrated? No. That's not what's happening. What's happening is rapists want to rape someone, and many have been known to select victims they aren't even personally attracted to in their sex life. It's not about sex, it's about abuse.
Surprising absolutely nobody.
Another head of the hydra choped off, how many more heads will grow back?
I'm sure the megachurch will still be around, question is how many other churches will spring out of its congregation and how many more victims will they all make.
Let's keep chopping heads and find out, my axe ain't getting dull any time soon
But that’s the whole point of going to church
I thought it was supposed to be drag queens instead of almost 100% christian clergy.
Another headline omitting the relevant trump connection
I mean, I posted about that the day before
Repeat the headline, don't interpret.
Actual headline from independent was, "Texas Megachurch pastor who sat on Trump faith board resigns after admitting molesting girl, 12, in the 1980s"
You left out her age and trump mention. So why didn't you just title that as headline? Also, why not change it now? This is Lemmy, you have that option.
I shock
Ah yes, I see the "Religion is bad! Religion enables child rapists! Abolish religion!" crowd is out.
Religion is not the issue, religion is the window dressing to the actual issue, it's institutions protecting themselves.
Let's take a trip down "Holy shit, these institutions are terrible" memory lane.
Our first stop is Jimmy Savlie and the BBC. Fairly confident in saying that the BBC is not a religious institution.
Next up, the Boy Scouts of America sex abuse cases, while the Boy Scouts of America had some religious trappings, as an organization it was never truly about religion.
Let's not forget Larry Nasser and USA Gymnastics. Fairly sure that USA Gymnastics isn't a religious intuition.
Fourth stop is Jerry Sandusky and their history of child sex assault.
Hockey Canada had a massive sexual assault scandal involving youth players sexual assaulting females.
The Trouble Teen industry has a long history of abusing children. While some companies/associations may have religious connotations, the industry as whole is not religious.
To round out the list: we have Judge Rotenberg Educational Centre Inc, were disabled children were tortured; Dr. John Money, who wanted to test gender identity and sexual orientation on twins by forcing one twin to grow up as a different gender; finally, there is Dr. Peter Neuauer, who spilt up twins and triplets without telling anyone to test nature vs nurture. The kicker to Dr. Neuauer, the results of the extremely unethical study are locked up at Yale until October 25, 2026 because "feared that public opinion would be against the study, and declined to publish it."
Every one of these examples are all about powerful institutions, caring about protecting themselves. When it comes to religion and abuse, everyone mistakes the forest for the trees.
That's some dense whataboutism
Are you also a “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” kinda person?
I'm reasonably sure it's the bullets...
None but religious institutions lay claim to a divine insight into morality, though.
Are they the same ones that claim "we are all sinners"?
All hierarchies facilitate abuse. Theism is the ultimate hierarchy. When you have large congregations of people that fall in line under a hierarchy, those at the top will abuse those beneath them.
So… that’s an admission. He can be charged?
Texas, show us how much you care about protecting kids…
I think they already showed us at Uvalde.
It's probably well past the statue of limitations.
Scroll down, sounds an awful lot like there ain’t any. or is at most 18+20 years.