- Protecting an Abuser: Leaders of a Minnesota church didn’t report a parishioner to police though they knew he’d sexually abused girls for years and had been told reporting it was their duty.
- Forgive and Forget: Church leaders held meetings where children were told to forgive the man who sexually abused them and forget the abuse. If they spoke of it, the sin would be theirs.
- Missed Opportunities: Prosecutors had at least one opportunity to intervene but hoped educating church leaders about their duties would encourage them to cooperate with authorities.
Once again, not a drag queen.
Never is.
They don’t like drag queens because the drag queens might teach their kids to be literate.
I wouldn’t say never, after all Rudy Giuliani has done drag, and there was that time he got caught in a hotel room with someone he thought was 15 and his hand down his pants.
I don’t think cross dressing a few times qualifies him to be a drag queen any more than changing a headlight makes someone a mechanic.
But forgiving drag queens is wrong despite Galatians 3:28 in the New Testament:
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Absolutely rotten. And it feels fucking terrible to say… Typical.
It’s almost the ones that you expect the most.
Look, they have faith in god, and god is totally real, but we have to separate the religious people from those who are delusional, naive, hateful, or are using religion for their own gain.
The best way to do this is to let god, who is definitely, totally real, to choose who he favours.
So instead of a baptism we just have anyone who is following the lord leap off a cliff. God will save the ones that are actually religious, and we won’t have to worry about the rest of the bad ones.
The great thing is that this works for every belief system that maintains the existence of any kind of remotely sapient higher power.
I feel like the rotten brains out there who only know scrolling can no longer detect even a hint of sarcasm unless ChatGTP tells them that it’s a joke.
No wonder they’re okay having a pedo president.
One of the priests at the Catholic school/church I went to was a family friend.
Years later it came out that he had been abusing an altar boy who was just 1 grade behind me. I’d see this kid all the time.
When my mom told me he had been arrested and why, she said “But don’t tell anyone” - because he was “a friend”.
I said bullshit - I’m telling everybody I see.
He’s in prison forever now but that poor kid…and that’s just the one I know about.
If I learn a “friend” abused a kid… They’re not my friend anymore, and likely never will be again
A friend isn’t a sacred thing, if someone turns out to be a piece of shit, I drop them like a stone. They’re dead to me. I will never excuse someone’s abhorrent behaviour like that. To still stay friends with them and maybe even excuse or hide what they did… is unthinkable to me
There was a pedophile priest who had the parents of a boy he molested complain to the bishop. The bishop, in his wisdom, moved him to be a teacher in my school. An all-boys boarding school. A few years after I was there, he was convicted of molesting a boy at the school, as well as the original case. His sentence was 2 years of probation. He died in his 90s just a couple of years ago, and his obituary was full of praise and warm memories.
Meanwhile, one of the boys in my class who I now can see was being groomed by this priest, took his own life before he was 50, after what was described as a very difficult life. I think it’s pretty obvious why.
In the 40+ years since I left that high school, no one from the school or the diocese has ever contacted me or my family to see if we saw or experienced any abuse.
Fuck all religions
All religions are death cults
If an atheist abuses a kid should we fuck atheism too?
If you ignore history and want to falsely equivocate the two, then sure, whatever floats your boat.
And then force the child into quiet in the name of atheism? That “if” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. It isn’t a religious problem that people harm others; that’s an animal problem. But it very is a religious problem that the faith is used to silence accountability, and for that fuck religion.
Are church leaders mandated reporters in Minnesota?
According to this site MN mandated reporting they might be:
People who must report
Anyone who is a professional or a professional’s delegate engaged in the practice of the healing arts, social services, hospital administration, psychological or psychiatric treatment, child care, education, law enforcement, or employed as a member of the clergy.
I say might be because it states “employed as a member of the clergy”. I’m betting they would claim “everyone who knew” was a volunteer (i.e. not “employed”).
I’m a member of a Christian organized religion. I don’t think Christianity itself is to blame; PERVERSION OF CHRISTIANITY IS, but not Christinaty itself.
Any true Christian would report this (doesn’t matter if they are legally required to or not). I’m not willing to stand in front of St Peter & God on judgement day and try to defend that kind of inaction.
They should have many years in prison to work to atone for that.
The article says it was required:
But they never reported Massie’s crimes to police, as required by the law. Instead, Bruckelmyer and other leaders in the church encouraged the victims to take part in forgiveness sessions — which allowed Massie, now 50, to continue abusing children, according to an investigation by the Minnesota Star Tribune and ProPublica.
Later down:
He said it was up to the victims to report the crimes to police, a clear misreading of the law for mandated reporters — doctors, teachers and others who are required to report crimes against children.
“We don’t protect either one,” Bruckelmyer said of sexual abusers and their victims.
This is the churches defense:
Kimberly Lowe, a lawyer and crisis manager for the church, said its preachers are unpaid and therefore might not be legally required to report sexual abuse of children. Asked if she believes the preachers are mandated reporters under Minnesota law, Lowe would only say that the language of the statute is unclear.
Propublica does pretty deep research, so I’m inclined to believe them.
It sounds like we are agreeing.
What I said above:
I say might be because it states “employed as a member of the clergy”. I’m betting they would claim “everyone who knew” was a volunteer (i.e. not “employed”).
What your post above states (I added some bold and italic for emphasis in your quote):
This is the churches defense:
Kimberly Lowe, a lawyer and crisis manager for the church, said its preachers are unpaid and therefore might not be legally required to report sexual abuse of children. Asked if she believes the preachers are mandated reporters under Minnesota law, Lowe would only say that the language of the statute is unclear.
While I agree the Propublica article states they were required reporters and that organization does pretty deep research, I was pointing out the “lawyer way of splitting hairs” in my comments. Lawyers just love to define and redefine the meanings of words; argue about context; question “what was the ‘real intent of the legislation’”; sow doubt; faine ignorance; beg forgiveness; etc ad nauseum. That’s why lawyers are hired to defend in court. Nothing against Propublica but you wouldn’t hire them to defend in court - they are after truth, in court you want a defense which is not necessarily the truth.
Please note: none of this is meant to be “against you/your comments”. Just a slightly different angle on the subject.
Best wishes to all and I hope we can get closer to making this kind of thing just an unhappy part of history.
Wrt lawyers splitting hairs, Bill Clinton: It depends what the definition of “is” is.
Are they anywhere?
What does that even mean?
Mandated reporters are people that are legally required to report abuse or suspected abuse. Teachers, social workers, physicians, etc.
If repenting to a priest isn’t good enough in all cases, the idea of always being redeemable to enter heaven crumbles. They can’t have that. No shit they aren’t reporting. They’d lose subscribers.
These things arent exclusive. Yes, we should forgive and forget for our own health, but ALSO sue the living pants off the off the abuser. And maybe remove 1 or more testicle. Its kinda case by case I assume.
The Laestadian sect from my neck of the woods are big on forgiveness. If I had a quarter for every time this story has surfaced, I’d have a nice mixed bag of beers for the weekend. I might get alcohol poisoning if I had a quarter for all the stories that never surfaced.
