It appears that Trump might have started losing support among his Christian base.

Just a guess really.

But what isn't a guess is that he is definitely losing support among the military: 

An analysis of Gallup polling data comparing the first 100 days of Trump's presidency to the month of May shows that Trump's job approval in military counties dropped sharply in the last month — from an average 51 percent approval and 41 percent disapproval in the first 100 days to 43 percent approval and 52 percent disapproval for May.

Still way too high as far as I'm concerned, but nice to see that some folks are starting to remove the blinders from their eyes.

Anti-gay minister busted over child pornography. Your feel good story of the day.

Courtesy of United Humanists:  

The 40-year-old pastor regularly preached that marriage is between a man and a woman and that all homosexual activity is a sin. 

He was arrested after police received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which claimed that a social media account in Sherwood was storing pages and pages of child pornography. 

In March, Reynolds informed elders at Cornerstone Bible Fellowship that he was under investigation for child porn possession. 

When they asked if he had engaged in viewing the material, Reynolds told them he had “not knowingly done so.”

He did not "knowingly do so?"

Well for somebody who did not knowingly do something the cops sure found a hell of a lot of child porn on his computer.

In fact he is facing 70 counts distributing, possessing, or viewing child pornography.

Now somebody please explain to me again why we are supposed to be afraid of transgender folks sharing our public bathrooms with young children, but have no problem with 40 year old pastors doing so.

California pastor shot by his own gun safety instructor. Well it's a good thing he was trained.

Pastor Tom Smith. Now holier than ever.

Courtesy of CBS News:  

A Modesto pastor is recovering after being shot during a gun safety class, CBS Sacramento reports. 

Tom Smith, a family pastor who also helps with church security, was shot by his own gun safety instructor. 

Modesto Police say they were acting out a scenario when a loaded gun the instructor was holding accidentally went off. They say they gun fired at the end of class after the instructor put a mock gun down and picked up his real loaded gun. 

Police say so far it's unclear if the instructor believed he was using the mock gun he had been using to teach the class.

You know I'm certainly no expert on gun safety instruction but it seems to me that the first rule of gun safety class is to NOT shoot any of your students.

But hey, maybe I'm wrong.

Yep, more guns in more hands is certainly keeping us all safe.

Black pastors scheduled to meet with Donald Trump on Monday make it clear they're NOT with stupid.

Courtesy of The Daily Beast:  

The majority of a group of prominent African American ministers scheduled to meet with Donald Trump Monday are making clear that they have made no commitments to endorse the real estate magnate. Their public declarations of non-endorsement come after a press release from the Trump campaign announced a coalition of 100 African American religious leaders will appear with the real estate mogul shortly after the meeting to endorse him. 

Bishop Clarence McClendon, a Los Angeles-based minister who was invited to the Monday meeting with clergy, posted to Facebook after the Trump campaign announced the coming endorsements. 

“I am not officially endorsing ANY candidate and when I do you will NOT need to hear it from pulpitting courtjesters who suffer from intellectual and spiritual myopia,” he wrote. 

Bishop Corletta Vaughn, the Senior Pastor of the Holy Spirit Cathedral of Faith in Detroit, posted a message on Facebook after she said her inbox was “blowing up with inquiries” after her name was included on a list of pastors meeting Trump. 

“Let me be clear,” she wrote. “I was invited to attend a gathering of clergy to listen to Mr. Trump on Monday November 30. I respectively (Sic.) declined as I do not support nor will endorse Donald Trump.” 

“I was asked 2 meet with Mr Trump too but I refused because until he learns how to respect people you can’t represent me thru my endorsement,” Bishop Paul Morton, a prominent pastor in Atlanta tweeted on Friday.

"Hey I have an idea to help with that whole racism thing, I'll invite a bunch of black pastors to meet with me. What? They're telling everybody they DON'T endorse me? Well what can you expect from a bunch of........?"

You know as much fun as it was to watch the Donald Trump candidacy run roughshod through the Republican party, watching it fall apart is fairly entertaining as well.

On Sunday the 2nd Amendment kept this country safe from a mother, her new born baby, and a pastor.

Suspect James Junior Minter

Courtesy of CNN: 

A mother, her newborn, and a pastor were shot Sunday in an Alabama church, and the baby's father is in custody, authorities said. 

James Junior Minter, 26, is accused of opening fire inside the Oasis Tabernacle Church in Selma, Alabama. He faces three counts of attempted murder, Dallas County District Attorney Michael Jackson told CNN. 

"The mother is in critical condition. She and the baby were sent to Birmingham for medical treatment. The pastor is at a local hospital in Selma," Jackson said. 

The pastor was shot as he tried to get the gun out of the shooter's hand, he said.

It seems likely that the suspect was upset over the recent break up and visitation with his son.

So of course he shot the baby, which is what people living in a gun culture do to solve all of their problems.

The NRA to release statement urging all pastors and infants to be armed in 3..2..1

Pastor and Christian researcher claims that this Sunday may see at least 400 church leaders resign due to Ashley Madison hack.

Courtesy of Christianity Today:  

This week, I’ve already written a couple of posts on the Ashley Madison hack and information leak because pastors, Christian leaders, and families are facing devastating revelation and the after-effects of public sin. 

Based on my conversations with leaders from several denominations in the U.S. and Canada, I estimate that at least 400 church leaders (pastors, elders, staff, deacons, etc.) will be resigning Sunday. This is a significant moment of embarrassment for the church—and it should be. To be honest, the number of pastors and church leaders on Ashley Madison is much lower than the number of those looking to have an affair. Yet, there is still much that we must consider in the midst of the embarrassment. 

This Ed Stetzer guy, who wrote the article, is not some outsider reveling in the idea of the Christian church taking a huge blow due to either real or perceived adultery, he is very much an insider simply reporting on what he has been told by those caught up in this scandal.

Personally I think it would be amazing if even a quarter of this 400 were to resign due to their hypocrisy. I am not sure that will happen, but if it does it may force many in their congregations to start evaluating why they take their moral cues from such deeply immoral men.

You know I think I might just cancel my plans this Sunday and plant myself in front of the TV to watch a little Christian broadcasting.

God I love the smell of hypocrite flop sweat on a Sunday morning.

Pastor dares to give sermon criticizing the "American Sniper" movie, loses his job. Just a coincidence of course.

Courtesy of Alternet:  

On February 10th, MidAmerica Nazarene University's (MNU) chaplain Randy Beckum gave his morning sermon, which wasn't unusual – it was his job. But what was different that day was the response to the sermon – as one student paper put it, the sermon sparked an “outcry” and a torrent of criticism particularly on social media. The criticism ranged from complaints that Beckum had politicized his sermons to the idea that he had insulted Christians who served in the military.

...

Beckum's sermon that day was about America's addiction to violence, citing the film “American Sniper” as a symptom of that, and how this was problematic for Christianity, a religion founded on the ideals of nonviolence. Here's an excerpt: 

"As you know two movies came out recently. Selma, the story of one of the 20th century most influential Christian leaders, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who led a non-violent movement that changed the course of American History forever. And American Sniper, the story of the most deadly Navy SEAL sniper in American history. Selma has made 29-30 million so far. American Sniper made over 103 million in the first 4 days. Gives you an idea about who our heroes are. I don’t think it is an under-statement to say that our culture is addicted to violence, guns, war, revenge and retaliation. Unfortunately, so are a lot of Christians."

He went on to say that we have to “be very careful about equating patriotism with Christianity,” and implored his flock to be “controlled by love, compelled by love for everyone.” 

Shortly after Beckum's sermon, it was announced that he would no longer be the vice president of the university's Community Foundation.

Of course the university president claims that the sermon had nothing to do with Beckum's job loss, and that he was thinking of retiring from that position anyhow, but the pastor's daughter calls BS on that assertion.

Of course this should surprise none of us.

After all in this country you can suggest from the pulpit that Atheists are destroying the fabric of America, or suggest that Barack Obama is the antichrist, but when you dare to suggest that super duper sniper Chris Kyle was a violent thug, well then my friends THAT is when you cross the line!

Pastor who decided to take a year off from God, is now officially an Atheist. Welcome to the fold my brother.

Courtesy of Salon:  

Ryan Bell no longer believes in God, exactly. Bell is the former Seventh-Day Adventist pastor who last January made a resolution to live as an atheist, to live for a “year without God.” More precisely, Bell decided to take a year to explore “the limits of theism and the atheist landscape in the United States.” 

On the surface, it sounds a little gimmicky, and his critics have often portrayed his decision to “try on” atheism as little more than a carefully-crafted media stunt of a typical genre. 

If it was all a stunt, it may have not been a very good one, at least in the near term. He apparently hasn’t immediately profited from it. Bell’s decision caused him to lose jobs counseling students and teaching part time at Fuller Theological Seminary and Azusa Pacific University, and so by his own admission he’s “only lost money and earning potential” during the year. A decent book contract might promise to make up for lost capital, but he doesn’t have one—at least not yet. 

I would argue that Bell’s public embrace of atheism is more a natural outcome of his own personal and professional trajectory than a strained gimmick. In an interview he did with NPR last January Bell indicated that, as far as he can remember, he has always wrestled with his faith.

That's all it takes my friends, that's all it takes.

You come on over the side of enlightenment and everything is so intellectually stimulating and free of shame and guilt, why would you go back?

We live our lives feeling connected to the world around us, and recognizing that not believing we know everything is part of what makes us free.

I have said it before but it bears repeating, EVERY high school student should have to take a class in comparative religious studies in order to gain persepective on the history, similarities, and crimes of various religions around the world.

In my opinion it would do so much to change the world in a positive way.

(Is it wrong that I was listening to Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" while writing this? It was wasn't it?)

Pastor decides to spend a year "living without God." Guess what happened.

Courtesy of NPR: 

At the start of 2014, former Seventh-Day Adventist pastor Ryan Bell made an unusual New Year's resolution: to live for one year without God. This, reflecting his own loss of faith. He kept a blog documenting his journey and has a documentary crew following him. 

After a year, Bell tells NPR's Arun Rath, "I've looked at the majority of the arguments that I've been able to find for the existence of God and on the question of God's existence or not, I have to say I don't find there to be a convincing case in my view. 

"I don't think that God exists. I think that makes the most sense of the evidence that I have and my experience. But I don't think that's necessarily the most interesting thing about me."

Well that might not be the most interesting thing, but a pastor suddenly realizing there is no god is definitely an interesting thing about them. 

And that's another newly freed mind to welcome to the fold.

I think this is what really terrifies religious people about Atheism. Once you try it, well you kind of want to stick with it.

American pastor who helped craft Uganda's "Kill the Gays" legislation to be tried for crimes against humanity.

Courtesy of Death and Taxes:  

The First Circuit Court of Appeals has denied Pastor Scott Lively’s petition to have a crimes against humanity lawsuit against him dropped. 

The anti-gay pastor will stand trial in a federal court in Massachusetts for his part in crafting Uganda’s notorious Anti-Homosexuality Act, popularly known as the “Kill the Gays” bill. The bill was largely the product of a workshop held in Uganda by Lively and two other american anti-gay activists, focused on “how to make gay people straight, how gay men often sodomized teenage boys and how ‘the gay movement is an evil institution’ whose goal is ‘to defeat the marriage-based society and replace it with a culture of sexual promiscuity.”

Look, apparently you can still get justice in America.  Assuming of course that he is eventually convicted.

This bill in Uganda has spread fear throughout the gay community, and among those who have friends and family who are gay. And resulted in a dramatic spike in the number of attacks on homosexuals.

Of course these charges have done little or nothing to change Lively's homophobia:

Lively said that homosexuality is a Satanic attack “on the very essence of who we are” that God has deemed a more offensive abomination than mass killings: “When you look in the Bible, there are sins that you would think of as worse, you know, murder or mass murder, but what does it come down to? Leviticus 18 tells the Hebrews exactly what it is that God identifies as the most rebellious behavior, the behavior that causes the land to actually vomit out its inhabitants and every item on that list, except for child sacrifice, is sexual perversion, and child sacrifice is often a form of sexual perversion. So that’s where we are.” 

“Homosexuality is not just another sin,” he added, “it is the sin that defines rebellion against God, the outer edge of rebellion against God and it is the harbinger of God’s wrath, that’s why the Scripture gives the warning, ‘as in the days of Noah.’” 

Oh yeah this guy needs to spend some real quality time in prison. 

Woman tries to kill children after hearing phone messages from estranged preacher husband that the world was ending. Religion makes everything better, don't you think?

Courtesy of the Chicago Sun-Times:  

A Montgomery woman accused of trying to kill her three children told police she was sending her daughters to meet Jesus Christ, according to court records. 

The children were dressed all in white when Montgomery police arrived at the family’s Patron Lane home at around 10: 20 a.m. Sept. 25, after dispatchers received two hang-up 911 calls. 

When they arrived, police said Pamela J. Christensen, 47, answered the door wearing a white shirt covered in blood. She got down on her knees before police and told them she had tried to kill her children. The girls were upstairs, and two had suffered stab wounds to the chest. According to Kendall County Court records, Christensen had also stabbed herself in the chest and abdomen. 

In an affidavit to secure a search warrant for the family’s home, police said Christensen told officers that she was sending the girls home to “meet Jesus Christ.” 

The three girls, ages 12, 16 and 19, told police that their mother held a knife to them and asked them if they accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. Two of the girls were stabbed. 

Police recovered a poisonous liquid in the home’s kitchen, which Christensen said she had concocted out of dishwashing detergent in an attempt to subdue her children. 

She told police she had hoped they would fall asleep so she could stab them. Police said the children refused to ingest the poison. 

On the scene, police said they found a cell phone which belonged to Christensen. The woman told officers that her husband, Vaughn Christensen, had left messages on the phone telling his wife that the world was ending, and that she needed to prepare the family to meet Jesus. 

Vaughn Christensen is a former pastor at a Sugar Grove church.

The three girls were treated at a local hospital for minor injuries and then released.

The mother has been charged with attempted first degree murder, aggravated battery and aggravated unlawful restraint. All of which are felonies, and her bail is set at one million dollars.

An interesting side note is that the reason that the woman is estranged from her pastor husband, and has an "order of protection" filed against him, is that she claims he was acting erratically and in a threatening manner.

But after that he simply calls her, tells her the world is going to end, and she then tries to murder her own children? WTF?

And my question is, if the world was about to end anyway, why bother killing your kids? Aren't they going to get to meet Jesus anyway?

Man I'll never understand this new Christian religious fad. I certainly hope it never catches on.

Florida pastor accused of raping women at shelter assaults female reporter for daring to ask him about it.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

A Florida pastor accused of raping women at a shelter that he ran was caught on video this week ripping the microphone out of a reporter’s hands when she asked him about the crimes. 

According to an arrest affidavit obtained by the Orlando Sentinel, 44-year-old Pedro L. Custodio — who is known as “Pastor Pete” — was accused of forcing himself on at least three women who had been clients at Our Father’s House of Refuge Ministries, Inc. 

Documents said that in July of 2013, Custodio took one victim into the shelter’s pantry, locked the door, removed his pants, grabbed her hips, and began kissing her. The woman said she was eventually was “able to convince him” to stop because he was married. 

During the investigation, Eustis police learned of two other victims. One said that she had a consensual sexual relationship with the pastor, but that he also raped her on her birthday in May of 2013. 

“[The victim] advised she was crying during the entire incident and [was] repeatedly begging for Pastor Pete to stop,” police documents said. 

The third woman said that she also felt “pressured” to have sex with the pastor. 

“Pastor Pete would tell her she could always go find another shelter in Orlando if she did not do what he wanted to do,” according to police.

Now I am not saying that this man's disrespect for the female reporter proves that he would force himself on women in the shelter, but I will say that I would bet quite a lot of money that if this were a male reporter that he would not have dared grab at the microphone.

Rapists are often people who feel inadequate and who force themselves on those they perceive as undeserving of respect.  And this guy clearly demonstrates those traits.

And if he is guilty, and used his positions as a pastor to manipulate these women, then he is truly a piece of shit and I hope they throw the book at him.

In just one month?

I first have to explain that this graphic, which somebody posted on Reddit, is not entirely accurate.

According to this source, two of the pastors were charged with sexual battery, one embezzled funds to pay for his prostitution habit, two were simply a peeping toms, and one hired a couple to burn down his house with his wife trapped inside.

So that means that out of twenty five, six are not pedophiles, but still incredibly creepy, abusive, and in one case homicidal.

The other nineteen are indeed nasty men who raped or sexually assaulted underage children.

You know yesterday I sort of tongue in cheek suggested that if you wanted to connect a certain demographic to pedophilia, that it would be more appropriate to avoid any homosexual connection, and instead focus on the stronger one between fundamentalist Christians and child rapists.

Today my tongue is not even touching my cheek.

Pastor claims "it is a shame for women to speak in the church" and says "when it's learning time, it's quiet time" for women only.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

On Sunday, a pastor in Phoenix, Arizona implored his female congregants not to say “amen” in church. 

Pastor Steven Anderson of the Faithful Word Baptist Church garnered national attention in 2009 when he told his followers that he prays for the death of President Barack Obama every night. After being contacted by the Secret Service, he insisted that he “didn’t say he wanted his parishioners to attack the president, he did say the country would benefit from Mr. Obama dying.” 

Pastor Anderson first attempted to justify the silencing of women by quoting 1 Timothy 2:11, “[l]et the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.” 

He then asked the congregation to flip to 1 Corinthians 14, which says “[l]et your women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak, as it is commanded to be under obedience as also sayeth the law. And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is shameful for women to speak in the church.” 

“Now obviously,” he continued, “before the service begins, there’s chatting and talking going on, that’s perfectly legitimate. When we all sing praises to God, of course the ladies should also lift up their voices.” 

“But when it’s learning time,” Pastor Anderson said, hammering his lecturn, “it’s silence time.” 

“So what it’s saying is that they,” the women, “are to learn in silence.” He then quoted 1 Corinthians 14 again, saying that “when the learning is going on, they are not permitted to speak. When the preaching of God’s word is taking place — and first of all, it’s not for a woman to be doing the preaching, and second of all, it’s not for women to be speaking.”

This guy might be the only one stupid enough to say this out loud, but you KNOW that a number of these fundamentalist assholes agree with him 100%.

I have said it before, but it bears repeating, that I will NEVER understand why so many women participate in a religion that was essentially established to oppress them and to keep them making babies, raising children, and doing housework.

Little doubt that this is the same mindset behind those much reviled purity balls. 

Pastors tell believers that bottled water can cure their cancer. Gee what could go wrong?

Courtesy of BBC News:  

Doctors have warned that patients with HIV are giving up their medicine after being told by Pentecostal church pastors to rely on faith in God instead. 

Medical staff working with children and young people say the lives of some church members are being put in danger because they are wrongly being told they can be cured. 

In one case, an HIV-sufferer was given a plastic bottle of water by his pastor and told it would heal him. He later stopped taking his medicine and his condition worsened.

Go ahead, ask me again how blind faith could possibly hurt people?

When people have more faith in  religious leaders than scientists or doctors the end result is always tragic.

P.S. The link above has a video with more information.

Mike Huckabee suggests that Ted Nugent turn his hunting dog "loose on some Democrats."

Click image to play video.

Courtesy of Crooks and Liars:  

Huckabee began his Tuesday interview with Nugent by asking about "Gonzo, the wonder Labrador Retriever." 

"Nobody hunts more than the Nugent family," Nugent explained. "We literally hunt anywhere between 250 and 300 days a year. And you think Gonzo is good on ducks, you should see him on squirrels and doves and rabbits and woodcock and grouse. He really is a mystical, wonderful hunting dog." 

"Well, maybe we ought to turn him loose on some Democrats and see if he can hunt them too," Huckabee suggested. 

"Well, there's a lot of varmints out there," Nugent agreed. "I think he would do good pointing to varmints and then we could vote them out of office. What do you say?" 

"I'm all about it," Huckabee replied.

Equating Democrats with "varmints" and suggesting that they be hunted by a gun toting lunatic, does not seem like the kind of language that an ex-minister should be using don't you agree?

But then again since when did any of these Right Wing Evangelicals ever let their religion interfere with their hatred of liberals?

If you were not turned off to organized religion in this country before, this should pretty much send you over the edge.

I cannot believe these idiots agreed to appear on television like this.

If I were a member of any of their churches the next time they passed around the collection plate I would put in an IOU saying "Once you start spending our money on something besides making yourself feel like God's personal pimp I might start giving you some of the money I use to feed my children."

Once again I must ask WHY are women the most consistent church goers, and MOST faithful to the tenets of Christianity?

I know what you are going to say.

"Gryphen surely you realize that this does not represent the truth found in the Bible, nor the truth about Christianity."

But alas I realize no such thing. In fact I think the evidence suggests quite the opposite to be true.

And that evidence is found in the pages of the "good book" itself. Here are just some examples:

A wife is a man’s property:  You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. Exodus 20:17

Daughters can be bought and sold: If a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as male servants do. Exodus 21:7 

A raped daughter can be sold to her rapist: If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay her father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives. Deuteronomy 22:28-29 

Women, but only virgins, are to be taken as spoils of war: Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man. Numbers 31:17-18

I could go on and on, but you get the drift.

As much as Christians might wish to make the point that morality flows from the Bible as the word of God, and that how we conduct our lives should be shaped by the messages within, that is absolutely false on the face of it, and is, in practice, quite harmful when taken literally.

In fact what is true is that the reason we have so much justice in many parts of the world today is in spite of rigid religious doctrine, not BECAUSE of it.

As we have become more aware of our humanity, and more empathetic to our fellow creatures, religion, including Christianity, has been forced to adapt to those changes in order to survive, not the other way around.

The Bible has not only been used to subjugate women, it has also been used as an excuse to wage war, to enslave other people, and to engage in genocide when there is land or resources that Christians want to access. (The Iraq War anyone?)

The thing to keep in mind is that the Bible was not written to bring peace to the planet, or to provide guidelines for treating all people equally.

It was written to instruct its adherents that THEY had been given dominion over all things on this planet, and that ANY who stood in their way were standing in the way of God and should be treated with extreme prejudice. And the evidence of how that has been carried out through the ages flows like arterial blood from the pages of history.

But how the book treats women specifically may in fact be its most egregious crime of all.

Not only does it steal from women their very birth right, the power of creation. It hands that power to a single, heartlessly authoritarian, male figure, whose every word must be followed without question, and instructs that those who refuse to do so be struck dead.

In other words he is the very antithesis of the female goddesses who preceded him.

And if THAT were not enough, it also lays the blame for ALL of human suffering at the feet of the very first female, and states that her descendants must be punished with immense pain during childbirth and must forever subjugate herself to the will of man for daring to "defy" this patriarchal figure; Genesis 3:16:

“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children.Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

So again I must ask the question, why?

Pastor only receives a 12 year sentence for the statutory rape of an underage teenage girl. Not nearly enough, not by a long shot.

More from the Chicago Tribune:

 In a statement, the victim wrote that Schaap would text her from the altar during his sermons. In another statement, written as a letter to Schaap, she wrote: “When you first kissed me I was shocked. . .When I asked you if it was wrong, you said ‘No.’ You told me that I was sent you from God, I was his gift to you. You made me feel special.” 

Schaap entered a guilty plea last September in a deal with federal prosecutors, admitting to allegations that led to his ouster from the highly conservative Hammond Baptist Church that his late father in-law, Jack Hyles, had built into one of the area’s largest churches. 

But at sentencing today, U.S. District Court Judge Rudy Lozano said a 10-year-deal hammered out by both sides did not meet the 12-year-minimum required under federal sentencing guidelines. Schaap stared at the judge without emotion. 

While Lozano lauded Schaap for quickly pleading guilty last fall before the complaint was even filed, Lozano said he did not want to set the example by "giving a 25 percent discount" for that cooperation. 

While Schaap eventually took responsibility for his actions Schaap initially denied the allegations when he was confronted by church officials, Lozano said. In explanations for the stiffer sentence, the judge pointed to Schaap's attempts to get rid of evidence by deleting text messages and photos of him with the girl and that the pastor also fired at least one church staffer who had questioned the pastor's relationship with the girl, Lozano said. 

"Schaap initially denied the allegations when confronted." How Christian of him.

So this sleazy piece of shit used the trust of this child to convince her that the God which she believes in, and who she also believed he spoke on behalf of, had provided her to him to violate? That one of the most hateful things that I can imagine a person doing to a trusting. deeply religious child.

You know I don't believe in hell, but once in a while I wish I was wrong. Because in this case it simply does not feel that this sentence is nearly enough.

Perhaps the most disgusting part is how his congregation made excuses on his behalf.

More than 100 letters of support were sent to Lozano, attesting to decades of good works by the pastor, and claiming that stress and health problems— including prostate troubles and “low lithium levels”— led Schaap to stray during a romantic relationship with the vulnerable teen.

That is the kind of loyalty that only comes when somebody has been convinced that a person is "special" and has some unique insight or relationship with a higher power.

They are conditioned to trust him, and so trust him they do. As did this poor young girl, who now will forever fear to trust anybody EVER again.

Wise words from a youth pastor.

Dare I say it? Amen.