Welcome to the News community!
Rules:
1. Be civil
Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.
2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.
Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.
3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.
Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.
4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.
Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.
5. Only recent news is allowed.
Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.
6. All posts must be news articles.
No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.
7. No duplicate posts.
If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.
8. Misinformation is prohibited.
Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.
9. No link shorteners.
The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.
10. Don't copy entire article in your post body
For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.
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.
The statute of limitations does not apply. He's a conservative "leader" in Texas. He ain't gettin' charged.
The statute of limitations only prevent old crimes from being dug up and brought to trial- mostly because at that point it’s hard to prove.
The reality is, this guy absolutely won’t get charged. Because of the pure bias.
Unless… someone were to, I dunno, tell Ken Paxton he did drag on Tuesday nights… but that would be totally unethical; and we really don’t need to play into that bullshit.
That also needlessly furthers their association with child molesters and drag when drag had nothing to do with it.
Makes sense that he was Trump's spiritual advisor.
I assume he was also Epstein's spiritual advisor.
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.
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
Guess we know what his idea of Salvation is, too.
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.
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.
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.
I disagree that religion has nothing to do with it. Religion is the vehicle used for these people to molest children, and religion often protects them when they're found out.
Religious institutions do an absurdly terrible job of governing themselves, or background checks, etc.
They're the reason so much of this is allowed to keep happening.
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.
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
This is what I am replying to.
None of what you said contradicts anything I've said, the only somewhat relevant point you touched on is
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.
Which only brings me back to my original reply - are you a paedophile? No? Then that's why you think it's that easy.
and
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.
Hell, the church cultivates pedophilia by fetishizing virginity from an early age. You don't push purity culture without fucking up people mentally.
True, sadly it's only one of so many contributing/possible factors, and that's the point - we can only ever try to tackle the problem if we look at the whole (admittedly very large and gruesome) picture, not just the focused anger at the individual that we feel when we first hear such things happen. Which is justified, don't get me wrong, but punishing one paedophile won't stop other paedophiles - if it was going to it would have already. Only addressing all of the factors that lead to them feeling the way they do (personally within themselves but also societally, as you point out), so that suitable places for them to turn to for help and treatment can exist, will.
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:
Another pastoral pedophile. The church has controlled people through demonizing human sexuality, and kids are at the bottom of the pecking order.
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.
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.
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.
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.