Church Abuses go on and Become Weird
Simond Griote

The Roman Catholic Church is still having problems with priests in molestation and sexual abuse cases. Their parishioners are suing the Church far and near--throughout the US and in other parts of the world, especially in Ireland--by parishioners and now even priests.

Boston is totally engulfed by lawsuits to the extent that they cannot pay them all and the church may be bankrupted and fall of its own weight.

On the other hand, the Los Angeles Catholic Church has a Franciscan Order suing the Church to make it pay each and every lawsuit of sexual abuse brought against them. They are concerned that their reputation not be harmed by the reputation of the Church itself. And in San Bernardino, California the Catholic Diocese there has sued the Boston Archdiocese. These actions, some argue, represent the various dioceses turning on themselves, as parishioners keep raising sexual abuse cases.

The extensive nature of this Church's sexual lawsuits indicates that sexual abuse was/is a widespread behavior allowed and even tacitly permitted over many years. Now, however, it is coming to light and may mean that many of these rich churches--the Roman Catholic Church is the richest church in this nation and probably the world--will be put in prison, defrocked, and will not have the lush parishes from which they can entice young boys into their sinful acts.

But the Catholic Church is not the only church organization with serious problems. The Mormons just completed their world conference last week and concluded that they only grew by 300,000 new members to 11.7 million total membership. They have been having their own sexual problems with bigamy and aberrant sexual and religious behavior of some of their ministers and would-be ministers.

The former head of the National Baptist Church, the largest Black Baptist Church organization in the nation, may be still in prison serving a long sentence for financial improprieties and sexual intrigue.

Locally, a Black Muslim minister is under indictment for 27 counts of rape and sexual abuse of under aged girls, and another local Baptist minister is serving a 15 year sentence for sexual relations with a 15 year old girl.

But more than those, there are unexposed but known sexual, financial, and deviant offenses and behaviors among many smaller Black churches that go unreported and go unabated.

After reading the interview Gibbs did with Bishop G.W. Ayers, head of the Apostolic Overcoming Holiness Church, a writer contacted Gibbs to tell us about alleged abuses and thievery in that small AOH Church organization. That church organization has gone through very difficult changes. The church split based on sexual orientation and preference--homosexuality--and leadership and money. It split in California and at its national headquarters down south.

According to the teachings of the Bible, teachings they profess as their guiding principles, homosexuality is not an accepted behavior, yet latent and blatant homosexuals lead many of their churches. When this truth was confronted, that brought convulsions among its members and leadership.

In California, the organization split into two organizations: a woman who was accused of being a lesbian heads a Menlo Park Church, in Menlo Park, a small city close to San Francisco, while the head of the national organization, Bishop Ayers whom Gibbs interviewed, is also the head of the California churches. When the church attempted to deal with their homosexual problem, the female pastor formed and incorporated her own organization, using a name that could be viewed as the same in its initials--AOH, which stands for Apostolic Original Holiness Church.

In the South, the main focus of the organization's strength, the church split over money. Their aging head Bishop was moved aside, and Bishop Ayers, who is in his 70's--not a young man himself--took the leadership. Lawsuits for the purse of the church organization are taking place even now. There are also allegations of more than financial improprieties occurring; there are allegations of having thugs and thieves at the top echelons of this small Black church organization.

These confusions exist throughout the church world. Much like Frank T. Williams cited in his essay, these churches, too, have given themselves to riches.

The rule seems to be that most Black pastors today must have Mercedes Benz cars, yet many of the few members who buy these expensive cars for them cannot afford to pay cheap rents. And while the pastors always live in lavish homes, many of their members struggle to maintain their families day to day. And these leaders never see this behavior as wrong or even excessive.

Not only are Catholics having confusion, most churches and religious organizations that have gone ungoverned for years, as we all assumed ethical and moral scruples existed among them, will come under scrutiny. And the next area of abuse receiving litigations and prosecutions may well be the Black Church if that institution does not heal itself.

There is a healthy sign in some: churches that seem to be turning upon themselves are really doing a necessary action for healing. Those who are sound in the faith and not charlatans or interlopers need to come forth and condemn and expel those leaders who are avaricious and should not be leading and those predators who should not even be in these churches, and there are many such individuals. Physician, heal thyself! []

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*Bis. Young of Texas made an out of court settlement $$ with those boys he sexually abused/had , reported by Jet Magazine.It is clear that the sexual abuses go far to all churches and races. Too many have takenk on the cloth as a cover for their abnoral and immoral sins and for finanical gain theuse to cover shush money. So many of these actions need to be uncovered so the light of day can shine in these churches!

Simond Griote
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