It's always the same: A few powerful men chase off most of the other men (keeping a few on hand to do their dirty work), beat the children and women, and sleep with the children and women.

Religion, especially in the US, is a business. It should be regulated, taxed, and licensed by the government like any other business. Honestly, drug companies can't get away (at least not for long) with selling snake oil. Why should religio-bidness men enjoy such tax-friendly, hands off status?

Let me preface this by saying that I am not a fan of the Southern Baptist Convention(SBC). That being said, though, I don't think it is likely that they have the same problem as the Roman catholic Church(RCC). Any profession (such as the priesthood or ministry) that deals with children will attract a certain number of pedophiles. The RCC is structured in such a way as to make it very easy for them to stay around, though. A Catholic priest is answerable only to the Bishop who hired him, and thus the Bishop (who should investigate/report him) has every incentive to try to cover up a personal embarassment. In addition, since priests (mostly) don't have children of their own, and are not controlled by boards of directors (that are made up of members who likely have children or grand children in the church), they may be more likely to empathize with accused fellow priests rather than allegedly victimized children. Baptist ministers often have children of their own in the church, and even when they do not, are subject to hiring/firing/review by boards of directors who often do have children in the church. Even when these boards of directors are all male (as I understand some are), fathers generally speaking will take some action to prevent their own children from being molested, once a problem is brought to their attention.

I'm an Episcopal seminarian. Before being allowed to enter seminary, I went through 2 background checks, and a day- long training to prevent sexual misconduct. Before being ordained, I will have to repeat the background checks, and the misconduct training will have to be repeated every 5 years. Under canon law, background checks (including checks of the Sex Offender Registry) must be performed on all new hires that work with children in Episcopal churches, in most places, because we are now finding, to few people's shock, that most predators seek out churches because they are considered 'trusting places.'

But hey, the SBC wants to drag its feet on everything else, why should protecting kids be much different?

I'm trained as a mental health professional and the mental health system sees perpetrators and victims of sexual abuse. My first experience with a pedophile patient was an Episcopal priest. Protestant denominations do not have the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, but the decentralized nature of these denominations may make it even easier for abusers to stay in the system and I would guess that elders and deacons feel compelled to hush up allegations of wrong doing and happily foist predators on other churches. Denominations to have some authority they can exercise and the Southern Baptist Convention are happy to discipline over churches that admit gays or do other things that displease those in authority. Celibacy creates its own unique problems, but a common problem with most religious denominations (Christian or otherwise) is that they recruit young, normally rather unworldly people into the seminary and then turn around and give them great moral authority (and ample opportunities to compartmentalize and rationalize their problems). That is a recipe for all kinds of "giving in to temptation" and the nature of churches and the middle class respectability that's part of church membership means that that the laiety keeps a lot of things quiet. Catholic, Protestant, Fundie, evangelical, unitarian, druid, whatevr--I suspect that this is a problem and poorly dealt with throughout the religious spectrum.

That criminals are hypocrites and liars? Isn't that what criminals do? Who cares if they prance around as fake holy men? Are you as a human being exempt from looking at what people actually are just because you're weakheaded enough to swallow whatever your Elmer Gantry is selling? You kind of deserve it if that's how you think.

Yes, there are sexually immature predators in all walks of life. Most of it, per the experts, occurs within families.

Those 'humans' who abuse in God's name are the worst of the worst. The leaders in any organized religion who lie to survivors and their memberships, move their predators, refuse to be audited and hide their files are, as the ex-governor of Oklahome once said, as bad as the Mafia. (He later apologized to the Mafia for making that remark.)

True, Baptist churches are more locally autonomous. Thus, "ousted for indiscretions" ministers can move freely and get a new job elsewhere. So what's the difference?

Those kind and "Christian" folks out in Utah not only ex-communicate their VICTIMS, they order their members not to communicate with them,

Organized religion has become both a joke and a travesty. It has become big business, with the bottom line as it's idol...

The message of Christ is simple: God is love, and in each of us. He did not say to rape the children and use them as toys to he thrown away when broken. Children are not chattels. The rest of it is church law. Rites and rituals have been added, changed, redeveloped since the 4th century AD.

At least the Mafia (or any organized group with criminal intent) does not pretend to be the ultimate arbiter of right and wrong.

Hey - it brought me a big smile and I felt almost honored when I clicked the word Texas after my name and saw a picture of Molly Ivins. She was fearless and funny. She was a true Texan. I wish I had even half her guts and gumption. What an inspiration!

Christa Brown

www.stopbaptistpredators.org

Gay Marriage Critic Tried on Lewdness

By JEFF LATZKE 02.22.07, 9:43 PM ET

Associated Press

The lawyer for a former Baptist church leader who had spoken out against homosexuality said Thursday the minister has a constitutional right to solicit sex from an undercover policeman.

The Rev. Lonnie W. Latham had supported a resolution calling on gays and lesbians to reject their "sinful, destructive lifestyle" before his Jan. 3, 2006, arrest outside the Habana Inn in Oklahoma City.

Authorities say he asked the undercover policeman to come up to his hotel for oral sex. ...

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/02/22/ap3455261.html

It's "sinful [and] destructive" but the Supreme Court made it legal!