Paolo's assessment of religion...

[A-1 (imported)]

...seems to be making more and more sense, with the latest revelation of the child molestation by this (http://www.ethicsdaily.com/article_detail.cfm?AID=8370) Southern Baptist preacher.

pastor Doug Myers received seven years in prison for sexual abuse of a minor. (WTFT.com)

NEWS

Convicted Child Molester Longtime Pastor of Southern Baptist Churches

Bob Allen

01-05-07

In 1999 in Calvert County, Maryland, a student had to change her plans to deliver her high school graduation prayer after a fellow student objected, with backing from the ACLU and the state attorney general's office.

During an allowed "moment of reflection," a Southern Baptist pastor named Douglas Myers began reciting loudly the Lord's Prayer. The entire audience joined in, creating an event that made national headlines.

This week, the 57-year-old Myers is back in the news. On Wednesday a Florida court sentenced him to seven years in prison for repeatedly molesting a parishioner's grandson.

A television news report said Myers' congregation viewed him as a trusted pastor, but his arrest came as no surprise to some who crossed paths with him in a ministry spanning 30 years.

"I always knew he would get caught up with," said Charles Canida. "It finally happened in Florida."

Canida was a deacon at Concord Baptist Church in Russellville, Ala., when "Pastor Doug," as he insisted on being called, arrived about five or six years ago. Canida said he was almost immediately suspicious.

"I firmly believe one of my spiritual gifts is the gift of discernment," Canida told EthicsDaily.com. "My spirit was deeply troubled by this man immediately."

Discussions with a youth minister only added to Canida's concern. Myers surrounded himself with boys ages 10-12. After one un-chaperoned swimming trip, one of the boys reported that "Pastor Doug" made it a rule for them to go skinny dipping.

One night, Canida said, a mother came to his home in tears, upset because Myers held down her 10-year-old son on a table, pulled up his shirt and blew on his stomach. Confronted by the chairman of deacons and told such behavior was unacceptable, Myers replied "that's the way I warm up to these kids" and that he would continue.

Viewing these and other incidents as red flags, Canida tried to raise the issue of Myers' leadership with the deacons. That only split the church, he said. Canida and his family eventually left Concord Baptist, along with about half of the active members.

Shortly thereafter Myers left Alabama. In October 2002 he was founding pastor of Harbor Baptist Fellowship in Eustis, Fla., a mission of Bay Street Baptist Church, a 1,350-member church in the Orlando area affiliated with the Florida Baptist Convention and the Southern Baptist Convention. He befriended a woman who worked in the nursery at Bay Street, who went on to join the mission church.

For six months beginning in July 2005, police say, Myers sexually battered the woman's 13-year-old grandson in her home, where Myers picked up the boy to take him to school.

The sheriff's office in Lake County, Fla., arrested Myers, who by now had started yet another church called Triangle Community Church, at his home in Tavares, Fla., Feb. 24. Myers was charged with three counts of lewd and lascivious battery and released on $45,000 bail. If convicted on all three counts, he could have been imprisoned for 45 years. In exchange for pleading guilty to one the charges, prosecutors agreed to let him serve seven years behind bars.

Myers will continue to be monitored after his release from prison and still faces a civil lawsuit. Investigators said they hadn't found other victims but if any are discovered he could face more charges.

"What you have done to my child is unforgivable; from a position of authority you took a young boy and took away his youth and childhood," the boy's mother said in a letter to Myers read at his sentencing hearing. "You have turned my family upside down, and for that you will go to jail for a long time."

"Do you believe in God?" she asked. "Being a preacher I hope that you would. Then how in God's eyes could you do this? You are not a man of the cloth nor should you ever be allowed to again pretend that you are. You used the church and God both for your sick and perverted ways to lure children in."

Myers allegedly told his victim he had done the same thing with a boy in Maryland, who is now in college. Canida said the pastor who followed Myers at Bayside Baptist Church in Chesapeake Beach, Md., told him Myers left amid issues with three teenage boys. If the search committee at the church in Alabama had done its job and contacted the Maryland church, he said, they would have recommended against calling him as pastor.

Attempts to reach Bayside Baptist Church on Wednesday and Thursday were unsuccessful.

Worried that Myers, whose parents live in north Alabama, might try to return to the area one day, Canida said he asked his pastor to alert directors of missions in his association and two neighboring counties about his suspicions. Canida also contacted the local district attorney's office, but he was told there was nothing they could do without evidence and the best thing the church could do was to run him out of town.

Christa Brown, an advocate for survivors of sex abuse by Southern Baptist clergy, said the case points to the need for a central office in the Southern Baptist Convention where people like Canida could report people like Myers and expect someone to look into it.

Brown and other members of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) asked leaders of the SBC to establish such an independent review board and to adopt a "zero tolerance" policy toward churches that shield suspected sex offenders in a letter hand-delivered to SBC headquarters Sept. 26. SBC leaders have yet to officially respond.

Bob Allen is managing editor of EthicsDaily.com.

If the old "PREACH" could have just threatened this boy with castration if he told then wouldn't this have made a GREAT non-fictional story for the E.A.?

Read all about the COVER UP. (http://www.ethicsdaily.com/article_detail.cfm?AID=7942)

Let us read more of their Hypocrisy... (http://www.religioustolerance.org/new1_966.htm)

In Fact, a Google search for Southern Baptists Child Molestation (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=so ... gle+Search) brings up a VEEERY Interesting reading list.

Huh? Well, according to this advocate of HATE CRIMES (http://kipesquire.powerblogs.com/posts/1095717742.shtml) we should kill Gays and FUCK prostitutes by his counsel and example. He is a de-frocked Assembly of God Minister.

But not for his remarks about "killing Gays" or not even for child molestation. He was de-frocked for fucking that prostitute...

Check it out here... (http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/relig ... -swaggart/)

Here is another story for your reading... (http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/01/06/050812.php)

Now, Go figure...

Comments?

[JesusA (imported)]

One of the regular features of Freethought Today, the monthly publication of the Freedom from Religion Foundation (www.ffrf.org) is a column titled “Black Collar Crime Blotter.” This feature, always taking up two newspaper-size pages lists those members of the clergy arrested or convicted in the preceding month. The number of sexual crimes and convicted pedophiles is always high, with items like:

• 12 counts of taking indecent liberties with a minor, 2 of aggravated sexual battery, & 1 of having carnal knowledge of a minor: Joseph Steven Shewsbury, 30, Blue Ridge, VA, pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a boy, 14. The youth coordinator at Shady Grove Baptist Church molested the boy in 2005, telling him that the boy was possessed by a demon that would make him homosexual if he didn’t act on his sexual thoughts. He also said that if the boy told anybody, the demon would possess them too.

• Taking indecent liberties & sodomy: Rev. Kenneth Payne, 70, Amherst, VA, for molesting a teen boy. The pastor at New Prospect Baptist Church met the boy in 2006 through a school tutoring program.

• 1st-degree sexual abuse: Eric B. Porter, 31, Grayson, KY, pleaded guilty to raping 2 girls, 15–16, in 2003 & 2005. He was then youth pastor at Gregoryville Christian Church.

And the list goes on for two full pages, every month….

[Eunuchist (imported)]

Well,

All I can say is that if only all those priests have followed Matthew 19:12 literally, as did the Skopzy, today, we wouldn't have all of these horrible, degrading and shameful molestation cases (but also the many cases of sexual abuse and exploitation of women in the church) appearing in the news at an almost daily basis.

As to the remarks about gays and prostitues - apparently, they've taken way too many day off's at the seminary, and should have read a little bit more on Matthew 7:1.

See, that's what happens when you skip your Bible lessons..

[tugon (imported)]

As a recovering Catholic it is nice to see other religions ministers involved. Molestation is not just for priests anymore. I wonder if they will ever fully understand the damage they have done. Of course I think they must have been harmed in their youth and we all know a cure that might stop the behaviors.

[Paolo]

I'd like to have about 5 minutes alone with this bastard to give him some object lessons on the Wrath of God.

[Blaise (imported)]

One of the regular features of Freethought Today, the monthly publication of the Freedom from Religion Foundation (

http://www.ffrf.org) is a column titled “Black Collar Crime Blotter.”

This feature, always taking up two newspaper-size pages lists those members of the clergy arrested or convicted in the preceding month. The number of sexual crimes and convicted pedophiles is always high, with items like:

• 12 counts of taking indecent liberties with a minor, 2 of aggravated sexual battery, & 1 of having carnal knowledge of a minor: Joseph Steven Shewsbury, 30, Blue Ridge, VA, pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a boy, 14. The youth coordinator at Shady Grove Baptist Church molested the boy in 2005, telling him that the boy was possessed by a demon that would make him homosexual if he didn’t act on his sexual thoughts. He also said that if the boy told anybody, the demon would possess them too.

• Taking indecent liberties & sodomy: Rev. Kenneth Payne, 70, Amherst, VA, for molesting a teen boy. The pastor at New Prospect Baptist Church met the boy in 2006 through a school tutoring program.

• 1st-degree sexual abuse: Eric B. Porter, 31, Grayson, KY, pleaded guilty to raping 2 girls, 15–16, in 2003 & 2005. He was then youth pastor at Gregoryville Christian Church.

And the list goes on for two full pages, every month

….See

See Forbidden Fruit: Sex & Religion in the Lives of American Teenagers by Mark D. Regnerus New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Jesus, thank you for the reference.

[n3rf (imported)]

I still think - most of these "attacks" on church - people are somehow - how do I say it - "fabricated". For example - petting the kid on the head, giving the kid a hug -..etc showing some kindness at all - will poster him/her for "sexual" harrasment - . We never learn - and that is for sure - the real facts like what , when, and how - the event really took plave. Our court system is set up to allow these "fabrications" I think and the real facts never are of interest to whoever "digests" these things - is what I think - this morning - and for a long time. N3RF

[Kangan (imported)]

Hey! Pedophiles come from all walks of life - let's not pick on religion just because of priest/pastor pedophilia. I do believe it is doubly heineous for a priest or pastor to be a pedophile due to the position of trust and respect in their community. This issue is addressed in most sex offender laws with greater penalties.

My own thought is that mandatory surgical castration should be part of the penalty for being convicted of pedophilia.

[A-1 (imported)]

I still think - most of these "attacks" on church - people are somehow - how do I say it - "fabricated". For example - petting the kid on the head, giving the kid a hug -..etc showing some kindness at all - will poster him/her for "sexual" harrasment - . We never learn - and that is for sure - the real facts like what , when, and how - the event really took plave. Our court system is set up to allow these "fabrications" I think and the real facts never are of interest to whoever "digests" these things - is what I think - this morning - and for a long time. N3RF

BULLSHIT!

Dear N3rf,

I understand that casual touching is NOT molestation OR harassment, unless it is UNWANTED. If it is unwanted, technically, it is BATTERY and NOT molestation.

What YOU have is DENIAL and THAT is what allows these bastards to continue to molest under the guise of religion. Nobody believes the minor and this damages them even more. Nobody believes that the nice, wonderful (fill in the blank) would ever "do that" to a young person.

That is not to mention the 'threats' that are made to keep these minors quiet about the perversions perpetrated upon them. Certain individuals are attracted to religion so that they can abuse their power over people and molest minors. If there is PHYSICAL evidence of the molestation, what then?

YOu tell me. WHAT POSSIBLE gain would a child have about accusing a clergy of molesting them? Then, how does that apply to a group? Believe me, if you have 2 or 3 young girls telling such a story, you had better think long and hard about it before you call them liars. That and you need to get medical attention for these kids as soon as you can.

The favorite trick is to use the juvenile rehab facilities to allow molestation of minors because minors in these facilities are EXTREMELY vulnerable and have absolutely NO credibility in making a complaint against a staff member. In addition, sometimes other juvenile offenders molest the weaker ones that they are incarcerated with.

This is training for ADULT facilities where the stronger prey sexually upon the weak, or rape is used as a tool to allow the inmates to control each other. Then, there is RAPE by proxy, where the correctional officers simply 'turn their heads' to another inmate of the facility sexually abusing sopmebody to 'get back' at them or to 'unoffically' discipline them.

Go watch Shawshank Redemption (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111161/)

It ia all a matter of asserting dominance. RAPE and MOLESTATION is a crime of POWER, not of SEX or LOVE. ESPECIALLY not LOVE.

There is a difference between "feeling up" children and hugging them. There is also QUITE a difference between hugging them and stripping them and fingering them or fucking them.

What business does a member of the clergy have taking clothes off of children? After all, the Bible teaches to clothe the naked, not make the clothed naked... :shakemitk

[n3rf (imported)]

But we never REALLY find out the REAL story. Just assuming is not good enough. Most priest are honorable and most children never tell a lie either. But when it becomes a "bandwagon" things gets all ---What ?? N3RF