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Monday, December 17, 2012

Religion "The Polished Shaft"

Posted by Dan Savage on Mon, Dec 17, 2012 at 1:34 PM

Tip for parents: you might wanna keep your kids the hell away from pastors whose signature sermons have titles like "The Polished Shaft." Chicago Magazine:

In July 2010, an hour into the “Polished Shaft” sermon—in a church packed with thousands of teenagers there for a youth conference—Schaap went further. He lifted a stick in his left hand and a silver cloth in his right. He moved the bottom of the stick near his groin and angled it away from himself. Head thrown back, eyes squeezed shut, mouth gaping, he began rubbing the shaft rapidly with the cloth, up and down, up and down.... What he was doing was unmistakable: simulating masturbation, in front of thousands of children, in the middle of a church service. A row of white-coated high-ranking churchmen seated behind Schaap watched in silence. At the end, as usual, young men streamed up to the stage....

The true believers of the ultrafundamentalist Independent Baptist movement were accustomed to Schaap’s style. If he wasn’t scolding his flock for not living up to God’s demands (tithing, volunteering, “soul winning”), he was delivering R-rated sermons that, for example, likened the Lord’s Supper to having sex with Jesus Christ. “He would just repeatedly talk about sex and repeatedly talk about women, how they were dressed and body parts... in graphic detail,” recalls Tom Brennan, who attended the church for six years and is now an Independent Baptist pastor at Maplewood Bible Baptist Church in Chicago.

Unfortunately, it went well beyond talk. Last September, Schaap, 54, a married father of two, pleaded guilty to taking a 16-year-old girl he was counseling at First Baptist across state lines to have sex. Denied bond, he awaits sentencing in the Porter County Jail; the minimum term is ten years.

But Schaap is not simply one of those rogue evangelists who thunders against the evils of forbidden sex while indulging in it himself. According to dozens of current and former church members, religion experts, and historians interviewed by Chicago—plus a review of thousands of pages of court documents—he is part of what some call a deeply embedded culture of misogyny and sexual and physical abuse at one of the nation’s largest churches. Multiple websites tracking the First Baptist Church of Hammond have identified more than a dozen men with ties to the church—many of whom graduated from its college, Hyles-Anderson, or its annual Pastors’ Schools—who fanned out around the country, preaching at their own churches and racking up a string of arrests and civil lawsuits, including physical abuse of minors, sexual molestation, and rape.

Go read the whole horrifying thing. And once again: If kids got raped at Denny's as often as they get raped in churches, people would call CPS on any parents reckless enough to take their kids to Denny's.

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Was he trying to make any sort of valid point? Or did he just want some kind of excuse to pretend to jerk off in front of a room full of kids?

Posted by taephoenix on December 19, 2012 at 1:56 PM

This may be the sickest thing I've ever seen. Ugh. Even worse with the sound.

Posted by Helenka (also a Canuck) on December 18, 2012 at 12:15 PM

WTF ??!!!

Posted by cracked on December 18, 2012 at 9:31 AM

Religion, and religious leaders demand that their flocks blindly follow, trust, and never question them. Basically, they desensitize and groom their followers to accept abuses imposed upon them by the church and clergy.

Posted by Rob in Baltimore

on December 18, 2012 at 9:19 AM

@24 FTW

Posted by Clayton on December 18, 2012 at 5:52 AM

@23 -- oh, is that what he's doing? His roommates must not have gotten much sleep...

Posted by this guy I know in Spokane on December 17, 2012 at 9:29 PM

I attended an all boys religious boarding high school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during the 1960s. None of this surprises me. It was indeed an unforgettable and sexually confusing experience. I was supposed to become a Christian minister. Instead I've become a very happy atheist. But for clarification of what Rev. Schaap is doing? He is trying to demonstrate the (res)erection of the body. Its all about secret sacraments.

Posted by Juan Alfredo on December 17, 2012 at 9:06 PM

I made it through one minute of that and then I felt super icky and creeped out and had to stop.

Posted by JenV on December 17, 2012 at 8:42 PM

Is that a giant size lava lamp behind them?

Posted by GasparFagel on December 17, 2012 at 8:12 PM

He'll do just fine in prison.

Posted by heywhatsit!? on December 17, 2012 at 7:36 PM

Damn - turns out I've been praying before bed all these years!

Posted by zivilisierter Wurm

on December 17, 2012 at 5:45 PM

And to think Churches can go up REAL CLOSE to schools and no one protests, except me and I just looking like a jerk. So I never did it again.

Posted by Sargon Bighorn on December 17, 2012 at 5:10 PM

Ewwww.

Posted by Clayton on December 17, 2012 at 4:16 PM

Okay, that last line is too much. Most churches and church organizations do nothing to harm children. A church is more likely by far to feed and educate a child than to harm him or her.

But yes, serve this hypocrite up one big fat prison sentence.

Posted by DRF on December 17, 2012 at 4:00 PM

Danny is still angry that no one called CPS on his mom.....

Posted by let it go. for your own sake. on December 17, 2012 at 3:53 PM

I always wonder why child abusers can't resist crossing state lines to commit their crimes. Stupid, stupid criminals.

Posted by Prettybetsy on December 17, 2012 at 3:44 PM

I've known since I was a child that religion was a front for sexual abuse and crazy people. ever since I was abused by the guy who was supposed to be giving me bible lessons.

Posted by BallardBoy on December 17, 2012 at 3:41 PM

The guy on the far left seems way, way into what the preacher is doing...

Posted by Sheryl on December 17, 2012 at 3:30 PM

Isn't there something in the Bible about the anti-christ masquerading like a wolf in sheep's clothing?

Posted by kanoxolom on December 17, 2012 at 3:28 PM

I could only watch the first one minute of that and i want my one minute back.

Posted by apres_moi on December 17, 2012 at 3:06 PM

o_O I need a shower... ALONE!

Posted by Cracker Jack on December 17, 2012 at 2:52 PM

The way the men are shifting in their chairs behind him seems to indicate some shameful stirrings in their loins.

Posted by this guy I know in Spokane on December 17, 2012 at 2:42 PM

And of course any of the girls impregnated by those preachers would be expected to carry it to term and raise the progeny as their own. Cause otherwise it's a sin.

Selfish genes, indeed.

Posted by Proteus on December 17, 2012 at 2:32 PM