Thursday, March 5, 2009
Religion Youth Pastor Watch
Posted by Dan Savage on Thu, Mar 5, 2009 at 1:15 PM
A teenager says she was repeatedly molested by a youth minister and that church leaders did nothing about it. That youth minister, Adrian Estrada, is now on death row for the murder of another teenager. The family of the teen who says she was molested believes the church pastor is also to blame for ignoring accusations that the youth minister was raping girls.
El Sendero Assembly of God was a church surrounded in controversy a couple of years ago. Estrada was arrested and sentenced to death for killing a teenage church member who was pregnant with his baby. A second teen then came forward and said Estrada had raped her, too. Now, a third teen has filed a lawsuit against the church and Pastor Raul Garcia.
In another set of indictments, youth minister Daniel J. Lowhorn, 30, of Cookeville was charged with two counts of solicitation of especially aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor, 27 counts of exploitation of a minor by electronic means, five counts of solicitation of a minor for aggravated statutory rape and solicitation of sexual exploitation of a minor by electronic means.
The parents of four children who were sexually assaulted by a member of their Oak Harbor church have filed a lawsuit against the church, leaders of the church and the convicted child molester. The complaint alleges that officials with Living Faith Christian Center were aware of warning signs and complaints regarding Nathan Martinez and his conduct toward children in the church, but they failed to investigate or alert the parents.... Martinez, a 21-year-old youth leader at Living Faith Christian Center, admitted to molesting eight children while he was babysitting them at the children’s homes. He met all the families through the church, but none of the assaults reportedly occurred at the center on Midway Boulevard.
Originally charged with 30 sex crimes, Martinez pleaded guilty to one count of child rape, seven counts of child molestation and one count of attempted child molestation last fall.
And just the headline from this story out of Texas:
Youth Pastors Encouraged to Learn Self-Defense
Because it's the youth pastors that are in danger.
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2
You're really going to keep posting this shit until you get a federally protected right to marry, aren't you? *Sigh*.
3
The Orthodox Jewish Community has their own set of child molester scandals all waiting to attract outside attention, complete with gross negligence and/or elaborate cover ups.
The youth organization NCSY is a good place to start...
The youth organization NCSY is a good place to start...
4
Sue, sue, sue their fucking churches into oblivion. Destroy them and free those enslaved by their myths, superstitions and lies.
5
Let's assume this series of articles (Youth Pastor Watch) succeeds in discrediting community-based religions with youth programs.
It's unrealistic, but let's assume that.
Where will this variety of villain go? Certainly this element of the population will not dwindle away. It would relocate, of course.
So, if not youth pastors, with a ready and infinitely renewable source of impressionable youth, what then?
The problem has been examined, rather thoroughly by this point. What solutions are evident?
Or is this not really about finding solutions?
It's unrealistic, but let's assume that.
Where will this variety of villain go? Certainly this element of the population will not dwindle away. It would relocate, of course.
So, if not youth pastors, with a ready and infinitely renewable source of impressionable youth, what then?
The problem has been examined, rather thoroughly by this point. What solutions are evident?
Or is this not really about finding solutions?
6
5, good question. where would they go? maybe somewhere where children are not wholly entrusted to them in situations which lend them privacy and an august establishments which lend them credibility. as to the finer details of where exactly they would go...i'd be curious to hear ideas, too.
8
Dan's point in posting these Youth Pastor Watch is to highlight the lack of oversight in these churches. There is also the insular effect of denying that anyone who claimed to love Jesus could do something so evil. Remember, Jesus makes you a better person than other people!
It's not dissimilar to the Wall Street fiasco. Crooks & swindlers were drawn to the Street because that's where the unprotected money was. No regulation or oversight for shady dealings makes it very easy to exploit the vulnerable.
And when confronted with their complicity, the "people in charge" start with an attack on the credibility of the complaint. (Pastors think all kids are rebellious liars) Once that tactic is lost, they deny they knew anything, then move on to the "bad apple" excuse.
Those of us who came from backgrounds where these predators roam just might enjoy seeing a few of them caught now & then. Kinda like watching Madoff or Stamford get arrested.
It's not dissimilar to the Wall Street fiasco. Crooks & swindlers were drawn to the Street because that's where the unprotected money was. No regulation or oversight for shady dealings makes it very easy to exploit the vulnerable.
And when confronted with their complicity, the "people in charge" start with an attack on the credibility of the complaint. (Pastors think all kids are rebellious liars) Once that tactic is lost, they deny they knew anything, then move on to the "bad apple" excuse.
Those of us who came from backgrounds where these predators roam just might enjoy seeing a few of them caught now & then. Kinda like watching Madoff or Stamford get arrested.
9
5
That is why it is so important to force the Boy Scouts to allow homosexuals to be Scout Masters.
That is why it is so important to force the Boy Scouts to allow homosexuals to be Scout Masters.
12
You're right Daddy Warbucks, it's lucky you're around to put the Christian POV accross.
It's unfair to imply all Youth Pastors are sex offenders. To redress the balance, all those who have been proven not to have raped or groomed a teenager should be given some form of big special pink merit-badge that says: "I'm saving myself for someone willing and above the legal age of consent."
It's unfair to imply all Youth Pastors are sex offenders. To redress the balance, all those who have been proven not to have raped or groomed a teenager should be given some form of big special pink merit-badge that says: "I'm saving myself for someone willing and above the legal age of consent."
13
I forgot to mention, they should like totally get the big pink merit-badge taken away in a degrading and shaming ceremony if they do inevitably fail to meet the strict criteria of not raping. Then when Jesus comes, it'll be easier for him, he'll be like "okay, who's still got their merit-badges? 1... 2... 3... Aw hell looks like it's most of ya, y'all come on in! We got shrimp!"
14
No. In fact most youth pastors aren't rapists. But for a religion that claims it has some special "unction" of the Holy Spirit to live above and beyond average morality, it's sure isn't much in evidence, is it?
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