Fundy Walk of Shame: Scandals and Crimes

[Palimpsest]

We were discussing this on the Fundy Walk of Shame thread but I'd argue that it will get more attention as a separate thread.  Horrible story.

Link to previous discussion:

 

[danvillebelle]

Can I just pause here and say - seeing DPIART's name mentioned so prominently in a New Republic article - THIS article -and the description of his true self, is some seriously delicious schadenfreude.  

[PennySycamore]

@browngrl, I think you can probably blame your initial misspelling on autocorrect.  It doesn't like the world fundy (which would autocorrect to funny) or fundie (which is split into fun die).

Thanks for sharing that article.  I'm not finished reading yet, but I'm horrified by what I have read.

[infooverload]

Interesting Kathryn Joyce is the writer. I found her book Quiverfull very illuminating.

[smittykins]

Quiverfull is where I first learned of DPIART and the Bradricks(when Kelly was mentioned here, I thought "Isn't she the one who named her kid Triumph?").

[Palimpsest]

1 hour ago, smittykins said:

I thought "Isn't she the one who named her kid Triumph?"

Triumph Perseverance.  Bradrick! and Kelly are now divorced.

9 hours ago, infooverload said:

Interesting Kathryn Joyce is the writer. I found her book Quiverfull very illuminating.

I seriously recommend reading everything Kathryn Joyce has written, but especially Quiverfull and  The Child Catchers Rescue, Trafficking, and the New Gospel of Adoption.  She is a great writer and really does her homework.  Links to her books and all her articles here:  http://kathrynjoyce.com/

This is just one of the many abuse scandals in Fundy (evangelical) mission circles over the years. I put this link on the other thread but it makes sense to put it here too:  http://www.mksafetynet.org/

Also GRACE (the investigation team who were fired in the Ketchum case): http://www.netgrace.org

 

[Howl]

That's a powerful and heartbreaking story, but it's the tip of the iceberg.  The toxic stew of submission and abject respect for male authority has been the recipe for disaster for a long, long time. 

Edited July 9, 2017 by Howl

[SilverBeach]

Totally heartbreaking. Sickening. The locals were likely abused too. So evil. That organization should be made to pay the victims and hopefully go bankrupt. 

[infooverload]

The statistic which struck me was the 260 sexual abuse cases per year. I shouldn't be surprised after all I listen to the podcast In the Name of God every week and he is always just scratching the surface of revealed crimes in a given week.

[Howl]

We'd all like to comfort ourselves by thinking that this is in the past and a cover up of this magnitude couldn't be happening now.  But really, for many fundamentalist churches and institutions, this IS happening with exactly the same type of predators, exactly the same level of victim blaming, exactly the same levels of denial and the same level of horrific damage to the victims.  Infuriating. 

Edited July 10, 2017 by Howl

[Palimpsest]

@Howl, yes.  Predators are still around, self-select into positions where they can get their hands on their chosen prey, and are too often protected from the consequences of their actions while the victims are blamed.

I like to think that organizations like GRACE are doing some good though.  They have worked, and are working, very hard with many of these churches and missions.

Example:  SIM (formerly the Soudan Interior Mission) did apologize for the abuse that happened in their boarding schools.  Rather insufficiently, IMO.  However, SIM did have a protocol in place, and followed it, to get Jordan Root out of the field fast and decisively when his crimes were exposed.

The problem there was that his church (the Village Church) decided to protect him.  SIM couldn't do much about that.  http://thewartburgwatch.com/2015/05/25/part-1-jordan-root-is-a-confessed-internet-child-sex-abuser-should-the-village-church-trust-him/

 

[onekidanddone]

On 7/9/2017 at 9:05 AM, Palimpsest said:

Triumph Perseverance.  Bradrick! and Kelly are now divorced.

I seriously recommend reading everything Kathryn Joyce has written, but especially Quiverfull and  The Child Catchers Rescue, Trafficking, and the New Gospel of Adoption.  She is a great writer and really does her homework.  Links to her books and all her articles here:  http://kathrynjoyce.com/

This is just one of the many abuse scandals in Fundy (evangelical) mission circles over the years. I put this link on the other thread but it makes sense to put it here too:  http://www.mksafetynet.org/

Also GRACE (the investigation team who were fired in the Ketchum case): http://www.netgrace.org

 

I just posted about Kathryn Joyce's book on adoption over in the "What are you reading" thread and thought I'd search FJ for other mentions of the book.

Very eye opening and scary.

[FundieFarmer]

Thanks for the heads up about the abuse in the PCUSA, Palimpsest. I was raised in that denomination and still tightly tied to it. I'll look into it as soon as I'm at a computer.

[Black Aliss]

On 3/16/2017 at 10:07 AM, JMO said:

I believe Toby Willis was accused of multiple accounts of child rape. 

And he was just sentenced to serve 40 years in prison. (Two-25 year sentences and two-40 years sentences to run concurrent.)

I hope the judge in Alan Smith's case is no more lenient than this one.

http://komonews.com/news/entertainment/willis-clan-dad-gets-40-years-for-child-rape

[older than allosaurs]

On 6/2/2017 at 9:35 AM, older than allosaurs said:

Another Heartland Baptist Bible College alum just got sentenced in Bellingham, WA, for child rape. Christopher Trent  was a youth pastor, and married father of seven, when he started grooming a twelve year old whom he eventually abused at least 100 times and called his "sex slave," in between promising to marry her on the beach when she turned 18. Fellow Heartland alum Josh Carter, the pastor who recruited him, had fired him but didn't notify police when the relationship was exposed a year ago.

kgmi.com/news/007700-bellingham-youth-pastor-sentenced-for-child-rape/

Same church, a month later: The former music director turned himself in and pleaded guilty to years of sexual abuse of a parishioner, starting when she was 12. He got five years. Both he and Christopher Trent had passed yearly background checks.

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/crime/article162304313.html

 

[hoipolloi]

The two leaders of the Canadian branch of the FLDS were both found guilty of polygamy by a BC judge.

Quote

 

Two former religious leaders in B.C. have been found guilty of polygamy after marrying more than two dozen women over the course of 25 years.

Winston Blackmore, 60, and James Oler, 53, were convicted of practising plural or "celestial" marriage in the fundamentalist community of Bountiful, B.C....

Oler was married to Blackmore's sister, and was chosen to lead the Canadian community just north of the U.S. state of Idaho following Blackmore's excommunication from the sect in 2002 by Warren Jeffs, considered the prophet and leader of the group. 

Authorities have said Jeffs still leads the sect from a Texas prison, where he is serving a life sentence for sexually assaulting underage girls he considered brides.

 

IIRC, the Canadian & US cults exchanged young women at one point. 

[apandaaries]

On 7/25/2017 at 10:28 AM, hoipolloi said:

IIRC, the Canadian & US cults exchanged young women at one point. 

I recall the same thing.  For some LDS-offshoots, they also had compounds and safe houses in Mexico and occasionally parts of Central America.  They have a way of moving people past country borderlines in a fascinatingly secretive manner.

[Howl]

There is so much WTF and crazy characters in this situation, but here are the highlights, courtesy of the Guardian. 

Indiana 'fire and brimstone' pastor pleads guilty to running massive $2.6 MILLION synthetic marijuana ring

Quote

On the morning of an Indiana pastor's secret confession to running a massive $2.6 million synthetic marijuana ring, he told federal agents he would come clean if the others involved were spared. Pastor Robert Jaynes, 45, pleaded guilty to producing 100 tons of fake pot and to conspiracy to commit fraud through mislabeling the controlled substances, according to the IndyStar. 

Jaynes said they had no idea his synthetic drug warehouse operation, disguised as a 'potpourri' business, was illegal. The church is down the road from the business park, where Jaynes owned warehouses. 

Under the agreement, prosecutors agreed not to seek a prison sentence of more than 12.5 years.  Jaynes agreed to forfeit at least $41,000 and more than 800 pounds of 'silver colored' coins and bars that, investigators say, were obtained through the illegal drug operation. 

His brother-in-law and fellow church leader Kirk Parsons; an Indianapolis public school teacher who struck a deal with prosecutors; and a pair of married sheriff's deputies who worked out with the pastor on his drug lab property, were all involved with the drug ring.  Another suspect, David Neal of Carmel, hanged himself in February while in a Seattle prison, according to the King County medical examiner.

Doug Sloan, a former traveling clown and Libertarian state senate candidate was also implicated.   He allegedly visited a strip club with Russell Taylor, the director of Jared Fogle's youth charity, who is serving 27 years behind bars on child porn charges, according to the Indy Star.

Sloan told investigators that Pastor Jaynes, along with deputies Teresa and Jason Woods, had known Taylor for years, according to The Daily Beast. 

He said that Taylor smoked the marijuana with the cops 'on numerous occasions while socializing'.

The married sheriff's deputies Jason and Teresa Woods completed a diversion program to avoid criminal records,  but Jason Woods was arrested again on pending charges. He now facing six felonies in Hancock County for allegedly using his shield to provide security to the drug conspiracy, which stretched from China to Indiana to California, in return for gift trips to Vegas, the Indy Star reported.

'All of us were like, 'This is the weirdest cast of characters we've seen,' Brent Eaton, Hancock County's prosecutor, told The Daily Beast. 'You've got the preacher, the guy who's running [Fogle's] foundation, the sheriff's deputies, people from the church.'

 

Edited August 7, 2017 by Howl

[hoipolloi]

James Hamula, formerly a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy, was just excommunicated by the LDS church. 

Quote

 

The Mormon Church has excommunicated one of its top leaders, church officials confirmed Tuesday. It was not immediately clear why.

“This morning, James J. Hamula was released as a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, following Church disciplinary action by the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles,” read a statement from Eric Hawkins, a spokesman.

Hawkins declined to give details on the reason, but the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News in Utah cited church sources as saying it was not for “apostasy or disillusionment.” Among the reasons the church handbook gives for excommunicating leaders are: adultery, burglary, embezzlement, spousal abuse and “homosexual relations.”

The Tribune and the News reported that Hamula was the first top authority of the church to be excommunicated in 28 years.

 

While it may be premature to post this in the Fundie Walk of Shame, since the LDS church is saying it for WASN'T apostasy or disillusionment, my expectation is that Mr. Hamula will fit right into this topic!

[Bethella]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/12-old-rape-victim-told-163919494.html

Posting this so I remember to add them to the list. 

Quote

A 12-year-old rape victim was told by the headmaster of a Christian school "to turn the other cheek" and that "everything in God's kingdom happens for a reason", lawsuit files allege....

When John Doe's mother approached school employee Chris Roberts, a member of Christian counselling ministry Daystar Counselling, he responded: "reporting this may not be the best thing to do.... this isn't how Christian institutions handle these things", the lawsuit claims.

She also met with the school headmaster Masters to report the incidents of bullying and sexual harassment against her son but the court documents claim he allegedly considered that this was a matter of "boys being boys and he could not investigate each of those and run a school".

 

[hoipolloi]

Another Blackmore & his ex-wife from the Canadian FLDS just got prison sentences for taking a 13-year-old girl across the border to be forcibly "married" to Warren Jeffs.

Quote

 

On Friday, Brandon Blackmore was sentenced to one year in jail, to be followed by 18 months' probation. Gail Blackmore received seven months behind bars....

The charges stemmed from the girl's 2004 marriage to Warren Jeffs, the prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, who is now serving a life sentence in Texas.

Jeffs testified that "God told him the [13-year-old] girl belonged to him," ordering the Blackmores to bring her to Utah to be married. At the time, Jeffs already had more than 80 wives.

 

 

[Bethella]

On 8/11/2017 at 11:43 PM, hoipolloi said:

Another Blackmore & his ex-wife from the Canadian FLDS just got prison sentences for taking a 13-year-old girl across the border to be forcibly "married" to Warren Jeffs.

I'm disappointed in how short those sentences are. But a different article on the sentencing noted that this was the first time this offense had been prosecuted, so there were no precedents for sentencing; they could have faced up to 5 years. 

http://www.torontosun.com/2017/08/11/bountiful-couple-sentenced-for-trafficking-13-year-old-daughter

[WiseGirl]

Not sure if this aspiring pastor is fundy or not.

http://people.com/crime/aspiring-pastor-wife-kill-stab-cold-medicine/

 

[Scribber]

Not sure if this aspiring pastor is fundy or not.
http://people.com/crime/aspiring-pastor-wife-kill-stab-cold-medicine/
 

I am confused as to what makes him an aspiring pastor. Is he attending a bible college/seminary? (I have just never heard of someone called that! And I actually work around many fundy/fundy-lite and my own sister is a minister.)

[Bethella]

2 hours ago, WiseGirl said:

Not sure if this aspiring pastor is fundy or not.

http://people.com/crime/aspiring-pastor-wife-kill-stab-cold-medicine/

47 minutes ago, Scribber said:

I am confused as to what makes him an aspiring pastor. Is he attending a bible college/seminary? (I have just never heard of someone called that! And I actually work around many fundy/fundy-lite and my own sister is a minister.)

From what I can tell he was conservative but not necessarily fundy. He attended or is attending (it wasn't clear) Clear Creek Baptist Bible College studying missions and evangelism. The school is accredited and is associated with the Southern Baptist Convention and the Kentucky Baptist Convention. But they lived in Raleigh, NC and the school is in Pineville, KY (6 hour drive), so unless he was attending online, I'm guessing he wasn't currently attending.

At this point I'm going to wait for additional information before I add him to the list.