"For nearly two decades, one woman stood up to the Southern Baptist Convention, forcing it to face its sex abuse crisis. She was gaslit, maligned, and threatened with legal action. But she didn’t back down and on this podcast, you’ll hear her story."
"The criminal investigation into child sexual abuse in New Orleans’ Roman Catholic archdiocese has entered a major new phase, after a judge ordered the church to turn over records to Louisiana state police showing how it responded to abuse allegations over the last several decades."
"I grew up in a fundamentalist Southern Baptist church in Georgia. I was on the 'cradle roll' from the time I was six weeks old, and I was at church 'every time the doors were open,' as the saying goes.
What I learned in that church was a perfect setup for sexual abuse for a child who took it all in and believed it all wholeheartedly."
Former nuns Gloria Branciani and Mirjam Kovac deserve credit for their courage in coming forward publicly and revealing their identities, as they tell the world about the bizarre religion-wrapped obscenities to which now-defrocked Jesuit priest Marko Rupnik subjected them.
At the heart of the abuse of vulnerable people that happens in religious groups globally: the assumption that men should have the divine right to control and use others.
"Two former nuns have called on Pope Francis to initiate an independent investigation into a once-prominent Jesuit artist-priest [Marko Rupnik] who they allege sexually abused them, including by forcing them to have threesomes and making them watch pornography so they would 'grow spiritually'."
As Christa Brown, who has followed the Southern Baptist Convention's evasions of truth and political machinations for years, when it comes to dealing with sexual abuse of vulnerable people, says, we'd never have gotten the truth about Paul Pressler without lawsuits.
Because the SBC was determined to resist at all costs letting the truth be known.
Brown concludes: Let the lawsuits continue and proliferate.
To wit: "Just last week, in Arkansas, clergy sex abuse survivors filed a lawsuit naming not only First Baptist Church of Benton but also the SBC, SBC Executive Committee, Arkansas Baptist State Convention, and Central Baptist Association. It’s a dreadful case involving allegations that scores of boys were sexually victimized over the course of 20 years…."
"YouTube has taken down Emmanuel TV, the main channel run by TB Joshua’s megachurch empire, amid allegations the late preacher had for decades groomed and raped multiple former leaders of his ministry.
It comes after openDemocracy identified and reported more than 50 abusive videos amplifying abuse against Joshua’s accusers on the video platform."
~ Margaret Coker, Khatondi Soita Wepukhulu, Madeleine Jane
A number of folks replied to my thread linked below. As they've noted, though I spoke of Southern Baptist right-wing leader Paul Pressler abusing men, Texas Republican leader Jared Woodfill, an anti-gay activist, has sworn under oath that he knew from 2004 forward of credible allegations that Pressler had abused a child — and Woodfill did not cut his ties with Pressler.
As Derek Scally reports, German Protestants have long maintained that they represent the "better" church — better than the Catholic alternative. Re: sexual abuse of minors, they've wanted to pretend this is a uniquely Catholic problem.
A strong meme has been that the problem of sexual abuse of minors in Catholicism is rooted in the celibacy requirement: if priests could marry, abuse would vanish.
But a bombshell report published last week by Forum Study shows that sexual abuse of minors is very much prevalent in German Protestant churches, and that the largest perpetrator group — 40% — have been clergy and male, and more than 2/3 are married.
After a grotesquely decisive win in the #Iowa caucuses, garbage human #Trump went to court in NYC for the start of another #defamation#civil#trial.
Douchebag Trump's attendance was voluntary. He was already found #liable for defamatory remarks he made against #EJeanCarroll when he denied raping her. The jury now need only determine how much he owes Carroll in damages.
Here's how Marv Knox opens his response to the news that the Southern Baptist Convention has settled a lawsuit re: allegations that SBC kingmaker Paul Pressler sexually abused a teenaged boy (at least seven more men have also alleged abuse by Pressler):
"Thank God, Paul Pressler has lived to the ripe old age of 93."
Inside Atman, the international yoga sex ring busted by French police.
French police last week arrested more than 40 key members of the Atman Yoga Federation, a network of yoga schools present in some 30 countries.
It claims to offer followers a path to higher consciousness through tantric practices – but former members told RFI they were psychologically manipulated and pressured into sex.
In Belgium, a recent documentary on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church has caused shock and soul-searching, reigniting a debate about the way religion is funded in the country.
Unlike in neighbouring France, the Belgian state finances officially recognised religions, with representatives of the Catholic Church receiving the best pay.
But the abuse scandal has seen many people demand a change in the rules.
Considering the recent Associated Press report regarding a former bishop who molested his daughter, I thought I'd share the Church's procedures around handling abuse....
HEY!!
Anyone not believing our girls were raped in the 7ty of October, must MUST as a duty to all women - read those horrifying testimonials. This is from the police: https://www.ha-makom.co.il/post-galit-dont-read
"A federal lawsuit filed in Little Rock Monday against Ted Suhl, the former behavioral health services mogul convicted of bribing a state official but later set free by then-President Donald Trump, describes decades of alleged 'systematic and widespread' child abuse by staff members at Suhl’s now-defunct Lord’s Ranch."
"In the ’90s, then-Gov. Mike Huckabee appointed Ted Suhl to a newly created review board responsible for licensing behavioral health and foster care facilities, such as the Lord’s Ranch itself. In 2006, Suhl gave the governor, his wife and their daughter — now Gov. Sarah Sanders — a private plane ride to a Republican Party event in North Carolina; Huckabee was exploring a presidential run at the time."
How the Church Approaches Abuse (newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org)
Considering the recent Associated Press report regarding a former bishop who molested his daughter, I thought I'd share the Church's procedures around handling abuse....