What is it with churches and child sexual abuse?

[FindersKeepers]

The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) lost nearly half a million members in 2022.

Southern Baptist congregations shed nearly half a million members in 2022, the denomination's biggest one-year loss in more than a century, amid a damaging sex abuse scandal, new data show.

Research from Lifeway Christian Resources shows that America's biggest Protestant and second-biggest Christian denomination lost 457,371 members to end the year with some 13.2 million members.

Like the RCC, the SBC tried to keep the child sex abuse scandal quiet until they no longer could.

GEORGIA – The Southern Baptist Convention released a list of alleged abusers, that include nearly 40 people who pastored, worked or volunteered at churches in Georgia.

The 205-page list, labeled “highly confidential,” comes after a bombshell report Sunday from an independent investigator that said the top leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention stonewalled and denigrated sexual abuse victims for two decades to protect their own reputations and remained "singularly focused on avoiding liability" for the church.

The list is looooong....and here are just a few, but in general, they tend to be "youth pastors" "youth ministers" or other church officials who work with kids.

• Daniel Louis Kent, was a youth leader at First Baptist Church in Duluth. He was arrested and charged with four counts of electronic transfer of obscene material to a minor. He was not charged for having sexual contact with a teen because the age of consent in Georgia is 16.
• Michael Lee Krug, 35, associate pastor, Calvary Baptist Church, Columbus, GA, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Pleaded guilty to aggravated child molestation and two counts of child molestation. Sentenced to 10 years in prison and 15 years probation. Released. Not listed as a registered sex offender in Georgia.
• James Louis Kubicek was a former youth minister at First Baptist Church, Valdosta, GA. He was convicted of child molestation, sexual exploitation of a child and enticing a child for indecent purposes. Sentenced to 20 years on the first charge, five years on the second charge and 10 years on the third charge. Incarcerated in Georgia.
• William C. Lewis, former youth pastor of First Jordan Grove Missionary Baptist Church, in Brunswick, GA. He was arrested on two counts of child molestation. He was convicted July 7, 2017. Charged with Sexual Battery Against Child Under 16 years; Registered Sex Offender
• Mark Kit Lucus was an organist and youth minister at Woodlawn Baptist Church in Garden City, GA. He was charged with aggravated sexual battery in an assault of a youth. He registered as a sex offender in Georgia for a 2011 child molestation conviction.
• Charles Randy May was a volunteer leader for the children’s ministry at New Victoria Baptist Church in Woodstock. He was Sentenced to 20 years on Oct. 21, 2016, after pleading guilty to four charges including two counts of aggravated sexual battery, aggravated sodomy and exploitation of a disabled adult, according to Cherokee County records. Incarcerated in Georgia.

Many, many more at the above link.

[DGUtley]

When I was ankle deep in these cases, I was aware that the other churches has them to the same degree as the RCC, just not as publicly. I have had cases involving the RCC, the Baptists, the Methodists, Scouts and several camps (among others) in 36 years. These pedophiles are sneaky and evil people. We've worked hard to root them out of the RCC but be certain that they'll try to worm their way in again if we aren't vigilant.

One of the best things to happen to the RCC was these lawsuits - it forced the Church to deal with these things publicly.

[stjames1_53]

There is a special place in Hell for ALL pedophiles

[stjames1_53]

I can't understand why the female predators/pedophiles aren't treated the same way men are.
I can't remember the last time a woman had to register as a sexual offender.

[DGUtley]

I can't understand why the female predators/pedophiles aren't treated the same way men are. I can't remember the last time a woman had to register as a sexual offender.

Here they do and are hammered, just like the men.

[NoisyBoy]

Pedos see churches as a target rich environment. They hide behind the facade of being a Christian.They are not Christians.God will be just.

[stjames1_53]

Pedos see churches as a target rich environment. They hide behind the facade of being a Christian.They are not Christians.God will be just.

They hide in the flock hoping they won't be discovered as they reap their victims.

[FindersKeepers]

I can't understand why the female predators/pedophiles aren't treated the same way men are.
I can't remember the last time a woman had to register as a sexual offender.

We had a case like that a few years ago. The predator was a woman in her early 30s and she lured high school boys (15 and 16) to her house, gave them alcohol and then had sex with them.

The prosecuting attorney slapped her hand with some minor charge, but wouldn't pursue it further. The mother of one boy had an absolute hissy and held rallys and petition sign-ups trying to force the prosecuting attorney to press bigger charges. She did that for over a year but then her son attempted suicide and (rumor has it) because his mom was embarrassing him. Anyway, she stopped at that point and it faded away. Her son is in college now--or maybe he graduated, but the predator woman is still running around town as if nothing happened.

[Chris]

"The best available data reports that 4 percent of Catholic priests sexually violated a minor child during the last half of the 20th century with the peak level of abuse being in the 1970s and dropping off dramatically by the early 1980s....

"Putting clergy abuse in context, research from the US Department of Education found that about 5-7 percent of public school teachers engaged in similar sexually abusive behavior with their students during a similar time frame....

"While no comprehensive studies have been conducted with most other religious traditions, a small scale study that I was involved with found that 4 percent of Anglican priests had violated minors in western Canada and many reports have mentioned that clerical abuse of minors is common with other religious leaders and clerics as well...."

Separating Facts About Clergy Abuse From Fiction

[Chris]

A difference: Religious folks are quick to condemn such abuse in or out of their church, secularists are far from unified: Richard Dawkins Defends 'Mild' Pedophilia, Again and Again.

The Next Frontier For The Hypersexualized Left: Normalizing Pedophilia

As The Federalist has recently reported, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the left is pushing toward social and legal approval of pedophilia. A failed effort in the Minnesota legislature to extend state-law protection to pedophilia as a sexual orientation should remove any doubt about where we’re headed.

Predatory adults apparently recognize the political problem inherent in protecting the “rights” of pedophiles. So they also cloak their efforts in the language of “rights,” “needs,” and “health” of minor children.

The most recent evidence of this goal comes from the International Commission of Jurists, which joined two U.N. agencies to issue a report advocating that all “consensual” sex between adults and minors be decriminalized. From Principle 16 – Consensual Sexual Conduct:

Consensual sexual conduct, irrespective of the type of sexual activity, the sex/gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression of the people involved or their marital status, may not be criminalized in any circumstances. … With respect to the enforcement of criminal law, any prescribed minimum age of consent to sex must be applied in a non-discriminatory manner. … Moreover, sexual conduct involving persons below the domestically prescribed minimum age of consent to sex may be consensual, in fact, if not in law. In this context, the enforcement of criminal law should reflect the rights and capacities of persons under 18 years of age to make decisions about engaging in consensual sexual conduct and their right to be heard in matters concerning them.

The end game of normalizing pedophilia has been hinted at for some time....