Comments on: Church Pledges There Will Be No Cover up in Mega Pastor’s Sex Scandal with Teen Girl

By: Dan Lewis

Dan Lewis — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 18:00:53 +0000

How nice, to hear of a group desiring to find and reveal to all the Truth.
If only they would continue on that path and recognize the fallacy of the religion they are psychological victims of. Oh well; step by step. ;)

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By: A Walkaway

A Walkaway — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 15:09:21 +0000

I can give you a couple of clues.

If you ever hear a young woman say that her church called her a “Jezebel”, you can safely assume that she’d been raped by her preacher/pastor and tried to get help from someone within the church (ALWAYS a mistake). It’s one of the ways they punish young girls who dare to speak up or resist the subjugation. I’ve talked with too many adult women who after leaving the church, needed help to deal with the horrific damage the more fundamentalist churches do to their followers. (Usually girls who got put through that end up leaving Christianity for the rest of their life, and you can’t blame them.)

Of all of the walkaway women I’ve met, I’d say about a quarter to a third had experienced rape or molestation.

I’m also used to seeing in the local news, that a pastor or minister (of fundamentalist and occasionally mainstream churches) having been arrested for kiddie porn, or molestation, or rape. It happens frequently enough that it’s not a big shock to me. Knowing the prevalence of covering it up (again, in the more fundamentalist churches), I suspect it is common and widespread. So much so that I assume if someone is a fundamentalist preacher, that person is or leans towards being a pedophile or abuser.

BTW… I am a Christian, and I would quickly say that most of what passes as “Christianity” today deserves the “bad rap” it’s gotten. I would advise against going down the “Christians are persecuted in America!” path, however, because that is a lie. They’re the persecutors! I’ve seen it too many times… experienced it personally and severely (others know what we’ve been put through). We go to a UU church, and a lot of the people are people who had been badly burned by “Christianity”. Our entire church is persecuted and harassed, and falsely labeled a “cult” by the very churches that fit the definition (coercive).

Like I’ve said before, my wife and I spend a fair amount of time helping people who have been badly hurt by the “Good Christians” (often just listening to them without criticism, which you won’t find in most churches). It’s a huge problem that pretty much flies under the radar.

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By: Echelon

Echelon — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 11:08:54 +0000

Good report Sarah. Thanks for tipping the scales for Christians who get such a bad rap these days.

But I do hope that the church members are willing to expose the pastor not only because they are Christians, but also because it is just the right thing to do concerning the law. You have to report child abuse if you are aware of it.

But it does make you wonder, how many more and for how long?

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By: majii

majii — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 05:17:13 +0000

Thanks for writing about this, Ms. Sarah Jones.
It is rare to hear anything about a church that is willing to support doing the right thing these days. The leaders at the First Baptist Church of Hammond actually live their values. This is the way it should be in all churches. Those who are condemning these church leaders for firing Jack Schapp are on the wrong side of this issue. If he had a sexual relationship with this young girl while being married, he committed adultery and violated the church’s bylaws. I can imagine that the detractors would feel differently if this child were one of theirs. It seems that too many who call themselves Christians revere religious leaders more than they do the teachings of Jesus, and think that they can do no harm. They will go to any lengths to cover up their wrongdoings. If they were really dedicated to following the teachings of Jesus, they would give the boot to people like David Barton, Mike Huckabee, Bryan Fischer, and the other religious shysters sooner, rather than later.

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By: A Walkaway

A Walkaway — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 02:57:24 +0000

This says that there is still hope for them too. Slim, but hope for real change is clearly there.

If they’re willing to take the hard path, practice self-discipline, and use some heavy self-examination, (along with that generally misunderstood and oft misused word Repent), maybe they’ll become real Christians.

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