Call To Action: Dump Celibacy

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel ^ | 11/8/03 | Tom Heinen

[ninenot]

Optional celibacy backed at Catholic conference

By TOM HEINEN
theinen@journalsentinel.com

Last Updated: Nov. 7, 2003

About 2,800 reform-minded Catholics from around the nation gave a standing ovation Friday to a few of the 169 Milwaukee-area priests who took the rare step of supporting optional celibacy in letters this year to the president of the U.S. bishops conference.Celibacy's History

A short history of celibacy in the Roman Catholic Church:

300: The Council of Elvira, a local synod in Spain, mandates celibacy for clergy under its jurisdiction.
366: A growing body of papal teachings favors celibacy, but the observance of celibacy is not uniform.
1073-1085: Pope Gregory VII declares that celibacy be universally observed as part of an overall reform of the church.
1522: Martin Luther condemns celibacy.
1545-1563: The Council of Trent upholds universal celibacy in direct response to Martin Luther's statements.
1967: Pope Paul VI reiterates the tradition.
1971: The World Synod of Bishops reaffirms celibacy.
1978-2003: Pope John Paul II consistently reaffirms his belief in celibacy. However, in 1980, he authorizes an exception for married Episcopal priests who want to join the Roman Catholic Church.

Source: Father Andrew Nelson, retired rector of St. Francis Seminary.

The reaction came at the annual Call to Action conference, where reformers launched a national letter-writing and education campaign to sustain and intensify the ripples of outspokenness that have spread from here to a number of dioceses across the country.

Dan Daley, co-director of the Chicago-based group, kicked off the 18-month campaign by calling attention to the Milwaukee priests in the Midwest Airlines Center on the opening night of the three-day conference.

At least three of the priests who signed the letter were seated at the front of the ballroom - Father Richard Aiken, pastor of St. Alphonsus Church in Greendale; Father Carl Diederichs, associate pastor of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist; and Father Kenneth Mich, pastor of Good Shepherd Church in Menomonee Falls.

Last weekend, a sample letter in support of optional celibacy was inserted into the bulletins at Aiken's church, one of the archdiocese's largest congregations. It included instructions for mailing the letter or any other comments about the issue to Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

"I think that we just have to open ordained ministry up to everyone, both men and women, married and single," Aiken said in an interview at the convention center. "I think it's time we start looking at it now, probably a little late."

Both Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan and Gregory have spoken out on the issue in response to the Milwaukee priests' letter, saying, among other things, that the celibacy issue had already been discussed at length by bishops in past years and would not be reopened.

But that has not deterred reformers, some of whom hope the Vatican's opposition to optional celibacy might change under the successor to the aging Pope John Paul II.

The new Corpus Christi Campaign for Optional Celibacy is being launched by Call to Action and a Cleveland-based reform group, FutureChurch.

Letters to Gregory in support of optional celibacy were handed out and collected Friday night. Education packets also were handed out that included, among other things, information about how to start discussion groups and spark parish-based campaigns.

There also were petitions for people to sign and send to the U.S. delegates who will participate in an International Synod on the Eucharist that the Vatican is expected to hold in late 2004 or early 2005.

At the heart of the effort are demographic data from the Official Catholic Directory that have been posted on a Web site - www.futurechurch.org - for Catholics to see how the number of priests in their dioceses is dwindling as more of the aging corps of priests reaches retirement age or die.

The campaign is building on the work of three Milwaukee-area women who earlier this year started a grass-roots campaign with a post office box and the name People in Support of Optional Celibacy - Terry Ryan of New Berlin; Roberta Manley of Greenfield; and Nancy Pritchard of Milwaukee.

Ryan wrote a rough draft of a petition and letter supporting the Milwaukee priests and shared it with David Gawlik, editor of Corpus Reports, a newsletter for married priests. Gawlik surprised Ryan by posting the letter on the Corpus Web site without further consultation with her, and the effort was quickly endorsed by Call to Action Wisconsin as the electronics documents began circulating around the country and abroad.

As of Friday, 4,485 petition letters had been returned to the post office box. Sister Christine Schenk, executive director of FutureChurch, planned to combine them with the petitions that were signed at the convention Friday and submit more than 6,000 petitions to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops when it meets next week in Washington, D.C.

The celibacy issue is not new for groups such as Call to Action, which called for optional celibacy when it was founded in the 1970s. But the National Federation of Priest Councils - and groups of priests in Chicago, New York, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and some other dioceses - are joining in open appeals for the hierarchy to consider optional celibacy as one solution for the worsening priest shortage and its impact on the availability of the Eucharist.

[saradippity]

Narse,I think they are getting desperate. One thing this scandal has done is reveal the faces of the those who have taken advantage of their position to seduce,recruit,use and abuse children and young men.As the days pass,it becomes more and more clear that the vast number of abusers are homosexual priests and bishops.

As the actve or once active abusers are being jailed,laicized and otherwise removed from the preisthood it becomes easier to identify those that remain that are part of the "lavendar brotherhood".The ordinary catholic is beginning to take notice also,they are recognizing that that great old feel good,make everybody happy priest they liked so much is now indicted or convicted.They aare starting to connect the liturgical license,the catechetical kaka,the barren worship barns,the empty altars,the loud music with a certain type of priest,who came to wow the masses,implode the church,corrupt the children and prepare us for the enslavement.

Please,it seems to me that the pace has really picked up again. I think they have no where to hide so the trick they have pulled out of their bag is to stack the hiding place (priesthood)chock full of all the flotsam and jetsam they can find.Ex priests,rent-a-priests-married priest,single priests,heterosexxuals,homosexuals,transgendered,deacons,somebody,anybody, everybody,be a priest.I am sure they are quite pleased with this little plan,to bury themselves within the priesthood,and I bet they are in hi-panic mode.If we think there's trouble now,just wait.They make me sick as do so many of these stupid posters on this thread,to say nothing of the really wicked ones. We just need to pray and speak out and be very clear that no matter how one feels about celibacy in the long run,any catholic with an iq over room temperature is the enemy if he continues to beat the drum for relaxing the requirement.

[RobbyS]

The tradition of the Church--by which I mean both Roman Catholic and Orthodox--traces back to the First Century. But why should we listen to Luther about Paul when we have a Basil or Gregory or Jerome or Chrystostom, who stands eleven hundred years closer to the time of Our Lord and is a native speaker of the language of the Gospels?

[narses]

They are. Rome will not go along with their weirdness.

[battousai]

It's not that people don't like the rules of the church, it's that people don't like gay priests. Most heterosexual religious boys avoid going into the priesthood because they like girls, want to have a girlfriend, and eventually a wife and family. Many religious boys going into the priesthood prefer being with other boys and men. They may be internally fighting the fact that they're gay, but sooner or later it will turn into a compulsion, as we have witnessed over and over. IMO, most priests will eventually be from a third-world country, or a gay American. In my area, there is an increasing amount of foreign priests.

I'm sorry but you seem to be painting all priests with a rather broad brush, a brush mind you defined by the leftist media in their zeal to destroy the Church; one of the few still standing in the way of their so enlightened worldview.

Only a miniscule percentage of priests out of all those serving were found to be gay/pedophiles.

Besides these are two unrelated issues, although the media loves trying to create this non-existent relationship between celibacy and gay priests.

What does allowing a priest to marry do for stopping the gay priests? If you are gay then you have no interest in women and so no interest in marrying a woman.

Besides your other point of young boys wanting to avoid gay priests and to marry etc. it is stated in the Bible itself you cannot serve two masters, when Jesus asked his disciples to follow him they were admonished to leave everything behind, it is in this spirit that priests are required to be celibate because they cannot serve God and their families with a 100% effort at the same time without being unfair to one or the other.

As I said if they don't like the rules they can find/found another church, it has nothing to do with the gay priests.

[DallasMike]

Name, with Scriptural citation, the wife of any other apostle. Five points for each. Take as much time as you like.

The fact that Peter's mother-in-law served Jesus and the apostles does not mean that Peter's wife or anyone else did not serve them. It's not an either/or situation and your logic is faulty. Her actions are probably mentioned to emphasize that Jesus' healing was instantaneous and complete. In other words, there was no "getting well" period -- she was instantly as good as new.

There are no scriptural citations as to the names of any of the apostles wives. However, Eusebius in Historia Ecclesiastica III says that the apostle Philip had three daughters and that the grandsons of Judas Thaddeus were sent to Rome for martyrdom, but sent back when the judges saw their calloused hands.

According to Catholic Saint's Online:

"St. Petronilla is believed to have been the daughter of St. Peter. Until the XVII Century, she was called his physical daughter, and since then, she has been thought a spiritual daughter who was consecrated to his service."

Interesting, isn't it, how the early church viewed her as a physical daughter until pretty late in the game. If you were to do a bit of research, you would find out that some of these "traditions" aren't as old as you think they are.

[Antoninus]

Of course there is pedophilia and homosexuality in the Protestant churches as well. But not, as you claim, at the same frequency as it does in the Catholic church. Citations to your claim, please, or we will assume that you're just making up your statistic.

If you haven't done so already, Coleus, could you educate this ignorant soul?

[Antoninus]

One could argue celibacy has helped spawn the homosexuality.pedophilia

One could also argue that babies come from the cabbage patch or that the moon is made of green cheese. The fact is that pedophilia is just as rampant among married protestant ministers, teachers, coaches, and any other group that works with children. The media focuses on Catholic priests because they use the scandal to tear down an entire institution which they have a visceral hatred for. Stop helping them.

[DallasMike]

Somewhere, somebody (above) quoted a passage which indicates that Cephas' wife accompanied him on journeys. Even if there was only ONE Cephas, and that Cephas happened to be Peter, it's still a bit of a stretch to posit, affirmatively, that Peter enjoyed usus maritalis with said wife, insofar as we have evidence that continence was the practice. Oh, well.
 

Can you name any other scriptural passage where a Cephas other than Simon Peter is described? There is no doubt that Paul was indeed referring to Peter.

You're right that continence was a practice, but Paul prescribed as a practice that is to be temporary, not permanent. You're 180 degrees off course, here -- if Mr. and Mrs. Peter practiced continence (and there's no evidence that they did), then it would have temporary and not permanent or they would have been violating scripture.

1Co 7:5 Do not deprive one another, except by mutual agreement, and that for a season, so that you may devote yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, lest Satan tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

 

[Antoninus]

But their roughanded efforts to convert and assimilate the indian were still better than the Anglo method of military conquest and eradication. You may or may not have noticed that most Mexicans have indian complexions.

Also, the French Catholics in Canada had a considerably better record converting and pacifying the Indians and then intermarrying--rather than exterminating and removing them.

[Antoninus]

Absence if evidence is not evidence of absence.  That may be overly logical for you, but there it is.

It's also not evidence of presence. However, anyone who has read the Scriptures and has two brain cells to rub together may easily draw the conclusion that if Jesus were married, someone somewhere would have mentioned it or at least alluded to it.

[Antoninus]

That is, zilch.

Zilch is exactly how much respect I have for your ridiculous posts. You sound like a reporter for CNN talking about military hardware. You really should stick to topics you know something about.

[RobbyS]

It seems that it is you are into the either/or business. But if you are into early Church history then you must surely know that virginity was always regarded as a better choice than marriage. That is one way that Christians were distinguished from rabbinical Jews.Given that Christianity was an apocalyptic faith This view of course became really dominant after the time of St. Anthony and the growth of monasticism. But the view of the early Church was that the world was dying. So why get so attached to such things as family?

[Coleus]

Of course there is pedophilia and homosexuality in the Protestant churches as well. But not, as you claim, at the same frequency as it does in the Catholic church. Citations to your claim, please, or we will assume that you're just making up your statistic.>>>>

But not, as you claim, at the same frequency as it does in the Catholic church.>>>

Yes, you're right, it's WORSE in the PROTESTant Churches. Remember, Ye must be born again, born again to do what? Read below:

726 PROTESTant MINISTERS ABUSE CHILDREN

http://www.reformation.com/CSA/startPage.html

http://www.cin.org/users/msmith/reformation/baptistsabuse.html

Catholic bashing and pedophile priests
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=26955

Minister Rapes Teen
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0530minister-sexcharge-ON.html

Sex scandals also affect Protestant clergy
http://www.freep.com/news/religion/prot5_20020405.htm

U.S. Protestants also facing sex abuse scandals
Expert: Frequency of abuse by Protestant clergy may equal that of Catholic priests
http://www.thehollandsentinel.net/stories/040602/rel_040602027.shtml

Accusations filed against NY ministers
http://www.layman.org/layman/news/news-from-pcusa/accusations-filed-against-ny-ministers.htm

Protestant Clergy Abuse
http://polycafe.com/sacredfire/sacredfire-2002/3305.htm
Sex scandals also affect Protestant clergy
http://www.reformation.com/CSA/HowthescandalsaredifferentforProtestants.htm
U.S. Protestants also facing sex abuse scandals
Expert: Frequency of abuse by Protestant clergy may equal that of Catholic priests
http://www.thehollandsentinel.net/stories/040602/rel_040602027.shtml
Catholic clergy singled out, historian says
http://www.detnews.com/2002/religion/0204/13/a09-457640.htm
Sex abuse spans spectrum of churches
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0405/p01s01-ussc.html


A 14-year-old girl in foster care is raped and impregnated by Deacon Stephen Andrews of the Advent Christian Church in Kennebunk, Maine, a trusted figure. She gives birth. Andrews gets 5 years in prison, 3 of them suspended, despite the protests of the prosecutor.

Salvation Army Captain William Douglas is convicted of molesting, sodomizing and sexually terrorizing young Indian boys in a village in British Columbia. Douglas was acquitted of similar charges in 1985; the judge said he could not accept that a minister would lie.

Born-again Delaware preacher William J. Keichline, Sr. is commended by the legislature for running Mission of Care ministry for the homeless. As a landlord he assaults and rapes a girl for 3 years starting when she is 7, threatening to evict her family if she tells. He gets eight 20 year prison terms for rape, bondage and child pornography.

Included in the study were prominent clergy and evangelists who had made names for themselves through special ministries or "good works."

The profile of the typical minister charged with molesting children: a 45-year-old man (ages ranged from 24 to 80 at the time of arrest), with 4 to 5 named victims, most often boys in their early teens.

Of all the accused, 37% involved female victims, 58% male victims, and 3.2% children of both sexes. (In 1% of the cases, the sex of the victim was not identified.)

Charges for all 190 cases involved a total of 847 victims. Most ministers, however, were suspected of molesting many other children. Conservatively, the 190 clergy had at least 4,000 other victims, for a low estimate of an average of 21 victims each. These children were not included in charges for pragmatic legal reasons, because they had been molested in other cities and times, or because the statute of limitations had been exceeded. Some estimates were anecdotal based on investigations or confessions by the molester.

Convicted ministers averaged 5 victims each, with 133 ministers molesting at least 651 named victims.

Information on the marital status of Protestants, gleaned from newspaper accounts so therefore incomplete, showed that at least 43% were married. This would dispel the idea that celibacy alone triggers ministerial child molestation. Twelve cases involved clergy charged with molesting their own children, stepchildren, adopted children or foster children.

While many see therapy as a panacea for this crime, only about a third of the convicted ministers and priests had had some kind of counseling or psychiatric evaluation, mandated or otherwise.

Typical Profile

The average age of priests charged last year with sexual abuse of children was 50 years. The range was 35 to 73 years.

The average Protestant minister was 46 years, with a similar range.

Many Previous Records

Shockingly, 11 out of 46 Protestant ministers charged in 1990 with criminal sexual abuse had prior convictions--almost a quarter of the cases:

All prior convictions were since 1985. Most of the men received light sentences enabling them to return to the pulpit--and continued sexual abuse of children--quickly. Churches are not only failing to check ministers' records, but in some instances are knowingly hiring convicted child molesters.

Five of the 23 nonordained Protestant church workers charged last year had had run-ins with authorities, including one discharged from the Navy for molesting boys.

In 22% of the cases, cover-ups shielding Protestant ministers were reported, in a variety of denominations. These included out-of-court settlements, defrocking a suspected child abuser but not notifying authorities about the abuse, "spiritual support," complicity, congregations applauding accused abusers, and telling reporters "The whole church knows he's not guilty," and "We're solidly behind him." "Satan can get his claws into anyone," said the friend of an Episcopalian rector accused of 73 counts of sodomizing and abusing mentally and emotionally handicapped boys before church functions.

The most blatant cover-up involved a Salvation Army minister who was permitted to keep his job and given continuing access to children after back-to-back arrests for sexually abusing children at the church.

[DallasMike]

Yes, you're right, it's WORSE in the PROTESTant Churches.

Really? Read the articles a bit more closely. Most of them are based upon the research of Philip Jenkins. I have no reason to disagree with his work, but here are some quotes from the that basically sum up the conclusions in the citations that you provided.

"Though data are sketchy, at least one expert says the incidence of clergy molesting young children may be about as frequent -- or infrequent -- in Protestantism as it is in Catholicism."

--

"I am prepared to be convinced the Catholics have a bigger problem" than Protestants, Jenkins said, but nobody has good data, partly because Protestant groups are too numerous.

--

Since 1974, his Walk-In Counseling Center has been consulted on more than 2,000 cases of clergy sexual misconduct of all types, two-thirds of them with Protestants.  (N.B: this implies that one-third -- 33% -- of the consultations are with Catholics, yet even Black Elk admits that Catholics make up 28% of the population. Thus the data seems to indicate that clergy sexual misconduct occurs at a higher rate amongst Catholics.)

--

"To me it says Protestants are less reluctant to come forward [about instances of clergy sexual misconduct] because they don't put their clergy on as high a pedestal as Catholics do with their priests."

The evidence that you cited does not indicate that sexual misconduct is more prevalent in Protestant churches, as you claim.

The last quote is telling -- we Protestants aren't willing to let our ministers slide. I know personally of two instances of clergy sexual misconduct in Protestant churches (both involving married clergy having affairs with women, one in the Baptist church that I grew up in and another in a Presbyterian church). In both instances the minister was out the door and officially defrocked in less than a week's time.

You get a C- for drawing faulty conclusions but I give you an A+ for actually providing citations. The defenders of clergy celibacy on this thread are not exactly noted for their scholarliness, and that's putting it charitably. I provide citations and links to scripture and the early church fathers. They provide ... well, nothing at all except to repeat Father O'Reilly said way back in CCC.

 

[DallasMike]

As to the "man-made" doctrine stuff, celibacy is not a doctrine. The pope has the keys. It is a discipline.

If it walks like a duck and quacks, then it's a duck no regardless of whether you call it a monkey or an elephant.

The fact remains that the Bible specifically permits clergy to marry while the Catholic church prohibits it. We also know that a number of apostles were married and that their wives traveled with them on their missions. Furthermore, Paul expressly said that forbidding to marry is a heresy. The question is why do you forbid something that God expressly permits? Why not run the church by God's rules instead of rules made up my men centuries after the apostolic days?

[DallasMike]

But the view of the early Church was that the world was dying.

Read Thessalonians and you'll find that Paul chastized them for believing that the world was dying.

[Coleus]

In both instances the minister was out the door and officially defrocked in less than a week's time. >>

I'm glad you admit there is a problem. Yep out they go and not to jail, good job.

"CHURCH EVANGELIZERS PREYED ON LOW-INCOME KIDS.

Men from a rural Baptist church known for its aggressive evangelizing of children are suspected of molesting as many as 22 boys & girls. The associate pastor, volunteer bus driver & a third church member are believed to have fondled some & raped others, ranging in age from 3 to 10, on church buses & property. Charges involving 10 victims were brought against Associate Pastor Timothy Lee Leonard, 32, of North Sharon Baptist Church near Grass Lake, & volunteer Sunday school bus driver, church deacon Mark Foeller. Three other church members are being investigated. The suspects went to low-income housing projects or trailer parks in 4 counties, telling parents they would "take the children to church & teach them about God", according to Det. Robert Fitzpatrick, Jackson Co. Men would walk up to children in their yards, coaxing them with treats to come to weekend services or summer Bible school. Leonard was relieved of church duties involving children in August, after police started investigating him when a doctor reported suspected abuse in a child with a sexual disease. He also worked as instructor & gym teacher in the North Sharon Christian School, enrolling about 65 students. "
We have to keep our kids _safe_ from Baptist pedophiles!
Buzz Kelly

* BRONSON MINISTER ARRAIGNED.

First Congregational Church minister David Covert Moore was charged with 5 counts of criminal sexual conduct of 4 children under the age of 15. In July he checked himself into Pine Rest Christian Counseling Services in Grand Rapids. Source: Jackson Citizen Patriot 8/29/92.

* AIR FORCE CHAPLAIN RAIDED. Deputies raided the home of Veterans Administration chaplain Rev. Donald G. Phillips, of Butler County, seizing 500 video tapes, movie equipment and restraints following a tip that he produced pornographic movies with young girls. The Baptist minister recently received the highest recognition awarded a VA chaplain, "the Award for Excellence in Chaplain Service". Source:
St. Louis Post-Dispatch 2/19/92.

* BAPTIST VOLUNTEER CONVICTED.

Granite State Baptist Church volunteer David Kirsch, 39, of Salem, was convicted of sexually assaulting 6 young girls through the church from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s.
Source: USA Today 9/25/92.

* MINISTER & GIRLFRIEND INDICTED.

Trenton pastor Franklin Tucker, 37, Final Call Ministry, was indicted for molesting his girlfriend's daughters, 9 & 15. His girlfriend was indicted for forcing her daughters to recant the allegations to police. The abuse came to light when the 9-year-old told a school official, who contacted police. Source: Trenton Times 9/15/92.

* CIVIL SUIT: 11-YEAR-OLD MOLESTED.

A family in Dare County, North Carouna is suing Methodist minister Carl M. Eller for abusing their daughter, 11, as well as the North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church, a bishop and a reverend for knowing of his history of sexual misconduct but doing nothing about it. The family says she was molested when her father, a carpenter, was installing cabinets in the parsonage. Eller pleaded no contest to a charge of criminal assault on a female. However, the family said that in 1987 Eller had molested or made lewd comments to 4 women at his church, and forcibly kissed and touched 2 girls age 13. Three women had lodged formal complaints with the church, but the only action was to transfer him from Aurora to Hamlet. Source: News & Observer 1/15/92.

* BAPTIST PASTOR RESIGNS AMID SCANDAL.

Asheville Baptist pastor Michael R. Stewart, 34, of Oakley, resigned following his arrest in a prostitution sting. Stewart's name was among 400 on a full-page ad that month promoting family & traditional biblical values. Source:
Citizen-Times 6/30/92.

* CHURCH SUED FOR NEGLIGENCE.

One of several girls who said Alva minister Rev. Robert Bruce Brigden molested her is suing the First Presbyterian Church for failing to check his background before hiring him. Allegations of sexual crimes were made at his former position in Kansas. Charges allege that he molested Alva church girls, ages 4 to 14. The church posted his bond. Source: _Tulsa Tribune

* PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER GETS 40 YEARS.

Rev. Robert Bruce Brigden was sentenced to 40 years in prison for molesting young girls in his congregation, convicted on 8 counts of lewd molestation & 1 count of rape by instrumentation involving a girl, 7. Bridgen, 57, was accused of molesting 11 girls, aged 4 to 14, during the 4 years he was at the Alva church. His congregation put the church up as bond, insisting he was innocent. He was placed in protected custody. Brigden blamed his arrest on a girl, 4, whose parents were the first to take the children's allegations seriously. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," Brigden wrote his wife about the 4-year-old, whom he described as "4 going on 400 years old", saying she invited him to spend the night in her bed, & was mad that he declined. Source: Tulsa Tribune 8/92, Tulsa World 9/3/92, _Daily Oklahoman_ 6/14/92.

* CHURCH VOLUNTEER CHARGED WITH CHILD PORNOGRAPHY.

Church volunteer Seven Jon Long, 41, was arrested for sodomy and taking pornographic pictures of young girls under 12 from Assembly of God Church in Rogue River, where he was a youth volunteer. He told detectives his pictures were art. Source: Daily Courier, Grants Pass, 4/17/92.

* CONVICTED PASTOR "RIGHT WITH LORD".

Rev. Virgil Carpenter, 48, pastor of Bible Missionary Church in Ontario, was convicted of sodomy & sexual abuse of a girl, 9, over a 1-1/2 year period. A jury convicted Carpenter of 2 felony counts of sodomy & 4 felony counts of sexual abuse. He faces 5 additional felony charges in 2 upcoming trials. "I'm really not worried," he told supporters who had gathered in the courtroom before the verdict. "I'm right with the Lord." Source: Corvallis Gazette-Times 10/11/92.

Why weren't these stories given national press coverage? Why is there a coverup of Christian pedophile ministers' crimes against America's children???

Here's another case where a minister was RE-assigned

Troubled Newark reverend removed
Sex offender loses Shiloh Baptist post
Wednesday, May 07, 2003
BY WILLIAM KLEINKNECHT
Star-Ledger Staff

A convicted sex offender from Florida who was hired as pastor of Newark's Shiloh Baptist Church has been removed from the position, a state official said yesterday.
Joseph Delmar, spokesman for the state Division of Youth and Family Services, said the church informed the agency that its leaders voted Thursday to remove the Rev. Chavalis T. Williams as pastor.

DYFS was involved because Williams, as pastor, was a board member of Shiloh Rainbow Academy, the church's day care center. The agency had warned the academy that Williams could not be allowed on the day care's premises.

"We have been informed by Shiloh that the Rev. Williams is no longer employed by the church," Delmar said. "Our concerns for the safety of the children have been met."
A number of church members said John Sabb, chairman of the church's board of deacons, informed the congregation of Williams' removal at a special meeting Monday night.
Sabb declined to comment.

In 1999, Williams, then known as Chavalis Bonsell, pleaded guilty to arranging for two teenagers to have sex in front of him and others while working at a facility for troubled teens in Jacksonville, Fla. At the time of his arrest, he was on probation after pleading guilty to an earlier charge of beating his wife.

After pleading guilty to charges of child abuse and using children in a sexual performance, Williams was sentenced to six months in jail and 30 months of probation.

Shiloh's leadership knew he was a registered sex offender in Florida and hired him in mid-March, provoking outrage among some members of the congregation. Many members of the church pressed the leadership to rescind his $45,000 annual contract.

Since being hired, Williams commuted from Florida and had only been at the church on two or three occasions, relying on associate ministers for Sunday sermons. He told the congregation he was planning to relocate to New Jersey.
Williams previously declined repeated requests for a comment on his past and could not be reached yesterday.
The controversy over Williams' pastorship divided the once close-knit church, which is on Davenport Avenue in the city's North Ward and will soon be celebrating its 100th anniversary.

The church's leadership and many members of the congregation strongly supported Williams, a 27-year-old known for his inspiring sermons. Leaders of the church were irate that some members had leaked his past to the media.
But another group felt the church had been taken in by a con artist. They said Williams denied that he was a registered sex offender in Florida when he was confronted by church members and appeared to be trying to collect his pay as pastor without living in New Jersey.

[RobbyS]

And the early Christians, including Paul, not not believe that the world was coming to an end and that Jesus was about to come again?

[DallasMike]

I'm glad you admit there is a problem. Yep out they go and not to jail, good job.

I agree that if they committed a crime, they should go to jail regardless of whether they are Catholic or Baptist.

Once they've been kicked out of the church though, it's up to civil authorities to prosecute. Baptists can't send someone to jail any more than Catholics can.

[I got the rope]

It's typical gcruse. How many times did he change the subject while trolling here? How many times did he answer with another question?