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
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.
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.
Surprising absolutely nobody.
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.
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.
Based on what I recall of his tenure at UNT, I doubt they stuck it out for very long. I think his kid is the head coach at Carroll now.
Hell, it’s not even like I live someplace that’s terribly different from Southlake, but the gusto with which that town throws itself into toxic rich people shit is impressively awful. I understand there’s finally a bit of a quiet counter-movement now that the chickens are coming home to roost.
Do it! And the only hand writing from you say something like “just as I suspected”
Write him back about concern about his children getting molested at the church
Send it
I owed it to my daughter
Found why they were so upset you left.
Good thing you did, before something happened to her.
oh my god, the thought didn’t occur to me. Fuck fuck fuck
As my great grandfather used to say, “Its never too late to burry a man under his own skeletons” perhaps if you are feeling a bit vindictive you could do a bit of investigative journalism on em.
Guess we know what his idea of Salvation is, too.
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:
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 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 don’t change headlines. I use the original
You did here. You’re being asked to change it back after weirdly omitting her age as a preteen minor and his obvious connection to trump.
You do realize sites change headlines?
You do realize you could change it to match if that’s the case?
And you do realize that you’re also arguing two opposing points and embarrassing yourself?
I normally change my headlines when someone points out they’ve been updated. But I’ve never actually had someone get so rude and accusatory about it, so no thanks
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.
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.
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
Nah, he’ll be running for office, probably be a close race too.
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.
Are you an athiest ?
There’s a reason I hate both religous people and athiests and part of it is because religous people follow dogma and athiests act like assholes towards people they view as beneath them and insert themselves in academia where they don’t belong
Both religous people and athiests have a holier-then-thou attitude
The word is ‘atheist’, you got the e and i mixed up.
I have not acted like an asshole, I have just pointed out facts, while the other called religion cancer. How am I the supposed asshole? Not giving in to bad arguments is not “acting like an asshole.”
I also do not view anyone beneath me, that’s a mean insinuation and most likely the beginning of a fabulous strawman.
insert themselves in academia where they don’t belong
What would that be an what does that have to do with anything I wrote?
I hate both religous people and athiests
Hating people is a bad thing.
Nah, they’re different, religion is a cancer, spirituality can give people a sense of belonging or being part of something bigger than themselves. Eat some mushrooms and tell me they’re the same thing lol.
Spirituality, even more than religion, is some broadly used word for all kinds of stuff like healing crystals, zodiac signs etc. A sense of belonging can come from many things, that doesn’t make it true or good per se. What you are describing is drug use. Spirituality may sound better for you, but it’s just bullshit for drug use. I’m not judging, but it is what it is.
I’m sorry you feel that way.
A better inner-life (a more spiritual outlook) is actually key part of recovery from drugs and mental illness and can ignore god completely. Drugs can help experience it but aren’t necessary, my mushroom comment was a bit tongue-in-cheek but they have been used for millenia as a shortcut or aid to shamans and medicine men. To write off multiple cultures experiences as “just drug use” is incredibly dismissive and arrogant.
A better inner-life is possible without intermixing it with intangible hocus pocus. Calling something “spiritual” or retracting to it beeing “culture” is often used as protection against criticism and I see you do it here. Something can be culture and still be criticized or called out for what it actually is. Slavery has been part of pretty much every culture at some point. Would you call me arrogant when I say it’s still inhumane and criminal behaviour? And thats what I do. It’s been culture for centuries, but all the time, it was also “taking drugs, feeling like beeing part of something bigger charged with magical thinking”.
edit: All you say about spirituality can be said about religion. It helps people and gives them purpose and has been culture for thousands of years. Yet, you say
religion is a cancer Isn’t that way more disrespectful, dismissive and arrogant that what I am doing? Whats your measure here?
They’re different, but not opposite. It’s like comparing height and colour.
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.
I thought it was supposed to be drag queens instead of almost 100% christian clergy.
do we have a c/notadragqueen yet…
there’s a priest arrested.
But that’s the whole point of going to church
