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Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Religion Youth Pastor Watch

Posted by Dan Savage on Tue, Jun 7, 2011 at 12:48 PM

Police say a youth pastor at a local church has been arrested on four charges, including one count of child molestation. Authorities say 31 year old Douglas Randall Pope was taken into custody after a complaint last Friday. Police say the department's criminal investigations bureau heard from a 14 year old girl who claimed she had been molested by Pope, the youth pastor of Merrywood Baptist Church in Statesboro. Police told us in a news release that the young victim said the "inappropriate behavior and touching has been occurring over the past two years and also involved other juvenile females."

Louisiana:

A Mansfield youth pastor is accused of sending sexually-oriented text messages to several juvenile members of his church. 25-year-old Adam Dewayne Carter is charged with three counts of computer-aided solicitation of a minor. Carter has been a youth pastor at Temple of Knowledge Church for five years. According to information released by the Mansfield Police Department, the text messages are believed to have begun in November.

Georgia:

An Ooltewah youth pastor and his wife are under investigation for alleged child neglect. The Georgia Department of Family and Children Services raided Brett and Tabitha Sims' Rossville home and took their 6-month-old baby on May 19. Authorities say the child was in such bad shape, he had to be hospitalized with numerous health issues. Newschannel 9 went by the Sims' home Monday, but no one was there. Next door neighbor Barbara Grimes saw the arrest happen. "I was surprised to see the law over there. I can't believe they weren't taking care of that kid."

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wow
religion is bad.
people who do religion are bad.
religion should be against the law.
everyone should have to be a humanist.

Posted by religion is bad on June 7, 2011 at 12:55 PM

This is probably the one thing about SLOG that I absolutely love, is Dan's reporting of religious zealots, caught or convicted of sexual crimes against a minor.

Posted by Kinison

on June 7, 2011 at 1:02 PM

Don't mention it!
It's a labor of love.
Ever since his years as a Catholic altar boy nothing get Danny off like naughty clergy.....

Posted by forgivemefatherforIhavesinned on June 7, 2011 at 1:17 PM

"Computer-aided solicitation of a minor"? Really? Are there telephone-aided solicitations? Gun-aided ones? If I manage one with some unlisted aid, do I get away with it? Is it better or worse than good old fashioned (boring?) solicitation?

I despair for this country.

Posted by BEG

on June 7, 2011 at 1:19 PM

Douglas Randall Pope is only 31?

Posted by easytarget on June 7, 2011 at 1:23 PM

@1 - Glad you finally get it!

Posted by very bad homo on June 7, 2011 at 1:25 PM

@5: My thought exactly. He looks like he's an unhealthy 55.

Posted by jonesey on June 7, 2011 at 1:56 PM

Damn, Dan is Slogging like mad today.

Finally, the Slog pet troll's behavior is explained by its molestation at the hands of a mildly-irritating internet troll with a propensity for diminutive nicknames whose (presumable) sole source of attention other than that of the children he molested was the occasional direct engagement of newsgroup/forum/blog commentors! Jumping to molestation as a behavioral explanation without any reason has to be projection, right?

Posted by John Horstman on June 7, 2011 at 2:08 PM

As much as these people are despicable, I don't think you can blame religion.

Pedophilia is pedophilia and religion doesn't suddenly ignite a latent pathology. These people are sick anyway, and they're just hiding in religion.

Posted by Helix on June 7, 2011 at 2:54 PM

Or child neglect, as the case may be.

As much as it's gratifying to watch Christians do horrid things, you can't blame Christianity.

Posted by Helix on June 7, 2011 at 2:55 PM

@9 The blame goes to the religous groups who feel that their faith makes them so superior that they do not need to conduct background checks when some clearly skeevy dude shows up and asks to work with their children unsupervised.
Just because someone says, "I love Jesus" doesn't mean he isn't a creep.

This is main reason behind YPW, imho. Yes, there are pedophiles and creeps in many walks of like. When one of them shows up at a non-sectarian childcare center, a background check is required, which should prevent many possible crimes. A background check is more than, "When did you start loving Jesus sooooo much?"

Once again, the operative mindset of these groups is simply, "Jesus makes me better than other people."

Posted by Sir Vic on June 7, 2011 at 4:05 PM

Hi, off-topic here, but I feel like maybe I was the only commenter today to notice the temporary change to Dan's by-line, which was curious of course, but Dan's bio blurb may have also been changed during that period (or else he has incredible self-deprecating humor) and hasn't been revised yet if so. Just a heads up!

Posted by stellarspiffy on June 7, 2011 at 4:52 PM

@11 I hadn't thought of it that way, but that's a fairly reasonable argument.

Posted by Helix on June 7, 2011 at 5:27 PM

illinois: http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/news/…

Posted by frankie on June 8, 2011 at 5:27 AM

sorry, figuring out how to post a link on here...brother/sister team from a Christian school in Chicago (where their father is the elder-whatever), charged with molesting the lil kids. eesh...in the Chicago Tribune.

Posted by frankie on June 8, 2011 at 5:34 AM

@9,10,11 While that is a valid point on the lack of background checks, my understanding of Dan's point to these posts is to counter the Christian Right's "all homo's are pedaphiles and they're gonna rape your children!!!!!! Won't somebody please think of the Children!!!!"

Posted by notthatlametroll on June 8, 2011 at 10:26 AM