Church Sex Sins:
Common place nowadays

Be careful, for your sins will find you out!

The poor Roman Catholic Church, you say? Well, they are having their problems with their priests who are anything but eunuchs. They are sexually molesting boys and girls, young and old women. But now the church is paying big bucks for past and current sins that run into the thousands of cases.

In Boston, the Catholic Archdiocese is paying out more than $10 million to settle pedophilia cases that involved one priest primarily and over 70 priests generally. That amounts to a widespread pattern.

In Ireland, the Catholic Church has signed a $110 million agreement to settle thousands of cases of of sexual and physical abuse that occurred over several decades in the church and in their schools.

In Tucson, Arizona the church has quietly settled the altar boys case; but closer to home, in San Francisco, a priest is still in jail awaiting trial for molesting boys. And there have been many such cases of Catholic priests molesting altar boys. These priests ministering at the altar have been doing more than drinking the wine; they have been tasting of the forbidden fruit--young, innocent boys--who were to help serve the bread at those altars, and nothing more.

But the Catholic Church is not alone in the betrayal of human trust and violation of God's word. Across this nation, church officials are being investigated or put into prison and sued for sexual improprieties being engaged in large numbers. The former head of National Baptist Association is in prison now for stealing the money and playing with the sisters. Jimmy Bakker got out of prison for playing with the money and the sisters and brothers in the church; Jim Jones played freely with the money, the sisters and brothers in the church, and the very lives of the people.

In Oakland, a few weeks ago, a pastor, 60 years old, was arrested for and actually confessed to raping, with her consent, a 15-year girl for one month--minors cannot give consent to such acts; in Sacramento, CA a church official allowed his congregation to be seduced out of $740,000 while the religious seducer went elsewhere and swindled other Christians out of millions of dollars. Finally, that religious con man was brought to a certain degree of justice--he is being sued and stopped. 

But how many poor, weak Christians have to part with their money, morals, and their dignity before these religious con men are stopped? As Bin Laden has given a bad odor to Islam, these con men are giving a bad odor to Christianity.

How do they flourish in so many of our churches? One reason for them to thrive is that they claim actions in the name of God but without any official regulator to examine their claims or to stop them. The state is reluctant to intrude into matters of religion because of our virulent separate of church and state policy. And that reluctance has bed a certain criminality that goes unchecked too long, and the poor and unlearned are harmed by con men.

Examine the situation: 1.) a person declares that God has called him/her to the work of God; 2.) that person hires out a building and sets up a church/mosque business; 3.) he/she has acquired a fiery style that is mind-catching and with such oratory and seeming sincerity, he captures the imagination and minds of a number of followers; 4.) those followers think he is a man of God; 5.) since there are very few regulatory bodies to govern the behavior of these types of slick god-con artists--usually, they  have no fellowship with other churches/mosques or other ministers--their ideas are never announced to or bounced off others capable of correcting and/or pricking his consciences. They create an isolated environment, which allows for great mischievous to occur. And it does!

Such ministers are not regulated by anyone. Like Montanus* of old, they  claim that God has told them certain things, and many weak but well-meaning individuals who have no ability to discern scoundrels from true men/women of God are none the wiser, but much harmed. And before long, the members are seduced in every way possible--first, sexually, secod, financially, and third, physically, even their lives.

The sad truth is this, today religious schemes seem to be proliferating more than they have in the past. They scheme sexual seductions, financial seductions, and many are simply ego gratifying seductions. 

In the name of God, sadly, too many people will subject themselves to almost anything--even to the taking of their own lives in an effort to kill others, in the name of their god! This is especially true among followers who have no understanding of what the will of God really is and are trusting in the will of men and not God. []
Frank A. Jones

___________
* Montanus was a Christian living around 156 AD. It was his misguided notions on the mystery of Godliness that introduced in certain undisciplined teachings into the church and led many astray.