Sex scandal hits Atlanta-area megachurch

[justinthemartyr]

Sex scandel hits everyone, everywhere, no matter catholic or not.
If there are humans in the institution, there is sex scandal. It is part of sin nature.

Just because the news focuses on the Church 99% of the time and not our protestant brothers and sisters and the public schools does not mean it does not happen at the same levels or even worse.

The sex abuse in public schools far outnumbers that of the Catholic church, yet we hear almost nothing of it publicly by the secular media.

 

[dparker]

My only experience with a Protestent church and this subject was a number of years ago when an assistant pastor for high school kids reportedly crossed a line with a high school girl. There was no sex, but there was inappropriate flirting and some unsupervised private conversations between them. The pastor was married with several kids.

The church immediately terminated the pastor’s employment, referring him and his family to counseling paid by the church.

The church also contacted every church family and called a meeting to address the situation. Hundreds of us were at the meeting and the senior pastors clearly presented exactly what happened, invited anybody with any additional reports of misconduct to report them, and answered everyone’s questions and concerns. The girl also received counseling, and she and her family continued to attend the church. Her identity was not revealed, but we knew who she was from our kids.

Due to the way it was handled, there was no lasting damage, other than perhaps to the high school pastor’s career. This is a very large non-demoninational church that is loosely affiliated with the Asemblies of God.

There was no violation of the law, but clearly a violation of the trust that people put in their clergy. We were impressed in the way it was handled.

 

[homewardbound]

I’ve seen some in this thread imply Protestant churches always throw the bad guy out and never cover things up. I just wanna say, not true! I know of a church that has been covering up the sexual abuse and molestation of young girls for well over a decade now at least. Acts committed by both of the pastor’s sons. Both of which are now pastors themselves. Evil is everywhere. IMO, Protestants aren’t in the news as much because people in Protestant denominations are more willing to keep quiet about their pastor’s doings. The clergy have their families to make people shut up. Plus, America is more of a Protestant nation than a Catholic one…so its much more fun to bash them all the time and keep quiet about their own places.

Unfortunately, sex scandals happen everywhere. Evil people are everywhere. Just today I sat in tears for an hour with a lady as I attempted to learn more coping skills to handle my life that has been in shambles since I was 13…one of the many victims of the church I mentioned above. Nothing is ever done. No matter who the abusers are…clergy or family or whatever…very rarely are the abusers reported and very very rarely do they suffer any consequences. I have heard of police even telling victims to not bother going to court because they will lose and/or it will be too hard for them. This nation loves to talk about scandal, but turns its head when it comes to doing anything to stop it. Everything is always kepy hush hush. The only places survivors are safe to speak are in random buildings with no addresses with buzzers at the door for lock down. Shelters and safe houses. Because it all has to keep quiet. Because the abusers are still out there hurting more and more people, and the survivors are never really safe. Cause even if everyone knows, they don’t care.

 

[twopekinguys]

I know of a church that has been covering up the sexual abuse and molestation of young girls for well over a decade now at least. Acts committed by both of the pastor’s sons… Nothing is ever done. No matter who the abusers are…clergy or family or whatever…very rarely are the abusers reported and very very rarely do they suffer any consequences.

Let’s remember, that if someone has personal knowledge of an illegal act, it should be reported to the police immediately. Assuming someone else will do it does not release us from our responsibility.

 

[Bishopite]

news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071120/ap_on_re_us/preacher_paternity;_ylt=AsWFW4iWsJ581XiuAsTKtic7Xs8F

Excerpts from the article:

You know its unfortunate that we Catholics have to bring up these stories but we need to show other non-Catholics that scandals especially sex scandals, are NOT limited to the Catholic faith only and there are many within Christianity and non-Christian religions and secular groups.

 

[rtconstant]

Let me see if I am understanding your statements correctly:

In addition to any sex or money or other scandals that are made public, a plethora of Protestant clergy (only one particular denomination or are they all doing it equally, btw?) are regularly embroiled in sex scandals. These scandals are being covered up on a regular basis, so thoroughly “hushed up and fudged over” that no one in the public ever knows about them.

No one but you.

I see.

Well the last Baptist Church that I was a part of had 3 sex scandals when I was there. Only one made it to the news. Ironically the one that did was the one that I’m not sure was true. These things take on a life of their own though. I think most Churches try to keep these things from hitting the press one way or the other. Most of the time the guilty parties are simply sent away.

By the way I don’t speak of any of these to imply anything about the Baptist Church or even that particular congregation. It was all tragic.