CHILDREN OF FAITH CULTISTS DIE
BISHOP CHARGED OVER CHURCH ROOF COLLAPSE
COUNSELLING WENT WRONG
Children
whose parents belong to the Faith Tabernacle Congregation in
Philadelphia are at risk as a result of their parents' stubborn belief
in employing faith rather than medicine to cure illness.
In 1991 an 8-year-old boy, Clayton, son of Lorie and Denis Nixon, died as a result of an untreated ear infection. A member of the cult told critics: 'You serve Satan if you go to a doctor.' If people die, she said, 'God wants that person. He takes life. He gives life.' The parents were charged but pleaded no contest and were given probation.
In 1997 tragedy struck the Nixon home again and once more medical treatment could have saved another of their children, this time their 16-year-old daughter Shannon, who died as the result of untreated diabetes.
Shannon lapsed into a coma after four days of severe nausea and dry mouth. The Nixons were charged with involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment. They told jurors that they prayed for Shannon and asked Nixon's father, Charles Nixon - the pastor at Faith Tabernacle - to anoint the child.
The family's lawyer pleaded with the judge to give them probation as Lorie was about to give birth to her 11th child but the judge refused and sentenced the couple to terms of at least 1-1/2 years in prison. 'The irony of using their family as justification for probation is not lost on this court,' Blair County Judge Norman Callan said.
Judge Callan said the couple showed 'no contrition, no remorse, no understanding that they have violated the law,' following the earlier episode involving the death of their son Clayton. To protect the Nixon's remaining children, the judge ordered social workers to visit the Nixons' home monthly. The Nixons were released on bail pending an appeal.
Meanwhile Faith Tabernacle Congregation has continued on its dangerous path - trusting superstition rather than science. A 22-months-old boy, Dean Michael Heilman, died after cutting his foot in a wading pool. His parents, also members of the Faith Tabernacle Congregation, didn't seek medical aid but prayed. The child died from an infection.
And here is yet another story. Just before Christmas in 1996 1-year-old Patrick Foster began sniffling, showing symptoms of a cold. Daniel and Anne-Marie, his parents and members of FTC, did what they always do - pray for his recovery. Days went by, days turned into weeks and then weeks into month but the child only got worse. He became lethargic and gaunt and a growth bulged from his left side. Never mind! Just keep praying.
One day a neighbour saw Patrick on his father's lap outside the home and his condition so alarmed her she called the child abuse line. A battle of wills followed as the parents would not allow their child to be treated. However, a court order forced the issue and the boy was rushed to hospital.
He was found to have a Wilm's tumour, a common type of childhood cancer. Speedy treatment can save 90 percent of victims from death. Doctors thought the little boy had only another 24 hours to live and even after they removed the tumour doubted he would survive. He spent six months in hospital, accompanied by a posses of praying parents and extended family members.
Following his discharge from the hospital Patrick went to live with an aunt and uncle. His parents were convicted of conspiracy and child neglect and sentenced to 14 years' probation. The judge also issued various orders designed to provide protection for their children.
Meanwhile both among members of the Faith Tabernacle Congregation and many other churches in the USA children's lives are threatened by the misguided beliefs of their parents. In past years authorities in religion-riddled America have been reluctant to prosecute parents in such cases but recent years have seen a willingness to act in defence of the children.
A study in the April 1998 issue of Medical Journal Pediatrics of 172 faith-related death in the USA between 1975 and 1995 determined that 140 of them died from conditions for which survival rates with medical care exceeded 90 percent.
Alarmingly 20 of the deaths were among members of the Faith Tabernacle Congregation.In 1991 an 8-year-old boy, Clayton, son of Lorie and Denis Nixon, died as a result of an untreated ear infection. A member of the cult told critics: 'You serve Satan if you go to a doctor.' If people die, she said, 'God wants that person. He takes life. He gives life.' The parents were charged but pleaded no contest and were given probation.
In 1997 tragedy struck the Nixon home again and once more medical treatment could have saved another of their children, this time their 16-year-old daughter Shannon, who died as the result of untreated diabetes.
Shannon lapsed into a coma after four days of severe nausea and dry mouth. The Nixons were charged with involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment. They told jurors that they prayed for Shannon and asked Nixon's father, Charles Nixon - the pastor at Faith Tabernacle - to anoint the child.
The family's lawyer pleaded with the judge to give them probation as Lorie was about to give birth to her 11th child but the judge refused and sentenced the couple to terms of at least 1-1/2 years in prison. 'The irony of using their family as justification for probation is not lost on this court,' Blair County Judge Norman Callan said.
Judge Callan said the couple showed 'no contrition, no remorse, no understanding that they have violated the law,' following the earlier episode involving the death of their son Clayton. To protect the Nixon's remaining children, the judge ordered social workers to visit the Nixons' home monthly. The Nixons were released on bail pending an appeal.
Meanwhile Faith Tabernacle Congregation has continued on its dangerous path - trusting superstition rather than science. A 22-months-old boy, Dean Michael Heilman, died after cutting his foot in a wading pool. His parents, also members of the Faith Tabernacle Congregation, didn't seek medical aid but prayed. The child died from an infection.
And here is yet another story. Just before Christmas in 1996 1-year-old Patrick Foster began sniffling, showing symptoms of a cold. Daniel and Anne-Marie, his parents and members of FTC, did what they always do - pray for his recovery. Days went by, days turned into weeks and then weeks into month but the child only got worse. He became lethargic and gaunt and a growth bulged from his left side. Never mind! Just keep praying.
One day a neighbour saw Patrick on his father's lap outside the home and his condition so alarmed her she called the child abuse line. A battle of wills followed as the parents would not allow their child to be treated. However, a court order forced the issue and the boy was rushed to hospital.
He was found to have a Wilm's tumour, a common type of childhood cancer. Speedy treatment can save 90 percent of victims from death. Doctors thought the little boy had only another 24 hours to live and even after they removed the tumour doubted he would survive. He spent six months in hospital, accompanied by a posses of praying parents and extended family members.
Following his discharge from the hospital Patrick went to live with an aunt and uncle. His parents were convicted of conspiracy and child neglect and sentenced to 14 years' probation. The judge also issued various orders designed to provide protection for their children.
Meanwhile both among members of the Faith Tabernacle Congregation and many other churches in the USA children's lives are threatened by the misguided beliefs of their parents. In past years authorities in religion-riddled America have been reluctant to prosecute parents in such cases but recent years have seen a willingness to act in defence of the children.
A study in the April 1998 issue of Medical Journal Pediatrics of 172 faith-related death in the USA between 1975 and 1995 determined that 140 of them died from conditions for which survival rates with medical care exceeded 90 percent.
BISHOP CHARGED OVER CHURCH ROOF COLLAPSE
In
1998 a congregation of the Church of the Universal Kingdom of God,
meeting for worship in Osasco, Brazil, were crushed by a falling
ceiling. As the church roof caved in 25 worshippers died and another 500 were
injured, some seriously. Termites and mould had rotted the structure.
Brazilian police charged Bishop Reindaldo Suico with involuntary manslaughter. They accused the bishop of ignoring the state of the building and of not making sufficient provision for emergencies.
The service was being held at 2 am in the morning and 1,300 people were packed into the building, a converted movie house. The situation was aggravated by the fact the exit doors were closed and locked.
Brazilian police charged Bishop Reindaldo Suico with involuntary manslaughter. They accused the bishop of ignoring the state of the building and of not making sufficient provision for emergencies.
The service was being held at 2 am in the morning and 1,300 people were packed into the building, a converted movie house. The situation was aggravated by the fact the exit doors were closed and locked.
COUNSELLING WENT WRONG
In March 1995 Father Edward Witczak, 61, a Catholic priest, was sentenced in Brown County Circuit Court, Wisconsin, to 3 years' jail, but the sentence stayed, reduced to a period of 1 year in jail and 3 years' probation. In addition the priest, found guilty of sexually exploiting a parishioner, had to complete 300 hours of community service.
The court was told that a 29-year-old unnamed woman had approached the priest two years earlier, seeing help for marital problems and feelings of guilt that had resulted from being abused as a 5-year old child. But instead of receiving therapy the woman developed a relationship with the priest, which she had called off after two years when she realized it was affecting her marriage.
Witczak pleaded no contest to four counts of sexual contact without consent on four occasions with the victim in 1991 and 1993. He was also forced to resign as pastor of the St Elizabeth Seton Parish in Green Bay.
ABUSED ORPHANS
IN SEPTEMBER 1995 Shane Earle, formerly an inmate of the Mount Cashel orphanage in Newfoundland, received an undisclosed cash settlement, believed to be about $400,000, to compensate for years of abuse at the hads of the Christian Brothers.
During the 1970s Earler had been taken from a broken home and sent to the orphanage. He suffered 15 years of beatings and sexual assaults.
Nine Christian Brothers have been convicted of sexually and physically abusing boys at the orphanage. At least 30 other lawsuits were pending at this time.
'I look at my daughter and I see how innocent she is and I say I was like that once, but I was abused and I was violated and I was tormented,' Earle told reporters. 'How can anybody in their right mind violate such a precious thing?'
PRIESTS IN SWINDLE
Caracol radio network reported in October 1994 that Bogota's St.Thomas Catholic University had filed fraud charges against 6six priestswho
reportedly stole $5 million from a university bank account.
It was reported that the priests opened an account in their names instead of the university's. Four priests have reportedly fled the country soon after.
ST PAUL GETS IT WRONG ABOUT HUMAN HAIR
The closely cropped hair of the male human being is different to the long hair of the female, according to St Paul.
Short male hair is a 'glory to God', while long female hair is 'a glory to man'. In 1 Corinthians 10: 14-15 St Paul supposedly says (there are doubts as to the authenticity of many of his writings): 'Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman has long hair it is a glory to her; for her hair is given to her for a covering.'
A very curious and specious argument on the part of St Paul. It so happens that the hair on the heads of males and females is biologically of the same length. Only tradition dictates how it is cut or kept in various cultures. Nature does not teach what St Paul teaches, if anything the opposite.
In Matthew 19:9 Christ is said to have recognized fornication ('except for fornication' are the unambiguous words, however translated) as grounds for divorce.
Yet in Mark 10: 1-12 we are quite plainly told that Christ forbade divorce on any grounds whatever! (This latter passage is, in fact, quoted as the basis for the strict Roman Catholic teaching on the subject.)
The Book of Daniel in the Old
Testament, one of the prophetic books of the Bible with its famous
Writing on the Wall, was put together by scribes about two centuries
after the events it claims to prophesy, i.e. such events as the fall of
Babylon, and suchlike.
Curiously, although the Christian Church has taken Daniel into its bosom the Jews do not include it among their prophetic works. Not only is it penned two centuries after the events but even then it gets its history wrong. Or at least the 'facts' included in this book do not agree with the same 'facts' in other Biblical books!
And as for the description of the last night of Babylon, it is a piece of sheer fantasy, nothing more. As no doubt was the writing on the wall! With books like this to base their faith upon, the writing is indeed on the wall for Christians and their benighted faith.
Curiously, although the Christian Church has taken Daniel into its bosom the Jews do not include it among their prophetic works. Not only is it penned two centuries after the events but even then it gets its history wrong. Or at least the 'facts' included in this book do not agree with the same 'facts' in other Biblical books!
And as for the description of the last night of Babylon, it is a piece of sheer fantasy, nothing more. As no doubt was the writing on the wall! With books like this to base their faith upon, the writing is indeed on the wall for Christians and their benighted faith.
PRIEST WON'T PAY
In 1978 an 8-year-old girl, Kim Phillips, lived on the Blytheville Air Force Base (USA), since closed down. A priest, Father Timothy Sugrue molested the girl and was brought to trial in Arkansas in 1993. Sugrue was the base chaplain and posed as a 'family friend'.
A jury ordered the priest to pay $1.5 million in reparations. There was, however, a catch. Not a cent has been paid, either by Sugrue of the Catholic Church. Sugrue claimed his Vow of Poverty shielded him from any payout.
However, the Marist Fathers of Washington province put up a sum of $100,000 to provide legal counsel for the priest and an additional $70,000 was spent on psychiatric treatment for the offender.
PRIEST
PAYS CHILD SUPPORT
In 1995 the Reverend John Gilmore, 41, agreed to pay child support to help provide for two children he secretly fathered with one of his parishioners. San Francisco Catholic Bishop John Cummins had suspended the priest but following his agreement to support his children the bishop reinstated him.
Intoned the bishop: 'The Lord chooses imperfect witnesses to accomplish his work.' A friend of the woman was quoted with this rejoinder: 'They were busy trying to keep a secret. Is the church embarrassed that another one of its deep dark secrets was found out? Is it embarrassed that it uses fear, guilt and shame as a way to control situations?'
DEADLY PREACHER
On 5 January 1995 in Sebring, Florida, a joint funeral service was conducted for an elderly couple, Leo and Hazel Gleese, who had been murdered just three days earlier. The service was conducted by the Reverend John Nelson Canning of the Fountain of Life Church, who was said to have considered the couple his surrogate parents.
The couple's killing was gruesome. They had both been beaten with a walking cane and choked. and the reverend gentleman had found the bodies.
However, after a long investigation police charged the Reverend John Canning himself with the murder of the couple. Initially he refused to admit any guilt but eventually agreed to plead guilty to two charges of murder to avoid the death penalty.
The minister was sentenced to two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole. He has since continued to maintain his innocence and is reportedly peddling religion to his fellow-inmates.
US CHILD PROSTITUTES
In 1997 it was reported by UNICEF that an estimated 100,000 boys and girls were currently working as prostitutes in the USA.
In most cases the young people had suffered sexual, emotional or physical abuse in their homes and had been driven onto the streets. They worked on the streets, in bars, in massage parlours and were involved in the manufacture of pornography.
In their new life the young people experienced being controlled by pimps, and contracting various diseases, including HIV-AIDS.
The situation is made worse by the limited information many American young people are given about sex and especially protection against sexually-transmitted infections.
NAVELS
For centuries theologians debated the question of the depiction by artists of navels on the bodies of Adam and Eve. Through the centuries many artists painted in navels, others did not.
Sir Thomas Browne in 1646 commented on 'that tortuosity or complicated nodosity we usually call the Navell.' He thought that Adam and Eve should be depicted with smooth bellies as they had been created and not born in the normal manner.
In 1752 Dr Christian Tobias Ephraim Reinhard published a wordy dissertation on the subject: Untersuchung der Frage: Ob unsere ersten Uraltern, Adam und Eve, einen Nabel gehabt (Examination on the Question: Whether Our First Ancestors, Adam and Eve, Possessed a Navel). The doctor argued the pros and cons through many pages and eventually supported the notion that they had no navels.
However, when Michelangelo painted the panel on the Sistine ceiling depicting Adam receiving the spark of life from Yahweh, he painted a navel on Adam. Thereafter artists tended to follow this tradition.
In 1944 the USA Government was under fire from fundamentalist Christians for producing a pamphlet entitled The Races of Mankind in which Adam and Eve were shown with navels.
A North Carolina Democrat, Representative Durham vigorously denounced the publication, saying it was an insult to fundamentalists.
The navel continued to be an object of debate when Hollywood film producers were forbidden to allow the showing of a navel by female actors. There was trouble when Jeannie showed her navel in the TV series I Dream of Jeannie.
We seem to have today overcome our fear of navels!
UNITARIAN CHARGED
In 1995 David Reed Whitehead, 32,
Vice-President of the Unitarian Universalist Church, was charged with
lewd and lascivious assault. It was alleged he had engaged in sexual
activity three times with a 15-year-old boy. Whitehead taught a
sexuality course for teenagers.
EPISCOPAL PRIEST PEDDLED DRUGS
In January 1997, the Reverend Chester
LaRue, of New York, a priest in the Episcopal (Anglican) Church , was
arrested and charged with criminal possession of cocaine. The priest
had reportedly been selling the drugs out of the church premises.
Police said later that they had arrested the priest in hid bedroom at the church rectory where he was allegedly sitting smoking crack cocaine and typing up a sermon. Also arrested with Father LaRue on the same charges were Thomas Miller, 28, the church custodian; Ruben Serrano, 20, and Shala Forte, 17.
LaRue pleaded guilty to possessing, using and helping to distribute crack cocaine but was given no jail time. He was given three years' probation instead and allowed to retain his position in the church.
Police said later that they had arrested the priest in hid bedroom at the church rectory where he was allegedly sitting smoking crack cocaine and typing up a sermon. Also arrested with Father LaRue on the same charges were Thomas Miller, 28, the church custodian; Ruben Serrano, 20, and Shala Forte, 17.
LaRue pleaded guilty to possessing, using and helping to distribute crack cocaine but was given no jail time. He was given three years' probation instead and allowed to retain his position in the church.
PSYCHIC
PHONE LINES
The Australian Skeptics in mid-1996 investigated 0055 phone lines offering high-priced psychic advice ($5 a minute for some). The group sent a number of unqualified people, including the President of the Victorian Skeptics, Kathy Butler, to apply for positions as phone counsellors. After brief interviews they were accepted!
SHOCKING BAPTIST
In 1981 newspapers reported on the activities of an American Baptist pastor, Dwight Wymer, who was using mild electric shocks which, he claimed, helped children absorb the Christian message. Mr Wymer had developed an electric stool, which employed a six-volt battery connected to two conducting rods on the seat.
'Sometimes God talks to you and calls you, and we just don't listen,' the preacher told children at the Immanuel Baptist Bible School in Grand Rapids, Michigan. 'But sometimes he can shock you into hearing his word and this just makes that demonstration clear.'
A 7-year-old boy said he had wanted to experience the shock but afterwards added 'I wouldn't do it again!' An 8-year-old boy said 'It hurt me until I went home and got into the tub.'
When the story was published it caused widespread outrage and protests resulted in the pastor apologizing publicly for his activities.
In April 1995 it was reported from Apia, Western Samoa, that a battle had erupted between churchmen over the question of a dirty toilet. When the Reverend Loli Eteuati, a minister of the Methodist Church, was about to move from the manse, to make way for a new minister, trouble erupted.
Tavita Ioelu, son of the incoming Methodist minister, commented to Mr Eteuati that the toilet of the manse was dirty. This enraged the former minister and the two argued and swore at each other in a very irreligious manner.
Into this situation now stepped the son of the departing cleric, Enoka, a 24-year-old intent on defending his father's honour. A chase ensued, with Enoka throwing a rock at Tavita Ioelu and waving about a large cane-cutting knife. For his part Tavita now produced a gun, whereupon Enoka lunged at him with the knife, nearly severing one hand. The hand was, in fact, later amputated.
In court in Apia Enoka Eteuati was found guilty of grievous bodily harm. Doubtless the two ministers will continue to preach the Gospel - on the simple premise, 'Do as I say but not as I do.'
EXORCISM DEATH
In California in 1997 two women were given long jail sentences following the death by beating of Breeann Spickard, a 5-year-old girl they claimed was possessed by the Devil.
Julia Ann Olivas, 36, and Esther Rebecca Griggs, 43, said they believed the little girl needed to have the Devil driven from her body. To achieve this end they used a wooden paddle with which they beat the child over a two day period until she eventually succumbed and died.
Griggs supplied the paddle and to help in the exorcism had stuck her foot in the girl's mouth to stop her crying out. The prosecutor said it was one of the most horrific child abuse cases he had encountered. The two women were each sentenced to 26 years in prison. The girl's mother,
Deborah Elizabeth Reynolds, pleaded guilty to second degree murder and was sentenced to 15 years' jail.
SCHOOL PRINCIPAL ABUSE CHARGE
In January 1996 Gerald Partin, 50, Principal of the Community Christian Academy, in Anniston, Alabama (USA), for allegedly molesting a female student. Partin attempted to prevent police conducting interviews with students. He was then charged with First Degree Sexual Abuse and obstructing government operations. Outcome of case unknown.
The Reverend Kenneth Lucht, 54, formerly of the Mahtowa Covenant Church, Duluth, was convicted in 1995 on two charges of 4th degree criminal sexual conduct involving touching but not penetrating a teenage boy who had been asleep at the time.
On one occasion the boy, who had been sleeping in the pastor's home, awoke to find his pants unzipped and Lucht's hands beneath his underwear. The second incident occurred a month later in a cabin on Goodrich Lake. The teen said he punched the pastor after awaking to find him again touching him sexually. Lucht reportedly befriended the boy, who was from a broken home, and invited him, on several occasions, to stay at his home. Court documents show Lucht established a bank account for the victim and bought him gifts.
ABUSING PRIEST EXPOSED
In 1993 Frank Fitzpatrick publicly named Father James Porter as a pedophile who had drugged and raped him as a child. His action inspired others to come forward and in all 130 people levelled accusations against the priest. These included pressing children from behind, groping them, forcing himself on top of them and raping them.
In the end Porter admitted to assaulting up to 100 children and was convicted on charges involving 28 of them. Porter had a long history of child abuse, with his crimes often covered up or treated lightly through the years by Church authorities. At one point he was proclaimed 'cured' but soon lapsed again into his old ways. He was imprisoned in Massachusetts and died in prison in 2005 of cancer.
As a result of the publicity surrounding the case and his part in the priest's prosecution Frank Fitzpatrick went on to help establish a support network of about 2,500 people - known as Survivor Connections - in the USA, Australia and South Africa. Victims use the organization for emotional support and also for help in prosecuting the abusers.
'Everybody has the same fear, shame, emotions and hurt,' says Fitzpatrick. 'A lot of people call who haven't told anybody before. They haven't told
their spouse or parents yet. They want to know that their feelings are not different from everybody else's.'
GUILTY OR INNOCENT?
In 1994 Sherrie Rossi, wife of charismatic preacher, the Reverend Richard A Rossi, was found badly beaten on a rural road. Her husband was arrested and charged with aggravated assault. After a mistrial he pleaded no contest and was sentenced to prison. He was released early for good behaviour and, following pressure from family and church members, his wife, who initially accused him of beating her, recanted. It was later claimed her attacker just 'looked like' her husband. But there were rumours at the time of an affair he had been having with another woman.
NO FUN IN ISLAMABAD
In December 1994 the provincial government in Islamabad, Pakistan, banned New Year's Eve partying. The government warned that police would raid parties and 'anyone having a fun time will be arrested,' no matter how rich or influential they are.
PRIEST'S ANTISEMITISM
During the 1930s a popular radio broadcaster, Father Charles Coughlin, who headed the Christian Front, stirred up antisemitic hatred through his broadcasts. Coughlin was an ardent supporter of Fascism and Nazism. He believed the Jews conspired against capitalism and his magazine published the discredited Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
EXORCISTS IMPRISONED
Two religious zealots were sentenced to several months of prison, and two
received suspended sentences, for the 1993 exorcism death of Joan Vollmer,
49, in Horsham, Australia,
Mrs Vollmer who died after her husband and three others held her on
a chair for 4 hours in 102F-degree heat, slapped her and stroked her carotid artery, triggering a heart attack.
An amateur 'expert', Matthew Nuske, told her husband not to worry for 'God would bring her back shortly.'
LESTER ROLOFF & REBEKAH HOME FOR GIRLS
One day in 1973 two parents visiting the Rebekah Home for Girls - a secretive training institution for delinquents in Texas - heard shrill hysterical screaming. They found three men holding a girl upside-down while they slapped her. It was the beginning of the end for Pastor Lester Roloff.
Piece by piece the story unfolded of gross sadistic abuse of children cut off from any contact with the parents who left them for (they hoped) rehabilitation. The isolated home has been started by Pastor Roloff in 1957 and at any time had up to 150 girls in residence.
On the witness stand Roloff, then aged 65, claimed that although the children were paddled it was done 'in love' and he never left a mark on them. This testimony was countered by photos produced which showed the girls' buttocks heavily bruised.
The court heard that inmates were kept completely isolated from the outside world and possible help. Rock music and makeup were banned and religion drummed into the girls incessantly. Any girl who managed to escape was recaptured, brought back and kept tied up for long periods, or put into a solitary confinement cell.
Roloff eventually managed to wriggle out of trouble by transferring ownership of the home to the People's Baptist Church. Thereafter Texas authorities insisted on overseeing the home's activities.
ELDERLY PRIEST JAILED FOR SEX CRIMES
In the first year after the cease-fire Iin Northern Ireland more than 200 incidents of ‘punishment beatings’ were recorded, with the Republicans (Catholics) being responsible for about 60 percent and the Protestant side for about 40 percent.
One of the worst incidents - a case of mistaken identity as it turned out - involved an IRA gang dragging Denise Clarkin, aged 16, from her Belfast home at gunpoint. She was tied to a lamp-post by the good Catholics and her ponytail cut off, then covered in blue gloss paint.
A shot was fired at her father as he tried to intervene and the gun was put in the girl’s mouth as she was threatened and abused. Another typical incident saw a 24-year-old man beaten and then shot in both elbows.
CLERIC FILMS UPSKIRTS
The notorious activity of filming 'upskirt' shots of women landed Pastor Robert Coombs of Knoxville, Tennessee, in court in March 1997. Mr Coombs, aged 45, was discovered filming in the shoe department of a store. Coombs is pastor of the Norris Religious Fellowship Church. The minister was charged with disorderly conduct.
DRUNK PRIEST
In 1997 Father Jacek Trochim, 62, of the Polish Church of Our Lady of Ostra Brama, in Kidderminster, was banned from driving for a year after being found driving in a drunken state. He had consumed too much communion wine.
CLERGYMAN FAKED ABDUCTION & EXECUTION
The Rev Earlsley White, the 69-year-old minister of Park Parish Church in Uddingston, Lanarkshire (Scotland), was in a meeting with 300 Cubs and Scouts when an assailant burst in with a handgun, grabbing the minister. Ordering the children to 'shut up,' the abductor led the minister out of the building after which the congregation heard shots apparently being fired.
The law found the staged event to be 'idiotic, irresponsible and insensitive'. For his part the minister believed the 'surprise drama' illustrated the theme of religious intolerance. White was fined £500 and his accomplice, an SAS soldier, Matthew Smith, was ordered to perform 240 hours of community service.
PRIEST ASSAULTS 13-YEAR-OLD GIRL AFTER BAPTISM
In 1996 a Methodist Church pastor, John A. Weller, of Pickneyville, Illinois, was sentenced to 3 years in prison for sexually abusing 2 teenage boys.Weller was charged with one count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and one count of criminal sexual assault.
The Australian Skeptics in mid-1996 investigated 0055 phone lines offering high-priced psychic advice ($5 a minute for some). The group sent a number of unqualified people, including the President of the Victorian Skeptics, Kathy Butler, to apply for positions as phone counsellors. After brief interviews they were accepted!
SHOCKING BAPTIST
In 1981 newspapers reported on the activities of an American Baptist pastor, Dwight Wymer, who was using mild electric shocks which, he claimed, helped children absorb the Christian message. Mr Wymer had developed an electric stool, which employed a six-volt battery connected to two conducting rods on the seat.
'Sometimes God talks to you and calls you, and we just don't listen,' the preacher told children at the Immanuel Baptist Bible School in Grand Rapids, Michigan. 'But sometimes he can shock you into hearing his word and this just makes that demonstration clear.'
A 7-year-old boy said he had wanted to experience the shock but afterwards added 'I wouldn't do it again!' An 8-year-old boy said 'It hurt me until I went home and got into the tub.'
When the story was published it caused widespread outrage and protests resulted in the pastor apologizing publicly for his activities.
TOILET BATTLE
In April 1995 it was reported from Apia, Western Samoa, that a battle had erupted between churchmen over the question of a dirty toilet. When the Reverend Loli Eteuati, a minister of the Methodist Church, was about to move from the manse, to make way for a new minister, trouble erupted.
Tavita Ioelu, son of the incoming Methodist minister, commented to Mr Eteuati that the toilet of the manse was dirty. This enraged the former minister and the two argued and swore at each other in a very irreligious manner.
Into this situation now stepped the son of the departing cleric, Enoka, a 24-year-old intent on defending his father's honour. A chase ensued, with Enoka throwing a rock at Tavita Ioelu and waving about a large cane-cutting knife. For his part Tavita now produced a gun, whereupon Enoka lunged at him with the knife, nearly severing one hand. The hand was, in fact, later amputated.
In court in Apia Enoka Eteuati was found guilty of grievous bodily harm. Doubtless the two ministers will continue to preach the Gospel - on the simple premise, 'Do as I say but not as I do.'
EXORCISM DEATH
In California in 1997 two women were given long jail sentences following the death by beating of Breeann Spickard, a 5-year-old girl they claimed was possessed by the Devil.
Julia Ann Olivas, 36, and Esther Rebecca Griggs, 43, said they believed the little girl needed to have the Devil driven from her body. To achieve this end they used a wooden paddle with which they beat the child over a two day period until she eventually succumbed and died.
Griggs supplied the paddle and to help in the exorcism had stuck her foot in the girl's mouth to stop her crying out. The prosecutor said it was one of the most horrific child abuse cases he had encountered. The two women were each sentenced to 26 years in prison. The girl's mother,
Deborah Elizabeth Reynolds, pleaded guilty to second degree murder and was sentenced to 15 years' jail.
SCHOOL PRINCIPAL ABUSE CHARGE
In January 1996 Gerald Partin, 50, Principal of the Community Christian Academy, in Anniston, Alabama (USA), for allegedly molesting a female student. Partin attempted to prevent police conducting interviews with students. He was then charged with First Degree Sexual Abuse and obstructing government operations. Outcome of case unknown.
PASTOR ACCUSED OF MOLESTING SLEEPING BOY
The Reverend Kenneth Lucht, 54, formerly of the Mahtowa Covenant Church, Duluth, was convicted in 1995 on two charges of 4th degree criminal sexual conduct involving touching but not penetrating a teenage boy who had been asleep at the time.
On one occasion the boy, who had been sleeping in the pastor's home, awoke to find his pants unzipped and Lucht's hands beneath his underwear. The second incident occurred a month later in a cabin on Goodrich Lake. The teen said he punched the pastor after awaking to find him again touching him sexually. Lucht reportedly befriended the boy, who was from a broken home, and invited him, on several occasions, to stay at his home. Court documents show Lucht established a bank account for the victim and bought him gifts.
ABUSING PRIEST EXPOSED
In 1993 Frank Fitzpatrick publicly named Father James Porter as a pedophile who had drugged and raped him as a child. His action inspired others to come forward and in all 130 people levelled accusations against the priest. These included pressing children from behind, groping them, forcing himself on top of them and raping them.
In the end Porter admitted to assaulting up to 100 children and was convicted on charges involving 28 of them. Porter had a long history of child abuse, with his crimes often covered up or treated lightly through the years by Church authorities. At one point he was proclaimed 'cured' but soon lapsed again into his old ways. He was imprisoned in Massachusetts and died in prison in 2005 of cancer.
As a result of the publicity surrounding the case and his part in the priest's prosecution Frank Fitzpatrick went on to help establish a support network of about 2,500 people - known as Survivor Connections - in the USA, Australia and South Africa. Victims use the organization for emotional support and also for help in prosecuting the abusers.
'Everybody has the same fear, shame, emotions and hurt,' says Fitzpatrick. 'A lot of people call who haven't told anybody before. They haven't told
their spouse or parents yet. They want to know that their feelings are not different from everybody else's.'
GUILTY OR INNOCENT?
In 1994 Sherrie Rossi, wife of charismatic preacher, the Reverend Richard A Rossi, was found badly beaten on a rural road. Her husband was arrested and charged with aggravated assault. After a mistrial he pleaded no contest and was sentenced to prison. He was released early for good behaviour and, following pressure from family and church members, his wife, who initially accused him of beating her, recanted. It was later claimed her attacker just 'looked like' her husband. But there were rumours at the time of an affair he had been having with another woman.
NO FUN IN ISLAMABAD
In December 1994 the provincial government in Islamabad, Pakistan, banned New Year's Eve partying. The government warned that police would raid parties and 'anyone having a fun time will be arrested,' no matter how rich or influential they are.
PRIEST'S ANTISEMITISM
During the 1930s a popular radio broadcaster, Father Charles Coughlin, who headed the Christian Front, stirred up antisemitic hatred through his broadcasts. Coughlin was an ardent supporter of Fascism and Nazism. He believed the Jews conspired against capitalism and his magazine published the discredited Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
EXORCISTS IMPRISONED
Two religious zealots were sentenced to several months of prison, and two
received suspended sentences, for the 1993 exorcism death of Joan Vollmer,
49, in Horsham, Australia,
Mrs Vollmer who died after her husband and three others held her on
a chair for 4 hours in 102F-degree heat, slapped her and stroked her carotid artery, triggering a heart attack.
An amateur 'expert', Matthew Nuske, told her husband not to worry for 'God would bring her back shortly.'
LESTER ROLOFF & REBEKAH HOME FOR GIRLS
One day in 1973 two parents visiting the Rebekah Home for Girls - a secretive training institution for delinquents in Texas - heard shrill hysterical screaming. They found three men holding a girl upside-down while they slapped her. It was the beginning of the end for Pastor Lester Roloff.
Piece by piece the story unfolded of gross sadistic abuse of children cut off from any contact with the parents who left them for (they hoped) rehabilitation. The isolated home has been started by Pastor Roloff in 1957 and at any time had up to 150 girls in residence.
On the witness stand Roloff, then aged 65, claimed that although the children were paddled it was done 'in love' and he never left a mark on them. This testimony was countered by photos produced which showed the girls' buttocks heavily bruised.
The court heard that inmates were kept completely isolated from the outside world and possible help. Rock music and makeup were banned and religion drummed into the girls incessantly. Any girl who managed to escape was recaptured, brought back and kept tied up for long periods, or put into a solitary confinement cell.
Roloff eventually managed to wriggle out of trouble by transferring ownership of the home to the People's Baptist Church. Thereafter Texas authorities insisted on overseeing the home's activities.
ELDERLY PRIEST JAILED FOR SEX CRIMES
In
1999 an Australian priest, Father Reginald Basil Durham, aged 83, was
jailed for 4/18 months for sex crimes committed against children at an
orphanage near Rockhampton, Queensland.
Father Durham was charged with 15 counts of indecently dealing with a girl under the age of 14, 10 counts of indecently dealing with a girl under the age of 16, three counts of rape and 16 counts of indecently dealing with a boy under the age of 16. He eventually pleaded guilty to six counts of indecent dealing with a young girl.
Former residents of the institution reported not only sexual abuse but cruel physical punishments. One man recalls how children who ran away were caught and returned, after which they were stripped naked and flogged in front of the whole school. The Durham story was not ended with the sentence as he was later charged on further counts and sentenced to a further jail term.
Father Durham was charged with 15 counts of indecently dealing with a girl under the age of 14, 10 counts of indecently dealing with a girl under the age of 16, three counts of rape and 16 counts of indecently dealing with a boy under the age of 16. He eventually pleaded guilty to six counts of indecent dealing with a young girl.
Former residents of the institution reported not only sexual abuse but cruel physical punishments. One man recalls how children who ran away were caught and returned, after which they were stripped naked and flogged in front of the whole school. The Durham story was not ended with the sentence as he was later charged on further counts and sentenced to a further jail term.
CATHOLICS AND PROTESTANTS AT WAR
In the first year after the cease-fire Iin Northern Ireland more than 200 incidents of ‘punishment beatings’ were recorded, with the Republicans (Catholics) being responsible for about 60 percent and the Protestant side for about 40 percent.
One of the worst incidents - a case of mistaken identity as it turned out - involved an IRA gang dragging Denise Clarkin, aged 16, from her Belfast home at gunpoint. She was tied to a lamp-post by the good Catholics and her ponytail cut off, then covered in blue gloss paint.
A shot was fired at her father as he tried to intervene and the gun was put in the girl’s mouth as she was threatened and abused. Another typical incident saw a 24-year-old man beaten and then shot in both elbows.
CLERIC FILMS UPSKIRTS
The notorious activity of filming 'upskirt' shots of women landed Pastor Robert Coombs of Knoxville, Tennessee, in court in March 1997. Mr Coombs, aged 45, was discovered filming in the shoe department of a store. Coombs is pastor of the Norris Religious Fellowship Church. The minister was charged with disorderly conduct.
DRUNK PRIEST
In 1997 Father Jacek Trochim, 62, of the Polish Church of Our Lady of Ostra Brama, in Kidderminster, was banned from driving for a year after being found driving in a drunken state. He had consumed too much communion wine.
CLERGYMAN FAKED ABDUCTION & EXECUTION
The Rev Earlsley White, the 69-year-old minister of Park Parish Church in Uddingston, Lanarkshire (Scotland), was in a meeting with 300 Cubs and Scouts when an assailant burst in with a handgun, grabbing the minister. Ordering the children to 'shut up,' the abductor led the minister out of the building after which the congregation heard shots apparently being fired.
The law found the staged event to be 'idiotic, irresponsible and insensitive'. For his part the minister believed the 'surprise drama' illustrated the theme of religious intolerance. White was fined £500 and his accomplice, an SAS soldier, Matthew Smith, was ordered to perform 240 hours of community service.
PRIEST ASSAULTS 13-YEAR-OLD GIRL AFTER BAPTISM
In
1998 a Welsh Catholic priest, Father John Lloyd, was found guilty of
sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl he had just baptized. He was
jailed. The next year the diocesan Bishop, John Aloysius Ward, was
arrested after being accused of raping a woman with a crucifix. He
denied the accusation and was never charged. In the same diocese in
2000 Father Joseph Jordan was imprisoned for indecent assaults on boys
and for downloading child pornography from the Internet.
METHODIST ABUSER
In 1996 a Methodist Church pastor, John A. Weller, of Pickneyville, Illinois, was sentenced to 3 years in prison for sexually abusing 2 teenage boys.Weller was charged with one count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and one count of criminal sexual assault.
BIBLE SCHOOL TEACHER GOES TO JAIL
In 1995 Round Lake Community Church (Illinois) Sunday and Vacation Bible School teacher Joseph Escalera, 51, was sentenced to 7 years in prison for sexually molesting a 10-year-old boy. In return for a guilty plea to aggravated criminal sexual abuse, other charges against Escalera were dismissed.
The boy and Escalera's mentally disabled roommate participated in the church's youth group. In June and July of '94 the boy befriended the roommate and slept over about once a week. Police say Escalera admitted he fondled the boy and masturbated while the boy undressed.
At the time of his arrest, Escalera was on 4 years probation for a 1988 conviction of 3 counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault for incidents in Mount Prospect.
PASTOR HOLDS TEEN
In 1996 a Jacksonville pastor, Charles Riggleman, was charged with attempted false imprisonment and battery, and accused of touching a woman, 19, against her will after he tried to stop her from leaving an anti-abortion haunted house display at The Door Christian Fellowship Church on Halloween.
FALL OF EVANGELICAL LEADER
In November 2006 the Reverend Ted Haggard of the American National Association of Evangelicals resigned his position as president of the group over charges that he paid a Denver man for sex during the previous three years.
Mike Jones, 49, of Denver gave reporters details of his alleged liaisons with Pastor Haggard, and said that he had voicemails from the prominent televangelist as well as an envelope he said the preacher used to mail him cash for sexual services.
Haggard was considered one of the most powerful evangelical leaders in the country, who not only headed the national organization but was pastor of the 14,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs. According to many observers Haggard was closely allied to the Republican Party and played an instrumental role in the re-election of President Bush in 2004. He also reportedly talked to Bush in person or by phone on a weekly basis.
Haggard's church has taken a strong stand on the issues of same-sex marriage and homosexuality. Haggard later resigned from the church.
BAPTIST PASTOR'S SNIDE BAPTISMS
In 1995 Pastor Mike Holloway of the Temple Baptist Church, in Indianapolis, came up with a cute scheme to get more souls into the church. He kindly provided facilities to take children for trips from their housing estates. Trouble was, without parental consent, he would baptise the children while they were in his charge. [COMMENT: Perhaps he's a foot fetishist like me; good way to get the children barefoot!]
CATHOLIC DE-BAPTIZERS
In 1996 a report in the left-wing paper Liberation said that as a means of protest French Catholics in their hundreds are seeking to cancel their baptisms. They were doing so as a mark of protest against the appalling polices expounded by Pope John Paul 2nd, who was due to visit France. The Pope was well-known for his advocacy of misery-inducing policies, e.g. comparing abortion to genocide, refusing to condone artificial means of birth control, with - of greatest concern - the promotion of unbridled population explosion in poor third-world countries.
French libertarian group Vivre attached the title 'criminal' to the Pope for his actions. Catholic parishes reported a string of telephone calls and letters demanding that people's names be dropped from baptismal registers or notes attached stating 'renounced baptism'. One de-baptizer summed up the matter thus: 'My philosophical convictions do not correspond with those who, in good faith, felt a duty to have me baptized.'
[COMMENT: Surely people will look back in the future and point the finger at the doleful influence of this one man, supposedly so great, as being a contributory cause of the vast human misery that will engulf the world through over-population.]
Some statistics . . .
In surveys conducted in the USA - 78 percent of Catholic said birth control was not wrong, 75 percent of Catholics said sex before marriage was not wrong, 60 percent favoured women priests, 58 percent thought priests should be allowed to marry, and 64 percent said abortion was not morally wrong. Clearly the Church hierarchy is quite out of touch with the laity.
MUSLIMS AND CHRISTIANS CLASH AT SCHOOL
It was early in December 1996 at the Washwood Heath Secondary School in inner-city Birmingham (UK) and the children were gathered in the assembly hall, practising for the forthcoming Christmas concert.
The children had performed a series of familiar Christmas favourites, including Away in a Manger. With younger children present as a rehearsal audience, the choir reached the last few bars of the popular Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas when all hell broke loose, as they say.
A Muslim maths teach, Israr Khan, had jumped to his feet and demanded to know '‘Why are you saying Jesus and Jesus Christ? God is not your God, it is Allah.’ Joining his protests were some of the Muslim pupils who chanted in support of the teacher. In the uproar that followed many pupils were in tears.
Derek Rouse, 45, whose daughter Cassie, 15, was in the choir, said: 'It is double standards. If it was a child who had come out and said something like this they would have been expelled.' His wife, Sally, said: 'My daughter came home in tears. It shows a disregard for other religions.
A spokesman for Birmingham’s Education Department said: 'The school is determined that the concert will go ahead as planned.' The school has over 1200 pupils and is in a part of Birmingham with a large Asian population. Staff are said to go out of their way to celebrate the major religious festivals recognised by its pupils, including the Muslim Ramadan and Hindu Diwali as well as Christmas.
Mr Khan was later said to be planning on running a school pilgrimate to Mecca.
REMEMBERING JIMMY SWAGGART
Remember Jimmy Swaggart? He was a televangelist who opposed the education of children in sexual matters because, he claimed, this 'promoted incest'. He operated a giant evangelistic enterprise but fell from grace when he engaged the services of a prostitute.
PRIEST JAILED FOR SEX ACTS
In 1996 a Canadian Catholic priest, the Reverend James Scoles, 63, was sentenced to five years in prison for sexually abusing four altar-boys while serving as a priest at St Basil's parish in Brantford from 1971-82 and at Holy Rosary parish in Milton, Ontario in 1983. The priest pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent assault and one count of sexual assault.
PRESBYTERIAN IN TROUBLE
The Reverend Eugene B. Templeton, associate pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Chatham Township, New Jersey, was arrested in January 1996 and charged with ordering and receiving sexually-explicit videos of children through the mail.
DEVIL IN GIRL'S EYES?
In
October 2007 Janet Moses, 22, died by drowning during an exorcism
ceremony conducted by her Maori family. Water had been forced into her
eyes, believing it would drive 'the Devil' from her. Water was also
poured down her throat. One month later, another member of the family,
a 14-year-old girl, was subjected to the same treatment and had to be
treated in hospital for damage to her eyes.
TRUST BETRAYED
A
26-year-old American woman, suffering depression and chronic fatigue
syndrome phoned a Christian therapy hotline on a religious radio
station one day in 1994.
The worker who answered her call referred her to Dr James Lisle. The worker assured the caller that Dr Lisle was 'the most godly' therapist there. During a subsequent session of therapy Lisle told the woman: 'You are so pure.' He told her to sit on his lap and touch him wherever she wished. 'You'll never learn to trust people if you don't touch me,' she later told a court he'd said.
Eventually the pair had sex and the woman became pregnant. Lisle was later sentenced to a year in jail for violating a state law that prohibits therapists from sexual contact with their patients. He also lost his licence.
Jean Harlow’s mother was a Christian Scientist. In 1937, when the star was just 26, she developed some sort of infection and her mother denied her daughter medical treatment until it was too late. On 7 June 1937, Harlow died. Doctors later said that the newly-developed sulfur drugs would probably have saved her life.
The worker who answered her call referred her to Dr James Lisle. The worker assured the caller that Dr Lisle was 'the most godly' therapist there. During a subsequent session of therapy Lisle told the woman: 'You are so pure.' He told her to sit on his lap and touch him wherever she wished. 'You'll never learn to trust people if you don't touch me,' she later told a court he'd said.
Eventually the pair had sex and the woman became pregnant. Lisle was later sentenced to a year in jail for violating a state law that prohibits therapists from sexual contact with their patients. He also lost his licence.
FAITH MISPLACED
Jean Harlow’s mother was a Christian Scientist. In 1937, when the star was just 26, she developed some sort of infection and her mother denied her daughter medical treatment until it was too late. On 7 June 1937, Harlow died. Doctors later said that the newly-developed sulfur drugs would probably have saved her life.
NURSES SUPPORT EUTHANASIA
In February 1998 The Sydney Morning Herald reported that eighty percent of NSW nurses support voluntary euthanasia and 22 percent would be happy to give the lethal injection to a patient who has chosen to die, a random survey of 475 nurses' union members has found.
Seven out of 10 nurses also supported physician-assisted suicide (in which a doctor prepares a lethal dosage and the patient administers it), while another four in 10 would help a patient to inject him or herself, the NSW Nurses' Association poll revealed.
Welcoming the survey, a spokesman for the Coalition of Organisations for Voluntary Euthanasia, Dr Robert Marr, called for politicians to have the courage to stand up to vocal religious groups when opinion polls showed over 70 percent of Australians favoured legalising voluntary euthanasia.
RAPE VICTIM FLOGGED
In 1994 - Instead of convicting her rapist, a self-appointed village 'court' of thirteen priests in Bakshipara, Bangladesh sentenced Hazera Begum, a 20-year-old rape victim, to 80 lashes with a bamboo cane for having 'unlawful sex.' She had not been able to produce the required three male witnesses. The woman collapsed after 35 blows.
ORTHODOX PRIEST ACCUSED
The Manhattan Spirit journal reported in June 1996 that a 70-year-old Greek Orthodox priest, Paul ischie, was charged with sexually abusing a 24-year-old man. The priest reportedly invited the man to visit him in his apartment and while the man was there allegedly made sexual advances towards him. The man fled.
EVEN BAPTISTS HAVE PONZI SCHEMES
'Not one investor has ever lost a penny of their investment,' was the oft-repeated mantra of the managers of the Baptist Foundation of Arizona. For a long time this was true and not only were members' funds safe but they received regular returns - at a high rate of interest.
But an organization that started out with good intentions in 1948 was effectively hijacked years later. Under the management of Bill Crofts, son of the organization's first (and upstanding) president, BFA began in the 1990s to record losses in its investment.
To this point the Foundation was a legitimate investment vehicle and any such funds can have genuine problems with investments. But instead of confronting the situation and reporting losses to members Crofts and other associates began hiding the problems through sham transactions. Soon a full-fledged Ponzi scheme was in operation with funds from new investors being used to cover payments to old investors.
As with all Ponzi scheme there was an inevitable end to it all and by 1999 the game was up. The BFA collapsed with massive losses. Fortunately for many investors the accountancy firm, Arthur Andersen that has audited the fund, was compelled to pay some compensation. In 2006 two executives were given lengthy jail terms.
LIFE IN A HORROR CHURCH
In
March 2001 authorities took 41 children into protective custody. The
children belonged to families associated with the House of Prayer, a
church headed by the Reverend Arthur Allen.
Authorities alleged that children and teenagers had been physically abused with reports of youngsters being held down and belted at the command of Pastor Allen.
In 1993 Allen admitted in court to having ordered members of his congregation to whip a 16-year-old girl with belts, a beating so severe it resulted in bleeding. Allen said the girl has been 'beaten into submission.'
At a preliminary hearing of the new charges, a police investigator testified that Allen directed regular beatings of children. The youngsters were tied up and suspended by their arms and hands, and 'beaten with switches, sticks or belts.' Photographs produced at the hearing showed welts on some of the victims, including one in the shape of a belt buckle.
Reports also came from several other children, aged as young as 7 years. One parent told the judge that the whippings had become so common that he had lost count of how many he had seen at Allen's church. In separate complaints against the preacher it has been asserted he fostered child marriages.
Authorities alleged that children and teenagers had been physically abused with reports of youngsters being held down and belted at the command of Pastor Allen.
In 1993 Allen admitted in court to having ordered members of his congregation to whip a 16-year-old girl with belts, a beating so severe it resulted in bleeding. Allen said the girl has been 'beaten into submission.'
At a preliminary hearing of the new charges, a police investigator testified that Allen directed regular beatings of children. The youngsters were tied up and suspended by their arms and hands, and 'beaten with switches, sticks or belts.' Photographs produced at the hearing showed welts on some of the victims, including one in the shape of a belt buckle.
Reports also came from several other children, aged as young as 7 years. One parent told the judge that the whippings had become so common that he had lost count of how many he had seen at Allen's church. In separate complaints against the preacher it has been asserted he fostered child marriages.
PRIEST LIVED HIGH ON THE HOG.
The Reverend Martin Greenlaw, a San Francisco Catholic priest, was charged in November 1995 with 22 counts of theft and embezzlement of $US600,000 from church funds. He was sentenced to a year in jail.
The priest reportedly used 31 different credit cards, spending up on such items as expensive furnishings. The Archdiocese of San Francisco is also suing Greenlaw in a civil court for return of $250,000.
CHRISTIANS CONDEMN CHRISTIANS TO GALLEYS.
One of the punishments meted out to the Huguenots (Protestants) of France by Catholics was to condemn them to the galleys. There a prisoner was chained to a bench night and day, 365 days in a year, kept either completely naked or nearly so, in hot or cold weather, and required to eat, sleep, work and answer the calls of nature while helplessly confined to that one small moving spot on earth.
And all the while his back bared was kept ready to receive the lashes of the overseer. Chevalier Langeron, captain of one ship, La Palme, was reported as having told his overseer: ‘Go and refresh the backs of these Huguenots (Protestants) with a salad of strokes of the whip.’
There are on record cases where boys as young as 12, sons of Huguenots, were sent to the galleys (Athanase Coquerel: Les Forcats pour la Foi, p.91). There was no real crime involved. Just meeting together and worshipping in a non-Catholic mode was sufficient cause, even in one’s own home. In 1728, for example, 13 adult Protestants were found worshipping together in an apartment at Montpelier. The three pastors and leaders were hanged, the other 10 laymen sent to the galleys for life.
En route to Marseille, the usual point of embarkation, each man was loaded down with about 70kg of iron and as they marched the good Catholic populace spat upon them and abused them.
If they spent time in Paris they were lodged in a huge underground dungeon in the Chateau de la Tournelle, which was - conveniently - under the spiritual direction of the Jesuits.
And not only would the Huguenots lose life and liberty but their estates would be confiscated by the Church and their families thus be left destitute.
STUN GUN USED ON WIFE.
James Musgrove, a Texas millionaire land developer, described as 'a good Baptist', used a stun gun to subdue his wife so he could rape her. In 1991 he broke into the home in San Antonio where his estranged wife was living, kidnapped her, subdued her with 16 or 17 stun gun shots, then raped her. He was given a long prison sentence.
EMPLOYERS PRESS FOR CHURCH ATTENDANCE
In February 1998 Grace Ciculla appeared before the Anti-Discrimination Tribunal in Melbourne alleging that her former employers, David and Kathleen Curwen-Walker, had forced her to attend Pentecostalist services in which people had spoken in tongues and thrown themselves on the floor.
Ms Ciculla is a Catholic and she resigned after the incident. She had worked as a sales assistant with the firm. She said the couple had spoken to her about religion soon after she arrived there and continued to raise the subject two or three times a day. They also criticised her for smoking and drinking coffee. The latter was ‘passed on by the Devil,’ they claimed.
Under what she thought was an implied threat to her job she finally attended a church service. Asked in court about her reaction, she said: I nearly threw up . . . I did not expect people to be throwing themselves on the floor and speaking in tongues . . . I did not expect to be asked by every person there if I was going to be saved.’
LOVELY LIPS FOR JESUS?
When the Topshop retail chain in Singapore introduced a lip balm and other cosmetics early in 2008 they thought they had a winner. But the Lookin' Good for Jesus line didn't look good to some Catholics. They complained that the marketing was 'full of sexual innuendo and trivialised Christianity.'
The lip balm was named Virtuous Vanilla while the the hand and body cream was named Get Tight With Christ. The product logo comprised a sketch of Christ with two adoring women looking at him. The retailer withdrew the line.
MYSTERY OF CHILD'S DEATH
In 1995 The New York Times told the story of Gilbert Bonneau who died 42 years earlier while in the care of St. Coleman's home for Boys and Girls in Albany (New York). The child's death had been put down to natural causes but in 1978 a woman named Marian Maynard contacted the family and reported that she had seen the little boy beaten to death by a nun, Sister Fidelia.
Records indicate that the nun had moved on three years before the child's death but that a girl named Maynard was in residence at the time. However, all efforts by the family to determine the facts have failed. It has been discovered, though, that the autopsy on the boy was performed hours before the actual reported time of his death.
RESURRECTED POPE?
After his death in CE 896 the body of Pope Fortunatis was exhumed and he was tried for various crimes.
SATANIC SYMBOLS?
The discussion of belief in Satan reminds one of the amazing controversy that engulfed the American firm Proctor & Gamble some years back. The rumours centred on the firm's moon and stars logo which, it was claimed by some, was an occult and Satanic symbol, They claimed Proctor and Gamble directed a share of corporate profits to the Church of Satan. A campaign of anonymous leaflet distribution was waged, especially targeting fundamentalist Christian congregations. Proctor & Gamble became so alarmed at the effects such a campaign were having on their business that they eventually dropped the logo. Some Amway distributors were at one stage accused of being involved in the rumour-mongering. The whole episode will be detailed in a future issue. It is an amazing example of the irrationality of belief.
LIMITED DISCIPLESHIP
An Australian reporter travelling in a taxi in Atlanta during the Olympic Games period, described how his African-American driver described himself as a lifelong Christian family man and Gospel singer. But during the ride into a nasty part of the city the driver pulled out a gun and was ready to attack someone who had damaged his car. The alarmed reporter tried to calm him but he replied: 'No doubt 'bout that, I'm gonna kill that bastard that hit my car.' The driver also reported that he had been married twice and how he had not marched in the Martin Luther King demonstrations because 'if someone spat on my face, I could not turn the other cheek.' - Reported in The Australian newspaper, 17/7/96
EDUCATOR ABUSED GIRLS
Roger B. Smith, founder of Keystone Christian Academy Hermitage, Pennsylvania, in 1995 pleaded guilty to 3 counts of 1st degree misdemeanours including indecent assault and sexual abuse of children. Assistant District Attorney Robert Kochems told a court that Smith touched two young girls, aged 7 and 8, under their clothes while videotaping them in his office in 1994. Police claimed that Smith made a girl 'swear on God's grave' not to tell anyone. Smith was sentenced to serve 6 to 23 months in jail.
PASTOR GOES TO JAIL
Also in Pennsylvania Pastor Darran Andrew Chick, 32, of the First Church of Christ in Lock Haven, in 1995 confessed to repeatedly raping an 8-year-old girl. Chick, who had attempted suicide, pleaded guilty to 3 counts of rape, 1 count each of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and aggravated indecent assault. He was sentenced to 14-62 years in prison.
BLOOD TRANFUSION CONFUSION
In 1998 a drunk driver, Keith Cook, ran down a Jehovah's Witness, Jadine Russell. Mrs Russell refused blood and eventually died from her injuries. Cook was arrested and tried for second degree murder. The case aroused considerable interest as it posed the question as to whether Mrs Russell's refusal of a blood transfusion hastened her end. The jury found it difficult to decide, deliberating for three and a half days. Eventually they decided to divide responsibility between the two parties. finding Mr Cook guilty of manslaughter. He was given a 10-year sentence.
IRANIAN CHILD STONED
In 2004 a 13-year-old girl known only as 'Zhila' or ' Jila' was sentenced to death by stoning in Iran. Her 'offence'? She was impregnated by her 15-year-old brother. Death by stoning is the punishment for adultery but the girl did not commit adultery, she was raped. An official document states: 'Females condemned are buried up to their neck to prevent their escape . . . while 'the stones are specifically chosen so they are large enough to cause pain, but not so large as to kill the condemned immediately. They are guaranteed a slow, torturous death. Sometimes their children are forced to watch.'
JAMES RELIC PRONOUNCED FAKE
A stone box, known as the 'James Ossuary' - reputedly carrying an inscription referring to James 'the brother of Jesus' was declared a fake in June 2003. When Andre Lemaire, a noted French scholar, concluded that the Aramaic inscription referred to the James of the New Testament, the find was hailed by the faithful. It was the closest link yet to Jesus Christ. Alas for the excited disciples, careful examination of the object by Israeli archeological experts revealed that fakery was evident. The results of Lemaire's examination were published by the Biblical Archaeological Review, but without the benefit of peer review or third-party testing. It is believed a computer program may have been used to etch the writing onto the box, after scanning actual ancient texts.
ANGLICAN VICAR ASSAULTS GIRLS
The Reverend Guy Bennett, 66, a retired Anglican vicar, pleaded guilty in April 1999 to the sexual assault of three 11-year-old girls. Mr Bennett had earlier resigned from St Mary's parish church, Oxted (Surrey). The assaults took place between 1976 and 1988. As well as being the church minister Mr Bennett had taught religious education part-time at a local school and had earlier served as a chaplain at Butlin's Holiday Camp. (No sentencing information available but he was warned by the judge that he faced jail.)
THE JOY OF CATHOLICISM
In some Catholic girls' boarding schools even as late as the 30s and 40s for 'having dirty thoughts' a girl would be denied the right to sleep in her bed. Instead, she would be laid out flat on the floor between the dormitory beds and her hands and feet tied with the ropes to the beds each side of the centre aisle. Thus she would have to sleep spreadeagled for the night. And, for the boys . . . P.P. McGuinness once described how a sadistic Jesuit priest at his school, Riverview College, Sydney, 'took out his frustration by belting the little boys with a huge black strap, raising bloody welts on their wrists.'
THE CHURCH GOES INTO BATTLE
When Pope Innocent 3rd preached the Fourth Crusade in the year 1200 he issued an indulgence which promised: 'All those who shall take up the cross and serve God for one year in the army [of the Crsuaders] shall be acquitted of all the sins they have sinned and have confessed.' A chronicler of the time, Geoffrey of Villehardouin, remarked that following proclamation of this statement many took the cross 'to obtain so great an indulgence.'
The Crusaders displayed gross cruelty towards their Muslim captives. Even the warlike Turks and Byzantines were appalled at what was done. Captives were mutilated, at the very least losing a nose or their thumbs, or perhaps both, and many were crucified. This was the holy crusade to enforce God's will on the infidel. Fulcher of Chartres wrote of the Second Crusade: 'On our entry into the basilica of the blessed Peter we found, standing in front of the altar, the followers of that rash Pope Guibert. Sword in hand, they were illegally carrying away the offerings that the faithful had left upon the altar. Others, climbing along the beams that formed the roof of the monastery, threw stones down upon the place where we humbly bowed ourselves at prayer.'
CATHOLICS IN JAPAN IN WORLD WAR 2
At conference of the Roman Catholic Church in 1998 Bishop Stephen Fumio Hamao of Yokohama (Japan) admitted that his church had failed to speak out against the country's aggressive stance during World War 2. 'When the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, hundreds of thousands of lives were snuffed out in an instant,' the bishop told a synod of Asian bishops meeting in the Vatican. He added: 'We Japanese are victims of the war but at the same time we were also the aggressors who trampled on the lives of people in many areas of Asia and the Pacific. 'We must admit that the Church of Japan failed to realize and courageously proclaim how inhuman and out of harmony with the Gospel values the elements of that war were,' he said. The Christian Church had a painful history in Japan. Christians at times suffered fierce persecution and inhuman tortures. In one period alone an estimated 280,000 Christians died.
THE MIRACLE CARS SCAM
In 1998 two men in California, James Nicholls and Robert Gomez, launched what turned out to be one of the biggest frauds ever perpetrated on church members. It all began in a disarmingly simple way when Gomez began telling people his adoptive father had died and left Robert a huge estate - worth millions and including a number of vehicles. Gomez one day announced from the pulpit of his church that he was making the cars available to Christians who couldn't otherwise afford a vehicle and the prices were as low as $1,000. He was supported by his roommate, James Nicholls.
While the two men were collecting orders for the cars - at prices ranging from $1,000 to $3,000 and (in the case of some very valuable cars) up to several thousand dollars - Gomez announced that he had since discovered that the estate held hundreds more cars, used in his stepfather's business, and that more orders could now be taken for these vehicles.
The message soon spread to many churches far and wide and orders poured in, with help from associates who booked the sales, two women in particular. Weeks stretched into months with orders rolling in but still no cars appearing. Whenever questions were raised a meeting was held, with a bit of high-powered preaching, singing and explanations, mostly blaming legal problems with the estate. In all over 7,000 cars were 'sold' to church members for a total of over $20 million, but not one vehicle ever appeared. Eventually a female law official became suspicious and began investigating, finally unravelling the web of lies. In 2002 Gomez and Nicholls each receive long prison terms and two women who aided them given shorter sentences. Only a tiny fraction of the moneys paid was ever recovered.
MURDERER WAS ABUSED BY CHRISTIAN
When Susan Smith drowned her two small sons in a car in 1995 Republican leader Newt Gingrich intoned: ' It vividly reminds every American of how sick the society is getting.' The cure: vote Republican. But after Smith's arrest it was revealed that she had been abused as a child by her stepfather, a local celebrity, member of the Christian Coalition and a Republican.
'POSSESSED' GIRL KEPT CHAINED
In January 1998 a Thai woman, Chaluay Patumsutr. was rescued after being held chained to a post by her father for 13 years. He believed she was possessed by an evil spirit.
BISHOP PRAYED AND PREYED
BEWARE THE EVIL POLKA
In the mid-19th century there was a great shortage of potatoes in Belgium. The Roman Catholics of that country held a belief that Pontius Pilate danced over the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth and the dance he danced was the polka. Ergo, this is an evil dance and that it is a gross impiety to dance it. The scarcity of potatoes was due to people having danced the polka too much.
SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST ABUSER
In 1996 a Seventh Day Adventist minister from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty to sexual relations with a minor and was sentenced to 11 months in prison. Pastor Barry William Katzer, 33, met the boy, 13, through a computer chat room on the Internet.
NOT ALL CLERGY ABUSERS ARE CATHOLICS
When Canon Terence Knight left prison in 1997 after serving 21 months of a 3-1/2 year sentence for child molestation, he was given a place to live, moving in with Canon Roger Williams in a rural village - Lighthorne, Warwickshire. But not for long. Parishioners got wind of the priest's presence in their midst and protested. Canon Knight had gone to prison after admitting to indecently assaulting boys aged between 11 and 14 between 1975 and 1985. He had invited them to his home and plied them with alcohol, before acting out his fantasies. Parishioners with children were particularly outraged and demanded the priest move on. In the end he did.
EGYPTIAN ENLIGHTENMENT SOCIETY
A group that came to the fore during a UN conference in Egypt in mid-1994. They are working against superstitious notions among fellow-Egyptians. It was founded in by writer Farag Foda, who paid with his life at the hands of fundamentalist murderers in 1991. The group cites typical examples of what they oppose, such as the instruction given by an Islamic cleric to a woman that she could remove her clothes in front of an animal provided it was female but not if it were male! A man was told by a cleric that he could only take drinks using his right hand as his left hand was 'the Devil's hand'. Muslim fundamentalists demand that female trainee medical students should not view male sexual organs and vice-versa.
BEATINGS IN AMERICAN RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS
Michael Johnson, aged 6, received seventeen blows with a paddle and showed severe bruising, resulting in The Principal of the Fellowship Christian School in the USA being charged with child abuse. He was acquitted. 16-year-old Michelle Dwyer was bruised from a beating at Cookson Hill Christian School, resulting in Kansas authorities refusing to licence the school.
In 1977 Timothy Fischer, aged 5, was beaten with an eighteen-inch redwood paddle at Northpoint Baptist Church. The boy tried to conceal his livid bruises and his mother found out he'd been threatened with more punishment if he told. His mother was shocked when she saw his black-and-blue bottom. It transpired that the small boy had first been spanked twice by a female teacher then the job was finished off by the minister, the Rev. Wayne Dillabaugh. The little boy broke down in court and had to be removed; as a result the pastor was not convicted. 'GOD wins again!' was his jubilant cry.
A Christian day-care centre called Love-N-Care was refused a licence renewal by authorities when a teacher was convicted of paddling an eighteen-months-old baby. And when a divorced father of a 9-year-old boy was charged with child abuse in Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1981, the local fundamentalists turned on a march to protest against 'interference by the state' in parental rights. But the man had beaten his son severely on his bottom with a ruler that the boy had been removed from his custody.
BLESSED BE THY TOYOTA.
It was reported in 1994 that Russian Orthodox priests in Moscow were turning a handy rouble by blessing apartments, bars, casinos and cars. A priest was seen carrying a sign: 'We bless cars'. The charge: $15 to $25, which included prayers, incense and holy water.
PRAYER FAILS AGAIN
Remember this . . .
Prayer
Watch (US election)
At a rally in
support of Republican presidential hopeful John McCain, Pastor Arnold
Conrad prayed:
'I would also pray, Lord, that your reputation is involved in all that happens between now and November, because there are millions of people around this world praying to their god — whether it’s Hindu, Buddha, Allah — that his opponent wins, for a variety of reasons. And Lord, I pray that you will guard your own reputation, because they’re going to think that their god is bigger than you, if that happens. So I pray that you will step forward and honor your own name with all that happens between now and election day.'
Clearly Pastor Conrad wants his god to make sure Democrat candidate Barack Obama doesn't win the presidency. It will be interesting to see if the Pastor's prayer is answered. It is not looking good for him right now. Maybe it is just as well he's not a betting man.
And now we have Dr James Dobson and Sarah Palin praying for a Republican victory.
'I'm going to know, at the end of the day, putting this in God's hands, that the right thing for America will be done, she told Dr Dobson when he said he was praying for her. Dobson told Ms Palin that 430 people had prayed for her throughout the weekend, to which she replied: ' is that intercession that is so needed and so appreciated. I can feel the power of the prayer.'
'I would also pray, Lord, that your reputation is involved in all that happens between now and November, because there are millions of people around this world praying to their god — whether it’s Hindu, Buddha, Allah — that his opponent wins, for a variety of reasons. And Lord, I pray that you will guard your own reputation, because they’re going to think that their god is bigger than you, if that happens. So I pray that you will step forward and honor your own name with all that happens between now and election day.'
Clearly Pastor Conrad wants his god to make sure Democrat candidate Barack Obama doesn't win the presidency. It will be interesting to see if the Pastor's prayer is answered. It is not looking good for him right now. Maybe it is just as well he's not a betting man.
And now we have Dr James Dobson and Sarah Palin praying for a Republican victory.
'I'm going to know, at the end of the day, putting this in God's hands, that the right thing for America will be done, she told Dr Dobson when he said he was praying for her. Dobson told Ms Palin that 430 people had prayed for her throughout the weekend, to which she replied: ' is that intercession that is so needed and so appreciated. I can feel the power of the prayer.'
We said we would be watching with great interest. We did and - sorry folks, your prayers failed.
NOTHING FAILS LIKE PRAYER.
(with thanks to Freethought Today, November 1995 issue:)
A snowbound man whose pickup was stuck in the Klamath Mountains put his faith in God and slowly starved to death, while clear pavement leading him to safety was just around the corner.
Teenagers found the body of DeWitt Finley last May, along with numerous religious letters. One read:
'I have no control over my life its all in His Hands. "His will be
done." Death here in another month or so, or he sends someone to
save me..'
The former fundraiser for World Vision was snowbound on Nov. 14 and checked
off his calendar through Jan. 19, writing 'The most wonderful thing out of
this ordeal has been the never ending fellowship with the Lord.'
Associated Press reported there was no sign he ever left his truck.
Depending on the weather, locals say, he would only have had a few yards or a few miles to walk before reaching clear pavement.
RELIGIOUS BELIEF FAILED.
Around 1978 in the
mountain region of New Mexico (USA) a terrible family tragedy
occurred. William Orr, 48, a lecturer in psychology at Mansfield
State College, Pennsylvania, died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
His 13-year-old daughter, Annette, also died from the same cause.
His wife, Lillian, 44, was charged with child abuse and his three other
daughters, aged 7, 11 and 12, all nearly died of starvation.
The reason for this tragic episode was religion. Mr and Mrs Orr were known for their deep religious faith and suddenly Mr Orr gave up his post and the family embarked on a journey by caravan, apparently with some religious purpose in view. Upon its side was painted the slogan: 'Kichanou Nichla-Wana-Teak-O. Servants of the Holy Family. Neuro Kenesis the miracle cure!' Their faith was sadly misplaced. Along the way, in freezing temperatures, they ran out of petrol. They were penniless and soon ran out of food. On the back of the van was a sign reading: 'We have no money or means. We serve God and men in a vow of charity. We need gas, food, money.' The father and 13-year-old girl died as the family sat huddled about a charcoal heater inside the van; killed by the fumes.
Reportedly passers-by had tried to help but the family, evidently trusting God for a miracle, refused all offers of aid.
The reason for this tragic episode was religion. Mr and Mrs Orr were known for their deep religious faith and suddenly Mr Orr gave up his post and the family embarked on a journey by caravan, apparently with some religious purpose in view. Upon its side was painted the slogan: 'Kichanou Nichla-Wana-Teak-O. Servants of the Holy Family. Neuro Kenesis the miracle cure!' Their faith was sadly misplaced. Along the way, in freezing temperatures, they ran out of petrol. They were penniless and soon ran out of food. On the back of the van was a sign reading: 'We have no money or means. We serve God and men in a vow of charity. We need gas, food, money.' The father and 13-year-old girl died as the family sat huddled about a charcoal heater inside the van; killed by the fumes.
Reportedly passers-by had tried to help but the family, evidently trusting God for a miracle, refused all offers of aid.
THE MASSEUSE AND TELEVANGELIST.
SueRae Robertson,
a masseuse, in November 1995 accused Garner Ted Armstrong, 64, head of
the Church of God International, of sexually assaulting her. The woman
announced she was suing Armstrong and the Church for emotional distress
and mental anguish she said she experienced. Armstrong later stepped
down from his position, pending further action.
The Church of God is the latest incarnation of the original Radio Church of God, founded by Garner Ted's father, Herbert W. Armstrong. Father and son fell out in 1978, when Garner Ted was excommunicated by his father, after which he founded his own denomination. The Church broadcasts on free-to-air and cable TV. Ms Robertson, 48, a licensed nurse, began treating Armstrong after she ran an advertisement offering her services.
She claimed that Armstrong insisted 'he receive his therapy in complete nudity' and that she should 'concentrate her therapy on the area of his groin, lower back, inner thighs and buttocks because of stiffness he purportedly felt from his driving.' During one session Armstrong, according to the plaintiff, said he needed some 'relief' and grabbed at her breasts and genitals, even trying to bite her breasts. He then put her in a head lock and tried to force her towards his own genitals but she broke free.
Armstrong was, she alleged, booked for another session so she agreed and arranged to have the action secretly videotaped with the assistance of a private investigator she had hired. Similar behaviour occurred at this second session, she claimed. For his part Armstrong heatedly denied the claims. But the nurse further claimed that the preacher had told her his work for the Lord was so vital that 'any transgression on his part would be overlooked by God.'
Eventually the televangelist's organization settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. He died in 2003.
The Church of God is the latest incarnation of the original Radio Church of God, founded by Garner Ted's father, Herbert W. Armstrong. Father and son fell out in 1978, when Garner Ted was excommunicated by his father, after which he founded his own denomination. The Church broadcasts on free-to-air and cable TV. Ms Robertson, 48, a licensed nurse, began treating Armstrong after she ran an advertisement offering her services.
She claimed that Armstrong insisted 'he receive his therapy in complete nudity' and that she should 'concentrate her therapy on the area of his groin, lower back, inner thighs and buttocks because of stiffness he purportedly felt from his driving.' During one session Armstrong, according to the plaintiff, said he needed some 'relief' and grabbed at her breasts and genitals, even trying to bite her breasts. He then put her in a head lock and tried to force her towards his own genitals but she broke free.
Armstrong was, she alleged, booked for another session so she agreed and arranged to have the action secretly videotaped with the assistance of a private investigator she had hired. Similar behaviour occurred at this second session, she claimed. For his part Armstrong heatedly denied the claims. But the nurse further claimed that the preacher had told her his work for the Lord was so vital that 'any transgression on his part would be overlooked by God.'
Eventually the televangelist's organization settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. He died in 2003.
FAMOUS PHOTOGRAPH SHOCKS.
In July 1996 the Art Gallery of Western Australia staged an exhibition of photographs by famed Annie Leibovitz. To coincide with the event the West Magazine reproduced on its cover her most famous photo - a naked John Lennon in a foetal position with Yoko Ono. Reportedly hundreds of phone calls and letters were received by the publishers protesting that the photograph was 'obscene'.
The editor was accused of being 'everything from a rapist to a pedophile' by citizens who had apparently never seen the photo before - one of the most famous in the history of photography. The resulting outcry surprised many in the art world. And many of the people complaining used their own 'obscenities' in the form of language. One man even said Lennon deserved to be shot for posing that way.
Annie Leibovitz is famous for her covers on Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone. The photograph, actually taken with Lennon on top of Ono but turned sideways by Leibovitz for greater impact, was only executed hours before Lennon was shot dead in New York on December 8, 1980, by a crazed gunman - the true obscenity! Commented the Editor: 'It is these obscenities [e.g. war in the former Yugoslavia, also featured in the same issue of the paper] that we should be shocked by, not the picture of a man and wife in a loving relationship.'
CRIMINAL GIVEN RELIGIOUS FUNERAL.
Jack Rooklyn was a noted Sydney businessman and yachtsman. When he died in July 1996 an obituary in The Australian (July 15, 1996) described him as a 'devoted Jewish family man'. Indeed he was accorded a traditional Jewish funeral. Yet Rooklyn was undoubtedly a crook.
Although he managed to keep one step ahead of the law throughout a long life of business activity he was accused of bribing police and politicians and of having Mafia links through his involvement in the poker machine industry, especially in connection with Bally Manufacturing Corporation of the USA.
The Moffitt Royal Commission (1973-74) found that Bally was 'an organization probably backed and aided by organized crime.' In 1992 the law caught up with Rooklyn when he was fined $350,000 in a Brisbane court after being found guilty of bribing former Queensland Police Commissioner, Terry Lewis. Only his age (he was then 83) kept him out of prison, said the judge.
NUNS METE OUT HOLY HELL.
In February 1999 Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston attended a celebration to mark the 125th anniversary of St Mary's Church. Participating in the celebrations was Sister Ann Daylor, a Dominican nun and Director of Religious Education for St Mary's.
Towards the end of 2002 Cardinal Law resigned following revelations of scandalous activities by his priests and the allegations the Cardinal had covered them up. And Sister Daylor was placed on leave, accused of the alleged sexual abuse of a young girl. The sister denies the allegations.
The case of Sister Daylor is not unique but much of the abuse by nuns has been covered up even more effectively than abuse by priests.
Ashley Hill has written the book, Habits of Sin: An Exposé of Nuns Who Sexually Abuse Children and Each Other (Xlibris Corporation, 1995). This might be the only book in world history devoted exclusively to sexual abuse by nuns. The author claims a nun molested her when she was seven.
Many cases of sexual and physical abuse involving nuns have come to light in places as far apart as Australia and Ireland. One Australian woman, for example, has claimed daily sexual abuse at a Catholic girls’ home thirty years ago. She said a nun would digitally penetrate her, beat her with a blackboard ruler, call her parents and tell them she’d been bad, then send her home, where she’d be punished all over again. Boys have also reported such abuse.
At Nazareth House, Brisbane (Australia) children were allegedly subjected to savage beatings for such infractions as being left-handed or opening their eyes while praying. A woman named Lizzie Walsh, who had been a resident of Nazareth House in the 1950s, recounted tales of being vaginally raped by a nun with a flagstick 'to get the devil out of me.'
O.J.
SIMPSON'S MESSAGE.
O.J. Simpson - soon due to face trial again - in July 1996 stood before
the congregation of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and told the
people: 'I'm not trying to restore an image; I'm not trying to get
back what wealth that I lost, I'm trying to do one thing, I'm trying to
go to heaven.' The congregationb reportedly greeted this statement with
several standing ovations.
CROCODILES TEST FAITH.
Twenty-nine people died after being 'told by GOD' to cross the
crocodile-infested limpopo River in the border area between Zimbabwe
and South Africa. The people received 'divine guidance' from a member
of the Apostolic Faith sect.
RITUAL
MURDER BY SATANIC CULT?
Caroline Marchant, a 23-year-old English nanny, suicided early in
1990. But before dying she had confessed to an Anglican vicar
that, as a high-priestess in a Satanic cult she had sacrificed her own
two small baby daughters and taken part in the ritual deaths of a
number of other babies.
From her confession and from a horrendous diary she left behind, the
story of Caroline's life was pieced together by police. At the age of
three her parents separated and Caroline went into a children's home,
eventually being befriended by a 'happy' family.
At the age of 13 years she was initiated into a coven by the
family. The initiation involved taking part in a sexual orgy in a
graveyard in Norfolk.
In her diary Caroline described what took place when the mother of her
boyfriend, Danny, a high-priestess of the cult, served at the altar:
'The ceremony was very long and many people attended. When the time
came I stepped forward to the altar. An incision was made in my
arm and some of the blood caught in a cup.
I drank from the cup and sealed my life over to Satan forever,
rejoicing that I was now a bonded child of Satan. More sexual
perversion went on that night.'
Caroline eventually had a baby to Danny, but she arranged an abortion.
When Danny's parents discovered this they demanded that their own son
be sacrificed to Satan. Caroline was hung on a cross and forced to
watch while her young lover was killed. She claimed he was killed by
his own father.
When the sect sacrificed babies videos were taken of the activities
and, according to Caroline, these 'snuff' movies were circulated
through the black market.
The coroner investigating Caroline's death, George Graham, said he was
unable to go fully into the claims of Satanism. A post-mortem showed
that the girl had 11 knife scars and burns to her body, which seems to
indicate participation in rituals. Her father had her cremated, so as
to avoid Satanists making further use of her body.
MOLESTING
CLERIC.
In March 1994 Harvey Lee Sechler, 53, who operated the Universal Life
Church out of his home, admitted to sexually molesting a 10-year-old
girl he had been babysitting.
Sechler had previously admitted to having
repeated sexual relations with his own daughter - from the age of 4
years to 12 years. No charges were ever laid in this matter but the
girl was removed from the home.
PARISHIONER ASSAULTED.
In December 1993
the Reverend Wendell Beets, of
the Sound Doctrine Church of God in Christ, Cedar Rapids, was convicted
of the sexual assault of a 20-year-old female parishioner.
The assault had occurred when the pair were alone in a van. Beets was sentenced to 2 years in jail. He appealed but the Iowa Supreme Court upheld his conviction.
HOLY CHILDHOOD HELL.
That priests are not the only abusers is shown by the record of the delightfully named Holy Childhood of Jesus School in Harbor Springs, Milwaukee.
The school, operated by the Sisters of Notre Dame, was shut down in 1983 but left behind memories of abuse among the boarders whose lives were controlled by the holy nuns.
Some nuns were accused of committing sex acts with young boys, one man claiming he had lost his virginity at the age of 12 - to a nun. Physical punishments included draping urine-soaked sheets over the heads of bed-wetters and the inevitable strappings.
A former inmate told a reporter about a
night when he was in sixth grade. He did something wrong—he couldn’t remember what -- and was forced to kneel all night long next to his bed. 'I finally got tired and jumped into bed and went to sleep. I woke up and Sister Beth was beating on me. I think she enjoyed beating people.'
The assault had occurred when the pair were alone in a van. Beets was sentenced to 2 years in jail. He appealed but the Iowa Supreme Court upheld his conviction.
HOLY CHILDHOOD HELL.
That priests are not the only abusers is shown by the record of the delightfully named Holy Childhood of Jesus School in Harbor Springs, Milwaukee.
The school, operated by the Sisters of Notre Dame, was shut down in 1983 but left behind memories of abuse among the boarders whose lives were controlled by the holy nuns.
Some nuns were accused of committing sex acts with young boys, one man claiming he had lost his virginity at the age of 12 - to a nun. Physical punishments included draping urine-soaked sheets over the heads of bed-wetters and the inevitable strappings.
A former inmate told a reporter about a
night when he was in sixth grade. He did something wrong—he couldn’t remember what -- and was forced to kneel all night long next to his bed. 'I finally got tired and jumped into bed and went to sleep. I woke up and Sister Beth was beating on me. I think she enjoyed beating people.'
PRIEST
EXECUTED.
In 1564 Fra Tommaco di Mileton, a Franciscan,
openly expressed doubts over the sinfulness of eating meat on
Fridays. For his heinous offence Cardinal Carlo Borromeo ordered
that the priest should be immured alive. The sentence read: 'I
condemn you to be walled up in a place enclosed within four walls,
there with anguish of heart and abundance of tears you shall bewail
your sins and grievous offences committed against the majesty of God
and Holy Mother Church.'
HERETICS
BURIED ALIVE.
HITLER UPHOLDS THE MISSION?
On August 31, 1941, a telling article appeared in the Yugoslavian journal, Katolicki Tjednik (‘Catholic Action’). This journal was published with the imprimatur of Catholic Archbishop Saritch of Sarajevo and was written by a priest, Father Peter Pajic. It was titled, amazingly: Hitler Upholds the Mission. In read, in part:
Until now, God spoke through papal encyclicals, numerous sermons, catechisms, the Christian press, through missions, through the heroic examples of the saints, and so on . . . And? They closed their ears. They were deaf. Now God has decided to use other methods. He will prepare missions. European missions! World missions! They will be upheld not by priests but by army commanders led by Hitler. [italics added] The sermons will be heard with the help of cannons, machine-guns, tanks and bombers.
The language of these sermons will be international. No one will be able to complain that he did not understand it, because all people know very well what death is and what wounds are, disease, hunger, fear, slavery and poverty are. .’
THE POPE WHO KIDNAPPED A CHILD.
In 1858 a six-year-old Jewish boy, Edgardo Mortara, was abducted by papal police in Bologna, Italy. The police were acting on the orders of Pope Pius 9th who claimed that the boy had been baptized as an emergency measure by a servant of his family when the child had fallen ill.
The law in the Papal States insisted that a baptized Christian could not be raised by non-Christians, in this case by the child's own natural parents. The boy was now lodged in the House of Catechumens, to be trained up as a Catholic. His parents were never allowed to see him again alone. Later the Pope officially adopted him.
Thereafter the Pope steadfastly refused to give up the boy, while around the world there was an outcry against this cruelty. Many newspapers, among them The New York Times, issued editorial condemnations but nothing would move the Pope. Governments intervened and even the Emperor Napoleon 3rd, whose troops guarded the Pope, protested but the papal criminal snubbed them all.
At one point in the dispute the Pope offered the parents a Hobson's Choice - they could have the boy back if they converted to Catholicism. They refused. The boy remained with the Pope and eventually trained as a priest, never returning to his parents or to his Jewish faith.
CLAIM AGAINST PRIEST.
In 1993 a Boulder (Colorado) man filed suit against the Reverend Delbert Blong for infecting him with the HIV virus. Eventually he settled out-of-court with the Pueblo Catholic Diocese for an undisclosed sum of money. Thomas Perea, 37, claimed the relationship that began when Blong was his parish priest in Alamosa. Blong, 68, who admitted having sex with Perea, filed a counter-claim that says Perea transmitted the virus to him.
BIKINI GIRLS IN CHURCH.
A bizarre episode in the history of Anglicanism was recorded when an evangelical movement in Britain centred on the Nine O'Clock Service embraced a rock musician, Chris Brain.
Brain's story goes back to the 1970s when rock music and flashing disco lights accompanied worship by a group of enthusiasts gathered around the musician. Reportedly it was not unusual for the sounds of Pink Floyd or the Beatle's Magical Mystery Tour to accompany communion.
Chris Brain was eventually ordained as an Anglican priest and the movement reached its high-point in 1992 when gyrating girl dancers clad only in leather bikinis, accompanied by flashing disco lights and loud music, performed in a church in the Diocese of Sheffield.
As if this was not enough to stir up the righteous indignation of Church authorities, worse was to follow. In 1995 Chris Brain admitted to sexually abusing some of his nubile parishioners. Brain, 38, was separated from his wife at the time.
Following his confession it was reported diocesan authorities counselled the priest and he later voluntarily admitted himself to a mental hospital.
PASTOR ACCUSED.
In January 1996 the Kansas City Star reported charges alleging sexual assault and harassment had been filed against the Reverend Michael Schreffler, Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Pleasant Hill.
Jeanine F. Hemann, a former part-time secretary for the church, claimed Schreffler fondled and inappropriately touched her on several occasions.
The outcome of the case is unknown.
SEX ADDICT RESIGNS.
In August 1994 it was reported that Monsignor Joseph Schwaegel had resigned from parish work in the Bellevue Diocese of the Catholic Church in Minnesota. The reason (in the priest's own words) 'I am a sex addict.'
Court records reveal that the priest had been found guilty on at least two occasions of 'sexual misconduct' charges involving adults.
PROMISES! PROMISES!
In April 1996 in Vancouver, Canada, the local head of the international men's Christian group Promise Keepers was sentenced to two years in prison for vicious sexual assault. Rick White, a Terrace church leader, pleaded guilty in B.C. Supreme Court to breaking into his former girlfriend's home last June armed with a knife and handcuffs, and sexually assaulting her.
BIZARRE AUSTRALIAN CULT
A bizarre page in Australian history was written by William Kamm, known to his followers as Little Pebble.
Kamm was a former bank clerk who led a pseudo-Catholic cult with a commune at Cambewarra, south of Sydney. The cult, repudiated by the Catholic Church, called itself the Order of St Charbel.
Kamm claimed he was in contact with the Virgin Mary and that he had been chosen to lead his followers in preparation for a predicted holocaust. It had been revealed to him that he would have 72 'princesses' and 12 'queens' to minister to him and that he should prepare to be elevated to the office of Pope.
In 2005 William Kamm was put on trial charged with four counts of aggravated sexual assault and one of aggravated sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old girl. Kamm had claimed the girl had been 'mystically married' to Kamm and was one of the 12 queens and 72 princesses designated by the Virgin Mary to conceive a new race with him.
Kamm was found guilty and sentenced to five years in jail. He appealed the sentence but the appeal failed.
During his time as prophet of the cult Kamm prophesied many things. among them that his 15-year-old 'princess' would bear him 17 children. He also prophesied at the time of the Thredbo disaster that two men would be found alive under the rubble. In the event only one survived, Stuart Diver. When months later Kamm was challenged over this prophesy he said 'time would show there is another man!'
RED HEIFER RAISES HOPES.
Reports about the birth of a 'red heifer' in Israel have ignited excitement in that country's Orthodox Jewish community, and Christian
fundamentalist quarters in America. Some say that the appearance of the animal fulfills prophecy in the Jewish holy book, the Torah, and even the New Testament Book of Revelation.
But secularists and skeptics in Israel worry that the appearance of the heifer is a the cultural equivalent of a religious A-bomb that could further fuel the passions of religious fundamentalists, and promote political agendas including expansion and construction of Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories, or close the door on negotiations about the status of Jerusalem.
'That cow represents the risk of a massive religious war,' warned Avraham Poraz of the secularist Meretz Party and a member of the Israeli Parliament or Knesset. 'If the fanatics get hold of it and try to take over the Temple
Mount, God knows what will happen. It only takes a few crazies to endanger all our lives.'
(From Atheist News 1997)
CHINESE TORTURE PRIESTS WITH SEX.
In January 1999 the Catholic newsagency Fides reported on the torture of a Catholic priest working in the underground church in Hebel province. Among tortures experienced by Father Li Qinghua, 31, female prostitutes tried to have sexual relations with him. A similar technique had been employed at other times and in some cases priests were successfully seduced. They were then blackmailed into joining the official government-backed church known as the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.
CHRISTIAN CULT TRIES TO HASTEN THE END.
In January 1999 Israeli police arrested eight members of a Christian cult, Concerned Christians, who were accused of planning violent acts. It is believed that with the turn of the century and millennium near at hand the cultists were trying to hasten the return of Christ. Members of the Denver-based cult had left their jobs and homes and travelled to Jerusalem to be ready for the Messiah's return. Reportedly relatives in the USA had been searching for as many as 60 missing family members.
BURN THE BITCHES CRIES VICAR.
In March 1994, on the eve of the ordination of 32 women as Anglican priests, a vicar, the Reverend Anthony Kennedy, let fly in print claiming women priests were 'bloody bitches' who should be burnt at the stake. Kennedy made the remarks to several newspapers and on radio. 'Let these bloody women go off and form their own politically correct church and religion,' he added. 'Women can't represent Christ. Men and women are totally different; that's not my fault, and Jesus chose men for his disciples.'
The women were the first to be ordained following a decision by the Church to admit women to the priesthood. The decision split the Church of England and several members of the clergy, two members of the Government and one member of the Royal family (the Duchess of Kent) left the church and joined the Church of Rome as a result.
BIZARRE DEATHS.
In July 1978 Salt Lake City, no stranger to the bizarre, saw a series of murder-suicides, evidently some kind of religious ritual. First a man, Emmanuel David, 39, committed suicide. David believed he was the Holy Ghost, Jesus Christ and GOD the Father. Two days later his wife, Rachel, 38, took her seven children to a balcony on the 11th floor of a hotel building. She pushed the terrified younger children out of the window and then jumped herself. At least three of the older children also jumped and it is believed they did so of their own volition.
One of the teenagers, a 15-year-old girl, survived after her fall was cushioned by the other bodies but her condition was critical. It is believed the father's religious views prompted the suicide. It has been reported that remnants of the cult founded by Emmanuel David still exist.
CATHOLIC PRIESTS SUED.
In 1995 the Reverend Martin Greenlaw, a retired Catholic priest, was sued by the Archdiocese of San Francisco for allegedly stealing at least $250,000 in church funds. The priest had been head of the church's fund-raising division when he retired. It was later alleged by former congregation members of two parishes that he had diverted donations to his own bank accounts.
Greenlaw initially denied any wrongdoing, admitting only that he owed the church $45,000. However, in 1996 the former priest was found guilty of embezzling about $200,000 in church funds. It was reported that he had made full restitution and was sentenced to 1 year home detention and 3 years' probation.
In the same year another embezzling priest, Monsignor Patrick O'Shea, was charged over a missing $260,000. While prosecutors were investigating Greenlaw they came across a number of cheques O'Shea had sent to Greenlaw. 'We found a number of checks O'Shea had sent to Greenlaw, apparently because he (O'Shea) was under investigation for pedophilia charges and wanted to hide the money,' said Don Sanchez, chief of special prosecutions.
Molestation charges filed against O'Shea were dismissed because the statute of limitations had expired. A civil suit filed by 15 men who claim to have been molested as boys by the 3 Bay area priests was settled in March for $2.5 million.
ANTICHRIST WARNING. In the weeks leading up to the date of June 6, 1996, a rumour rapidly spread among superstitious Catholics in Colombia that the Antichrist would return on that day. There was a last-minute rush by neglectful parents to have their children baptised, 'just in case' the rumour were true. In one six-hour period, it was reported, over 7,000 children were baptised.
SUSPECTED WITCH BURNT. In June 1996 murder charges were laid against four people in the eastern highlands of Papua New Guinea. Police alleged they had burnt a woman alive because they suspected she was a witch. The woman was rescued but later died in hospital as a result of her burns.
APOCALYPSE COMING? In 1994 the Millennial Prophecy Report out of Philadelphia was tracking 1,100 groups which believe the apocalypse is at hand, including one which claims elderly Nazis hiding at the South Pole will take over the planet (with help from space aliens), and another prophesying a monster quake will turn Phoenix into a seaport and unearth Atlantis by 1997.
DEVIL BEATEN OUT OF CHILD. In 1997 two Californian women were given long prison terms for the beating death of a 5-year-old girl. The women believed the child was 'possessed by the Devil' and beat her for hours. Prosecutor Steven Slavitt said it was the worst beating he had ever seen.
ALLEGED DEFRAUDING. In 1997 five members of a Jewish Hasidic sect in Rockland County, New York, were indicted on charges that they systematically defrauded taxpayers of 'tens of millions of dollars' under loan schemes. It was alleged that one seminary alone received over $10 million in government grants on behalf of students who didn't exist.
NOVICE NUN MURDERED.In 1997 a Greek priest and a nun were each sentenced to five years in prison on torture charges. The court found that the couple had repeatedly beaten a 16-year-old novice nun with a cane over a three-year period. She was also often locked naked in a room. The girl eventually died of pneumonia but a coroner's report said her body was covered with bruises.
SAUDI WOMAN SAVED FROM BEHEADING. In August 1996 Ms Najah Al-Kariss received a last-minute pardon just minutes before she was to be beheaded in a public square in Mecca. The woman had murdered a man, Adel Al-Luhaybi because 'he tried to harm her' (no further details were given). After pleading for her life the father of the murdered man agreed to pardon the woman. Under Saudi's Islamic law this is sufficient to see her go free. When they heard the news the crowd that had come to witness the execution cheered.
FLORIDA HYPOCRITE. In 1996 Representative Martin Crouch of Florida was one of a group of legislators who sent letters to the Walt Disney Company objecting to the extension of health care cover to partners of gay employees. The alleged sexual immorality of the gays was cited as the reason.
On 22 February Crouch was found by sheriff deputies in a truck in a shopping centre with his pants down. he was enjoying oral sex from a prostitute. The lady told police that the cheapskate had haggled over her price of $30 and was being satisfied for just $22. Couch is married with six children. He admitted that he had used prostitutes in the past but he told reporters he was being counselled by his pastor and added he knew 'God still loves me.'
PRIEST CAUGHT SMUGGLING DRUGS. A Dutch Roman Catholic priest, Espark Cornelius Maria, was arrested in February 1997, as he tried to smuggle cocaine (estimated weight of about 2.5 kg) through the Maiquetia International Airport in Caracas, Venezuela. The cocaine was hidden in a belt under his priest's habit.
TEACHER IN THE SLAMMER.
In September 1994 Daniel Purdue, a teacher, athletic director, counsellor and coach at Bethel Christian Academy, Cocoa, Florida, was sentenced to 5.5 years in prison followed by 10 years' probation for the kidnapping and sexual battery of a 13-year-old student.
PREACHER DECAPITATED WIFE.
A Baptist clergyman, the Reverend John R. Strange was sentenced in 1991 to 65 years in prison. The Kentucky cleric was found guilty of the murder of his wife. He had decapitated her, buried the head and set fire to the torso. The preacher later appealed his sentence but the appeal was rejected.
CHURCH BELLS IN DISPUTE.
In September 1997 a dispute erupted over noisy church bells. A court order was issued following complaints about the noise of the bells. Father Salvatore D'Avanzo of the Church of the Good Shepherd, Naples, said he would refuse to hand the bells over in spite of the court's action. The priest commented: 'I'm told (the people complaining) are not even Roman Catholics and even the sound of the organ gets on their nerves.'
CHURCH PROPERTY SEIZED. In mid-February 2001 a small army of Federal marshals moved in on the Indiana Baptist Temple. The church has been involved in a long-running dispute with the Government over its failure to pay employment taxes. The marshals were executing a judgment following the US Supreme Court's rejection of the church's claims. Pastor Greg Dixon warned: 'God's judgment will be on these nine justices at the Supreme Court level. They will pay the price.'
Dixon was a founder member of the Jerry Falwell Moral Majority. He was also associated with the Korean cult leader Dr Sun Myung Moon, who went to jail for tax fraud. The Indiana Baptist Temple in 1984 announced it was no longer a church according to government guidelines and would cease filing tax returns. It was reported that Pastor Dixon collapsed when the marshals moved in.
LUTHERAN TREASURER ARRESTED. In September 1996 The New York Times announced the arrest of the former treasurer of the governing body of the Lutheran Church, George A. Patrick, 55, over allegations he had embezzled $800,000 from church funds.
It was claimed by the authorities that Mr Patrick had used some of the money to cover $100,000 in credit card expenses and to finance his sons' education. Other recent charges:
- Ellen S. Cook, former Epoiscopalian treasurer, pleaded guilty of embezzling $2.2 million.
- Allegations the former controller of Methodist Board of Global Missions took $400,000 church funds.
- Vincenza Bologna, manager of a Catholic pensions office, accused over $1.1 million. Under investigation.
O.J. SIMPSON'S MESSAGE
In a gathering of an African Methodist Episcopal Church in July 1996 O.J. Simpson told the congregation: 'I'm not trying to restore an image; I'm not trying to get back what wealth that I lost. I'm trying to do one thing. I'm trying to go to heaven.' The congregation reportedly greeted this message with several standing ovations.
In July 1996 in Dadeville, Alabama, a Bible-quoting contest in a street lead to murder. When a preacher's brother won the contest a man who allegedly lost shot him in the face, killing him. Police were hunting for the murderer.
CATHOLIC PRIESTS NOT THE ONLY ONES!
The retired minister of Mount Zion Baptist Church was sentenced to 16 months to 3 years in state prison on January 14, 2003. Grady O. Kemp, Sr., 65, of Wadley, Georgia, pled guilty to a reduced crime of Course of Sexual Conduct Against a Child in the 2nd Degree - a Class D Felony, sparing the stepdaughter from testifying. Kemp, when completing his prison term, must register as a sexual predator.
He had been indicted by a Wayne County Grand Jury in July of last year, for one count of Sexual Mischief in the 1st Degree, 4 counts of Rape in the 2nd Degree, 2 counts of Rape in the 3rd Degree, 4 counts of Sex Abuse in the 2nd Degree, 2 counts of Sex Abuse in the 3rd Degree and one count of Sodomy in the 2nd Degree, involving a stepdaughter. It is alleged that the sexual activity began when the girl was 9 years old and continued until she was 14.
'He had sexual contact with the girl hundreds of times,' said Wayne County District Attorney, Rick Healy. The incidents came to light when the girl, now 16 years old, began fidgeting and praying. The next day the girl began crying and screaming at a family gathering and said she could not hold it back any longer. According to Healy, Grady had served as pastor of the church for almost 20 years. 'He just retired last year and moved to Georgia,' said Healy.
COMMENT: He got off far too lightly!
Heading on an
article on in a US journal in 1995 about a Yale Divinity School
symposium on mental retardation:
'MENTALLY RETARDED LOOKING
FOR GOD.'