Lindsay Tornambe was just 13 years old when she was chosen to be “sacrificed to God,” she remembers.
That announcement in July 2000 came from a minister who led an insular faith community that included her family in central Minnesota. As Tornambe sat in the congregation with her parents, she remembers the minister calling out a list of 10 girls for a position of honor. He would later call them “maidens.”
Soon, her parents dutifully dropped her off at his isolated camp, where what she now calls a nightmare of sexual abuse went on for about nine years.
Pine County authorities announced Tuesday that the minister, 52-year-old Victor A. Barnard, is now facing 59 counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct involving his chosen maidens.
Barnard ruled “like a rock star” over the camp and sexually exploited girls and young women at his whim while they lived apart from their families, according to court papers, which spell out the alleged abuses against two unnamed teens.
Barnard had not been apprehended Tuesday evening but was believed to be in Washington state, where authorities have begun a manhunt for him. He is the subject of a nationwide warrant.
The 59 counts are based only on the two young women who cooperated with the authorities, there are undoubtedly many, many more young girls and women who were also molested by this guy.
You know besides my issues with religion in general, this is really one of the things about faith that concerns me the most.
Just ask yourself how readily you would accept that a 52 year old man was inviting young girls up to his isolated cabin for reasons that were NOT incredibly suspicious, if he were not using religion to camouflage his actions?
One would think that after the Jonestown massacre people would be incredibly wary of charismatic religious leaders who want to spend time with your wives or daughters, and start camps or communes in isolated areas, but some people are just not that sharp.
If you want to learn more click the link at the top, but I warn you it is a pretty upsetting read.
I just do not understand how parents turn their children over to these people in the name of religion. What the hell are they thinking? My parents barely got sitters for us because they were wary of people keeping us for a few hours.
ReplyDeleteIt seems in this country all you need is a cross around your neck and a mouthfull of crap and you can sucker those who
want to be faithful in a few seconds.
And that is male and female cons. Religious and political.
The girls' parents should be arrested as well. So should any person who was in a position to suspect what was going on and who did nothing to stop it.
ReplyDelete12:12 PM
DeleteI agree with you.
Agree
Deletewhen they catch him i hope he doesn't go peaceably - then afterwords gets his lifeless carcass drug out by his ears
ReplyDelete@12:21
DeleteNAH! Too quick. Give him ten years PER CHARGE then send him to a prison where child molesters are hated by the inmates!
Kind of like the story in HBO "True Detective". Religious people orchestrating terrible deeds. Been going on since time began and now they use the Bible as a shield.
ReplyDeleteThis is going around and it's something everyone needs to read since there's so much judgment and ignorance out there in our culture.
ReplyDelete"going to college is great
getting married is great
having children is great
traveling is great
but implying tht there's something wrong with people who don't want to do those things and that theyll never feel satisfied or fulfilled in life if they never do those things is not great.
what is fulfilling for you may not be for the next person. where we place our values is what makes us individuals. not doing certain things does not diminish one's worth. everyone's path is different."
Yes, I know there's no capitalization. who cares
haha
Trolling is addictive. If you are o.k. with girls getting pregnant before being married, DON'T preach abstinence
Deleteand Family Values as if you are so pure. If your Warrior Body son is addicted to drugs and you are hiding him from the public, DON'T preach Family Values because YOU don't have any. If YOUR husband is an unemployed known PIMP, DON'T preach Family Values. You have your Panties in a wad because your Family members can't handle a formal education.
anon at 1:24
DeleteIf you think sexual molestation of children is okay then I am very glad I don't think like you do.
No problem with the not having kids - that's a lifelong commitment that is hard to reverse, marriage is second in "hard to change your mind and undo,." Not wanting to go to college is fine, as long as it isn't equated with "not wanting to learn." College, alas, has become not an education, but a job training credentialing at far too many institutions. Not wanting to travel is simply asinine, provincial, close-minded, etc. And is a large part of the problem.
DeleteThe parents of these young women should be charged as well. Offering your children up to the local minister????
ReplyDeleteBeaglemom
It is even more disgusting to me( the the sexual abuser IS very disgusting) that these parents handed these girls over. I do NOT believe that they didn't know what was going on.
DeleteBut this also involved more home schooling to cover up this systematic abuse of these young girls.
Joseph Smith liked to have sex with a lot of [young] women. The difference was he did it out in the open and discovered that a lot of men liked to have sex with a lot of [young] women. Now they call it the Mormon religion.
ReplyDeleteMany people in Minnesota and elsewhere who belong to these religious groups (cults, IMHO) are so gullible and dependent on trusting in someone to help them "find the way" to their salvation. Of course, the snake oil salesmen like this pervert, Barnard, know that so it is easy to take advantage of their congregations. It is all part of keeping people ignorant and isolated from people who aren't afraid to question motives. When they catch Barnard, I hope someone makes him slowly suffer. What a piece of chicken shit.
ReplyDeleteNot everyone is Minnesota is like Barnard but for some reason the central part of the state (Crazy Shelly's district) has more than it's share of crazies.
DeleteCrazy Shelly and Marcus are 'Pray Away The Gay' Cult Leaders.
DeleteHow will a man who loves sex as much as he does handle Prison? My thoughts are that he will kill himself rather than surrender. Good Riddance.
DeleteYou know, I didn't think I could ever have a lower opinion of religion...
ReplyDeleteI hate to say it. It kind of violates a basic principle I have about people making decisions for themselves. But some people? Too stupid to breed. Spay and neuter, people! Thin the herd and keep the smart ones. Those are the ones we need.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised it takes so little to brainwash parents into trusting these perverts with their children. Do they have a trash can in the vestibule that parents toss their common sense into?
ReplyDeleteRegarding, "One would think that...people would be incredibly wary of charismatic religious leaders," such a statement would describe the state of humanity more accurately were it to delete the qualifier, "religious." The moral evil revealed in this news report is broader than simply a problem with religion. This evil so pervasive and insidious that it traps many of us, regardless of our worldviews. It was identified quite accurately by the child victim herself, Lindsay Tornambe: "We didn't really have a chance to think for ourselves."
ReplyDeleteI think this was the most disturbing part: "B’s father recalled Barnard coming to him and rationalizing his having sex with the girls." The parents _knew_ he was boinking their children but didn't want to be shunned. Wow. Just, wow.
ReplyDeleteF Me Jesus,F Me
ReplyDeleteThere is a rumor Victor Bernard has been seen in Homer and said he was going to Cordova which means he probably won't go there. I can't find any information to back it up.
ReplyDelete