I mentioned in the thread about a church that my wife and I were members of when we were young and how much it meant to both of our Christian growths. We had a youth minister that was well liked and respected. I got to work one Monday morning and got a call from the Montgomery PD. They asked if I ever heard of _________ _______? I said I had that he was the youth pastor at my church. They then informed me that they had arrested him outside a night club whacking the willie. They then found rope, a knife, and duct tape in his trunk along with a load of kiddie porn. Other than doing death notifications (which we always tried to do in person), the hardest phone call I ever had to make was to call our pastor and tell him he needed to come to my office. We both shed some tears when I told him what was going on. The Montgomery PD guys then delivered the kiddie porn and myself and a DHR social worker who was also a church member spent hours going through the vile stuff to see if we could identify any of the girls. Thank goodness none of them were church members. The bottom line is the church handled it as best as could possibly be handled and weathered that storm. It couldn't weather the next preacher though who turned out to be a wannabe womanizer and thief.

I pass by the old preacher's hunting cabin whenever I hunt and know when he is there and isn't there. I would love to stop and visit but don't because I know it will remind him of one of the lowest days of his life. I don't blame him if he just as soon never saw my face again. I'll just tell you that my hands were shaking so bad from anger, feeling betrayed, and dread having to make that call that I remember having a hard time hitting the right buttons on the phone. I know a lot of people in the other church are feeling the same things today. I can't pray enough for them having lived through that nightmare myself.

Wow. That's rough man.

Bible warns about wolves in sheep's clothing creeping into the church.
Been going on since the beginning of the church. Just look at the widespread homo abuse scandals
in the RCC.

We are so laid back and distracted in this country people are too apathetic to engage in the kind of diligence
it takes to prevent this sort of thing.

Never let your kids be alone with just one other adult.
Never.
Doesn't matter who they are.

You're a better man than I Jawbone. If I was in your position I really don't know if I could conduct myself, in a professional manner, after viewing those images. Just a thought here, stopping by to see your old preacher might not be a bad thing. Who knows, it might provide some closure to you both. I'm sure you'd know pretty quickly if he wants to see you.

Preachers, teachers and police officers should (no, must be) held to a higher standard.
We used to demand that of those professionals and they accepted it when they took the job
Now we just shrug our collective shoulders and say, well there goes another one.
There may be no such thing as ghosts, but I promise you there are evil demons, and they will work hard to bring down our role models if we don't join the fight.

Sadly, you will hear this as another excuse not to go to church. I guarantee you will also hear people say they won't let their kids go because they are afraid for their safety. If you hear this, remind the person that there are pervert and pedophiles in all walks of life and they are not going to prevent their children from coming in contact with all of them, but they can prevent their child from becoming a victim by educating them, and limiting the unaccompanied exposure to any and all adults.

Also, there is never a 100% system of stopping it, but there are plenty of churches that make the safety of kids their top priority.

Guy that was our minister most of my early life. Was a teacher as well. Started a sex Ed class for for us teenagers. Discussed all types of stuff to both sexes together. Complete with pamphlets. Turned out he was abusing his daughter. Said by used to sit a play piano naked as well. They got divorced and his wife married a balck dude. Strange world. That was 35 years ago.

You're a sage man. I'm an old bastard who graduated high school in 1978. Looking back now, seems like a dream. Teachers and police officers were viewed as authority figures and were treated with respect. They conducted themselves in a manner which made it just natural to view them in this vein. Clergymen were the pillars of the community and were absolutely viewed as such.

The things that glued society together, back then, were morality and accountability. There was also a fear factor due to those 2 things being held in such high regard. That's not a bad thing.

Here's my point, I don't remember ever hearing about a pedophile growing up. That violation, of the morality code, would not have been tolerated. I can only imagine the sense of accountability a pedophile back then would have felt. My Dad, and every other Dad in town, would have seen to that. Pedophilia hasn't just appeared in the last few yrs so I'm sure they were around. I do believe that fear factor kept most in check due to the nature of the consequences.

I've not been through anything as bad as that but I'm on the youth committee at my church and we are currently searching for a new youth pastor because our last one couldn't stay out of internet chat rooms and his wife finally came to the pastor about it. It turns out he'd done the same thing at his last church and he nor that church disclosed the issue to us when we hired him. Our pastor demanded his resignation with our approval and we moved on to the search phase.

We didn't make a huge deal about it but our pastor had intensive discussions with the youth and he's currently serving in both capacities until we find a new youth pastor. Some members and "concerned citizens" wanted to turn it into a soap opera but the pastor and most of the church refused to feed into it and it dissipated fairly quickly.

Shortly after I joined the church a few years ago the lead pastor at the time was caught having an affair and dismissed but there were some members that left because if "Bob" wasn't the pastor they didn't want to come back. I wasn't shocked or surprised in either situation but I know the church isn't the pastor or the staff. It's the body of believers.

When a church is built around a man or his staff then it's destined to fail. I know people get church hurt and use those excuses as reason to stay away but they need to quit putting preachers on pedestals and put that hope in Christ. The churches that do that can survive the tough times when their church leaders let them down.

I hope this church keeps their focus on Christ and ignores the gawkers and trouble makers that can't wait to see them fall. I also hope the accused gets what's coming to him if he is guilty. There is no doubt he will in the next life.

One last thing; If you walk in a church and there is a big portrait of the pastor on the wall, run. I've actually seen this and it's obvious who those churches are built around and it isn't God.

smh... The thought that sickens me, in these cases, is that he chose his vocation under the guise of helping kids through the Lord's name. All the while, his sole intent, is to provide himself a source for daily gratification of his sick ass desires.

That pissed me off just typing it.

Ecclesiastes 1:9 King James Version (KJV)
9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

I never had a problem with police officers being held to a higher standard. The officers that worked under my command knew this and knew that I expected them to be more than the average citizen. Unfortunately, many of the chiefs that I worked for didn't feel the same way. The SPD is now paying for their lax attitudes towards discipline. There are still many fine officers and leaders, but many of the less than stellar officers have now weaseled their way up to leadership positions.

I hate to say it, but the concept of LEO's being held to a higher standard is dying.

Amen, brother!!!

In the late 80's I had worked myself into a position of district wide leadership in the Boy Scouts, and was doing training of the trainers, so I was teaching the men and women who were teaching other leaders. The whole gay Scout Leader monster was just rearing it's very ugly head. I ALWAYS told my students, never NEVER ever EVER under NO CIRCUMSTANCES are you to find yourself alone with a Scout. If somehow you are, you should be yelling for another leader, and tell the Scout to do the same thing. NEVER find yourself in that situation. 99 times out of 100, nothing bad will happen. But that 1 time can cost you your stable life, your marriage, your job, your children. The kid has an issue and accuses you falsely of sexual assault. Another kid has it in for you and says he saw something he didn't or thinks he saw something and it was innocent (see American Beauty??). All those scenarios have happened, and then some. Back then Scout Leaders were held to very high standards. We were a largely Catholic district, and I heard some terrible stories about the priests involved in sexual abuse. Now, it tears at my heart, rends my soul to know where we are with Scouting. It honestly breaks my heart...

The Boy Scouts, as it was intended is a wonderful organization. Several of my son's friends have recently made Eagle Scout status and that is quite the accomplishment. Sadly, however, the scouts had a reputation among child sex exploitation investigators as being a magnet for the perverts. This was before the gay leader flak even started. I know, to their credit, that the leadership acted on this after years of fighting it. I don't think it is nearly as prevalent as it once was. Even in our local troops, we had a person known to be a perv leading a pack. He finally came under investigation in a non-scout related case and either quit or was removed. Your advice is very sound, BTW.

Police officers (the good ones) don't make enough to properly compensate for their value. But when you think about it, we actually couldn't afford to pay them for their value (the good ones).
I used to tell the guys in my platoon, if you took this job for the money you're an idiot.
I'm pretty sure most LEOs are the same way, they don't get into it for the money.
Lord knows preachers and teachers ain't in it for the money either.
Yet those three professions are on the front lines every day. They are our first line defense against lawlessness and total chaos.
I actually believe preachers and teachers may be the more courageous of the group because they fight without guns and tasers.
Unfortunately, and mostly because of our failure to demand a higher standard, many of those positions have been infiltrated by the self serving, sadistic and even perverted attitudes.
Compounding the problem, today, is a society that seems to be determined to celebrate and reward those attitudes.

100% in agreement.

All 3 of those jobs require a calling, imo. You don't do them because you want to, but because you have to. I guess this view isn't shared by many now.

Yup. We all know society is basically a chain of command. When the top rings are corrupt, where do you go from there?