Megachurch Youth Volunteer Charged with Trying to Sell Teen on Dark Web

A Georgia megachurch is facing allegations it failed to warn congregants about a former youth volunteer who’s been charged with trying to traffic a 16-year-old on the dark web.

Records obtained by The Roys Report (TRR) show that on June 30, authorities arrested Kelly Garrett Ivey—a former youth volunteer at Rock Springs Church in Milner, Ga.—and charged him with child cruelty and kidnapping. And last Monday, a grand jury indicted Ivey, 41, on first and second-degree charges of cruelty to children, trafficking, and three counts of criminal attempt to commit a felony, including kidnapping.

Tolstoshev,

Me reading: Former youth volunteer who’s been charged with… “Here we go again, another groomer in the church”

…trying to traffic a 16yo on the dark web. “What in the fuck???”

theodewere,
theodewere avatar

those Megachurch boys are entrepreneurs first and foremost

ProdSlash,
ProdSlash avatar

Note: not a trans person or drag queen.

Diprount_Tomato,
@Diprount_Tomato@lemmy.world avatar

Literally nobody should give a shit, the teen will be as traumatised no matter who did it

Yes, that goes for certain News Agencies trying to get views by fearmongering

theodewere,
theodewere avatar

try to get a hold of yourself, you're not making any sense

Diprount_Tomato,
@Diprount_Tomato@lemmy.world avatar

What’s important is what was done, not who did it. The victim would suffer the same, no matter if the perpetrator was trans or Christian

And also news agencies love fearmongering to get the clicks they no longer get

theodewere,
theodewere avatar

it matters in this case.. this person pretended to be someone the kid could trust.. that church is corrupt, and so are all churches like it.. they are run by greedy little men, who love power and influence because they are full of pride.. they are corrupt..

xuxebiko,

who did it also matters

  1. to highlight the group of people who are actually dangrous for kids & teens to be around,so the vulnerable can be kept safe,
    and
  2. to avoid the demonization of an innocent group of people
Diprount_Tomato,
@Diprount_Tomato@lemmy.world avatar

Are teachers dangerous for kids and teens to be around? Cases of them abusing are sadly not uncommon

And yes, let’s not demonize people, like all religious people or trans people

xuxebiko,

Are teachers dangerous for kids and teens to be around? Cases of them abusing are sadly not uncommon.

so what is being done to vet out the dangerous ones?

Diprount_Tomato,
@Diprount_Tomato@lemmy.world avatar

Covering them, maybe? That gives schools a bad reputation, and that’s what they usually do

xuxebiko,

when has it ever been them? But the bible-thumping crowd will continue to demonize vulnerable communities, because they don;t care about children being groomed or trafficked. They just want to be awful, horrible people and feel strong by punching down.

It's like their pro-forced birth stance, which is about denying women their basic human rights & controlling women.

theodewere,
theodewere avatar

i think maybe every Megachurch is just a gateway to MegaHell

HeyThisIsntTheYMCA,
@HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world avatar

Megachurches are so 1997 I’m looking for a gigachurch

JackGreenEarth,

What were they selling them for?

thefartographer,

Because 16 years old was probably getting too close to the expiration date for this monster and figured he could make a quick buck

EdibleFriend,
@EdibleFriend@lemmy.world avatar

Honestly…morbidly curious myself. What does a 16 year old go for?

h3mlocke,

Asking for a friend, eh?

EdibleFriend,
@EdibleFriend@lemmy.world avatar

Completely hypothetical. I mean, after all, who can actually afford to buy a teenage sex slave in this economy?

tallwookie,
@tallwookie@lemmy.world avatar

bill gates?

Spaghetti_Hitchens,

At least tree fiddy

fireshaper,
@fireshaper@lemmy.ml avatar

About tree fiddy

exoplanetary,
@exoplanetary@lemmy.world avatar

Sex trafficking, probably.

Absolutely fucked stuff coming from the church as per usual.

sanpedropeddler,

This volunteer isn’t “the church”

Speculater,

The church protects these fucking animals.

cre0,

And “the church” failed to disclose this guy’s actions to the parents of children that “the church” allowed him to be around.

Is that really “the hill” you want to die on?

sanpedropeddler,

No it is not. I changed my mind after realizing how badly the church actually acted. I wrongfully assumed this was another case of people massively exagerrating the implications of a situation in a desperate attempt to demonize religion somehow. I should have looked more into it before making the comment, but I was too annoyed for critical thinking and my instincts got the better of me.

Diprount_Tomato,
@Diprount_Tomato@lemmy.world avatar

Oh NOOO! You can’t just contradict my intelectual atheism for smart people by saying an individual that didn’t even have power represents the church and how degenerate it is!!!

sanpedropeddler,

I was actually in the wrong on this one. Someone else corrected me and the church acted far worse than I originally thought. They should have taken the situation much more seriously and notified the parents of the situation at the very least.

Diprount_Tomato,
@Diprount_Tomato@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah, but a certain church acting wrong shouldn’t be used to say the concept of religion is evil

sanpedropeddler,

I made the comment originally because I thought that’s what they were doing, but now I think they meant “the church” as just that specific church.

Diprount_Tomato,
@Diprount_Tomato@lemmy.world avatar

I mean, it’s really easy to get defensive on the internet where you can’t really clear up misunderstandings in comments and you can’t directly see the commenter’s intentions

Puzzle_Sluts_4Ever,

He is someone the church vetted and approved to interact with young children from a position of authority.

He is “the church” until said church takes demonstrable actions to prevent this from ever happening again. And… there isn’t a good track record of that.

In fact, they seem to already be working on covering it up and trying to prevent anyone from finding out considering

Yet, members of Rock Springs said they just learned of the charges against Ivey last week, when a local newspaper, The Monroe County Reporter, published a story. They added that the multi-site Rock Springs Church and its affiliated school, Rock Springs Christian Academy, where Ivey also volunteered, didn’t publish any announcement about Ivey’s arrest.

RickRussell_CA,
@RickRussell_CA@lemmy.world avatar

The congregants seems to be jumping to the conclusion that the church was formally notified of Ivey’s status, somehow, and sat on the information while Ivey was still a threat. But it’s not clear this was the case.

It doesn’t excuse church leaderships’ tone-deaf response to the arrest, though.

Puzzle_Sluts_4Ever,

Considering how keyed in churches tend to be with local cops/fascists and that the cops and news stories would have contacted the church to find out if he had done anything else: They knew.

The absolute bare minimum is to send out an email the moment the information is public asking parents to speak to their children and condemning the actions. I know this because this literally happened in my town. Someone who worked at a daycare did some vile things. And the vast majority of parents found out from the preschool, not the local newspaper. And that went a LONG way toward rebuilding trust.

Rather than hoping nobody finds out because it might hurt attendance numbers.

RickRussell_CA,
@RickRussell_CA@lemmy.world avatar

Considering how keyed in churches tend to be with local cops/fascists and that the cops and news stories would have contacted the church to find out if he had done anything else: They knew.

But this is an educated guess; there is nothing in the article to support this timeline of events.

Depending on who you believe, Ivey’s formal association with the church ended 20 months previous, or maybe he was seen at the church in an unofficial capacity as recently as June. Either way, there’s nothing here to suggest police had contacted the church or notified them. It would certainly be reasonable diligence for them to do so, but then police are not known for diligence. They may have also been concerned that someone would tip off Ivey and he would become a flight risk.

The absolute bare minimum is to send out an email the moment the information is public

Agreed. It is disappointing (if not surprising) that the church leadership did not IMMEDIATELY assess potential impact to the children of the church and school where Ivey volunteered.

Puzzle_Sluts_4Ever,

Fine. Let’s ignore any reason why community leaders would speak to the community:

Cops find a deranged human trafficking pedophile. They do a basic background check and see he used to work with children. Bare minimum, they contact that employer to figure out if there are possibly more victims.

That employer is the church.

But hey, let’s say the cops were particularly incompetent. The news org that broke the news reached out to the megachurch who did not respond. So that right there is a confirmation they were aware.

If the church had ANY interest in doing ANYTHING about this, they would have contacted the parents. They didn’t. Because, much like their older brothers in the Catholic Church, they would rather protect abusers than children.

So fuck them and fuck anyone who tries to cape for them.

RickRussell_CA,
@RickRussell_CA@lemmy.world avatar

These statements:

they contact that employer to figure out if there are possibly more victims

The news org that broke the news reached out to the megachurch who did not respond. So that right there is a confirmation…

are educated guesses at what could have happened in this case. The article doesn’t make these claims.

The article says nothing about police contacting the church.

As for the news, here is the timeline that I could reconstruct:

  • Monroe County Reporter published Aug 16. They do not mention Ivey’s employment history or affiliation with the church or school in their article.
  • Shortly after that (Aug 17), the parent FB group broke the news among the parents.
  • Aug 20, Atlanta News First say that they spoke to a pastor at the church, but elected not to mention the name of the church “for the purposes of ensuring anonymity for the victim”.

I don’t know when or if the church tried to reach out to the parents, all we do know is that as of Aug 17 they had not done so. But it’s possible that they – like the parents – didn’t actually find out about this until the newspaper article of Aug 16.

I’m not defending the church at all, but I don’t think it’s appropriate to make claims about what the church leadership knew, and when they knew it, without evidence.

Diprount_Tomato,
@Diprount_Tomato@lemmy.world avatar

Seriously, what kind of Christians are they? Like, they just keep throwing the word around but don’t even say what type they follow

Puzzle_Sluts_4Ever,

Most megachurches are either Protestant or Evangelical although there is an ongoing movement to lump together “compatible” sects of christianity. With the main idea being that it should emphasize social activities and education as part of the overall package. They are often one of the bigger sources for “Get your critical race theory out of my classroom” levels of hate and manipulation.

gowan,

Protestant - not Roman Catholic and not Orthodox

Evangelical- actively encourages the spreading of Jesus’ message and or Biblically based doctrine (which is not the same thing) .

You can be protestant and not evangelical. Most of the variants of Lutherans are protestant and not the first meaning of evangelical for example.

Diprount_Tomato, (edited )
@Diprount_Tomato@lemmy.world avatar

What’s wrong about not having critical race theory in classrooms? Like, seeing it from an outside perspective it just sounds like a racist “one eye for an eye” with a Marxist lenses

Edit: maybe instead of just downvoting what you don’t like to hear you should try to explain why critical race theory is actually good and why it should be taught in schools as something more than a radical ideology that appeared in the 60s

PoopSpiderman,

It’s fucking history. We should teach fucking history. Sorry if it hurts your feelings.

Diprount_Tomato,
@Diprount_Tomato@lemmy.world avatar

Again, mentioning it as a radical theory from the 60s

sanpedropeddler,

I didn’t realize quite how dismissive of it they were. I still don’t agree with you 100% but in this case the church acted horribly and I was in the wrong with my last comment.

EsheLynn,

My son came out about being molested at church years after the fact. My brother thinks he lied about being molested four years after he stopped going to church, so he wouldn’t have to go to church (???), And my mom thinks it was my dad, not the pastor my son insists it is. Yes. It is “the church.”

dragonflyteaparty,

Certainly that given that he was advertising the child as a “virgin female”.

PeleSpirit,

According to The Reporter, arrest warrants stated that Ivey was trying to sell information about a 16-year-old’s home address and places she regularly frequented, so she could be abducted or harmed.

Atlanta News First reported that the warrants also stated that Ivey advertised the “virgin female” on “Slave Bay”—a website advertising unclothed women on the dark web. The news report added that in July, a judge denied bond and said Ivey “posed a significant danger.”

Diprount_Tomato,
@Diprount_Tomato@lemmy.world avatar

TF? I thought those kind of places were just government run traps for people who’d use that services to fall for

jonne,

I mean, they probably are, and they caught someone. It’s like that joke website that offers hitman services that gets real enquiries once in a while.

Diprount_Tomato,
@Diprount_Tomato@lemmy.world avatar

That’s what I was thinking of

Mdotaut801,

A conservative, Christian man in power doing this? Color me shocked!

AEsheron,

Maybe it’s just the end of work grogginess, but I read, “trying to sell teen on dark net,” as though they were trying to convince them to check it out, by a marijuana, etc. Like trying to sell your friend on a TV show or something.

DietBajaBlast,

The prestigious julieroys.com

maniajack,

Seems pretty well sourced?

4RYAZ,

Bad luck his family name isn’t Biden he would have been fine with it

HubertManne,
HubertManne avatar

this is the problem with the name of this sub. not really the name but like I had a guy in another convo suggest catholicism was worse than other christians because of the kid didlin and its like dude its all over in the other churches they just don't have a large central authority to go after.

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