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Fundy Walk of Shame: Scandals and Crimes


Bethella

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Among the 31 Patriot Front militia members arrested yesterday for attempting to attack a pride parade in Idaho are brothers Mishael and Josiah Buster. These are the sons of Matt Buster, head of security at Matt Shea's church in Spokane. We've discussed Shea a couple times before: 

 

This thwarted attack sounds like exactly the sort of thing Shea and his ilk have been calling for. Would be very surprised if this is the last violent extremist plot linked to him.

 

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Spokane is not too far across the border from Cour d'Alene, where the Patriot Front yahoos were arrested.  This church connection is more than interesting, in a grotesque sort of way.  I posted about Patriot Front over in the Hate section, noting that  the part of Idaho around Cour d'Alene is  a hotbed of white supremacist activity. 

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Not surprised, honestly. That whole situation is unbelievably messed up.

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  • 1 month later...

It's those darn youth pastors. In this instance, the pastor father tried to cover it up by "counseling" his son the perp rather than reporting it to the police.  

Arlington youth pastor charged with child rape  Kendal Kippen, now 27, was formally accused of abusing a girl, 15, he met at Jake’s House Church. Others have alleged abuse, too.

 

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This one is the next county south of me so I googled a little. Said youth pastor got married last fall, to a young woman who may be questioning her choices.

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11 hours ago, Howl said:

It's those darn youth pastors. In this instance, the pastor father tried to cover it up by "counseling" his son the perp rather than reporting it to the police.  

Arlington youth pastor charged with child rape  Kendal Kippen, now 27, was formally accused of abusing a girl, 15, he met at Jake’s House Church. Others have alleged abuse, too.

 

I keep think it's Arlington, Virginia, but it's Arlington, Washington. Texas also has a famous Arlington.

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6 hours ago, Bluebirdbluebell said:

I keep think it's Arlington, Virginia, but it's Arlington, Washington. Texas also has a famous Arlington.

I play trivia and questions like this come up, so I checked Wikipedia to see how many "Arlington"s are in the US. There are so many, it's easier to list states that lack an Arlington: Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, and Wyoming. Include the fact that Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, and Wisconsin have multiple Arlingtons, so it almost works out to one Arlington per state. 

Arlington Cemetery in Virginia (aka General Robert E. Lee's front lawn) and the surrounding Arlington, VA are the most well known Arlingtons in the US, IMHO. 

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28 minutes ago, shesinsane said:

I play trivia and questions like this come up, so I checked Wikipedia to see how many "Arlington"s are in the US. There are so many, it's easier to list states that lack an Arlington: Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, and Wyoming. Include the fact that Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, and Wisconsin have multiple Arlingtons, so it almost works out to one Arlington per state. 

Arlington Cemetery in Virginia (aka General Robert E. Lee's front lawn) and the surrounding Arlington, VA are the most well known Arlingtons in the US, IMHO. 

Arlington, Colorado has a population of 21. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Two Christian nationalist Missouri state legislators, each married to other people, caught canoodling in the back of a cab. Driver spills the beans. Take with a grain of salt I guess but in my experience this is bog-standard after-hours behavior at the state house. Haahr is house speaker and was raised in a fundie homeschooling family; Coleman is the one who introduced the proposal to ban MO women from traveling out of state to seek an abortion.

 

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16 hours ago, NachosFlandersStyle said:

Two Christian nationalist Missouri state legislators, each married to other people, caught canoodling in the back of a cab.

@NachosFlandersStyle, wasn't this the most delicious exposé ever?  And the Mary Elizabeth Coleman twunt?  So, so Catholic girl. 

Here's an unroll of the thread for non-Twitterati: This thread is about who I met on January 21st, 2020, while moonlighting as an Uber driver.

 

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23 minutes ago, Howl said:

@NachosFlandersStyle, wasn't this the most delicious exposé ever?  And the Mary Elizabeth Coleman twunt?  So, so Catholic girl. 

Here's an unroll of the thread for non-Twitterati: This thread is about who I met on January 21st, 2020, while moonlighting as an Uber driver.

 

ITA! Delicious is exactly right.

Both of those fundie asshats are getting roasted on their official Twittter accounts. Love it!

 

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Longish, but important read: 

Seven years of sex abuse: How Mormon officials let it happen

This article is about a specific case of horrific abuse.  The family home in this case was in an isolated location, but the family was not -- the kids went to public school, everyone attended the Mormon church and church functions.  

It's also about a "help" line run by the Mormon church that really works to protect the Mormon church as an institution; cases are referred to the Church's legal arm, rather than directly to social workers or police.

Trigger warning: As noted, this article is about child sexual abuse that went on for years. 

First paragraph: 

"The father, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and an admitted pornography addict, was in counseling with his bishop when he revealed the abuse. The bishop, who was also a family physician, followed church policy and called what church officials have dubbed the 'help line' for guidance.

But the call offered little help for MJ. Lawyers for the church, widely known as the Mormon church, who staff the help line around the clock told Bishop John Herrod not to call police or child welfare officials. Instead he kept the abuse secret."

Final paragraph: 

"Aside from the legal arguments over whether Bishops Herrod and Mauzy were excused from their reporting obligations under the clergy-penitent privilege, critics of the inaction by the two bishops and the broader church have raised ethical issues.

Gerard Moretz, a seasoned child sex abuse investigator for the Pima County, Arizona, Sheriff’s Department and an expert witness for the Adams children, is one of them.

'What aspect of your religious practice are you advancing if you don’t report something like this?' he asked."

 

 

Edited by Howl
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dipshits

 

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On 8/4/2022 at 10:03 AM, Howl said:

Longish, but important read: 

Seven years of sex abuse: How Mormon officials let it happen

This article is about a specific case of horrific abuse.  The family home in this case was in an isolated location, but the family was not -- the kids went to public school, everyone attended the Mormon church and church functions.  

It's also about a "help" line run by the Mormon church that really works to protect the Mormon church as an institution; cases are referred to the Church's legal arm, rather than directly to social workers or police.

Trigger warning: As noted, this article is about child sexual abuse that went on for years. 

First paragraph: 

"The father, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and an admitted pornography addict, was in counseling with his bishop when he revealed the abuse. The bishop, who was also a family physician, followed church policy and called what church officials have dubbed the 'help line' for guidance.

But the call offered little help for MJ. Lawyers for the church, widely known as the Mormon church, who staff the help line around the clock told Bishop John Herrod not to call police or child welfare officials. Instead he kept the abuse secret."

Final paragraph: 

"Aside from the legal arguments over whether Bishops Herrod and Mauzy were excused from their reporting obligations under the clergy-penitent privilege, critics of the inaction by the two bishops and the broader church have raised ethical issues.

Gerard Moretz, a seasoned child sex abuse investigator for the Pima County, Arizona, Sheriff’s Department and an expert witness for the Adams children, is one of them.

'What aspect of your religious practice are you advancing if you don’t report something like this?' he asked."

 

 

Mike Rezendes, the AP reporter who broke the Mormon story, was part of the Boston Globe team that broke the story about the Catholic priests who molested children being moved. If you haven't seen the movie Spotlight, it's well done. Triggering but well done.

Edited by sixcatatty
Spelled his name wrong
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Of course the Hamilton team isn’t too happy about what happened 

Quote

A Texas church performed "Hamilton" this weekend, but the team behind the Tony-award winning production says it shouldn't have happened. 

"'Hamilton' does not grant amateur or professional licenses for any stage productions and did not grant one to The Door Church," Shane Marshall Brown, a spokesperson for "Hamilton," said in a statement to CNN on Monday. 

Officials behind the musical were not aware of the "unauthorized staging" until the day after the church's first of two scheduled performances and sent a cease-and-desist letter, the spokesperson added. 

The Door, a church in McAllen, a town in South Texas, was allowed to continue with its planned second performance, with conditions, among them that the show would not be live streamed, recorded or shared on social media in photo or video form, according to the statement.

 

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"Hamilton' does not grant amateur or professional licenses for any stage productions and did not grant one to The Door Church," Shane Marshall Brown, a spokesperson for 'Hamilton,' said in a statement to CNN on Monday. 

In an initial article, The Door church claimed they had received permission to stage Hamilton which was obviously untrue.  I found this to be especially interesting: 

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"The Door...was allowed to continue with its planned second performance, with conditions, among them that the show would not be live streamed, recorded or shared on social media in photo or video form."

and this is because, according to the CNN article linked by @47of74

Quote

Per copyright law, churches do have an exemption that allows them to perform copyrighted music during religious services but that exemption does not allow for streaming or distribution of those performances and does not extend to any other public performances outside of service.

I'd be curious to know if the copyright law requires that the copyrighted music be performed exactly as written...

Idle speculation here that The Door had big, big plans for  this production. It's a major production for just one weekend. 

I wonder if this will become one of those cases that ends up in the Supreme Court...

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7 hours ago, Howl said:

I'd be curious to know if the copyright law requires that the copyrighted music be performed exactly as written...

IANAL but I think that fair use, including parody, allows for changes to be made for the purposes of the parody but it has to be pretty clear that's being done. The Door's shenanigans were in no way meant to be a parody but intended to be a total rip-off of the original with Jeebus additions and deletions. Would love for The Door to get sued over this but it may not be worth it to do so.

A church could perform a song or two from Hamilton but would probably be subject to ASCAP's requirements for performing and/or distributing licensed music. For that matter, any venue like a restaurant has to pay for an ASCAP license to play CDs or other recorded music during meal service.

 

 

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On 7/23/2022 at 3:37 AM, Bluebirdbluebell said:

I keep think it's Arlington, Virginia, but it's Arlington, Washington. Texas also has a famous Arlington.

Yup. Same general neighborhood as Larry and Carri Williams (who are serving time for the murder of their adopted daughter and abuse of her brother) Nice folks up that way. Give Western Washington a bad name.

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Welp, looks like there may be some legal action against The Door:

 

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On 8/8/2022 at 3:28 PM, sixcatatty said:

Mike Rezendes, the AP reporter who broke the Mormon story, was part of the Boston Globe team that broke the story about the Catholic priests who molested children being moved. If you haven't seen the movie Spotlight, it's well done. Triggering but well done.

He did a really great job uncovering what happened in the Arizona case. The reason why he investigated this was due to a case in West Virginia also involving the LDS Church where the case documents are still under seal but were leaked to him. He couldn't reveal anything from that case but applied the investigation to the case where the legal case is publicly available.

I've read quite a few critiques of the AP article, including the statements given by the LDS Church and its apologists, and what they all sidestep is the crux of his investigation - that the LDS Church does not have a uniform policy of reporting sexual abuse. If the law requires it, then report. But if the law allows for clergy members to keep it secret, then they take advantage. It's appalling. They don't want the abuser to hide their sins from the disciplinary council for fear of being prosecuted for their crimes so when they aren't required to report it they put the responsibility on the abuser/family. In this case the abuser didn't turn himself in then committed suicide, and his spouse didn't report and ended up serving time in jail.

Edited by BensAllergies
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The AZ case was the most egregious imaginable with the abuse happening on a daily basis and starting very early. Horrific. The LDS Bishop, who as I noted upthread, was a physician -- should have been stripped of his license to practice. His obligation as a caregiver (and presumably a mandated reporter) should have trumped everything. Hopefully, the daughters' legal case against the Mormon church will force change to a policy that protects victims. 

The perp was also (IIRC) a Border Patrol agent. Besides being a pedophile, he was violent in the home to the wife and children.  I'd say chances are 100% that he was abusing those he accosted in his line of work.  He was a horrible human in every way; he did the world a favor by removing himself. 

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The LDS church is disputing the AP story, saying that the reporting has “significant flaws in its facts and timeline, which lead to erroneous conclusions.” Here is the LDS Church's complete news release.

What a bunch of fucking assholes. I hope that the Adams children prevail in court.

 

 

 

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