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Pastor Steven Furtick’s Fear of Breasts

Bruce Gerencser 9 Comments

fear of breasts

Another day and yet another reminder of Evangelicals and their fear of female mammary glands. Today’s story comes from cool, hip, loaded-with-cash Steven Furtick and his monument to Evangelical excess, Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. Last Sunday, a woman who has been attending Elevation Church since 2015 was discreetly breastfeeding her baby when a church volunteer asked her to leave the auditorium and go to the designated — exposed breasts allowed — baby feeding area.

The Charlotte Observer reports:

A group of mothers who breastfeed plan to stage a “Nurse-In” during Sunday worship at Charlotte’s Elevation Church this month to show support for a South Carolina woman who said she was asked to leave the church’s sanctuary because she was breastfeeding her baby.

Last Sunday, Amanda Zilliken of Lancaster, S.C., sent out a Facebook post saying, “I just got kicked out of church for breastfeeding with a cover on and directed to the bathroom. … Shame on you elevation.”

Her Facebook post, which also featured a photo of the bathroom at Elevation’s Ballantyne campus, has since been shared by more than 1,500 people.

On Wednesday, Zilliken, a 29-year-old stay-at-home mom, told the Observer that she “definitely” plans to participate in the “Nurse-In.” But it’s up in the air whether she’ll decide to continue as a regular at Elevation, a church she’d driven an hour to attend most Sundays since 2015.

As much as I love hearing the word of God from Pastor Steven (Furtick) … I’m not sure at this time if I’ll feel comfortable going back because of the way this was handled,” she said. “If anything difficult arises (at Elevation), they try to hush it up.”

Elevation Church said in a statement: “We do not have a policy that nursing mothers can’t be in the sanctuary. A volunteer had a conversation and felt both parties arrived at the same conclusion to exit mutually. We are sorry that this in any way offended anyone. We welcome everyone and anyone to attend Elevation church.”

Elevation, one of the fastest growing churches in the country, draws more than 20,000 worshipers to its nine Charlotte-area sites every weekend. Furtick, who launched the Southern Baptist church with wife Holly and seven other couples in 2006, speaks most Sundays in person at the Ballantyne campus. At the other sites, he’s on screen.

Zilliken said she did last Sunday what she’s always done since the birth of her youngest child, Idamae, who’s now 4 months old and breastfeeding. Zilliken said she dropped off her two other children – ages 5 and 4 – at the church’s eKidz child-care area. Then she went to the church auditorium’s second floor, headed for the last row and took the seat nearest the door. From there, she thought, she could quickly exit in case Idamae caused any disturbance during the service.

As she’s done many times before, Zilliken said, she then waited until Furtick’s sermon to begin breastfeeding “so she’s quiet.”

That’s when a volunteer approached her, Zilliken said, turned on a flashlight in the dark auditorium and asked that Zilliken follow her to the “mother’s area.”

“It embarrassed me, and drew people’s attention,” said Zilliken, who was led to a restroom to finish her 20-minutes of breastfeeding. “To take me to the mother’s restroom was totally unacceptable, humiliating – and illegal.”

The volunteer returned to the restroom to inform her she could go back to her seat “when you’re done,” Zilliken said.

But Zilliken said she was so upset by then, crying and angry, that she left after sharing her feelings with other staff members at Elevation. She said they were “unsympathetic” even though they agreed the volunteer should not have pulled her out of the service.

“I drive an hour to this church … and I missed the whole sermon,” she said. Zilliken cited laws that allow women to breastfeed in public and said she saw no one in the church complain about her quietly feeding her baby, with a cover, in the dark.

And yet, Zilliken said, the volunteer told her, “Honey, you have to understand that my job as a volunteer is to make sure everyone is comfortable, not just you.”

Elevation added in its statement: “We have several designated areas for nursing moms at Ballantyne specifically – one private to allow pumping and it’s close to the auditorium for convenience and the other in the actual baby area with a TV to allow mothers to still be part of the worship experience.”

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What drives this irrational fear of female breasts? Notice what the volunteer told the offending woman, “Honey, you have to understand that my job as a volunteer is to make sure everyone is comfortable, not just you.” There ya have it. Someone in the church might be offended by seeing her breast — a supposedly God-given gland used to feed precious little Christian babies — and if it is a man, he might not be able to contain his sexual urges. Once again, a woman is punished because some men are unable to keep their minds on the sermon.

Don’t think for a moment that this volunteer was acting on her own. It is clear, at least to me, that nursing mothers who attend Elevation Church are expected to feed their babies in rooms other than the auditorium. Steven Furtick would have had to sign off on such a rule, so the blame, in the end, rests with him. Furtick needs to make a clear, unambiguous statement that states women are free to nurse their children in the auditorium during church services. And those who are “offended?” Grow Up, and start acting like adults.

Black Collar Crime: Is there a Connection Between Sexual Abuse by Clergy and Drug Addiction?

Bruce Gerencser 0 Comments

child sex abuse

What follows is an excerpt from an article that suggests that being abused by clergy often leads to substance abuse and addiction. Please share your thoughts in the comment section.

Stephen Huba, a reporter for Trib Live, writes:

A group of Catholic lay people and clergy is calling on Greensburg Bishop Edward C. Malesic and other church hierarchs to acknowledge that the clergy sexual abuse scandal is feeding the opioid epidemic.

“He’s got to take some responsibility,” said Tom Venditti, founder of Faithful Catholics Against Pedophilia.

Venditti of Bolivar said he founded FCAP earlier this year to help victims of clergy sexual abuse and encourage them to stay in the Catholic Church.

….

Venditti said he wanted to address “Malesic’s failure to acknowledge clerical sexual abuse as a doorway to heroin abuse and death.”

“We’re here specifically because one of the things you’re not going to hear tonight … is that the majority of victims of clergy sexual abuse become addicts, whether it’s to alcohol or heroin or other hard drugs,” he said.

Venditti said he supports Malesic’s push to involve the Catholic Church in solutions to the opioid epidemic but that more is needed. He said bishops should call on priests accused of sexual abuse to repent and resign.

“These men are not going to get to heaven if they don’t repent,” he said.

Malesic did not respond to Venditti’s claims, but diocesan spokesman Jerry Zufelt said, “The diocese is doing everything it can to protect its children, young adults and vulnerable adults from the evils of abuse.”

About FCAP, Zufelt said, “We support anybody who is working to help abuse survivors.”

Venditti cited two recent cases — one involving a retired priest in the Diocese of Greensburg and one involving a priest in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown — as proof that the problem of clergy sexual abuse is still not being handled effectively.

He alleged that a recent overdose victim in Johnstown had been sexually abused by Brother Stephen Baker, a Franciscan friar accused of abusing students at Bishop McCort Catholic High School in Johnstown from 1992 to 2001. Three Franciscan superiors were indicted in 2016 in connection with the case.

Baker was found dead of apparent suicide at the St. Bernardine Monastery in Hollidaysburg on Jan. 26, 2013, days after the announcement of a multimillion-dollar settlement with his accusers. He was first accused of sexual abuse in 1988, but his superiors never reported allegations to police.

“All of the victims of clergy sexual abuse that I’ve dealt with are either suicidal or addicted to drugs or alcohol — every single one of them,” Venditti said.

….

 

Is Segregation Scriptural? by Evangelist Bob Jones, Sr. the Founder of Bob Jones University

Bruce Gerencser 19 Comments

bob jones sr

What follows is an excerpt from a radio sermon preached Easter Sunday, 1960 by Bob Jones, Sr. — the founder of Bob Jones University (BJU). This sermon was reproduced in printed form and sold in the BJU bookstore. No blacks were permitted to attend the college until 1971 — three years after the death of Bob Jones, Sr. Even then, only married black students were permitted to enroll. Five years later, BJU allowed single blacks to enroll, but strengthened its rules against interracial dating and marriage, leading to the IRS revoking BJU’s tax exempt status. Wikipedia states:

In 1976, the Internal Revenue Service revoked the university’s tax exemption retroactively to December 1, 1970 on grounds that it was practicing racial discrimination. The case eventually was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1982. After BJU lost the decision in Bob Jones University v. United States (461 U.S. 574)[1983], the university chose to maintain its interracial dating policy and pay a million dollars in back taxes.

It would be twenty-four more years before BJU would finally allow blacks and whites to date and marry.

Bob Jones University regained its tax-exempt status in 2017.

Is Segregation Scriptural?

My friends, I am going to bring you today one of the most important and most remotely messages I have ever brought. I hope you will sit close to the radio. Do not let anything disturb you. I want you to hear this message through.

Now, we folks at Bob Jones University believe that whatever the Bible says is so, and we believe it says certain fundamental things that all Bible-believing Christians accept; but when the Bible speaks clearly about any subject, that settles it. Men do not always agree, because some people are dumb; some people are spiritually dumb; but when the Bible is clear, there is not any reason why everybody should not accept it.

….

All orthodox, Bible-believing Christians agree on one thing; and that is, that whatever the Bible says is so. When they had old religious debates, they used to get together and say, “Well, we will discuss this subject.” One man would say, “The Bible says this” and another man would say, “You are mistaken. It says this.” They argued about what the Bible said. They agreed that whatever it said was so, but they argued about what it said.

In recent years there has been a subtle, Satanic effort to undermined people’s faith in the Bible; and the devil has helped the race along until men have put their own opinion above the Word of God. You will find that practically all the troubles we are having today have come out of the fact that men in many instances have ceased to believe in an authoritative Bible.

For instance, we are living in the midst of race turmoil all over the world today. Look at what they are facing in Africa, and look at what we are facing in this country. It is all contrary to Scripture — it is all contrary to the Word of God. I am going to show you that the Bible is perfectly clear on races — just as clear as it can be.
….

God Almighty did not make of the human race one race in the sense that He did not fix the bounds of their habitation. That is perfectly clear. It is no accident that most Chinese are in China. There has been an overflow in the world, but most Chinese live in China. There are millions and millions of them there, and there are no greater people in the world. I have never known lovelier and more wonderful people than the Chinese.

We were over in Formosa a few years ago and conferred an honorary degree on Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, and I never met a greater man. I never met a man of more intelligence or a more wonderful Christian; and Madame Chiang Kai-shek  is a wonderful woman. There they are. Now, what happened? They married each other. She was a Christian Chinese woman educated in America. When she finished her education, she went back to her home in China. How God has used Generalissimo and Madame Chiang Kai-shek — not only as Christian witnesses but also in other ways. I was never with a man who pulled me to him with stronger ties than Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek when I was over there and conferred an honorary degree on him. All right, he is a Chinese. He married a Chinese woman. That is the way God meant it to be.

Paul said that God  . . . hath made of one blood all nations of men . . . . But He also fixed the bounds of their habitation. When nations break out of their boundaries and begin to do things contrary to the purpose of God and the directive will of God, they have trouble. The world is in turmoil today because men and nations go contrary to the clear teaching of the Word of God. Let’s understand that. The Chinese people are wonderful people. They have internal troubles, of course, because Communism has gone into China and disturbed a great deal of the population. But the Chinese people are wonderful people. The Japanese people are ingenious — they are wonderful people. The Koreans are wonderful people. The Africans are wonderful people. In many ways, there are no people in the world finer than the colored people who were brought over here in slavery in days gone by.

….

What happened? Well, away back yonder our forefathers went over to Africa and brought the colored people back and sold them into slavery. That was wrong. But God overruled. When they came over here, many of them did not know the Bible and did not know about Jesus Christ; but they got converted. Some of the greatest preachers the world has ever known were colored preachers who were converted in slavery days.

….

God Almighty allowed these colored people to be turned here into the South and overruled what happened, and then He turned the colored people in the South into wonderful Christian people. For many years we have lived together. Occasionally there will be a flare-up. But the white people have helped the colored people build their churches, and we have gotten along together harmoniously and peacefully; and everything has come along fine. Sometimes we have a little trouble, but then we adjust everything sensibly and get back to the established order.

….

White folks and colored folks, you listen to me. You cannot run over God’s plan and God’s established order without having trouble. God never meant to have one race. It was not His purpose at all. God has a purpose for each race. God Almighty may have overruled and permitted the slaves to come over to America so that the colored people could be the great missionaries to the Africans. They could have been. The white people in America would have helped pay their way over there. By the hundred and hundred they could have gone back to Africa and got the Africans converted after the slavery days were over.

….

If we would just listen to the Word of God and not try to overthrow God’s established order, we would not have any trouble. God never meant for America to be a melting pot to rub out the line between the nations. That was not God’s purpose for this nation. When someone goes to overthrowing His established order and goes around preaching pious sermons about it, that makes me sick — for a man to stand up and preach pious sermons in this country and talk about rubbing out the line between the races — I say it makes me sick. I have had the sweetest fellowship with colored Christians, with yellow Christians, with red Christians, with all sorts of Christians — the sweetest fellowship anybody has ever had, we have had. Christians have always had it. We have never had any trouble about that.

The trouble today is a Satanic agitation striking back at God’s established order. That is what is making trouble for us. Of course, it is easy to look back over the years and see the situation from another standpoint; but when the folks up North went to Africa and brought the slaves over to this country and sold them to the Southern people, the Southern people should have been Christian enough to have said, “We will not have any slaves. We are not going ahead.”  But, you know, they went ahead.

Only a small percentage of the Southern people held slaves. Only a small percentage of them were slave owners. A great many people in the South in the old days did not believe in slavery — they stood against slavery. But they went ahead, and the commercial element was dominant; and people bought slaves and sold them. This slavery was not right. It should not have been. What we should have done was to have sent missionaries to Africa. Yes, that is what we should have done. That would have been in line with Scripture.

God put the Africans over there. They are fine people. They are intelligent people. Do not think they are inferior in every way. It is not so. But we should have sent missionaries over there, and Africa should have been a great nation of colored Christians. If we had done what God had told us to do and sent the Gospel to them and made a Christian nation out of them instead of bringing them over here and selling them into slavery, Africa could have been a great nation of colored Christians. What we did was wrong. It was not right. It cannot be justified. We should not try to justify it. But people went along. Some good people fell for it and went ahead with it; and God overruled it.

….

But racially we have separation in the Bible. Let’s get that clear. Any race has a right to come to America. We do not mean that when we came over here we wiped out the line between races. We did not do that. We should have let the Africans stay in Africa instead of bringing them here for slaves, but did you colored people ever stop to think where you might have been if that had not happened? Now, you colored people listen to me. If you had not been brought over here and if your grandparents in slavery days had not heard that great preaching you might not even be a Christian. You might be over there in the jungles of Africa today, unsaved. But you are here in America where you have your own schools and your own churches and your own liberties and your own rights, with certain restrictions that God Almighty put about you — restrictions that are in line with the Word of God. The Jews have lived a separated race. they have been separated from the other races of the world. They have been miraculously preserved. Now they have a homeland. They are back there today, and what a wonderful thing is happening.

The time has come when we good folks down here in the South — the good colored people and the good white people — need to use our heads. We should not let this outside agitation disturb us down here. Now, listen just a minute. You colored people are entitled to good schools. You ought to have them. I would like for you to remember something. Just remember that the South went through reconstruction and had a hard time. It was not easy. Then remember something else, too. When your ancestors were slaves in the homes of these Southern people, they got a breath of culture that they could not have gotten even in the schoolrooms of America. They heard the old-time preachers. I have said many times that the greatest preachers who have lived since the Apostolic days were the preachers of the South — the preachers who preached to the colored people. And back there the slaves had the Gospel. They were it and were converted. They were saved.

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Now, I am appealing to you colored people and to you white people. Let’s use our heads. Let’s be intelligent. Let’s not try to kick the Bible off the center table. Keep your Bible where it belongs. When they tell you that God Almighty is not the author of the boundaries of nations, you tell them that is wrong. You tell them it is perfectly clear in the Bible that God made of one blood all nations but that He also fixed the bounds of their habitation. There is nothing unscriptural about that.

Listen just a minute. We are trying to bring a few people from other lands here to Bob Jones University so we can educate them and help them. We have two Chinese gentlemen teaching here in this school. They are Christian men. They are intelligent men, and they understand what we are doing. They know where we are going. We honor and respect them.

There is no problem here. But it could be a problem. It could be a problem in California. It could be a problem anywhere. Whenever you get a situation that rubs out the line that God has drawn between races, whenever that happens, you are going to have trouble. That is what is happening today in this country. All this agitation is a Communistic agitation to overthrow the established order of God in this world. The Communistic influence is at work all about us. Certain people are disturbing this situation. They talk about the fact that we are going to have one world. We will never really have one world until this world heads up in God. We are not going to have one world by man’s rubbing out the line that God has established. He is marking the lines, and you cannot rub them out and get away with it.

The established order cannot be overthrown without having trouble. That is what wrecked Paradise. God set up the order of Paradise. He told Adam and Eve how to live and what food to eat and what not to eat. He drew the lines around that Garden; and when Adam and Eve crossed over the lines of God, thorns grew on roses. The first baby that was born was a murderer and killed his own brother. So it has gone down through the ages. It is man’s rebellion (due to the fall) against a Holy God to overthrow the established order of God in this world.

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When you run into conflict with God’s established order racially, you have trouble. You do not produce harmony. You produce destruction and trouble, and this nation is in the greatest danger it has ever been in in its history. We are facing dangers from abroad and dangers at home, and the reason is that we have got away from the Bible of our forefathers. The best Christians who ever put foot on this earth since the Apostolic days were the men and women in America back in the old days. Some of them owned slaves, and some of them did not; and some of them were slaves, and some of them were not. Back in those days they believed the Bible, and God called this nation into existence to be a witness to the world and to be true to the Word of God. Do not let these religious liberals blowing their bubbles of nothing over your head get you upset and disturbed. Let’s get back to the Word of God and be sensible.
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Our heavenly Father, bless our country. We thank Thee for our ancestors. We thank Thee for the good, Christian people — white and black. We thank Thee for the ties that have bound these Christian white people and Christian colored people together through the years, and we thank Thee that white people who had a little more money helped them build their churches and stood by them and when they got sick, they helped them. No nation has ever prospered or been blessed like the colored people in the South. Help these colored Christian not to get swept away by all the propaganda that is being put out now. Help us to see this thing and to understand God’s established order and to be one in Christ and to understand that God has fixed the boundaries of the nations so we would not have trouble and misunderstanding. Keep us by Thy power and use us for They glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

You can read the entire sermon here and here. Transcribed by Camille Lewis 

Quote of the Day: Reason vs. Faith, Hitchens vs. Luther

Bruce Gerencser 0 Comments

dan barker quote on faith vs reason

Our belief is not a belief. Our principles are not a faith. We do not rely solely upon science and reason, because these are necessary rather than sufficient factors, but we distrust anything that contradicts science or outrages reason. We may differ on many things, but what we respect is free inquiry, open mindedness, and the pursuit of ideas for their own sake.

— Christopher Hitchens, God is Not Great

The anabaptists pretend that children, not as yet having reason, ought not yet to receive baptism. I answer: That reason in no way contributes to faith. Nay, in that children are destitute of reason, they are all the more fit and proper recipients of baptism. For reason is the greatest enemy that faith has: it never comes to the aid of spiritual things but — more frequently than not — struggles against the Divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God.

— Martin Luther, Tabletalk (Page 120)

Songs of Sacrilege: Hallelu by The Devil Makes Three

Bruce Gerencser 0 Comments

the devil makes three

This is the one hundred and forty-ninth installment in the Songs of Sacrilege series. This is a series that I would like readers to help me with. If you know of a song that is irreverent towards religion, makes fun of religion, pokes fun at sincerely held religious beliefs, or challenges the firmly held religious beliefs of others, please send me an email.

Today’s Song of Sacrilege is Hallelu by The Devil Makes Three.

Video Link

Lyrics

Nothing is wrong here so I’m climbing up the walls
Trying to kill this silence with gun blasts and alcohol
I’ve been laughing, I’ve been crying, I’ve been living, I’ve been dying
They say tell the truth, they’re lying, Hallelu

Chorus:
Hallelu, Hallelu, praise the lord and pass the ammunition too
They say Jesus is coming, he must be walking, he sure ain’t running
Who can blame him, look how we done him, Hallelu

What will it take to have this place on bended knee
You run to the forest, you can bet I’ll burn the trees
I will poison the water ’cause it’s only getting hotter
And we came for sons and daughters
Hallelu

Chorus

Trials and tribulations, that’s just bread and wine
Getting my hands dirty, that does not take off the shine
On this farm to get your filling, there’s got to be a little killing
So I am ready and I’m willing, Hallelu

Chorus

If you’re waiting on salvation you’ll need candles and libations
Train ain’t coming in the station, Hallelu

They say Jesus is coming, he must be walking, he sure ain’t running
Who can blame him, look how we done him, Hallelu

Feeling Like a Stranger in My Own Country

Bruce Gerencser 5 Comments

flags at henry county fair 2017

I am someone who is committed to social and economic progress for all Americans. I oppose racism, bigotry, misogyny, and xenophobia wherever they are found, including in the groups and political parties I support. Recent events in Charlottesville, Virginia have left me increasingly feeling as if I am a stranger in this blessed land of ours. Nazis, KKK members, and white supremacists — some of whom were armed with assault rifles — marched in the streets as if we still lived in the 1950s. Counter-protesters pushed back at this vile and ugly display of Donald Trump/Steve Bannon-inspired white nationalism, but I was dismayed to see photographs of people who supposedly have much in common Martin Luther King, Jr. carrying firearms and resorting to violence to get their message across.  During President Obama’s eight years in office, great strides were made in areas such as gays serving in the military and same-sex marriage. As a liberal, I thought, better days lie ahead. Thanks to Bernie Sanders and others who hold Democratic Socialist values, the plight of American workers will be improved, health care will be reformed and expanded, and the economic stranglehold the rich and corporations have on the working class will be broken. I naïvely thought that the influence of lobbyists and corporate donations on our political process would finally be ended. Instead, white and Evangelical America rose up and voted Donald Trump into office — the most inept, unqualified man to ever be elected president. Overnight, President Trump has rolled back decades of social progress, dumped billions of dollars of new money into the military-industrial complex, attacked minorities, and used the power of the Federal government to persecute and deport people who are in the United States illegally. Worse yet, President Trump has increased troop levels in the Middle East, threatened to attack Iran and Venezuela, and has us on the cusp of nuclear war with North Korea. And now it is increasingly likely that the President and/or people closely associated with him colluded with Russia to subvert our democratic process.

I find the current state of affairs to be quite depressing, so I try to do things that distract my mind from Trumpmania. Last Saturday, Polly and I, along with our oldest daughter, drove to Napoleon, Ohio to attend the Henry County Fair. We met our two oldest sons and their families at the fair. My sons love tractor pulls, and since Polly and I had never attended such an event, I thought attending the NTPA — (National Tractor Pullers Association) sanctioned tractor pull would be a delightful distraction. Little did I know that Christian nationalism would be front and center at the pull.

It comes as no surprise that the crowd was white. During the four-plus hours I sat in the stands, I saw all of one black person. An Asian family sat in back of us for a short while, but after having their fill of high-horsepowered machines, they got up and left. Prior to the start of the event, I expected the announcer would ask everyone to stand, remove their hats, place their right hands over their hearts, and face the flag as someone screeched out the Star Spangled Banner. While I personally despise the singing of the National Anthem (and God Bless America) at sporting events — a tradition dating back to the World Wars —  I acquiesce, removing my hat and placing it over my heart. Unfortunately, minutes — long, painful minutes — before the singing of the National Anthem, the announcer launched into a diatribe better suited for the brown shirts In Charlottesville who were, at the same time, showing their support for nationalism, militarism, and Christianity.

First, the announcer had everyone stand, remove their hats, and place their right hands over their hearts, not for the singing of the National Anthem, but for the saying of a sectarian prayer to the Christian God. He demanded everyone conform, and then launched into a full-blown — are we at an Evangelical church? — masturbatory prayer to Jesus. The prayer was completed with the announcer saying, and all God’s people said AMEN. The stands reverberated with an orgasmic AMEN! with virtually everyone around me lending their vocal approval. No shock here. This is rural Northwest Ohio, the land of Christian God, guns, American militarism, and overt displays of nationalism.

cash explosion tractor pulling team henry county fair 2017

Having attended countless sporting events over the years, I have had to listen to innumerable inane, stupid — and at times hilarious — Christian prayers. I was not, however, ready for what happened next. Once the prayer was finished, the announcer asked everyone to remain standing for the next ritual, the saying of the Pledge of Allegiance. Before leading the crowd in a profession of fealty to the United States and to the Christian God, the announcer went on a several minute-long harangue about how great America was, how awesome our military was, and how parents need to teach their children the importance of blind, nationalistic patriotism.

Once the Pledge of Allegiance was duly uttered, it was time for the singing of the National Anthem. I thought, finally escape looms near. Unfortunately, everyone in attendance was forced to listen to part three of the announcer’s Ain’t ‘merica Great sermon first, and then the appointed singer sang the National Anthem. Thinking my hell on earth was finally over, I started to sit down, only to find out that the announcer wasn’t done. Since there were Canadians in attendance at the tractor pull, it was deemed appropriate to play the Canadian National Anthem. Thankfully, no one was called on to sing O Canada.

As I always do when attending sporting events, I refused to remove my hat for the praying of the prayer to the Christian God. This God is not my God, and I find such displays of sectarianism at events open to the public offensive. As far as I could see in front of me and to the left and right, I was the only man who refused to uncover his head. The saying of the Pledge of Allegiance elicited the same response from me. I refuse to pledge my allegiance to America, its flag, or the Christian God. I know the saying of the Pledge has its roots in the anti-communist McCarthyism of the 1950s. As a Christian, I refused to say the pledge because my only allegiance was to Jesus. These days, I refuse because of the connection of the Pledge to nationalism and militarism.

I am sure some readers might wonder how, constitutionally, the announcer could get by with the sectarian prayer and sermonizing. Ohio county fairs are actually private events. Agricultural boards rent the fairgrounds from their respective counties and are free to do whatever they want. I learned this years ago when I got into a skirmish in Southeast Ohio with the Perry County sheriff and county fair officials. I had gone, along with a group of people from the church I pastored at the time, to the fairgrounds to hand out tracts and preach. The local sheriff, with whom I had a running battle, threatened to arrest me if I didn’t immediately stop what I was doing and leave the fairgrounds. I refused, threatening both him and the fair board with a lawsuit for violating my first amendment rights. They backed down, but a few weeks later I received a letter from the Ohio Attorney General informing me the Ohio fairs were private events and as such I could be arrested for trespassing if I continued to hand out tracts and preach. Ironically, Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) was permitted to have on fair property a train caboose-like vehicle they used to trap children into watching movies or other forms of entertainment so they then could be evangelized. (At the Henry County Fair, there was a man preaching and handing out tracts. He was allowed to do so unmolested.)

The tractor pull itself was quite entertaining, and both Polly and I enjoyed watching the loud, thunderous machines pull a weighted sled down the track. My sons informed me that this Saturday’s NTPA national event at the Wood County fairgrounds in Bowling Green, Ohio will even be worse when it comes to worship of the Christian God and the promotion of American exceptionalism and nationalism. Not only will there be a prayer and a pledge, there will also be the playing of numerous patriotic country songs. The songs of flag-wavers such as Toby Keith and Lee Greenwood will blare across the pull grounds, as men and women who proudly wear the redneck label thank God for horsepower and the smell of racing fuel. I’ll pass, thank you.

Black Collar Crime: Pastor George Bradburn Guilty of Repeatedly Molesting Boy

Bruce Gerencser 0 Comments

george bradburn

George Bradburn, pastor of Queen City Christian Church in Queen City, Missouri, pleaded guilty yesterday to “fourteen counts of committing sodomy in the first degree and deviant sexual intercourse with a person less than 14-years-old.”

Echo Menges, a reporter for nemonews.net reports:

According to court documents, just over one year ago, a young man, formerly of Queen City, MO, told investigators about being sexually abused throughout his childhood by his former pastor, George Charles Bradburn, 69.

Bradburn befriended the boy at age nine, who commonly spent time at the church assisting in various duties such as cleaning or helping out. When the child was 12-years-old, Bradburn began molesting him, which is stated in the Probable Cause Statement filed in the case.

According to the court documents, the molestation began in 2003 and lasted for six years until 2008 when the victim was 18-years-old.

The documents also state, Bradburn went out of his way to stay in contact with the child. After the child moved away from the area, Bradburn maintained contact with the family, often picking up the child for visits, bringing him back to Queen City and continuing to molest him.

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On Friday morning, August 11, 2017, Bradburn pled guilty to committing the ultimate betrayal in a plea deal made with the Schuyler County Prosecutor’s Office.

Bradburn has pleaded guilty to two of the 14 felony counts of committing sodomy in the first degree, deviant sexual intercourse with a person less than 14-years-old.

 

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Last year, KTVO reported:

A northeast Missouri minister is charged with a sex crime against an underage boy.

Pastor George Bradburn, 68, of Queen City Christian Church is charged with one count of first-degree statutory sodomy.

Schuyler County Sheriff Joe Wuebker said his office arrested Bradburn at his Queen City home on Tuesday.

The arrest comes after a two-month investigation.

Wuebker originally received a tip from the Kirksville Police Department on April 12, 2016, after the incident was reported to that department.

After speaking with the alleged victim, Wuebker determined, due to particular circumstances with this case, the investigation would be turned over to the Missouri State Technical Assistance Team (STAT).

Brian Bailey with the STAT conducted an interview with the victim on May 3, 2016, regarding the sexual abuse allegation. The victim stated when he was a juvenile, he and his family came to know Bradburn as the pastor of a local church.

The victim then stated at approximately age 9 he began spending time at the church assisting in various duties such as cleaning or helping out, when he and Bradburn became good friends.

The victim described when he was approximately age 12, Bradburn began touching his private parts, both over and under the clothing, with his hands.

The teen recalled this happening “several times per week” until the age of approximately 15, at which time the boy went to live in another part of Missouri.

The victim then stated Bradburn would come pick him up once per month and bring him back to Queen City for visits, at which time victim reported the encounters continued by Bradburn. This cycle continued until the victim turned 18.

The teen reported the incidents normally occurred in the pastor’s home. The victim also stated Bradburn told him not to tell anyone or both he and Bradburn would get in trouble.

On June 14, 2016, Bailey conducted an interview with Bradburn. During this interview, the sheriff’s office says the minister admitted to fondling the victim beginning when the boy was approximately 13 years old.

Investigators say Bradburn admitted to sexual acts with the victim approximately 50 times from the age of 13 until he was 18 years old.

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Update

The Edina Sentinel reports:

The mood in the courtroom in the Knox County Courthouse was stoic as Second Circuit Presiding Judge Russell E. Steele sentenced former Pastor George C. Bradburn, 69, of Queen City, MO, to serve two ten-year terms to run consecutively in prison for molesting a Schuyler County child and parishioner of the Queen City Christian Church, where Bradburn was the Minister.

Bradburn wore a bullet proof vest over his orange jail issued jumpsuit during the sentencing hearing, which was moved to Knox County on a change of venue, and set before Judge Steele on a change of judge from Schuyler County.

Also, there was an increase in the number of law enforcement officers at the courthouse during the hearing. Three to four officers were posted inside the courtroom during court, including one posted directly inside and one posted directly outside the main entrance to the courtroom.

During the court proceeding, the mother of the victim was allowed to read a statement to the court and address Bradburn despite objection from Bradburn’s attorney, Jennifer Richardson.

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The victim’s mother told the court what it was like for her family during the years then Pastor Bradburn was molesting her young son from an early age to adulthood, how the child exhibited exceedingly troubled behavior as his visits with Bradburn persisted and built up to two or three times per week. She was emotional when she told the court her child did not want to go with Bradburn, but she insisted. She thought Bradburn was trying to help her son.

Bradburn also addressed the court prior to being sentenced. He unfolded a piece of paper and read from it for some of his statement. Bradburn eyes left the paper and he looked into the gallery where the victim and his family were seated.

“There are not enough words to express how sorry I am,” said Bradburn. “Yes, it does haunt me and it forever will haunt me.”

Bradburn talked directly to the victim several times while addressing the court and, besides asking for forgiveness, Bradburn asked the victim to “remember the good times we shared” and to remember a talk they had had, when the victim was a child. At several points during Bradburn’s address he seemed to be preaching to the victim and the victim’s family.

The victim’s mother told Bradburn, during her statement, forgiveness would not be given by her family.

“George Bradburn, you are lower than a snake,” said the victim’s mother. “One family was in the church and left, they tried to get you in trouble for what you did to their child. The people in the church (were) convinced by you that it didn’t happen – including me. I had to go to this family and beg them to forgive me for not believing them and tell them it happened to (my son) too. I pray that you think of all the children you have harmed and all the issues you have caused them. George, I often wonder why you moved to Queen City, Missouri, where you didn’t know anyone. Why did you leave Cherryville, Kansas? What were you running from?”

Richardson pressured the Judge to allow Bradburn to serve probation for his crimes or to reduce the agreed upon sentences from ten years to five years on each charge he pleaded guilty to, two felony counts of statutory sodomy in the first degree, which were reduced from 14 counts in exchange for Bradburn’s guilty pleas.

“George did a lot of good in the community,” argued Richardson. “He counseled a lot of children.”

Richardson argued Bradburn was not a threat to the community, which was rebutted by Gravett.

“This is a case where a minister took advantage of his position and molested a child,” argued Gravett. “He told law enforcement he’s always had a fascination with young children, and it’s something he’s struggled with all his life.”

The prosecutor went on to explain Bradburn previously positioned himself to be involved in children’s activities including being an announcer at school basketball and football games.

Bradburn was asked if there were other victims as he was being brought out of the courthouse by Schuyler County Sheriff Joe Wuebker. He did not respond to the question.

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Black Collar Crime: Steven Matlak Hosted Bible Studies for Children, Accused of Child Sex Crimes

Bruce Gerencser 2 Comments

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Steven Matlak, a Fresno lawyer and active member of First Presbyterian Church in Fresno, California, stands accused of child sex abuse charges.

ABC-30 reports:

A Fresno civil attorney at a large law firm has been arrested on child sex abuse charges for the second time in the last two weeks. Steven Matlak, 40, is now facing multiple felony charges for the alleged crimes.

Sheriff’s deputies won’t say how many victims there are so far but did say the ones they’re aware of who’ve been preyed upon are all between five and 10 years old.

Matlak was not only a lawyer for a Fresno law firm but also an active member of the First Presbyterian Church and is now sitting in jail. Sheriff’s deputies say multiple children have come forward claiming Matlak inappropriately touched them.

“Unfortunately, we come across cases every day where it’s people you put the most trust into and they deceive you,” Tony Botti with the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office said. “And this is a prime example of that.”

Matlak was first arrested on sex abuse charges just two weeks ago after a five-year-old girl came forward saying Matlak touched her and took naked pictures of her. Then one day later, a nine-year-old victim came forward and claiming the same thing.

Matlak was arrested and bailed himself out. Deputies say while he was released, detectives continued investigating.

“They established more victims in the community interviewed them and their families and found out he had taken advantage of others,” Botti said.

And on Thursday, he was rearrested.

The senior pastor of the First Presbyterian Church says Matlak has been a member there since 2009. A flyer on the church’s website shows Matlak even held bible studies at his home for children where they could swim and learn about God.

The church says they’ve already begun ministering to the people who’ve been impacted saying in a statement in part, “Our hope is that the truth is made known and that we can all work together toward restoration and healing.”

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The Fresno Bee reports:

Sheriff’s detectives say they first got a report on July 27 from a woman who said her 5-year-old daughter had told her Matlak photographed and touched the girl inappropriately while she was naked. Coincidentally, detectives developed information the following day that Matlak had done something similar with a 9-year-old girl, who is not related, said Tony Botti, Fresno County Sheriff’s spokesman.

Matlak was arrested and jailed on July 28 and bailed out the following week.

Following Matlak’s release from jail, detectives continued their investigation and learned he had apparently victimized other children. Detectives interviewed them, then re-arrested Matlak on Thursday on a new set of charges.

Detectives say Matlak knew all of his victims from prior interactions with them and their families. They served search warrants at Matlak’s workplace and home, seizing his electronic devices to look for evidence.

The case was triggered after the mother of the 5-year-old victim had a talk with her daughter about good touching and bad touching, Botti said. Following that conversation, the girl told her mother about her encounter with Matlak earlier this year and she called detectives.

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Black Collar Crime: Pastor Christopher Stansell Accused of Embezzlement

Bruce Gerencser 0 Comments

christopher stansell

The Black Collar Crime Series relies on public news stories and publicly available information for its content. If any incorrect information is found, please contact Bruce Gerencser. Nothing in this post should be construed as an accusation of guilt. Those accused of crimes are innocent until proven guilty.

Christopher Stansell, pastor of First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Princeton, West Virginia, stands accused of embezzling more than $10,000 from the church.

The Bluefield Daily Telegraph reports:

A former pastor of First Christian Church in Princeton has been arrested on embezzlement charges.

Christopher L. Stansell, 48, was arrested July 27 for embezzling more than $10,000 in church funds, Sgt. M.S. Haynes, with the West Virginia State Police Princeton detachment, said.

Haynes said the incidents occurred over period of a year and a half while Stansell was employed as pastor of the church.

“During the investigation it was found that multiple checks written to and by the First Christian Church were embezzled and deposited into accounts held by Christopher Stansell,” Haynes said.

Stansell was arraigned and released on bond pending future hearings.

Update

WVVA reports that Stansell pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing.

Bruce Gerencser