Boy Scouts of America Files for Bankruptcy

There are stark parallels between the Boy Scouts of America and the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy.  The leadership of both organizations put protecting their reputations over the safety of children and youths and both maintained extensive records of abuse cases that remained hidden from the public.  Meanwhile, little was done to make sure pedophiles - which is something markedly different from being gay despite Christofascist and Catholic Church efforts to conflate the two even though the vast majority of pedophiles are heterosexual - did not find positions within the organization.  In the end, it was the deliberate cover ups and lies to the public and police authorities that have lead to the disgrace of the institutions and now a bankruptcy filing by the Boy Scouts much like numerous Catholic Church dioceses. The New York Times looks at this development.  Here are highlights:

The Boy Scouts of America, an iconic presence in the nation’s experience for more than a century, filed for bankruptcy protection early Tuesday, succumbing to financial pressures that included a surge in legal costs over its handling of sexual abuse allegations.

Founded in 1910, the Boy Scouts have long maintained internal files at their headquarters in Texas detailing decades of allegations involving nearly 8,000 “perpetrators,” according to an expert hired by the organization. Lawyers have said in recent months that former scouts have come forward to identify hundreds of other abusers not included in those files.

The bankruptcy filing, in Delaware, is expected to disrupt continuing litigation and establish a deadline for when former scouts can pursue claims.

Jim Turley, the national chair of Boy Scouts of America, said in an open letter that the organization was entering bankruptcy in order to equitably compensate all victims of abuse through a trust.

It is unclear how much of an overhaul the bankruptcy process will bring to the Boy Scouts, which reports having 2.4 million youth participants, but Mr. Kosnoff said the filing seemed necessary given the totality of the claims that have emerged. At a minimum, Mr. Kosnoff said he would like to see the organization clean out its management and end lucrative salaries for leaders, some of whom earn more than half a million dollars annually.

Even then, Mr. Kosnoff said that he finds it “difficult to impossible” for him to envision a new structure that would give him confidence that the nonprofit has sufficiently changed. He said the organization, which has operated under a congressional charter since 1916, may need to liquidate and allow some new organization with better controls come in to fill the void.

Other organizations, including Catholic dioceses and U.S.A. Gymnastics, have also sought bankruptcy protection in recent years as they have faced sexual-abuse lawsuits.

The Boy Scouts’ troubles have lingered for decades. In a 1935 article in The New York Times, the organization described having files on hundreds of people who had been leaders in the scouts but had been labeled “degenerates.”

While their records date back a century, the Boy Scouts fought the release of some of the files in an Oregon case in the early 2000s — a case that led a jury to hold the Scouts liable in 2010 for $18.5 million in punitive damages. The records in that case stayed private until a ruling from the Oregon Supreme Court in 2012 made them public.

Paul Mones, a lawyer in that case, said he recalled musing with his co-counsel at the time that the files may just be the tip of the iceberg that could ultimately send the Boy Scouts toward bankruptcy. But instead of trying to establish a compensation fund for victims over the years, he said, the organization continued trying to protect its reputation.

Mr. Mones said that the bankruptcy filing will deny other victims an opportunity to hold the scouts accountable in court.

Victims and their lawyers have argued that the files hid the problem and left scouts at risk. Mr. Pierce said he did not know until much later that there was a systemic problem in the Boy Scouts. He said that while the organization helped shape him and gave him many positive experiences, he now believes it must be abolished or radically changed.

“It provides pedophiles with access to boys,” Mr. Pierce said. “That has to stop. I don’t know if that means getting rid of the Boy Scouts or some new oversight.”

Once again, its a case of those irresponsibly seeking to protect an organization being the ones to destroy it. Yet, over and over again we see the same pattern. especially in religious organizations. 

What Dennis Hastert Tells Us About Sexual Predators

While Christian Right extremists and the Catholic Church hierarchy consistently try to depict LGBT individuals as sexual predators who lurk in restrooms and other places seeking to molest children, these claims, like so much that comes from the lips of these "godly folk" are lies.  The truth is something very different, including the fact that most child molesters are heterosexual males. And in the context of the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal, having been raised Catholic and been an altar boy in the 1960's, I would argue that much of the abuse was due not to the alleged homosexuality of abusive priests, but rather the near psychotic obsession with repressive views on sex and sexuality within the Catholic clergy that created truly emotionally and psychologically disturbed individuals. The requirement of priestly celibacy only intensifies such dysfunction.  Indeed, it took years of therapy for me to overcome the brainwashing I received as a child and youth growing up Catholic. A piece in Chicago Tonight looks at the true profile of sexual molesters in the context of Dennis Hastert's admitted abuse of some of his students.  Here are excerpts:

Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert is going to prison for violating federal banking laws.

But at his sentencing yesterday, Hastert acknowledged that he sexually abused students during his time as a wrestling coach in far west suburban Yorkville.

Hastert's high-profile disgrace has renewed questions about the nature of sexual predators and what parents and communities should know about them.

Char Rivette is the executive director of the Chicago Children's Advocacy Center, which coordinates the efforts of child protection staff, law enforcement professionals and medical experts in dealing with an average of more than 2,000 child sexual abuse reports each year.

“In general, a common profile is that the perpetrators are known to these children. Over 90 percent of children who are sexually abused are abused by someone they know,” Rivette said. “It’s not rape by a stranger, it’s generally someone who has developed a relationship with this child, and usually their parents also, and who creates scenarios and contexts within which they can successfully groom and find situations where they can act out against these children.”

According to Rivette, Hastert might not fit the description of an outright psychopath or pedophile. But his apparent state of denial at Wednesday’s sentencing is common for an abuser.

“Obviously Hastert was a coach, a teacher, a citizen of the community and he had to know that deep-down what he was doing was wrong and harmful and inappropriate,” she said. “Yet he was still compelled to do these things, so he must have come up with rationalizations to just kind of get him through this and allow him to do this without the guilt, without the shame, without the understanding that what he was doing was harming these children.”

When it comes to the survivors, Rivette said, it’s also common for them to not speak out and to feel shame or guilt.

“If you are able to disclose and someone believes you, it’s a big key to actually getting trauma treatment and actually moving on. If you don’t, what I see is a lot of emotional struggles throughout life, a lot of inability to form healthy relationships as an older adult, really a lot of struggles with substance abuse,” she said.

But Rivette said the good news is that we’re getting better at addressing these issues in the wake of the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal and now Dennis Hastert.

To stop sexual abuse of children, the first step is knowing who the predators are and not falling prey to animus based lies or psychotic sexual dogma.  It is also important to recognize that all too often the real predators are the very ones seeking to demonize and stigmatize others. I don't think it is a coincidence that sexual abuse by conservative Christian clergy is common despite all of their rantings against sex and sexuality.  The more they condemn something, the more likely they are to be the ones engaging in it or fantasizing about it. 

U.S. Soldiers Told to Ignore Afghan Allies’ Sexual Abuse of Boys

Dan Quinn is a former Special Forces captain who was relieved of his command and pulled from Afghanistan after he fought an Afghan militia commander for keeping a boy chained to his bed as a sex slave. Credit Kirsten Luce for The New York Times

Too often throughout its history America has looked the other way when it comes to human rights abuses perpetrated by foreign "allies."  Worse yet, at times American soldiers have committed such abuses against enemies they deem inferior and/or less than human - think of Vietnam and the My Lai  massacre and more recently the atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan.   But back to the issue of looking the other way when it comes to abuses by allies.  In Afghanistan, Islam is the predominant religion, but despite this fact and the dim view of homosexuality by Islamic clerics, many Afghan military commanders and local war lords engage in bacha bazi, literally “boy play,” often with brutal effect on the boys they victimize.   It is yet another example of America being anything but "exceptional."   A piece in the New York Times looks at the complicity of American military commanders in the brutality and the possibly deadly consequences faced by soldiers who did not remain quiet.  Here are highlights:

In his last phone call home, Lance Cpl. Gregory Buckley Jr. told his father what was troubling him: From his bunk in southern Afghanistan, he could hear Afghan police officers sexually abusing boys they had brought to the base.

“At night we can hear them screaming, but we’re not allowed to do anything about it,” the Marine’s father, Gregory Buckley Sr., recalled his son telling him before he was shot to death at the base in 2012. He urged his son to tell his superiors. “My son said that his officers told him to look the other way because it’s their culture.”

Rampant sexual abuse of children has long been a problem in Afghanistan, particularly among armed commanders who dominate much of the rural landscape and can bully the population. The practice is called bacha bazi, literally “boy play,” and American soldiers and Marines have been instructed not to intervene — in some cases, not even when their Afghan allies have abused boys on military bases, according to interviews and court records.

The policy has endured as American forces have recruited and organized Afghan militia to help hold territory against the Taliban. But soldiers and Marines have been increasingly troubled that instead of weeding out pedophiles, the American military was arming them in some cases and placing them as the commanders of villages — and doing little when they began abusing children.

“The reason we were here is because we heard the terrible things the Taliban were doing to people, how they were taking away human rights,” said Dan Quinn, a former Special Forces captain who beat up an American-backed militia commander for keeping a boy chained to his bed as a sex slave. “But we were putting people into power who would do things that were worse than the Taliban did — that was something village elders voiced to me.”

The policy of instructing soldiers to ignore pedophilia by their Afghan allies is coming under new scrutiny, particularly as it emerges that service members like Captain Quinn have faced discipline, even career ruin, for disobeying it.

[T]he Army is also trying to forcibly retire Sgt. First Class Charles Martland, a Special Forces member who joined Captain Quinn in beating up the commander.

“The Army contends that Martland and others should have looked the other way (a contention that I believe is nonsense),” Representative Duncan Hunter, a California Republican who hopes to save Sergeant Martland’s career, wrote last week to the Pentagon’s inspector general.

The American policy of nonintervention was intended to maintain good relations with the Afghan police and militia units the United States has trained to fight the Taliban. It also reflected a reluctance to impose cultural values in a country where pederasty is rife, particularly among powerful men, for whom being surrounded by young teenagers can be a mark of social status. 

But the American policy of treating pedophilia as a cultural issue has often alienated the villages whose children were being preyed upon. The pitfalls of the policy emerged clearly as American Special Forces soldiers began to form Afghan Local Police militias to hold villages that American forces had retaken from the Taliban in 2010 and 2011.

By the summer of 2011, Captain Quinn and Sergeant Martland, both Green Berets on their second tour in northern Kunduz Province, began to receive dire complaints about the Afghan Local Police units they were training and supporting.

[A]nother commander absconded with his men’s wages. Mr. Quinn said he later heard the commander had spent the money on dancing boys. Another commander murdered his 12-year-old daughter in a so-called “honor killing” for having kissed a boy. “There were no repercussions,” Mr. Quinn recalled.

In September 2011, an Afghan woman, visibly bruised, showed up at an American base with her son, who was limping. One of the Afghan police commanders in the area, Abdul Rahman, had abducted the boy and forced him to become a sex slave, chained to his bed, the woman explained. When she sought her son’s return, she herself was beaten. Her son had eventually been released, but she was afraid it would happen again, she told the Americans on the base.

She explained that because “her son was such a good-looking kid, he was a status symbol” local commanders coveted . . . . Captain Quinn summoned Abdul Rahman and confronted him about what he had done. The police commander acknowledged that it was true, but brushed it off. When the American officer began to lecture about “how you are held to a higher standard if you are working with U.S. forces, and people expect more of you,” the commander began to laugh.

“I picked him up and threw him onto the ground,” Mr. Quinn said. Sergeant Martland joined in, he said. “I did this to make sure the message was understood that if he went back to the boy, that it was not going to be tolerated,” Mr. Quinn recalled.

Sergeant Martland, who received a Bronze Star for valor for his actions during a Taliban ambush, wrote in a letter to the Army this year that he and Mr. Quinn “felt that morally we could no longer stand by and allow our A.L.P. to commit atrocities,” referring to the Afghan Local Police. 

The father of Lance Corporal Buckley believes the policy of looking away from sexual abuse was a factor in his son’s death, and he has filed a lawsuit to press the Marine Corps for more information about it.

Lance Corporal Buckley and two other Marines were killed in 2012 by one of a large entourage of boys living at their base with an Afghan police commander named Sarwar Jan.

Lance Corporal Buckley had noticed that a large entourage of “tea boys” — domestic servants who are sometimes pressed into sexual slavery — had arrived with Mr. Jan and moved into the same barracks, one floor below the Marines. He told his father about it during his final call home.

Word of Mr. Jan’s new position also reached the Marine officers who had gotten him arrested in 2010. One of them, Maj. Jason Brezler, dashed out an email to Marine officers at F.O.B. Delhi, warning them about Mr. Jan and attaching a dossier about him.

The warning was never heeded. About two weeks later, one of the older boys with Mr. Jan — around 17 years old — grabbed a rifle and killed Lance Corporal Buckley and the other Marines.

Lance Corporal Buckley’s father still agonizes about whether the killing occurred because of the sexual abuse by an American ally. “As far as the young boys are concerned, the Marines are allowing it to happen and so they’re guilty by association,” Mr. Buckley said. “They don’t know our Marines are sick to their stomachs.”

The one American service member who was punished in the investigation that followed was Major Brezler, who had sent the email warning about Mr. Jan, his lawyers said. In one of Major Brezler’s hearings, Marine Corps lawyers warned that information about the police commander’s penchant for abusing boys might be classified. The Marine Corps has initiated proceedings to discharge Major Brezler.

I  have no problem with gay sex among consenting adults. But sexual abuse and worse - be it against boys or girls - is simply immoral and NOT something America should be condoning by its inaction.  Afghanistan has been a Hell hole for millennia and, as this story shows, little has changed.  Bush/Cheney embroiled the nation in an non-winable war and set the stage for such horrors.  Action against members of the military who did not remain silent or turn a blind eye needs to cease and instead be directed at their superiors who used supposed expediency to allow evil.    By teaming up with monsters, America has often defeated its own purposes. 

Christian Radio Host Fund Guilty of Sexually Assaulting 12-Year-Old Boy

UPDATED:  Balyo has admitted to raping a second boy.  Via the Detroit Free Press: 

Balyo admitted today in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids. "I performed sex acts as described. I knew it was wrong.'' Balyo and Ronald Lee Moser paid the boy for his involvement in the April 19th assault. His hands and feet were handcuffed and he was tied to the bed, according to courtroom statements today. While bound, Balyo took nine photos of the boy, first in his underwear and then naked. The boy's family wept in the back of the sixth floor courtroom as details of the assault were told to Magistrate Ellen Carmody during today's plea hearing.

 
The husband teases me at times, but one thing I do like to do is expose hypocrisy via this blog - or at least help make sure stories of hypocrisy get a wider readership.  No one provides more fodder for exposing hypocrisy than today's Republicans and the "godly Christians" to whom the GOP prostitutes itself unceasingly.   The latter category includes John Balyo, a Christian radio host, who is facing between 15 and 50 years in prison.  Why you might ask?  Because Balyo is to be sentenced in November on charges of sexual exploitation of a child  - a 12 year old boy - and possession of child pornography.  The Raw Story looks at this story which is all to familiar to those who follow the misdeeds of the "godly folk":

A 34-year-old former Michigan Christian radio host pleaded guilty on Tuesday of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old boy and storing images of the attack on his computer, WOOD-TV reported.

John Balyo faces between 15 and 50 years in prison when he is sentenced in November on charges of sexual exploitation of a child and possession of child pornography. He also faces additional charges from prosecutors in nearby Calhoun County for first-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Balyo admitted to meeting the boy through another man, identified by Mlive.com as 42-year-old Ronald Moser, in a hotel room in Kalamazoo this past April and paying the boy in cash for the encounter.

“I performed a sexual act as described and I knowingly possessed the images on my camera,” Balyo was quoted as saying. “I knew it was wrong.”

The charge against Balyo in Calhoun County stems from a search last month of a storage unit he was renting. According to WOOD, investigators found a “bondage kit” inside the unit, as well as children’s costumes and socks and an adult publication with sections related to child pornography highlighted. Balyo admitted to assaulting the boy following the search.

He was fired from his job at WCSG-FM, where he worked as a morning show host, following his arrest.

Co-Founder Of Minuteman Border Patrol Group Arrested On Child Sex Charges

As noted often on this blog, why is it that it seems like 9 times out of 10 that it is the far right conservatives and the pastors and priests from anti-gay religious denominations who are the ones always getting arrested on sex crimes charges?  Oh, and lets not forget the "conservative" Republican officials who vote against gays even as they troll for gay sex on the sly.  The latest far right extremist to get busted is Chris Simcox, 52, who co-founded the anti-immigrant Minuteman Civil Defense Corps in 2005.  It seems that Simcox has a thing about young girls under the age of 10.  It's sick to say the least.  Why do I imagine that the far right is happy that it was young girls and not young boys that float Simcox's boat?  Here are highlights from Huffington Post on this latest example that it is heterosexuals, not gays, who comprise most pedophiles and molesters of children:

PHOENIX, June 19 (Reuters) - The co-founder of the Minutemen civilian border patrol group that for several years watched for unauthorized immigrants crossing to Arizona from Mexico, was arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of molesting three young girls.

Chris Simcox, 52, who co-founded the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps in 2005, was booked into a Maricopa County jail in connection with the molestation of three girls under the age of 10, said Sergeant Tommy Thompson, a Phoenix police spokesman.

Detectives with the department's Family Investigations Bureau developed "probable cause" that Simcox had sexual conduct with the girls during the past several months, Thompson said. No other details were immediately available.

He faces two counts each of child molestation and sexual conduct with a minor, and one count of attempted child molestation.

A former kindergarten teacher from California, Simcox co-founded the border watch group to highlight what he said was the government's failure to secure the porous southwest border with Mexico.

Its force of housewives, office workers and veterans sat in lawn chairs in southern Arizona, spotting suspected migrants whom they reported to the U.S. Border Patrol, until the group disbanded in 2010.

The Bizarre Christianist World of "Purity Balls"

For the record, I am the father of two girls - correction, two amazing young women, one 23 and one 30 - so I have some experience with raising daughters.  Which brings me to something that I deem really bizarre, if not almost sick and perverted in a sexual sort of way: daughters pledging their virginity to their dads.  True, one wants daughters who are responsible and who don't get themselves into trouble.  But pledging their virginity to me in years past.   I'm sorry, but this whole concept strikes me as creepy and at a minimum borderline incestuous.  But then again, since these "purity balls" are popular with the sexually repressed and sexually obsessed Christianist crowd, perhaps I shouldn't be surprised.  Part of me cannot believe that these girls attending "purity balls" dreamed this ritual up on their own.  Mom and/or dad had to do some brainwashing and/or arm twisting.   A piece in Religion Dispatches looks at this bizarre practice.  Here are are excerpts:

As I watched Virgin Tales, a Swiss documentary about purity balls—dances where young girls pledge their virginities to their dads—I thought of my father often. Because the most compelling focus of the film wasn’t the events themselves, but the way in which one family’s dynamic can reveal so much about American culture and politics.

Filmmaker Mirjam von Arx follows the Colorado Springs-based Wilson family whose patriarch, Randy, invented purity balls. Von Arx focuses on one daughter in particular, Jordyn.

While other dads may have been teaching their daughters soccer, Randy was making sure that his little girls were focused on traditional feminine pursuits. Jordyn runs “the School of Grace” out of their home, where she gives advice to other young women on how to be properly ladylike. (She uses a book on etiquette from the 1920s to demonstrate how to modestly bend over at a water fountain, or how to greet people with a smile when they come into your home.)

His wife, Lisa, homeschooled their children and the “curriculum” speaks volumes. Daughter Kaalyn reads from an illustrated book: “Because you are my chosen princess you should dress modestly every day.”

“Sadly, there are a lot of girls that don’t think about me when they get dressed in the morning. They wear clothes that do not cover their bodies or that show their bodies in an immodest way. Keep your body covered and be my model.”

Later we see Randy building a hope chest for his daughter Kameryn that will be revealed at a ceremony held in the family living room. There, Kameryn is given her great-great-grandmother’s wedding ring as a purity ring and is taught about “fruitfulness.”

Even to the women who marry into the Wilson family, their roles are clear. Colton Wilson’s wife Anna tells us, “Because I love God I love my husband, regardless of whether or not I have feelings of affection for him in a given moment.”  “The command to love him is just that—it’s a command.”

As a feminist, I found the purity balls themselves the most difficult to watch. Young women and girls are dressed in ballgowns, their hair professionally done. They pose with their fathers under white arches decorated with flowers, like prom dates. And the midst of all this revelry, they promise to remain virgins and their fathers, in turn, pledge to be the protector of that “purity.”

Even now, after having written a book on purity culture and politics and having had met Randy in a truly bizarre interaction on a daytime talk show (don’t ask), they still affect me on a visceral level. The Wilsons claim to be offering an antidote to the hypersexualized pop culture that targets young women—but by defining girls so concretely by their virginity, they’re ensuring that young women will continue to be judged by what they do or don’t do sexually. The women who take virginity pledges and go to purity balls are promising that their bodies aren’t their own, but instead belong to their fathers and future husbands.

But despite the radical evangelicalism and sexism the Wilsons promote, as I watched the film I found it difficult not to root for Jordyn. Here’s a young woman—a bit awkward, and a lot unworldly—who just wants to be loved. She wants a happy life, a family, and to please her parents. And she wants it desperately. The boundaries of her goals may be more narrow than most women’s, but that kind of youthful desire and uncertainty are universal experiences.

The problem, of course, is that it’s not really about love. Sitting outside of a purity ball, in black-tie attire, Lisa tears up as she explains the events aren’t just about the party.

“It’s a beautiful moment with their father to say, ‘I care enough about you to invest in an expensive hotel and expensive meal and a lovely dress for you.’ To say that you’re valued.”

Women know the ways in which they’re valued. Whether we go to purity balls or rock concerts as young women, the limits of our worth in American culture are as subtle as a kick to the head. My hope is that not all of us will believe it, that we will want more for ourselves than subjugation dressed up in ballgowns (or bikinis). Until then, I hope we can find happiness and our own love stories.

Sick and bizarre.  I don't know what else to call these rituals.

PRI Host Apologizes for Anti-Gay Comments

The usual suspects at Christianist organizations have quickly jumped on the Penn State sex abuse scandal to allege that such sexual abuse is the fault of LGBT individuals as a class. Making matters worse, Warren Olney (pictured at right) - the host of To The Point - used the sad episode to play to the Christianist claims and allowed blatantly anti-gay Jerry Cox, head of the Family Council, to present anti-gay parenting argument. One would have thought that anyone with a shred of credibility in the mainstream media would have known better than to give any anti-gay activist a pulpit. Yet once again, the MSM has given credibility to quacks and frauds who when stripped of all the bullshit have ZERO expertise and ZERO legitimate credentials. Thankfully, Olney has now issued an apology. I hope that others in the MSM have been paying attention and will cease allowing religious extremists to spread lies and disinformation. Queerty looks at Olney's apology and here are some highlights:

To The Point host Warren Olney has issued a much better apology that reads in part:

We reported that Penn State’s former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was allowed to care for foster children even though authorities knew he was suspected of child abuse… [while] gay and lesbian couples are often prohibited from both fostering and adopting, even though they can provide loving homes… people thought that, by discussing both topics in one show, we had equated the two. . . . . There is no connection between pedophilia and homosexuality, and we never intended to say or imply there is. But our failure to make that crucial distinction explicit was a serious oversight. We regret it, and we apologize.

GLAAD points out that the show has still not explained why they let an anti-gay activist spout false and inaccurate information on the show with no push back from Olney.

Sometimes even a respected journalist can have his head up his ass: Warren Olney, the award-winning host of the current-events show, To The Point, angered gay and gay-friendly listeners on Friday by segueing from the ongoing Penn State child-abuse scandal to a panel discussion on LGBT parenting—one that included the president of the anti-gay Family Council spewing lies about gay families.

Given a mike and an audience, Cox started in with his group’s line of bigoted misinformaton: “Our position is that if the state is going to take children into custody, it ought to put children in the best homes possible… What does the research and common sense show? You’re going to put them in a home with a loving mother and father.”

Except the research doesn’t show that at all. As GLAAD points out, according to the American Psychological Association: “There is no scientific basis for concluding that lesbian mothers or gay fathers are unfit parents on the basis of sexual orientation. On the contrary, results of research suggest that lesbian and gay parents are as likely as heterosexual parents to provide supportive and healthy environments for their children.”

The bottom line is that the media needs to immediately cease having bigots like Cox - or Tony Perkins, Maggie Gallagher, Catholic bishops, etc. - appear any any context where they are permitted to spew RELIGIOUS based belief rather than true medical/mental health/scientific facts. We in the LGBT community need to slam individuals like Olney every time they give hate merchants and bigots a platform from which to lie and peddle disinformation.

Accountability Penn State Style Versus the Vatican

I haven't said much about the exploding sex abuse scandal at Penn State. The failure to act and insist that wrong doers be held accountable is disgusting and one has to shake their head that supposedly decent people basically just looked the other way after supposedly covering their asses by reporting to superiors. Superiors who did nothing. The parallels with the behavior within the ranks of the the Catholic clergy (although on a fraction of the scale compared to the tens of thousands molested by priests) in some ways are remarkable. The ultimate consequences, however, are shockingly different. At Penn State people are being fired and the president of the university has resigned. With the Catholic Church, no one in the hierarchy has been punished and cretins are even pushing for sainthood for John Paul II who had an active role in cover ups. It shows that the secular world has a far higher standard for morality and accountability than the supposed princes of the Catholic Church. Here are highlights from a New York Times piece that looks at the far different consequences and standard of accountability at Penn State:

Joe Paterno, who has the most victories of any coach in major college football history, was fired by Penn State on Wednesday night in the wake of a sexual abuse scandal involving a prominent former assistant coach and the university’s failure to act to halt further harm.

Graham B. Spanier, one of the longest-serving and highest-paid university presidents in the nation, who has helped raise the academic profile of Penn State during his tenure, was also removed by the Board of Trustees. When the announcement was made at a news conference that the 84-year-old Paterno would not coach another game, a gasp went up from the crowd of several hundred reporters, students and camera people who were present.

“We thought that because of the difficulties that engulfed our university, and they are grave, that it is necessary to make a change in the leadership to set a course for a new direction,” said John Surma Jr., the vice chairman of the board.

The university’s most senior officials were clearly seeking to halt the humiliating damage caused by the arrest last Saturday of the former assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky. . . . . Sandusky has been charged with sexually abusing eight boys over a 15-year span, and two top university officials — Tim Curley, the athletic director, and Gary Schultz, the senior vice president for finance and business — have been charged with perjury and failing to report to authorities what they knew of the allegations. Neither Paterno nor Spanier was charged in the case, though questions have been raised about if they did as much as they could to stop Sandusky.

A grand jury said that Spanier, the university’s president since 1995, was made aware of a report of an incident involving Sandusky. Upon learning about a suspected 2002 assault by Sandusky of a young boy in the football building’s showers, Paterno redirected the graduate assistant who witnessed the incident to the athletic director, rather than notifying the police. Paterno said the graduate assistant who reported the assault, Mike McQueary, said only that something disturbing had happened that was perhaps sexual in nature. McQueary testified that he saw Sandusky having anal sex with the boy.

Contrast this with what was done with Cardinal Law of Boston. Rather than face punishment, Law was transferred to Rome - in part to get him out of the reach of civil authorities - and given a plum position where he lives literally in a palace. The moral bankruptcy of the Church hierarchy is truly complete. And yet as we saw when in Rome recently, the sheeple still flock to grovel to Benedict XVI who likewise was up to his ears in the cover up of the molestation of children and youths. It's a sad commentary on rank and file Catholics.

Yet More U.S. Catholic Bishops Hypocrisy

For an institution whose top leaders worldwide ought to almost all be under prosecution for the obstruction of justice and/or as accessories to the sexual molestation of children and youths, the Roman Catholic bishops in the United States continue to display unbelievable hypocrisy and disingenuousness. Two news stories display the warped values of these nasty old men: (1) the USCCB is promoting a new anti-gay statement entitled "The Protection of Marriage: A Shared Commitment," and (2) a Yahoo News story with the headline: Top Catholic educator concealed abuse knowledge." In the later story, the cleric involved is currently the second highest ranking member of the De La Salle Christian Brothers. The forcible raping and molestation of children is fine with the U.S. Catholic bishops - unless, of course, the secret gets out to the media - while committed consensual same sex relationships between consenting adults are not. It's beyond f*cked up!! But sadly, that is the reality of the Catholic Church even if millions of sheeple want to close their eyes to the truth. First, details on the latest USCCB bullshit:
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In an open letter released today, entitled “The Protection of Marriage: A Shared Commitment,” leaders from Anglican, Baptist, Catholic, Evangelical . . . . in the United States affirmed the importance of preserving marriage’s unique meaning.
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“The broad consensus reflected in this letter—across great religious divides—is clear: The law of marriage is not about imposing the religion of anyone, but about protecting the common good of everyone,” said Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, newly elected president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and one of the letter’s signers.
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Today is the moment to stand for marriage and its unchangeable meaning. We hope this letter will encourage just that,” Archbishop Dolan said. “The Protection of Marriage: A Shared Commitment” is being circulated nationwide.
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OK. Committed, consensual adult same sex relationships bad. But the rape of children and youths? It's apparently okay, unless the media gets wise to the story, based on these highlights from Yahoo News:
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Kevin Price was struggling with memories of the sexual abuse he says he suffered at the hands of a high school teacher, so he reached out to the religious order that runs the Catholic school he attended.
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De La Salle Christian Brothers, which educates more than 1 million students around the world, apologized for Price's pain and sought to reassure him. The order's Midwest leader said the brother in question had been forbidden from contact with anyone under 18 and was working in a prison.
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But in a 1995 letter obtained by The Associated Press, the leader neglected to mention something: The prison was for males from age 10 to 21. The writer of that letter, Brother Thomas Johnson, is now the second-ranking official in the worldwide order. . . . In fact, 21 men have filed lawsuits against Rose in cases dating back to the 1960s. Four of the suits were filed last month.
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[T]his much is certain: The order was well aware that Rose was not supposed to be working with children — which is more than Minnesota prison officials said they knew when they hired him a year before the letter was written.
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[Brother Thomas] Johnson is now the order's vicar general and is based at its headquarters in Rome. He did not respond to an e-mail from the AP. The man who succeeded him as the order's Midwest leader, Brother Francis Carr, said Johnson and other Christian Brothers could not be interviewed.
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Many of Rose's accusers say the order responded to sex-abuse allegations simply by shuffling him from job to job — at Catholic high schools in Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin and California.
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The Christian Brothers in 2004 paid $1.1 million to a former student at De La Salle High School in Concord, Calif., where Rose taught in the early 1980s. The student was among several at the school who alleged molestation by Rose. The $1.1 million was part of a $6.3 million settlement that also involved allegations against two other former teachers.
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Most of the plaintiffs interviewed by the AP declined to discuss their settlements, though Paul Mehl of Fargo, N.D., said he got $50,000 from the Christian Brothers. Several said they were disappointed the settlement didn't include a strong statement of responsibility from leaders of the order.
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The prison fired Rose days after learning of previous abuse allegations against him.
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It's an indictment of the Church and the Christian Brothers order that the prison immediately fired Rose while the order never did so - nor did they report the known abuse to the criminal authorities. Why does ANYONE continue to give any deference to this morally bankrupt monsters?

the Proportion of Gay Priests in the Italian Capital at '98%'

The Vatican's PR nightmare continues to run out of control - and deservedly so. The moral rot and bankruptcy throughout the Catholic Church hierarchy in respect to the sexual abuse scandal seems to encompass the majority of high clerics as opposed to being the exception to the rule. With this week's expose on the sexual partying and cavorting of priests in Rome, the Vatican is having vapors - or at least pretending to do so - and claiming such reports are untrue. The Guardian has more on the continuing fallout. My favorite is the statement that 98% of the priests in Rome are gay. Here are story highlights:
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The Catholic church, already reeling from a string of clerical sex abuse scandals, is facing new embarrassment after an Italian magazine published an investigation into what it termed the double life of gay priests in Rome.
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The diocese of Rome lashed out at the prime minister's magazine, saying its aim was "to create scandal [and] defame all priests". But it also urged gay clerics to leave both the closet and the priesthood.

It said, "Consistency would require that they come into the open", but that they "ought not to have become priests". The semi-official papal daily, L'Osservatore Romano, made no reference to the affair. Vatican Radio reported it briefly.
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A member of the clergy quoted by the magazine put the proportion of gay priests in the Italian capital at "98%". The Rome diocese insisted the vast majority of priests in the city were "models of morality for all", while adding that the number of gay clergyman was "small, but not to be written off as isolated cases". A review eight years ago of research on the American church concluded that between a quarter and a half of seminarians and priests there were homosexual.
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A former Italian MP and gay activist, Franco Grillini, said: "If all the gays in the Catholic church were to leave it at once – something we would very much like – they would cause it serious operational problems."
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In March, the pope's own household was rocked by scandal when court documents revealed a Vatican chorister had procured male prostitutes for a papal gentleman-in-waiting.

The Vatican Simply Just Doesn't Get It

Over the weekend I looked at the Vatican's incredible insensitive - can we say down right stupid - move in equating the sexual abuse of children by priests as equally heinous with the ordination of women as priests. Maureen Dowd, with her typical verbal flare, took on this idiocy in a New York Times op-ed column yesterday. Until such time as the Roman Catholic Church gets over its Medieval views of sex and the inferiority of women, I suspect that more and more Catholics will listen less and less to the Church's hypocritical and sexually obsessed moral lectures. Add that to the still ongoing disclosures of sexual abuse and high clergy cover ups of it and it all equates to waning Church influence in the developed and educated parts of the world. Indeed, Catholicism is headed for a third world religion status. Here are some highlights from Dowd's column:
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If the Vatican is trying to restore the impression that its moral sense is intact, issuing a document that equates pedophilia with the ordination of women doesn’t really do that.
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The church still believes in its own intrinsic holiness despite all evidence to the contrary. It thinks it’s making huge concessions on the unstoppable abuse scandal when it’s taking baby steps.
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The casuistic document did not issue a zero-tolerance policy to defrock priests after they are found guilty of pedophilia; it did not order bishops to report every instance of abuse to the police; it did not set up sanctions on bishops who sweep abuse under the rectory rug; it did not eliminate the statute of limitations for abused children; it did not tell bishops to stop lobbying legislatures to prevent child-abuse laws from being toughened. There is no moral awakening here.
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In a remarkable Times story recently, Laurie Goodstein and David Halbfinger debunked the spin that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had been one of the more alert officials on the issue of sexual abuse: “The future pope, it is now clear, was also part of a culture of nonresponsibility, denial, legalistic foot-dragging and outright obstruction.
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In The New Republic, Garry Wills wrote about his struggle to come to terms with the sins of his church: Jesus “is the one who said, ‘Whatever you did to any of my brothers, even the lowliest, you did to me.’ That means that the priests abusing the vulnerable young were doing that to Jesus, raping Jesus. Any clerical functionary who shows more sympathy for the predator priests than for their victims instantly disqualified himself as a follower of Jesus.
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I cannot begin to understand the warped thinking of the Church hierarchy - and I am glad that I can't comprehend it since it is utterly sick.

Pastor Tony Alamo Convicted on Sex Charges

Why is it that it seems the main people one sees either cheating on their wives or getting busted on sex charges are Republican "family values" politicians and professional Christians who make comfortable livings fleecing the sheeple? The latest Professional Christian to receive a "go to jail" card is Tony Alamo who it seems has a taste for under age girls - in one case as young as nine. That's beyond sick. True, I know that infidelity goes on among liberals and secular folk, but they don't engage in the rank hypocrisy of the closed zipper challenge GOP politicos and professional Christians. As one who cannot stand hypocrisy, it's good to see hypocrites like Alamo go down. Personally, the sooner more Christianist frauds like Tony Perkins, James Dobson, Lou Engle, et al, are exposed the better off society will be. Here are highlights on Alamo's conviction from The Times-Picayune:

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Tony Alamo, a one-time street preacher who built a multimillion-dollar ministry and became an outfitter of the stars, was convicted Friday of taking girls as young as 9 across state lines for sex.

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Alamo stood silently as the verdict was read, a contrast to his occasional mutterings during testimony. His five victims sat looking forward in the gallery. One, a woman he "married" at age 8, wiped away a tear. "I'm just another one of the prophets that went to jail for the Gospel," Alamo called to reporters afterward as he was escorted.

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The jury of nine men and three women took about 11 hours to consider the charges against Alamo. The 10-count federal indictment accused him of taking his underage "wives" across state lines as early as 1994.

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Jury foreman Frank Oller of Texarkana, Ark., said jurors deliberated more than a day only to ensure they considered everything. The testimony convinced them the 74-year-old evangelist kept the girls as sexual partners, not office workers as his defense team claimed. "That was the evidence. That was proven," Oller said. "We came up with a full decision that we are quite satisfied with."

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U.S. Assistant Attorney Kyra Jenner said Alamo's conviction would end his cycle of abuse, as he told his followers God instructed him to marry younger and younger girls. . . . Defense lawyers said the government targeted Alamo because it doesn't like his apocalyptic brand of Christianity.

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Alamo, who founded the ministry with his wife Susan in the 1960s, remained defiant during the trial. He blurted out a reference to the Branch Davidian raid at Waco, Texas, muttered expletives during testimony and fell asleep even while alleged victims were testifying.

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It continues to baffle me how people can be brainwashed into believing that the mouth pieces for the Christianists organizations speak for God when in reality they what they really thirst for power, control and most importantly money.

Former Regent Law School Dean Pleads Guilty of Forceable Sodomy

Christo-fascist Pat Robertson likes to mind everyone else's business and speaks out against LGBT citizens regularly. Perhaps he ought to spend a bit more time minding his own university. Back in June I did a post concerning charges against Stephen McPherson (at left), a one time Regent Law School assistant dean, who was charged with sexual abuse of young girls. Now McPherson has pleaded guilty on Friday in Chesapeake Circuit Court to sexually abusing children. Yet another shining example of the overly pious, self-righteous folks at Regent not practicing what they preach. Here are highlights from the Virginian Pilot on this latest development:

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Stephen McPherson, a former Regent University law school assistant dean, pleaded guilty Friday in Chesapeake Circuit Court to sexually abusing children. McPherson, 39, of Chesapeake entered guilty pleas to two counts of forcible sodomy and two counts of object sexual penetration. He is set to be sentenced May 22.

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McPherson faces five years to life on each count. Assistant Commonwealth's Attorneys Karen Brown and Minna Sandwich agreed to withdraw nine other felonies against McPherson in return for his pleas.

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There was no agreement on a potential sentence, except that prosecutors will recommend a cap of 18 years and six months. McPherson must wear an electronic monitoring device while free on bond pending sentencing. The judge ordered him to undergo a psychosexual exam and to have no contact with the victims.