Posted on 10/03/2024 8:47:30 PM PDT by Morgana
A former professor of Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, Texas, has been arrested for alleged possession of child pornography and remains jailed.
Charles Bellinger, 62, was taken into custody on Oct. 2, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. He remains in the Tarrant County Jail on Thursday waiting for a bond to be set.
Internet Crimes Against Children Unit detectives, Texas Christian University (TCU) police, and United States Secret Service special agents searched Bellinger’s house in Arlington and at his university office on campus, the newspaper reported.
By Thursday afternoon, Bellinger’s name and biography had been removed from the school’s webpages.
Brite Divinity School is the seminary of TCU and is located on TCU’s campus. However, it has a separate board of trustees and its own dean.
Brite Divinity School today released a statement, informing the public of Bellinger’s arrest and explaining their response.
We have been informed by law enforcement that Charles Bellinger, a former faculty member, was arrested yesterday for ‘Possession of Child Pornography.’ When Brite administration was made aware of this situation, we immediately initiated our own investigation, cooperated with law enforcement, shut down his access to school technology, personnel, and facilities, and placed him on immediate administrative leave before terminating his employment shortly thereafter.
The statement added that Bellinger “did not teach a single class after we learned of the concern.”
“The alleged behavior is repugnant and the antithesis of our values as an institution,” the statement continued. brite bellinger
According to Bellinger’s biography in Life & Learning, an annual Brite faculty publication, Bellinger is Theological Librarian and Associate Professor of Theology and Ethics at Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University. His degrees are from Portland State University, Pacific School of Religion, University of Virginia, University of Illinois, and Texas Christian University.
Bellinger’s papers, books and blogs have a theme of confronting evil.
“The evil in the pro-choice position lies principally in its indefensible violence, which in turn produces a cultural atmosphere characterized by rancor, spiritual ugliness, and emotional pain,” Bellinger’s Life & Learning paper states.
In a Dec. 17, 2016, blog, Bellinger retells the Biblical story of the prophet Nathan, confronting King David exposing his hypocrisy.
“When the prophet exposes David’s hypocrisy, we are seeing that precise moment of self-knowledge that is at the heart of the Bible’s transforming power in human history,” Bellinger writes. “We human beings careen through our lives, going along our moralistic way, until we are interrupted by moments of grace that are simultaneously moments of judgment.”
Long-time mainstream divinity school associated with the denomination of Disciples of Christ. I suspect it has drifted leftward in the past decades. Before that it graduated both respected pastors and scholars.
Why I love this place, someone here always knows.
thank you
It’s odd that the usual ex-Catholics have nothing to say when the story involves perverted Protestants. If a Catholic priest is involved, they’re all over the thread like white on rice.
When I visited the TCU (Texas Christian University) campus I asked a faculty librarian about religious life on campus and in the classroom. She told me “The ‘C’ in TCU is silent.”
Brite Divinity School is on the campus of Texas Christian University (which originated as a Disciples of Christ affiliated school) but is separate from TCU with its own board of directors and Board. When I attended TCU 6 hours of religious instruction was required for graduation. Most took non-denominational classes such as Survey of the Bible, and Comparative Religion as their requirements. TCU was originally a very conservative institution whose motto was “In loco parentis” and the Chancellor was the de facto head of the Disciples of Christ Church. In current times, the “C” has lost nearly all it’s meaning other than it’s historical value, the has virtually no meaningful tie to the Disciples of Christ Church.
As an aside, my Catholic nun high school teacher told me that “IYou will burn in HELL for going to that heathen school TCU instead of Notre Dame”. Pretty sure if I go to HELL it won’t be for having matriculated at TCU.
There's nothing for them to say. Molestation happened. Person was caught, removed, and I hope will be tried.
I've never seen a prot justify abuse, as I see fellow catholics rationalize that the priests weren't really pedos, but simply homos.
This one wasn't protected, shuffled to a new fresh field of victims, denied, etc.
This is what is supposed to happen.
Any allegations that the divinity school aided and abetted his crimes? No. That is the difference between Protestant and Catholic scandals.
Your “organized religion” at work.
Read your bible, pray to Jesus, you don’t need these pedophile clerics.
Why did you get into ministry? Because that’s where the children are.
I will continue to stand up for the Catholic Church when it’s being unfairly portrayed and maligned by the media. The fact that they haven’t gone after the Protestant religion with the same vitriol is puzzling to me since the rate of sexual abuse and molestation is 4 times that of the Catholic Church. Maybe it’s because they don’t consider them to be a threat since they agree on just about every issue these days.
—> since the rate of sexual abuse and molestation is 4 times that of the Catholic Church.
Not remotely true.
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