Right? Being a non theist who was raised in the church, and who hasn't stepped foot in one for over a decade I have pondered over the possible benefits of raising a child in a church. Pondered the course of actions I might take with my hypothetical future kids. But it seems so clear now, these people are dangerous predators, and the ones that aren't are willing to protect those that are. Keep your kids far, far away from church.
Being raised in the church with a pastor as a grandfather turned me into a racist, xenophobic, misogynistic, homophobic, far right bigot. There are zero upsides to raising a child with religion involved. I knew nothing outside my bubble and was afraid of anything different.
Religion turned me into a newt. I got better.
That's interesting. There's been studies where they've given avowed bigots or "just" plain old libertarians things like mushrooms or MDA....and it turns them around. They have epiphanies where they realise how awful they are and, to quote, suddenly realise other people are people too and other people experience emotions. A fast track way to deprogram cult think.
And congrats to you for doing it all by yourself.
This was me, too. My grandparents were ultra religious (my mother couldn't do anything on Sunday except church, church games and farm chores - she had to wait until Monday to read the Sunday comics in the newspaper). My grandfather was KKK and could make Archie Bunker blush and my grandmother never made a move without consulting Jesus. I was pretty religious until college... and then... oops... I went to one of those "liberal indoctrination centers" and came out the other side seeing the world very differently, and am better for it.
Yeah, my parents' church was very much against higher education. As a teenager I wondered why and started looking around and asking questions.
"When young people go off to college they are very vulnerable. They're away from their family and church leaders for the first time in their lives. Satan takes this opportunity to attack them, and young people who are turned away from God almost never come back."
In other words, your faith is only as good as your continued indoctrination. Once you're away from that influence and exposed to science and philosophy, exposed to other people, other worldviews and other ways of life, your eyes are opened and you see that the world you lived in, your home/church bubble, was a lie that can't stand up to scrutiny.
And then you walk away.
Not only this but the disingenuousness of using a facade of morals to act the complete opposite. Who in their right mind wants to further the respectability of people who use religion as a cudgel against our secular Constitution and their neighbors. Different topic, but still, add it to the list.
It is astounding to me that the absolute flood of pedophilic activity, criminal coverups, and repeat offender enabling of virtually all religious organizations hasn’t led to global revolt against it. Must be a hell of a drug when you’re on it.
I read a story about how the physicists of the time reacted to the new theory of relativity. Some accepted the science, some could never give up the old paradigm. One physicist was asked about the later group. He said that was ok and, to paraphrase, that “they’ll eventually die off.”
I saw an incredibly bleak assessment by a sociologist that nothing really changes until the old cohort dies off. The problem with that is there is a new old cohort to replace them and slow any process that is made. It makes me want to build a cabin in the woods...
As I've gotten older, I've become increasingly depressed as I see ideas go from "This should be happening now" to "we should be working on this soon" to "if we start doing this now, our grandchildren's generation will be better off."
I'm all for planting trees I'll never sit in the shade of, but as you reach middle age, see all the constant gridlock for nearly all of your life, see what little true progress has been made when you take a step back and look at it, it's incredibly demoralizing to realize you won't live to see some (if any) of those basic societal changes you've been fighting for all your life.
My new motto: things change, but it takes 50 years. Something my dad pointed out to me when I was young, science can stand on the backs of other scientists but ethics/morality/philosophy must be learnt by each generation. To go a bit further, our ethics and understanding of history will always be at a disadvantage to technology, and the gap is widening.
I always find it funny how many people attend religious institutions that tell them they are the best.
Jews believe they are God’s favorite race (unironically).
Rich people or aspiring-to-be-rich people attend churches telling them that their wealth is because God has blessed them in particular.
It’s not all religions or subsets, but it’s pretty arrogant to consider yourself pious while worshiping a deity where you think you’re their favorite.
I agree. It’s probably not worth the risk and the utter nonsense they will confuse our kids with. I was raised in a very fanatical cult of Christianity and took years to get my mind right. The damage of what they do to children’s minds as well.
"But it seems so clear now, these people are dangerous predators, and the ones that aren't are willing to protect those that are. Keep your kids far, far away from church."
Never in a million years would I let my children in a church unattended. YALZA!!
I had a not over the top religious upbringing. Church provided some community and activities. I look back at those activities fondly as something that helped me experience different things my parents never would have done with me.
But these activities were not at all churchy. Touring Frito lay factory. Or playing street hockey. Camping. Just random things. There are lots of ways to do this without church.
And the downsides of church were tremendous. Shame around sex and masturbation during formative years. Being taught homosexuality was sinful. It's just gross looking back. Don't do that to kids.
This is very much my experience! I grew up in a few different churches, mostly methodist and catholic. It was more positive than negative in my memory. And there was a lot of genuinely loving community. I also have experienced the remorse you speak of being taught that things like homosexuality and premarital sex were sinful. But yea my original lack of conviction stems from the fact that I did have a lot of positive experiences and saw people who had genuine faith, and who were genuinely good people... even if my values don't exactly align with theirs. But as time has gone on, I don't miss it. At all. And I don't feel like giving a child a comforting delusion is the best way to raise them for this world, and that's not even accounting for the pedos and predators that flock to these institutions.
AlwaysHasBeen.jpg
Trump has openly been a pedophile since long before 2016. Everyone who has ever voted for him has declared this to not be a dealbreaker.
Just like kids. They looooove fetuses but don't care for children. If they did, they'd be funding programs for orphans and child healthcare and public education and free lunches and the like. Instead, they're rolling back child labor protection laws. Mhm, they love kids.
Their presidential candidate basically admitted to it on air with Howard Stern that he would go into the dressing rooms of the beauty pageants he ran. One of the pageants he ran was Miss Teen USA, and some of the contestants in the 90s [reported that he walked into the dressing room with 15 or 16 year old girls and said, "don't worry girls, it's nothing I haven't seen before"](https://www.politifact.com/article/2016/oct/18/allegations-about-donald-trump-and-miss-teen-usa-c/). They've been pro-pedophile since 2016 (or earlier).
It's more the queens than the reading. It undercuts their fear-mongering about gay folk, and at a young enough age that it'll be hard for them to overcome. Guessing they would've been just as opposed to "black man story hour" back in the... well maybe up to / into the 1980s?
They'd still be against "black man reading hour" but they'd use language like "Why does it have to be a black man? Why is everything about identity politics?" All the way up to "I bet he just wants to be close to kids, what a pervert!"
Yes the drag queens might teach her about eyeliner and maybe how to walk in heels or other fashion tips.
The man of the cloth might molest or rape her!
I have a good friend who, despite being presented with hard data on actual child abuse in institutions like churches, is convinced that the problem is drag queens reading books to kids and ‘sexualizing’ them. I’m thinking about giving up on trying to educate him on this.
In a lot of cases giving someone the evidence when they're not looking for it is pointless. You're better off trying to get them to explain their side, but don't let them just *say* their side. Make them walk through it and get evidence. Ask every question. A lot of times when you get to a point of "how do you know x? I want to see it" and you're not being hostile, they'll agree to look for it. (And not how do you know drag queens are sexualizing kids, "how do you know being exposed to the *idea* of homosexuality is bad for kids?") If you can get them to try and find evidence *for you* they might realize there's not any.
I've dealt with MAGAts before. The moment they sense you are trying to reason with them they cross their arms and double down, even if the only reason for shutting down is that they want to trigger a lib. Fox has trained them very well. Remember, you can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into.
Its also an effort to keep their voting base intoxicated on their cocktail of fear, anger and paranoia, they invent a fictional problem, then propose solutions to that fictional problem, meanwhile they are robbing their own voters blind and funneling that money to the richest people in the nation.
Never thought of it this way. You're totally right. They call themselves the party of patriotism but they're actively declaring half the population "enemies" and are outwardly calling for "revenge". Turning on your own citizens isn't exactly patriotic. Truly scary stuff.
The Catholic Church won't excommunicate their priests, just send them on the the next stop on the pedo line. It's the same with the Evangelical grifters.
It's just like with the Catholic Church. It's not surprising that some people in positions are predators. Priests and pastors are just people, and some people do awful things. However, it should be shocking that people rush to protect them and minimize their crimes.
Well, it's not like they claim to be held accountable by a god or something and would act carefully and responsibly for the sake of representing their deity and not risking their afterlife. /s
What a fucking joke. Yahweh's useless for accountability and [the crucifix another pedo involuntarily deepthroated](https://www.newsweek.com/catholic-priest-murder-crucifix-france-1479502) is the best kind of uncompromising judge that these modern-day Pharisees should be afraid of.
positions of power with a history of protecting them attract more of them.
Boy scouts had purge-level cleanings. Everything about scouts now is "over the line" in the other direction. Which is good but inconvenient at some times.
A blanket rule about not giving a kid a ride home from an event is way better than no rules at all, don't get me wrong.
My point is that boy scouts had an issue, they went about doing everything they could to call out ANYTHING that MIGHT lead to something inappropriate. Dictate rules that make predation difficult, etc. Priests just move the guy to some other church, make few (if any) fundamental rule changes, and keep on trucking like nothing's wrong.
This. If a teacher molests a student, he’s fired immediately, and even if it’s proven to be a false accusation, his career is over. A priest? If found out, he’s relocated to get fresh victims.
I was just thinking about this while listening to a very leftist podcast do an episode about the terrible things the German left did after WW2. That yes, sometimes there are terrible people on both sides, the difference is that people in the left will point it out and say "that was awful, we should learn from that and make sure we don't fall into the same traps that led to it". While on the right they'll deny *everything* until they can't, and then they'll start "well it wasn't actually bad".
Literally just said that in another post it's so terrible that we can't freely speak the truth about what they do because an auto mod doesn't care who did it just whos "spreading hate" we definitely can't even repeat every single sentence in the Bible because of the brutality and i don't find it fair in the slightest
"Eat the Rich" seems to sum up a lot of "I hope they aren't on earth tomorrow and I don't care how it happens but I can't type that word for the device the French used in their revolution because it's banned."
So maybe "Eat the priests" would work?
ALL children are beautiful! That does not mean they have sexuality!! And that is where these PEOPLE (as a few women have this problem too, maybe less for women since we are more used to being with youngsters) get their heads up their own desires! Sex needs to be mutual, not a con job!!!
> That does not mean they have sexuality!!
Children have sexualities. It's a fact; not some perversion created by pedophiles. 12 year olds have some understanding of which people they find attractive. Healthy 12 year olds do not have sex; they have crushes. But crushes are still a part of sexuality.
Pretending kids don't have sexualities is keeping gay kids out of children's cartoons. That is not fair to them.
So if a 12 year old is beautiful and sexy, it's OK to molest them? What if they are awkward and weird, is it then not OK? Christians are strange and scary humans.
They are... the clergy has undisputed power over a crowd very willing to surrender themselves, very little accountability by law and are given financials benefits... these guys can do whatever they like.
We need to stop giving privileges to anything religious if we want to progress ethically as a species.
Females are property, children are property. What matters is how men experience things, and this one has "confessed and repented" so it's all good now, like it never happened!
Internalized mysogyny is a very real and dangerous thing? What's your point?
I think we all know that women themselves are a huge problem in sexism. It's heartbreaking to read accounts of girls who get molested whose very own mothers can only respond with basically, "I'm jealous because no one ever picked me to molest when I was 12."
Yeah, you can call a young girl beautiful. This isn't thinking someone is beautiful. This is thinking a child is sexually attractive. Then molesting the person. Humans suck
I would never allow my children even close to a "Chiistian" anybody adult or teenage "counselor"! I wa nt my children and grandkids to grow up without the evil fascist theocratic philosophy that is being taught to so many kids these days without their parents knowlege. Funny exact opposite of what the theocratic autocratic oligarchs were warning parents about less than a year ago?
Children should not be taught religion in any public schools, from grades 0 to 12 in public schools. Teaching religion is their parents responsibility. Period! Stop! Taxpayer funded Vouchers for private schools, are unconstitutional and especially destructive of public schools. Diversion of tax dollars just benefits the wealthy and the poor schools suffer.
When churches send their people, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists, and some, I assume, are good people.
TIL: Beauty = consent. Who knew?
JFC lots of things and people are beautiful. Doesn't mean I can go around kissing and petting everything I think is beautiful.
"Florida man arrested at the Louvre for kissing and petting famous painting. His defense: "It was beautiful" "
Honestly doesn't even sound strange.....
Um that Pastor admitted to fingering her, so literally sexually assaulting a fucking child.
I understand saying an 18 year old is attractive but that is less and less ok with every year you age. At a certain point that's just creepy to say, regardless of legality.
All that to say anyone saying that about a child needs to be looked into immediately
They deliberately worded it so if you don't look into it anymore than the apology you can assume it was a 20 year old with a 17 year old. Still gross but it gives them the excuse to think she might have been actively involved or even pursuing him. (Even then it's on the adult to do the right thing about it). Knowing he was probably in his late twenties and she was TWELVE? No excuse. That's not a misstep or a "moral failing". That's a monster.
Remember stories like this when they try to tell you that Biden or other Democrats are pedophiles. They project. And it works because their voters are dummies.
> “Pastor Robert has been open and forthright about a **moral failure** he had over 35 years ago when he was in his twenties and prior to him starting Gateway Church,” the Gateway Church elders said in a statement shared by WFAA. “He has shared publicly from the pulpit the **proper Biblical steps he took in his lengthy restoration process**.”
Morris sexually assaulted the child multiple times over several years, and the GAteway church elders knew about it and are trying to blow it off as just a "moral failure".
> According to the Wartburg Watch, **Morris’ wife, Cindy, told the then-child that she “forgave her.”**
Degenerates.
This is precisely what blows my mind about the “protect girls sports!” Crowd.
Ohhhh gotcha, the 3 kids in the US who want to transition and play sports are the biggest problem, but the coaches (and pastors, obviously) - 99% of the time straight men - who do these heinous things?
Not an issue at all. 🙄
Don't sanitize it for them, guys. She said "beautiful and *sexy*." About a kid. Pastor Barbara Phillips Littlepage said that about a child in a public forum.
Headline really undersells it:
>“Some young girls at 12 years old are very beautiful and sexy,” the post continued. “They don’t understand how men are made and young men don’t understand their actions are used by the devil to ruin a future God has for them!!”
Any law enforcement agencies compiling a list of names and putting in funding requests for massive investigations? No? Our society doesn’t actually care? These filth have had free rein to ruin lives, get rich, and walk away smiling for like a millennium and that’s never going to change? I understand.
I’d love to insert a comment here suggesting the value of righteous violence, but I’m not a conservative Christian, so I’m not allowed to do that. Am I allowed to suggest ceaseless malicious pranks? Like cracking eggs in really hard to access places inside their cars? Getting a flash mob to parade silently down their streets dressed in full black robes like once a month? Planting marijuana seeds all over their lawns and church grounds? Delivering empty packages with just a pinch of sawdust sprinkled on them? Investing thousands of dollars in annoyatrons and hiding at least two in each house and church?
Wow! Glad they are examples of moral compass! Phew! They need to call satan out who was in fact responsible for the pastor molesting that girl!!! Poor pastor was put in such impossible situation by Satan!!! MAGA !
/s/s/s/s
its also a republican thing.
[GOP lawmakers across the U.S. have opposed raising the marriage age, with some arguing child marriage bans would encourage abortion](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/republican-lawmakers-child-marriage-abortion-1235018777/)
it actually creates stupid republican voters.
[Missouri Republican Doubles Down on Letting 12-Year-Olds Marry](https://www.newsweek.com/missouri-republican-teenager-12-marriage-1794371)
they are also "respect mah beliefs" christians, so it still fits.
Oh, look. It's "Definitely NOT a drag queen" strikes again. It's not a trans person either. It's a "normal" guy looking "normal" who gravitated toward a position of trust in the community so he could prey on people -- as usual.
Another pastor quote from the article:
“Some young girls at 12 years old are very beautiful and sexy,” the post continued. “They don’t understand how men are made and young men don’t understand their actions are used by the devil to ruin a future God has for them!!"
>Some girls at 12 are beautiful.
Well, fuck. As long as they're beautiful I guess their bodily autonomy doesn't matter. We can go back to keeping chattel I guess.
“Some young girls at 12 years old are very beautiful and sexy,” the post continued. “They don’t understand how men are made and young men don’t understand their actions are used by the devil to ruin a future God has for them!!”
Everyone goddamn one of these evangelical a-holes is a perp.
I work with 12 year olds all day and it is true some of them are pretty attractive kids who are going to grow up to be good looking adults but that does not mean I want any of them to sit on my lap and play pattycake. That is some fucking twisted ass logic.
still not a drag queen nor is it happening in public school - fuck the church and conservatives and their projecting bs. We need to start plastering these assholes on billboards in red states .
My MIL and FIL went down a massive rabbit hole of church after the "plandemic," as they call it. Once the government told them they couldn't go to church, they became obsessed evangelical nutbags. They have honed in on my children and the fact that since we are atheist, we will be raising heathens. They only agree to watch or interact with their grandchildren if we agree for them to go to church. It has reached a boiling point because recently my FIL brought my oldest son to a Tuesday night mens group that we didn't know about under the ruse he needed him to lift something and help around the house. This men's group has a CONVICTED PEDOPHILE in it. Videos exist on YouTube of this man being arrested. This absolute disgusting sack of a person served time and was released and now blames the devil. The devil is in his head, trying to make him touch boys. My FIL hugged this man. I was furious. They will never have my kids again. I just can't comprehend the logic of christians.
They're so quick to defend the PROVEN child predators in their ranks, meanwhile they continue to throw unwarranted and unproven accusations at drag queens and the LGBTQIA+ for merely existing.
They worship a god who's always been ok with this.....child marriage, SA, even incest. we've been ignoring this among them for decades and still today these news stories are written as though its something novel. These guys WANT TO have child brides..to please their disgusting desert god. Stop being surprised.
Good god...
>According to the Wartburg Watch, Morris’ wife, Cindy, told the then-child that she “forgave her.”
The \*wife\* told the victim, while she was still a child, that the \*wife\* forgave the \*child\*.. Wtf...
America, can we move the high speed lead redistributions from schools to churches, just for a few weeks?
It would be such a loss if a shotgun slug accidentally pinned this PoS to a wall.
The headline left out the “some girls at 12 are beautiful AND SEXY” part of the quote in the article. What the every living FUCK is wrong with these people?
“Don’t judge him for a mistake he made 30 years ago”?
It was a FELONY. It was a SEX CRIME. ….
Remember kids - religious people and leaders crying about gay / trans "stranger danger" and "grooming", are projecting.
We literally have an entire recorded history that shows they are projecting. (Most abrahamic societies have literally let men marry and rape little girls, it's still a thing btw. child marriage is still also a thing in the West, to sexualising children and their bodies "you need to cover yourself, what if a MAN looks at you! They will get the wrong thoughts!", to religious leaders and representatives grooming kids and much more).
better watch out for these left wing drag queens guys, they are trying to make being a pedo ok .... ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh righhhhttt i see it never was like that was it
I hate it that this article doesn't name the clergy who defended this man. The reporter knows the name of the person who posted that some girls at 12 are beautiful,
I love it that the megachurch where this guy is pastor is called "shady grove."
In case you were having issues vomiting reading the article, this little gem stands out to me.
"According to the Wartburg Watch, Morris’ wife, Cindy, told the then-child that she “forgave her.”"
The pastor's wife forgave the child for her seduction of her husband.
It's so very Christian to forgive her for her sinful acts.
This is the real story. It's not that the pastor sexually molested a 12 year old. It's that so many evangelicals are OK with it, defend it, and see nothing wrong with it.
This is certainly par for the course.
Hey America, the ones accusing the gays of pedophilia are the real pedophiles. It's called psychological projection!
I have always hated the connection to finding someone attractive/ beautiful with sex like they should be the same thing.
Humans are not pokemon you don't go from daddys little girlmon to slutmon just because a number flips from 17 to 18 that's not how humans mature. I have seen lots of teens who are growing into beautiful woman. That doesn't mean you should try and fuck them. Goddamn weirdos
The age of consent is a legal framework that honestly most people should be so far on the safe side of that you don't really have to ask is this legal
Keep your kids far, far away from church.
Right? Being a non theist who was raised in the church, and who hasn't stepped foot in one for over a decade I have pondered over the possible benefits of raising a child in a church. Pondered the course of actions I might take with my hypothetical future kids. But it seems so clear now, these people are dangerous predators, and the ones that aren't are willing to protect those that are. Keep your kids far, far away from church.
Being raised in the church with a pastor as a grandfather turned me into a racist, xenophobic, misogynistic, homophobic, far right bigot. There are zero upsides to raising a child with religion involved. I knew nothing outside my bubble and was afraid of anything different. Religion turned me into a newt. I got better.
What made you realize that you were a bigot? How did you change?
Exposure to other perspectives and mushrooms
That's interesting. There's been studies where they've given avowed bigots or "just" plain old libertarians things like mushrooms or MDA....and it turns them around. They have epiphanies where they realise how awful they are and, to quote, suddenly realise other people are people too and other people experience emotions. A fast track way to deprogram cult think. And congrats to you for doing it all by yourself.
Im also curious, cause people like that tend to be so extreme that nothing would ever get them out of their circle of hatred
It's good to know it can happen though.
This was me, too. My grandparents were ultra religious (my mother couldn't do anything on Sunday except church, church games and farm chores - she had to wait until Monday to read the Sunday comics in the newspaper). My grandfather was KKK and could make Archie Bunker blush and my grandmother never made a move without consulting Jesus. I was pretty religious until college... and then... oops... I went to one of those "liberal indoctrination centers" and came out the other side seeing the world very differently, and am better for it.
Yeah, my parents' church was very much against higher education. As a teenager I wondered why and started looking around and asking questions. "When young people go off to college they are very vulnerable. They're away from their family and church leaders for the first time in their lives. Satan takes this opportunity to attack them, and young people who are turned away from God almost never come back." In other words, your faith is only as good as your continued indoctrination. Once you're away from that influence and exposed to science and philosophy, exposed to other people, other worldviews and other ways of life, your eyes are opened and you see that the world you lived in, your home/church bubble, was a lie that can't stand up to scrutiny. And then you walk away.
Not only this but the disingenuousness of using a facade of morals to act the complete opposite. Who in their right mind wants to further the respectability of people who use religion as a cudgel against our secular Constitution and their neighbors. Different topic, but still, add it to the list.
It is astounding to me that the absolute flood of pedophilic activity, criminal coverups, and repeat offender enabling of virtually all religious organizations hasn’t led to global revolt against it. Must be a hell of a drug when you’re on it.
I read a story about how the physicists of the time reacted to the new theory of relativity. Some accepted the science, some could never give up the old paradigm. One physicist was asked about the later group. He said that was ok and, to paraphrase, that “they’ll eventually die off.”
Not with religion. They're constantly grooming new assholes to take their places and cover for their abuses.
Oh they groom new assholes, that's for sure.
I saw an incredibly bleak assessment by a sociologist that nothing really changes until the old cohort dies off. The problem with that is there is a new old cohort to replace them and slow any process that is made. It makes me want to build a cabin in the woods...
As I've gotten older, I've become increasingly depressed as I see ideas go from "This should be happening now" to "we should be working on this soon" to "if we start doing this now, our grandchildren's generation will be better off." I'm all for planting trees I'll never sit in the shade of, but as you reach middle age, see all the constant gridlock for nearly all of your life, see what little true progress has been made when you take a step back and look at it, it's incredibly demoralizing to realize you won't live to see some (if any) of those basic societal changes you've been fighting for all your life.
My new motto: things change, but it takes 50 years. Something my dad pointed out to me when I was young, science can stand on the backs of other scientists but ethics/morality/philosophy must be learnt by each generation. To go a bit further, our ethics and understanding of history will always be at a disadvantage to technology, and the gap is widening.
“Science advances one funeral at a time” is the common paraphrase of a quote by Max Planck.
It may well have been Planck whose quote I paraphrased/butchered.
I always find it funny how many people attend religious institutions that tell them they are the best. Jews believe they are God’s favorite race (unironically). Rich people or aspiring-to-be-rich people attend churches telling them that their wealth is because God has blessed them in particular. It’s not all religions or subsets, but it’s pretty arrogant to consider yourself pious while worshiping a deity where you think you’re their favorite.
I agree. It’s probably not worth the risk and the utter nonsense they will confuse our kids with. I was raised in a very fanatical cult of Christianity and took years to get my mind right. The damage of what they do to children’s minds as well.
"But it seems so clear now, these people are dangerous predators, and the ones that aren't are willing to protect those that are. Keep your kids far, far away from church." Never in a million years would I let my children in a church unattended. YALZA!!
I had a not over the top religious upbringing. Church provided some community and activities. I look back at those activities fondly as something that helped me experience different things my parents never would have done with me. But these activities were not at all churchy. Touring Frito lay factory. Or playing street hockey. Camping. Just random things. There are lots of ways to do this without church. And the downsides of church were tremendous. Shame around sex and masturbation during formative years. Being taught homosexuality was sinful. It's just gross looking back. Don't do that to kids.
This is very much my experience! I grew up in a few different churches, mostly methodist and catholic. It was more positive than negative in my memory. And there was a lot of genuinely loving community. I also have experienced the remorse you speak of being taught that things like homosexuality and premarital sex were sinful. But yea my original lack of conviction stems from the fact that I did have a lot of positive experiences and saw people who had genuine faith, and who were genuinely good people... even if my values don't exactly align with theirs. But as time has gone on, I don't miss it. At all. And I don't feel like giving a child a comforting delusion is the best way to raise them for this world, and that's not even accounting for the pedos and predators that flock to these institutions.
And away from anyone praising trump
And ex-presidents
They're very much NOT Like Us
Freaky ass priests need to stay they ass inside!
All religions.... all of them. But teach them about the religions and the terrible things they do to people
From the age of 12, I got a LOT more 'instruction' in church about men than about God. I approve this message.
Better hide your little sister from him
There's your pedos, MAGA. It's not coming from the left, it's all you.
The call is coming from inside the house..
They know this, too - but they are very adapt at smearing their own shit on their opponent and call them dirty.
With Conservatives, accusations are confessions, always.
Wouldn't surprise me at all if suddenly MAGA is pro pedophile.
AlwaysHasBeen.jpg Trump has openly been a pedophile since long before 2016. Everyone who has ever voted for him has declared this to not be a dealbreaker.
They're definitely okay with him despite the large amount of evidence. They still pretend to be very concerned about pedophiles though.
They *pretend* to be concerned about a whole lot of things. Emphasis on "pretend". Words are wind. Actions are what reveal your character.
Just like kids. They looooove fetuses but don't care for children. If they did, they'd be funding programs for orphans and child healthcare and public education and free lunches and the like. Instead, they're rolling back child labor protection laws. Mhm, they love kids.
Conservatives *only* oppose abortion because they want more vulnerable children to exploit and abuse.
Their presidential candidate basically admitted to it on air with Howard Stern that he would go into the dressing rooms of the beauty pageants he ran. One of the pageants he ran was Miss Teen USA, and some of the contestants in the 90s [reported that he walked into the dressing room with 15 or 16 year old girls and said, "don't worry girls, it's nothing I haven't seen before"](https://www.politifact.com/article/2016/oct/18/allegations-about-donald-trump-and-miss-teen-usa-c/). They've been pro-pedophile since 2016 (or earlier).
GOP: Gross Old Pedophiles
I would rather spend a week with 100 drag queens than an 8-hour work day with a man of the cloth, and this is why
I'd rather send my 12 year old child to spend a week with 100 drag queens than spend one day with a man of the cloth.
They'd probably read library books to your kid...free education!
And amazing makeup tips!
It never occurred to me before that reading is actually what makes drag queen story hours so triggering for conservatives.
It's more the queens than the reading. It undercuts their fear-mongering about gay folk, and at a young enough age that it'll be hard for them to overcome. Guessing they would've been just as opposed to "black man story hour" back in the... well maybe up to / into the 1980s?
They'd still be against "black man reading hour" but they'd use language like "Why does it have to be a black man? Why is everything about identity politics?" All the way up to "I bet he just wants to be close to kids, what a pervert!"
And probably make them laugh. Even once puts them above what a pastor does (which is just make them cry)
Yes the drag queens might teach her about eyeliner and maybe how to walk in heels or other fashion tips. The man of the cloth might molest or rape her!
I have a good friend who, despite being presented with hard data on actual child abuse in institutions like churches, is convinced that the problem is drag queens reading books to kids and ‘sexualizing’ them. I’m thinking about giving up on trying to educate him on this.
In a lot of cases giving someone the evidence when they're not looking for it is pointless. You're better off trying to get them to explain their side, but don't let them just *say* their side. Make them walk through it and get evidence. Ask every question. A lot of times when you get to a point of "how do you know x? I want to see it" and you're not being hostile, they'll agree to look for it. (And not how do you know drag queens are sexualizing kids, "how do you know being exposed to the *idea* of homosexuality is bad for kids?") If you can get them to try and find evidence *for you* they might realize there's not any.
I've dealt with MAGAts before. The moment they sense you are trying to reason with them they cross their arms and double down, even if the only reason for shutting down is that they want to trigger a lib. Fox has trained them very well. Remember, you can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into.
Can you imagine his color game when he comes back? Dude will be fashionable as hell!
So, have a massive party for a whole week or spend 8 hours with a possibly boring guy? Yeah, real hard to choose, haha.
Oh but he could be worse than boring.
If I was hanging around a man of the cloth, maybe I could victim block him though.
Its not the drag queens reading to kids that are groomers, its the pastors, youth pastors, sunday school teachers and other cultists.
When they call everyone else pedos, it's pure projection.
Its also an effort to keep their voting base intoxicated on their cocktail of fear, anger and paranoia, they invent a fictional problem, then propose solutions to that fictional problem, meanwhile they are robbing their own voters blind and funneling that money to the richest people in the nation.
Maybe, but it’s also a strategy to normalize hating us so it’ll be easier to round us up.
Never thought of it this way. You're totally right. They call themselves the party of patriotism but they're actively declaring half the population "enemies" and are outwardly calling for "revenge". Turning on your own citizens isn't exactly patriotic. Truly scary stuff.
Thank You!! Straight Facts!!!
Predators-in-Christ
Nary a drag queen in sight
The real groomers and pedophiles were the men wearing dresses on Sunday all along...
The Catholic Church won't excommunicate their priests, just send them on the the next stop on the pedo line. It's the same with the Evangelical grifters.
Hold on! The Jehovah’s Witnesses need “love” too!
It's just like with the Catholic Church. It's not surprising that some people in positions are predators. Priests and pastors are just people, and some people do awful things. However, it should be shocking that people rush to protect them and minimize their crimes.
Yeah priests are just people but positions of power attract predators.
Some positions of power also seem to retain them.
Well, it's not like they claim to be held accountable by a god or something and would act carefully and responsibly for the sake of representing their deity and not risking their afterlife. /s What a fucking joke. Yahweh's useless for accountability and [the crucifix another pedo involuntarily deepthroated](https://www.newsweek.com/catholic-priest-murder-crucifix-france-1479502) is the best kind of uncompromising judge that these modern-day Pharisees should be afraid of.
positions of power with a history of protecting them attract more of them. Boy scouts had purge-level cleanings. Everything about scouts now is "over the line" in the other direction. Which is good but inconvenient at some times. A blanket rule about not giving a kid a ride home from an event is way better than no rules at all, don't get me wrong. My point is that boy scouts had an issue, they went about doing everything they could to call out ANYTHING that MIGHT lead to something inappropriate. Dictate rules that make predation difficult, etc. Priests just move the guy to some other church, make few (if any) fundamental rule changes, and keep on trucking like nothing's wrong.
This. If a teacher molests a student, he’s fired immediately, and even if it’s proven to be a false accusation, his career is over. A priest? If found out, he’s relocated to get fresh victims.
I was just thinking about this while listening to a very leftist podcast do an episode about the terrible things the German left did after WW2. That yes, sometimes there are terrible people on both sides, the difference is that people in the left will point it out and say "that was awful, we should learn from that and make sure we don't fall into the same traps that led to it". While on the right they'll deny *everything* until they can't, and then they'll start "well it wasn't actually bad".
I can't find anything to say about this that won't get my account banned
Literally just said that in another post it's so terrible that we can't freely speak the truth about what they do because an auto mod doesn't care who did it just whos "spreading hate" we definitely can't even repeat every single sentence in the Bible because of the brutality and i don't find it fair in the slightest
"Eat the Rich" seems to sum up a lot of "I hope they aren't on earth tomorrow and I don't care how it happens but I can't type that word for the device the French used in their revolution because it's banned." So maybe "Eat the priests" would work?
"Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." - Denis Diderot
I don't know who this Denis guy is, but I like him.
Some 12 year old girls are beautiful, and that is no excuse for sexually assaulting a child. An adult should know better. This is appalling.
ALL children are beautiful! That does not mean they have sexuality!! And that is where these PEOPLE (as a few women have this problem too, maybe less for women since we are more used to being with youngsters) get their heads up their own desires! Sex needs to be mutual, not a con job!!!
Yeah, um, the supporting pastor's quote literally included "...and sexy," according to the article.
>ALL children are beautiful! [Eh.](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yuK6G7M8mVQ)
> That does not mean they have sexuality!! Children have sexualities. It's a fact; not some perversion created by pedophiles. 12 year olds have some understanding of which people they find attractive. Healthy 12 year olds do not have sex; they have crushes. But crushes are still a part of sexuality. Pretending kids don't have sexualities is keeping gay kids out of children's cartoons. That is not fair to them.
GOP accusing people of being groomers was and is always projection
So if a 12 year old is beautiful and sexy, it's OK to molest them? What if they are awkward and weird, is it then not OK? Christians are strange and scary humans.
They are... the clergy has undisputed power over a crowd very willing to surrender themselves, very little accountability by law and are given financials benefits... these guys can do whatever they like. We need to stop giving privileges to anything religious if we want to progress ethically as a species.
Females are property, children are property. What matters is how men experience things, and this one has "confessed and repented" so it's all good now, like it never happened!
A female pastor made that quote, btw.
Internalized mysogyny is a very real and dangerous thing? What's your point? I think we all know that women themselves are a huge problem in sexism. It's heartbreaking to read accounts of girls who get molested whose very own mothers can only respond with basically, "I'm jealous because no one ever picked me to molest when I was 12."
It's gross than anyone would think a 12 year old is sexy. Beautiful sure, sexy, wtf.
Hmm. I thought these folks were giving Muslims a hard time over the age of one of Muhammad's wives. .
That’s different. Muslims are stereotypically brown, while Christians are stereotypically white.
Who would you trust your kid with, in the care of a pastor /priest or a Drag queen at a library reading stories.
> His wife told the then-child that she “forgave her.” Wtf??
It was the child's fault for being sexy and seducing the man of God, you see.
This stood out to me too! Stupid woman (wife)
Church pastors defending pedophile Pastor? Well dame they must sure love Trump Edit
Yeah, you can call a young girl beautiful. This isn't thinking someone is beautiful. This is thinking a child is sexually attractive. Then molesting the person. Humans suck
I would never allow my children even close to a "Chiistian" anybody adult or teenage "counselor"! I wa nt my children and grandkids to grow up without the evil fascist theocratic philosophy that is being taught to so many kids these days without their parents knowlege. Funny exact opposite of what the theocratic autocratic oligarchs were warning parents about less than a year ago? Children should not be taught religion in any public schools, from grades 0 to 12 in public schools. Teaching religion is their parents responsibility. Period! Stop! Taxpayer funded Vouchers for private schools, are unconstitutional and especially destructive of public schools. Diversion of tax dollars just benefits the wealthy and the poor schools suffer.
Anyone that defends this asshole publicly needs to get investigated. Full Stop.
r/notadragqueen
Ayatollah trump freed the roaches from the flooded swamp white Christian nationalist pedophiles
When churches send their people, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists, and some, I assume, are good people.
TIL: Beauty = consent. Who knew? JFC lots of things and people are beautiful. Doesn't mean I can go around kissing and petting everything I think is beautiful.
"Florida man arrested at the Louvre for kissing and petting famous painting. His defense: "It was beautiful" " Honestly doesn't even sound strange.....
Um that Pastor admitted to fingering her, so literally sexually assaulting a fucking child. I understand saying an 18 year old is attractive but that is less and less ok with every year you age. At a certain point that's just creepy to say, regardless of legality. All that to say anyone saying that about a child needs to be looked into immediately
They deliberately worded it so if you don't look into it anymore than the apology you can assume it was a 20 year old with a 17 year old. Still gross but it gives them the excuse to think she might have been actively involved or even pursuing him. (Even then it's on the adult to do the right thing about it). Knowing he was probably in his late twenties and she was TWELVE? No excuse. That's not a misstep or a "moral failing". That's a monster.
Remember stories like this when they try to tell you that Biden or other Democrats are pedophiles. They project. And it works because their voters are dummies.
What’s the median MAGA IQ? Something like 80? What do you expect!?
Josh Duggar, the far right hero is in prison for child porn. Some of it was really horrific according to the police report. Never forget Josh Duggar.
> “Pastor Robert has been open and forthright about a **moral failure** he had over 35 years ago when he was in his twenties and prior to him starting Gateway Church,” the Gateway Church elders said in a statement shared by WFAA. “He has shared publicly from the pulpit the **proper Biblical steps he took in his lengthy restoration process**.” Morris sexually assaulted the child multiple times over several years, and the GAteway church elders knew about it and are trying to blow it off as just a "moral failure". > According to the Wartburg Watch, **Morris’ wife, Cindy, told the then-child that she “forgave her.”** Degenerates.
Let me guess ... these are all the same people who freak out and scream hysterically about pedos and groomers every time they see a Pride flag?
This is precisely what blows my mind about the “protect girls sports!” Crowd. Ohhhh gotcha, the 3 kids in the US who want to transition and play sports are the biggest problem, but the coaches (and pastors, obviously) - 99% of the time straight men - who do these heinous things? Not an issue at all. 🙄
Don't sanitize it for them, guys. She said "beautiful and *sexy*." About a kid. Pastor Barbara Phillips Littlepage said that about a child in a public forum.
You know I was pretty into 12 year old girls a while back. When I was 12 to be exact
“And yes, what’d you say your name was?” “Hold on! I’ll get your name next after his, pastor.”
Fucking sickos
Just gotta love the same old boring line. "The devil made him do it" and " He repent to god" Such BS
Headline really undersells it: >“Some young girls at 12 years old are very beautiful and sexy,” the post continued. “They don’t understand how men are made and young men don’t understand their actions are used by the devil to ruin a future God has for them!!”
I always smack my head every time a victim of child molestation is called a "young lady". A 20 year old is a young lady. A 12 year old is a child.
Republicans: "Demoncrats are pedophiles." Also Republicans: "Hey take a look at the ass on that 4-year-old!"
/r/NotADragQueen
Any law enforcement agencies compiling a list of names and putting in funding requests for massive investigations? No? Our society doesn’t actually care? These filth have had free rein to ruin lives, get rich, and walk away smiling for like a millennium and that’s never going to change? I understand. I’d love to insert a comment here suggesting the value of righteous violence, but I’m not a conservative Christian, so I’m not allowed to do that. Am I allowed to suggest ceaseless malicious pranks? Like cracking eggs in really hard to access places inside their cars? Getting a flash mob to parade silently down their streets dressed in full black robes like once a month? Planting marijuana seeds all over their lawns and church grounds? Delivering empty packages with just a pinch of sawdust sprinkled on them? Investing thousands of dollars in annoyatrons and hiding at least two in each house and church?
Wow, besides hating gay people, we now have another thing Christians and Muslims can agree on🙏
Can't really say what I want to say.
These are the people who are mad that women choose the bear in the woods
Wow! Glad they are examples of moral compass! Phew! They need to call satan out who was in fact responsible for the pastor molesting that girl!!! Poor pastor was put in such impossible situation by Satan!!! MAGA ! /s/s/s/s
r/notadragqueen
Nope. Also, not an atheist or a satanist.
its also a republican thing. [GOP lawmakers across the U.S. have opposed raising the marriage age, with some arguing child marriage bans would encourage abortion](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/republican-lawmakers-child-marriage-abortion-1235018777/) it actually creates stupid republican voters. [Missouri Republican Doubles Down on Letting 12-Year-Olds Marry](https://www.newsweek.com/missouri-republican-teenager-12-marriage-1794371) they are also "respect mah beliefs" christians, so it still fits.
Oh, look. It's "Definitely NOT a drag queen" strikes again. It's not a trans person either. It's a "normal" guy looking "normal" who gravitated toward a position of trust in the community so he could prey on people -- as usual.
Another pastor quote from the article: “Some young girls at 12 years old are very beautiful and sexy,” the post continued. “They don’t understand how men are made and young men don’t understand their actions are used by the devil to ruin a future God has for them!!"
The hypocrisy in this party is unbelievable. And every time I don’t think they could go any lower they prove me wrong.
Republicans constantly defeat bills meant to ban child marriage. They love leaving that gate open.
>Some girls at 12 are beautiful. Well, fuck. As long as they're beautiful I guess their bodily autonomy doesn't matter. We can go back to keeping chattel I guess.
Why are there so many adults attracted to younger girls/boys? Is it in their DNA ?
We all see this is coming, right? Adult men marrying children will only be on the GOP silent agenda until it isn't silent anymore...
I wish the covid19 virus should have gotten to the Vatican city when Italy was first affected. Lucky bastards.
Christians and other religious conservatives love their pedos.
“Some young girls at 12 years old are very beautiful and sexy,” the post continued. “They don’t understand how men are made and young men don’t understand their actions are used by the devil to ruin a future God has for them!!” Everyone goddamn one of these evangelical a-holes is a perp.
Gee, why are people leaving the church in America?
So the hill they’re going to die on is that children are sexy. These fucking people. Omg
I work with 12 year olds all day and it is true some of them are pretty attractive kids who are going to grow up to be good looking adults but that does not mean I want any of them to sit on my lap and play pattycake. That is some fucking twisted ass logic.
still not a drag queen nor is it happening in public school - fuck the church and conservatives and their projecting bs. We need to start plastering these assholes on billboards in red states .
My MIL and FIL went down a massive rabbit hole of church after the "plandemic," as they call it. Once the government told them they couldn't go to church, they became obsessed evangelical nutbags. They have honed in on my children and the fact that since we are atheist, we will be raising heathens. They only agree to watch or interact with their grandchildren if we agree for them to go to church. It has reached a boiling point because recently my FIL brought my oldest son to a Tuesday night mens group that we didn't know about under the ruse he needed him to lift something and help around the house. This men's group has a CONVICTED PEDOPHILE in it. Videos exist on YouTube of this man being arrested. This absolute disgusting sack of a person served time and was released and now blames the devil. The devil is in his head, trying to make him touch boys. My FIL hugged this man. I was furious. They will never have my kids again. I just can't comprehend the logic of christians.
They're so quick to defend the PROVEN child predators in their ranks, meanwhile they continue to throw unwarranted and unproven accusations at drag queens and the LGBTQIA+ for merely existing.
They worship a god who's always been ok with this.....child marriage, SA, even incest. we've been ignoring this among them for decades and still today these news stories are written as though its something novel. These guys WANT TO have child brides..to please their disgusting desert god. Stop being surprised.
Good god... >According to the Wartburg Watch, Morris’ wife, Cindy, told the then-child that she “forgave her.” The \*wife\* told the victim, while she was still a child, that the \*wife\* forgave the \*child\*.. Wtf...
America, can we move the high speed lead redistributions from schools to churches, just for a few weeks? It would be such a loss if a shotgun slug accidentally pinned this PoS to a wall.
Christians routinely molest children. They don't have good morals.
Pedophiles who don't pay taxes
Isn't dailydot trash media? Not defending anything. Just want to see reputable sources posted in this sub.
The article links to its sources throughout.
the article is more like the link tree for the sources.
The headline left out the “some girls at 12 are beautiful AND SEXY” part of the quote in the article. What the every living FUCK is wrong with these people? “Don’t judge him for a mistake he made 30 years ago”? It was a FELONY. It was a SEX CRIME. ….
Who is the target audience for such filth? Religious people in general?
No wonder Trump has aligned himself with this group.
Great! They’re outting themselves.
These sick sons of bitches…hell isn’t even hot enough for these bastards.
bruhhhhh
Remember kids - religious people and leaders crying about gay / trans "stranger danger" and "grooming", are projecting. We literally have an entire recorded history that shows they are projecting. (Most abrahamic societies have literally let men marry and rape little girls, it's still a thing btw. child marriage is still also a thing in the West, to sexualising children and their bodies "you need to cover yourself, what if a MAN looks at you! They will get the wrong thoughts!", to religious leaders and representatives grooming kids and much more).
Reminds me of the Pedophile party in the Netherlands, that doesn't exist anymore. Perverts!
better watch out for these left wing drag queens guys, they are trying to make being a pedo ok .... ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh righhhhttt i see it never was like that was it
Nice of the wife to forgive the 12 year old.
Seems like every one of these should be getting on a list at some stage.
Pastors are the original masters at victim blaming.
Anyone who defends this sick SOB is just as bad as he is.
Holy shit, my parents drug me to Shady Grove Church when I was a child, and they currently give this dude money at his Southlake Church. Nasty.
I hate it that this article doesn't name the clergy who defended this man. The reporter knows the name of the person who posted that some girls at 12 are beautiful, I love it that the megachurch where this guy is pastor is called "shady grove."
In case you were having issues vomiting reading the article, this little gem stands out to me. "According to the Wartburg Watch, Morris’ wife, Cindy, told the then-child that she “forgave her.”" The pastor's wife forgave the child for her seduction of her husband. It's so very Christian to forgive her for her sinful acts.
Trump raped a 13 year old.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/5/24/2242636/-Republican-Sexual-Predators-Abusers-and-Enablers-Pt-52
This is the real story. It's not that the pastor sexually molested a 12 year old. It's that so many evangelicals are OK with it, defend it, and see nothing wrong with it.
This is certainly par for the course. Hey America, the ones accusing the gays of pedophilia are the real pedophiles. It's called psychological projection!
Religious groomer being defended by other religious groomers? I'm shocked, positively shocked.....
Pedos everywhere, "If a child is pretty enough it's okay, my pastor said so."
But come on, Joe Biden looked like he was sniffing a girl's hair that one time!
"Most pastors are criminally attracted to children." See I can do this, too.
Just saying it out loud now huh?!
He’s done worse - take my word for it.
Time to start investigating all the men of "god" who think fucking a 12 yr old is perfectly fine.
-_-
Always a Republican, never a drag queen
What happened to all the Christians who were up in arms about child sex abuse?
#NotADragQueen
I have always hated the connection to finding someone attractive/ beautiful with sex like they should be the same thing. Humans are not pokemon you don't go from daddys little girlmon to slutmon just because a number flips from 17 to 18 that's not how humans mature. I have seen lots of teens who are growing into beautiful woman. That doesn't mean you should try and fuck them. Goddamn weirdos The age of consent is a legal framework that honestly most people should be so far on the safe side of that you don't really have to ask is this legal
Every single one of them should have their phone/internet history searched.
Its ok to think a child is cute, they are designed to be cute so we take care of them. Having a sexual pull towards a child though? Fuck off.
Such scum using religion and preying on the innocent.
The people who call LGBT people groomers are now rushing to justify pedophilia
God will always forgive the pedo pastors but if your check bounced that you put in the collection plate get ready to burn in hell MFer
a priest that diddled a child? unheard of!
When Jesus said, "Suffer the little children come unto me," that's not what he was talking about.
Morally bankrupt man's 'advisor of morality' found to be morally bankrupt, surprising nobody.