Children are safer in drag queen story hours than in church
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Re: Children are safer in drag queen story hours than in church
And BTW it seems that George Santos was a Brazilian drag queen after all, despite his denials. More here.. I'd not knocking drag queening as a profession and it's possible it's the most honorable job Santos has ever done. I don't know if he read to kids in the library but it's only Saturday - plenty of time left this week for further revelations in the Santos story.
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Re: Children are safer in drag queen story hours than in church
I think you're being amusing, Andy. What apple? And Eve was not told by God not to eat - she got that second-rib from Adam and it appears he didn't tell it correctly. He in turn blamed both Eve and God - "Not me, boss. It was this woman YOU made".
Christianity teaches that it was Adam's sin (not Eve's) that caused the great disruption vis-a-vis the Creator. Perhaps that's one more example of Christian belittling of women - refusing to recognize their contribution to ruination?
As to Pilate, I read his words and actions as mocking the establishment Jewish leaders of Jerusalem and not to be taken seriously. (And, heretic as I am, I think Matthew is highly suspect in this; almost as much as John). He is, by the way, held responsible for the crucifixion (not "the Jews") in both the Nicene and Apostle's creeds; and Jesus of course said Pilate only had authority because God gave it to him. And it turns out that Jesus, Peter, James, John, Matthew and so on were all (gasp) Jews! Join the dots, eh?
I tend to believe that the text indicates that the "serpent" was in fact a dragon. Reminds me; I must read The Worm Ouroboros and the Zimiamvian Trilogy again). Anyway, mythology often refers to dragons as 'serpent' and of course we know that a wyrm is a legless and wingless dragon. Perhaps the garden beast was the evolutionary ancestor of the wyrm.
You too (inadvertently, I'm sure) cited examples of people failing to follow Christ's teachings as polemic against Christ's teachings. What a coincidence!
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts
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Re: Children are safer in drag queen story hours than in church
Eve certainly knew what God had said even if it was not from direct knowledge.
So it was Eve who had the apple (fair point: we don't know it was an apple but it's kind of allegorical for lots of things these days, NY NY being one of them) and God only took it out on Adam because he (Adam) couldn't control his wife which pretty much makes the point. And God sent all these cherubs with flaming swords to make sure that the banished pair could not sneak back in to Eden. Rather like my old college where they shut the gates at night so if you wanted to get out (or in, depending on your purpose) you had to climb the wall. No cherubs with swords but it kept us reasonably fit.
And she said to the serpent (who BTW really was a snake - the Ancient Greek and Latin words for dragon and snake were pretty much interchangeable - if he'd been a dragon the whole thing about eating dust and slithering around on the belly would not have worked because many dragons [St George style] do have legs and God, being omnipotent and all, would have got every last one)16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
which seems to me to be a fair quote so I'm not buying the 'Adam never told me that!' argument.2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
So it was Eve who had the apple (fair point: we don't know it was an apple but it's kind of allegorical for lots of things these days, NY NY being one of them) and God only took it out on Adam because he (Adam) couldn't control his wife which pretty much makes the point. And God sent all these cherubs with flaming swords to make sure that the banished pair could not sneak back in to Eden. Rather like my old college where they shut the gates at night so if you wanted to get out (or in, depending on your purpose) you had to climb the wall. No cherubs with swords but it kept us reasonably fit.
- MajGenl.Meade
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Re: Children are safer in drag queen story hours than in church
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
No doubt the word for snake or serpent (nahash) and that for dragon (tan-neen) are different - although both have the idea of serpentine (not to be confused with the pond) in common. Then again, the NT drakon carries the meaning of serpent/dragon. But we don't want to accused of speciesism (?). The drastic belly-dust curse only makes sense if the creature previously did not slither on its belly i.e. had legs (4?). Nothing about wings. Symbolically it's Satan, although not corporeally. So I don't see a problem (except from literalists) in speculating about "wyrm" - the legless kind of dragon and how it became legless. I bet we've both had experience of the latter.
I think there's a syllogism waiting to get out . . . something something
all wyrms are dragons
all worms have no legs
therefore God did it
We'll have to check with Gob and see what he understands by it all.
![shrug :shrug](./images/smilies/shrug.gif)
![Wink ;)](./images/smilies/icon_e_wink.gif)
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts
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Re: Children are safer in drag queen story hours than in church
In the Nicene Creed (the one recited during Catholic Mass; sorry, as a Catholic that's my only point of reference) the line reads "for our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate"; in the Apostle's Creed the phrase is "suffered under Pontius Pilate". And I interpret that as merely indicating who was in power in Jerusalem at the time, much the same way as Luke 2:1-2 outlines the Roman power structure at the time of Christ's birth:MajGenl.Meade wrote: ↑Sat Jan 21, 2023 3:53 pmHe is, by the way, held responsible for the crucifixion (not "the Jews") in both the Nicene and Apostle's creeds;
- 1 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled.
2 This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria.
So as far as I'm concerned, Pilate was a bit player, and the only thing he was guilty of was buckling to the threat of mob violence — and even then, he offered them a quid pro quo in the form of a notorious insurrectionist named Barabbas, only to see that backfire in his face. Otherwise, he was about as culpable in the crucifixion of Jesus as the blacksmith who originally forged the nails they used.
———————————
(footnote) — the Jews could and did put people to death ... remember the woman who was going to be stoned for adultery, as per the laws of Moses? It's just that due to the nearness of Passover they couldn't put anyone to death at that particular point in time or they would have become ritually unclean and impure, and unable to take part in the commemoration of their deliverance from Egypt.
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Yes, I suppose I could agree with you ... but then we'd both be wrong, wouldn't we?
Re: Children are safer in drag queen story hours than in church
Nah, I cannot understand why a mythical infallible deity would indulge in such stupidity. But, if this is old testament, aren't we supposed to ignore it, (apart from the bits about poofs and that?)MajGenl.Meade wrote: ↑Sat Jan 21, 2023 7:19 pm
We'll have to check with Gob and see what he understands by it all.He's usually got great insight.
![]()
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Children are safer in drag queen story hours than in church
Still not a drag queen.
Ex-adviser to Monaco’s royal family sentenced to 3 years in Philly child porn case
EASTON — A Roman Catholic priest and former confidant of the royal family of Monaco was sentenced Monday to more than three years in prison for accessing a trove of thousands of pornographic images of children.
The Rev. William McCandless — a member of the Wilmington-based religious order Oblates of St. Frances De Sales — first came to to the attention of U.S. authorities after a stash of illicit photos and videos was discovered while he was stationed in the tiny nation on the French Riviera and working as an adviser to Princess Charlene, the wife of Monaco’s royal sovereign, Prince Albert II.
And while McCandless, 58, of Elkton, Md., had previously suggested that the case there against him was fueled by petty jealousies over the influence he’d amassed at the royal court, he made no mention of such palace intrigue Monday as he stood for sentencing in the federal courtroom of a Pennsylvania coal town half a world away.
“I do want to acknowledge what I’ve done,” he said, addressing U.S. District Judge Edward G. Smith in Easton. “Words cannot express the depths of my remorse.”
The 37-month prison term that Smith imposed marked a stunning downfall for a priest who across his varied career had served as principal at the Salesianum School, a Catholic high school in Wilmington, Del., and as a U.S. Navy chaplain delivering last rites to 9/11 victims at the Pentagon and eventually rising to the rank of lieutenant commander — all before the Oblates dispatched him to his prestigious posting in Monaco’s royal court.
“There is an evil resident within you,” Smith told McCandless as he ordered him to be immediately taken into custody. “But that’s not why you’re being sentenced or were charged, it’s because you can’t control that evil.”
As the only constitutionally Roman Catholic nation in the world besides the Vatican, which requires its sovereign to be Roman Catholic, the church and its lone parish in Monte Carlo hold an outsized influence in Monégasque affairs. An Oblate priest introduced Albert’s parents — Philadelphian Grace Kelly and Monaco’s Prince Rainier — and ever since a member of the order has served as chaplain to the royal family.
But McCandless’ stature was even more pronounced due to the personal bond he formed with Princess Charlene.
Known as “Father Bill” in the country’s tabloid press, he became a fixture in coverage of the princess, who was said to have considered him one of her closest friends after her marriage to Prince Albert in 2011.
He was reportedly among those at her bedside when she gave birth to the couple’s twins in 2014 and attended their baptism, along with the nation’s then-archbishop, Bernard Barsi.
She named McCandless to an official position on her staff and to the board of directors at her charitable foundation.
His unraveling began shortly after. In 2017, a church volunteer accidentally discovered pornographic images of children on a parish computer.
Word quickly leaked out that Monégasque authorities had opened an investigation into McCandless, and, within months, the Oblates transferred him back to the United States.
Investigators in the European nation transferred evidence to federal authorities here, and within the year agents had raided McCandless’ quarters at his new posting at DeSales University, an Oblate-affiliated school in Lehigh County.
On his computer, they found evidence of repeated visits to sites hosting pornographic images of children and sexually charged stories glorifying in explicit terms the abuse of young boys, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Sherri A. Stephan.
Agents also discovered that after McCandless had learned of the investigation in Monaco months earlier, he searched the internet for advice on “how to get stuff off the cloud,” “how to get off the grid,” and “how to disappear completely.”
“What people saw on the outside was not what was festering on the inside,” Stephan said in court filings leading up to Monday’s sentencing. “He was hiding who he was in plain sight — behind religious garb and a white priest collar, holding himself out to be a man of only good intentions while he searched for child sex abuse images and read stories about little boys being torn apart by sexually violent men.”
Though McCandless would eventually plead guilty to one count of accessing child pornography tied to the evidence unearthed at his office on the college campus, he continues to deny that the illicit photos discovered in Monaco were his. His attorney, Michael J. Diamondstein, has repeatedly questioned how much U.S. authorities relied on the earlier probe conducted by Monégasque investigators — one he has suggested was politically motivated.
In filings as recently as last year, Diamondstein noted that McCandless had begun to receive “very public threats” of retribution after he exposed another palace official’s involvement in attempts to extort people seeking residency cards allowing them to live in Monaco.
After McCandless passed that information on to Albert, that official was demoted, and McCandless, Diamondstein said in filings, began receiving threats that “Father Bill would eventually go to prison.”
Ultimately, though, it was McCandless’ decision to plead guilty — a decision for which Smith, the judge, credited him Monday. He also acknowledged the dozens of letters he’d received from McCandless’ colleagues, former parishioners, and friends, extolling the good he had done across his career in the clergy.
“That’s the problem here,” the judge said. “How do we allow you do all the good that you’ve done while preventing all the bad that came about?”
Diamondstein said that McCandless has since been under a “safety plan” with his religious order, relegated to a home for “tainted priests,” and would never have the opportunity to minister to a congregation again.
For his own part, McCandless — eschewing his priestly collar Monday for a traditional suit and tie — told the judge he was committed to paying the Oblates back for the money they spent covering his legal defense.
“The government wants to paint Father McCandless as a devil in a priest’s collar,” Diamondstein said Monday. “That’s not really true. Very, very few people are all good or all bad … and Father McCandless, if you pull this blip out of his life, has lived an extraordinary life. Better than I have.”
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Re: Children are safer in drag queen story hours than in church
I was once in Pigeon Forge TN (Near Dollywood, although I did not go there) and there are many stories about her and how much she invested in the area to get jobs for the locals. she opened Dollywood and turned the area into a bit of a tourist Mecca, providing employment for thousands. I'm not really a fan of much of her music (or most country music in general), but she does seem that she gave back to others to share her good fortune, and for that she deserves to be commended.
One aside, I recall seeing Barbara Walters interview her once (on one of those Barbara Walters specials), and one of the first questions she asked was if "they" were real; I lost all my respect for Walters with that question. Certainly it is a question that "inquiring minds want to know", but IMHO it has o place in serious journalism (which Walters maintained her reports and interviews were)--maybe in the Enquirer or People, but not ABC news. Dolly Parton was and is so much more than her bust size, and IMHO that question had no place in a serious interview.
One aside, I recall seeing Barbara Walters interview her once (on one of those Barbara Walters specials), and one of the first questions she asked was if "they" were real; I lost all my respect for Walters with that question. Certainly it is a question that "inquiring minds want to know", but IMHO it has o place in serious journalism (which Walters maintained her reports and interviews were)--maybe in the Enquirer or People, but not ABC news. Dolly Parton was and is so much more than her bust size, and IMHO that question had no place in a serious interview.
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Re: Children are safer in drag queen story hours than in church
People who are wrong are just as sure they're right as people who are right. The only difference is, they're wrong.
— God @The Tweet of God
— God @The Tweet of God
Re: Children are safer in drag queen story hours than in church
Still not drag queens.
Leon County brothers, clergy accused of sexual assault of multiple children
LEON COUNTY, Texas (KBTX) -Two Leon County brothers with pastoral leadership positions at churches in Centerville and Buffalo were arrested following grand jury indictments Wednesday.
Clark A. Travis was arrested in Buffalo by Leon County Sheriff’s deputies without incident Tuesday night.
Matthew T. Travis Jr. surrendered himself to the Leon County Sheriff’s Office jail late Wednesday night.
The duo is accused of sexually assaulting at least five children, according to authorities.
After a nearly year-long investigation into the allegations, investigators say they found enough probable cause to indict the brothers.
Clark was booked and charged with five counts of Sexual Assault of a Child, and one count of Sexual Abuse of a Child-Continuous: Victim under 14. He is currently being held in the Leon County Jail on a $1.5 million bond.
Matthew was booked and charged with three counts of Sexual Assault of a Child and is also being held in the Leon County Jail on a $600,000 bond.
The Leon County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately disclose arrest affidavits so details of the alleged assaults are limited, but sources close to the investigation tell KBTX that Matthew and Clark serve as spiritual leaders at Apostolic Life United Pentecostal Church in Buffalo and Centerville Apostolic Church in Centerville. Their exact roles in the church could not be confirmed by authorities.
Sources allege Clark and Matthew used their positions at their churches to abuse and take advantage of teenagers.
They also believe other survivors of sexual assault have not come forward.
KBTX also reached out to the Leon County District Attorney’s Office to request copies of the indictments but was told they could not be released due to the ongoing investigation and to protect the identities of the survivors.
According to experts, the vast majority of sexual assaults are not perpetrated by strangers.
Lindsey LeBlanc, Executive Director of the Sexual Assault Resource Center, says roughly 80% of sexual assaults are committed by someone that has gained and abused the trust of their victims and survivors.
For more details on the Sexual Assault Resource Center, call the 24/7 hotline at 979-731-1000, email reachingout@sarcbv.org, or visit SARC on Instagram and Facebook.
If you or someone you love have been the victim of sexual assault, you can call SARC’s 24/7 hotline at 979-731-1000.
"If you don't have a seat at the table, you're on the menu."
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Re: Children are safer in drag queen story hours than in church
"If you don't have a seat at the table, you're on the menu."
-- Author unknown
-- Author unknown
Re: Children are safer in drag queen story hours than in church
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/arfnqaz.jpg)
"If you don't have a seat at the table, you're on the menu."
-- Author unknown
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Re: Children are safer in drag queen story hours than in church
Pope John Paul II covered up child abuse as cardinal in Poland, says report
06/03/2023 - 01:49
Filipo Montefiote, AFP
Michal Gutowski, the investigator behind the broadcast, said that Karol Wojtyla, as he then was, knew of cases of paedophile priests within the church while still a cardinal in Krakow.
He transferred the priests to other dioceses -- one as far away as Austria -- to ensure no scandal ensued, he said.
Wojtyla, who was pope for 27 years from 1978 until his death in 2005, wrote a letter of recommendation for a priest accused of abuse to Vienna cardinal Franz Koenig, without mentioning the accusations, says Gutowski.
During his investigation, Gutowski says he spoke to victims of paedophile priests, their families and former church diocese employees.
He cites documents from the former Communist-eraSB secret police and rare church documents to which he managed to get access.
But Gutowski said the Krakow diocese had refused him access to its own documentary archives.
The Polish church has in the past refused to provide documents to the judiciary or a public commission of enquiry investigating cases of church abuse of minors.
One of Gutowski's sources said on condition of anonymity that he had personally told Wojtyla about acts of paedophilia concerning one priest in 1973.
"Wojtyla first wanted to make sure it wasn't a bluff," the source said.
"He asked it not be reported anywhere -- he said he would deal with it." The then-cardinal had explicitly requested the alleged affair be kept strictly under wraps, he added.
Thomas Doyle, an American former Catholic priest, canon law scholar, and the author of one of the first reports of Catholic clergy abuse in the United States, said Gutowski's investigation was groundbreaking.
It showed that John Paul II knew this problem existed even before he became pope, he argued.
The broadcast of the investigation in traditionally Catholic Poland comes soon after a Polish-based Dutch journalist, Ekke Overbeek, made similar accusations.
Overbeek's book, Maxima Culpa, is due to go on sale in Poland this week.
Over the past two years, and amid several reports of abuse of minors in the Polish church, the Vatican has sanctioned several high-ranking church officials for having covered up paedophilia by members of the clergy.
(AFP)
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Re: Children are safer in drag queen story hours than in church
HuffPost is reporting that one of those who protested most about libraries and LGBTQ books has been found to have child porn at his apartment.
He's a former elementary school librarian. You really couldn't make this stuff up. I know nothing about his church proclivities.Charles Sutherland, 31, was arrested last June and charged with multiple hate crimes for allegedly spray-painting the word “Groomer” on two public libraries in New Carrollton and Greenbelt, WTOP reported. Libraries have become recent targets among right-wing extremists who accuse librarians of being “groomers” for featuring pro-LGBTQ books and hosting book readings.
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Re: Children are safer in drag queen story hours than in church
People who are wrong are just as sure they're right as people who are right. The only difference is, they're wrong.
— God @The Tweet of God
— God @The Tweet of God
Re: Children are safer in drag queen story hours than in church
Still not a drag queen.
Former missionary found guilty of sexual abuse
It took a Webster County jury just under two and a half hours late Friday afternoon to convict a former Christian missionary of sexual abuse.
Jordan Dee Andrew Webb, 30, of Fort Dodge, was found guilty of one count of second-degree sexual abuse with persons under the age of 12, a Class B felony; incest, a class D felony; and child endangerment, an aggravated misdemeanor.
“We are pleased with the outcome and that the jury provided justice in this matter,” Assistant Webster County Attorney Bailey Taylor told The Messenger.
Taylor, along with Assistant Webster County Attorney Brad McIntyre, prosecuted the case.
Webb was arrested in April 2022 following an investigation by the Webster County Sheriff’s Office and Webster County Attorney’s Office that was prompted by “some health concerns involving a juvenile,” the WCSO reported at the time.
During the investigation, a search warrant was executed at 1940 225th St. in Webster County, which is owned by Harvest Baptist Church and is used for its Harvest Baptist Bible College.
From 2019 to February 2022, Webb served as a missionary in the Caribbean island nation of St. Lucia. According to a now-deleted Facebook page and website for Webb’s “Christ in the Caribbean” missionary work in St. Lucia, Harvest Baptist was the “sending church” for his mission work.
Webb’s alleged victim, who will be known as Jane Doe, was diagnosed with gonorrhea in early April 2022. The Messenger does not identify victims of sexual assault. Just days before Jane Doe was diagnosed, Webb was also diagnosed with gonorrhea, Taylor said during trial. The state alleged that Webb committed a sex act on the victim, infecting her with the STD.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, gonorrhea is a “very common” sexually transmitted disease that infects the mucous membranes of the reproductive tract, mouth, throat, eyes and rectum.
Over the course of the three-day trial, the jury heard testimony from a range of witnesses, including Dr. Regina Torson, an expert in child abuse pediatrics with UnityPoint Health — St. Luke’s Child Protection Center in Hiawatha. On Friday afternoon, the jury heard the closing arguments from the parties.
Taylor began her closing argument acknowledging that the state did not have any direct evidence of how the defendant allegedly infected the victim with an STD, but that she believes the sheer volume of circumstantial evidence proves Webb’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Among that circumstantial evidence is the timeline of when Webb was infected with gonorrhea and when the victim would have become infected.
Taylor poked holes through the defense’s suggestions that the infection could have been spread in a non-sexual manner — through using the same towel, or taking a bath together or helping a child clean up after using the toilet.
During Torson’s testimony, she stated that it is possible to contract gonorrhea by non-sexual means, but it is extremely rare.
“It’s possible, but is it reasonable?” Taylor asked the jury in her closing. “If this is so possible, why aren’t we seeing it more? … There is absolutely nothing reasonable about getting gonorrhea from a bathtub. That’s not a thing, because if it was, there’d be a lot more cases of gonorrhea. It wouldn’t be a sexually-transmitted disease, but it is.”
During his closing argument, defense attorney Dean Stowers challenged Torson’s credibility as a witness.
“She is a child abuse advocate,” he said. “She is not a neutral, unattached witness. Let’s get that straight.”
Stowers also emphasized that Torson’s expertise is not in infectious diseases and that she used words like “generally” and “typically” when describing how gonorrhea is spread.
“This case is a walking, talking, living, breathing reasonable doubt,” he said. “Every one of their witnesses is a reasonable doubt.”
In her rebuttal, Taylor again highlighted the amount of circumstantial evidence the state has presented.
“You put those pieces together to come to a conclusion,” she said. “Don’t ignore what happened to this child. Don’t ignore all of the evidence that you have seen.”
Just prior to the jury announcing its verdict, Stowers motioned for a mistrial based on something Taylor had said during her final rebuttal. After a brief conference, District Court Judge Christopher Polking denied the motion.
A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for June 5 at the Webster County Courthouse. Webb is facing a maximum of 32 years in prison if all three counts are ordered to be served consecutively.
Because sexual abuse and incest are classified as “forcible felonies,” Webb is not eligible for bond while awaiting his sentencing. Polking informed him that his current release would be revoked and he would be taken into custody by the Webster County Sheriff’s Office. Prior to trial, Webb had been free on a $75,000 bond.
"If you don't have a seat at the table, you're on the menu."
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Re: Children are safer in drag queen story hours than in church
The old coulda caught it from a toilet seat defense.
Brilliant.
Brilliant.
Re: Children are safer in drag queen story hours than in church
Oh look, another one who isn't a drag queen.
Maricopa pastor, 68, charged with lewd and lascivious acts with girl
A 68-year-old Maricopa pastor has been charged with committing lewd and lascivious acts upon a child after a girl alleged the religious leader kissed and touched her inappropriately.
The girl — who said she was either 12 or 13 at the time — said Maricopa Community Church pastor Stephen McCurtis was giving her a driving lesson in his white Tesla when he kissed her on her mouth and touched her inappropriately while she was wearing clothing, according to offense reports filed in Kern County Superior Court and released Friday to The Californian.
An attorney for McCurtis could not be reached Friday. McCurtis denied touching the child intimately but told a deputy that he kissed the girl. The defendant, who acknowledged his actions were inexcusable, also added he was upset these allegations were reported because he apologized to the girl and thought nothing else would happen, according to the offense reports.
“I’m not the pursuer. That’s important, I need you to write that down. I was the pursued,” McCurtis told the deputy, according to the offense reports.
McCurtis, who has known the girl since she was much younger, said in the offense reports the child asked him several times to get a ride in his car.
While driving in the car, McCurtis said he held her hand, the offense reports say. As both switched seats from the passenger to the driver’s side, he gave her a “good hug now because she was older” and kissed her either on the “neck or the forehead,” the offense reports added.
The deputy asked McCurtis if he kissed the girl on the mouth, which was a separate occasion than the other alleged instances of physical touch.
“Yes,” McCurtis said. It happened once, the pastor added in the offense reports.
McCurtis was then asked by a deputy why he kissed a child on the lips.
“Male response. I should not have done that and I felt really bad after,” he told the deputy in the offense reports.
The defendant was also asked if he thought the girl was sexually attractive, to which McCurtis responded, “I thought she was pretty” but that he is a married man and so “I know not to go crazy,” according to sheriff’s reports.
“I did kiss her and I shouldn’t have done that,” McCurtis told the deputy.
The girl told McCurtis she loved him, which he said “messed” up his head, the deputy wrote. He said he never saw the girl in a romantic light until she said "I love you" and thought she wasn’t joking, the offense reports said.
McCurtis disagreed when the deputy said a 12- or 13-year-old girl won’t attempt to come on to a man in his sixties. Adults are responsible for not taking advantage of kids and the defendant abused his position of trust as an adult and pastor, the deputy wrote. McCurtis agreed his actions were inexcusable and he made a mistake, the offense reports say.
McCurtis also became upset after learning the incident was reported to law enforcement because he thought he had “settled it,” according to offense reports.
He also reflected back on his actions when the deputy said he was submitting his investigation to be reviewed by prosecutors for any charges.
“Well I know this will mess up the church, I’m just saying, if this goes any further period, it will hurt a lot of people, not just me, my family, my wife, everybody that goes here, the whole city would be devastated,” McCurtis said, according to offense reports. “I will be devastated.”
McCurtis has been charged with a felony of lewd or lascivious act with a child under 14 years old. A pre-preliminary hearing is set for May 2.
"If you don't have a seat at the table, you're on the menu."
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- Bicycle Bill
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Re: Children are safer in drag queen story hours than in church
Just thought I'd point out that he was not a Roman Catholic, either.
And neither was this one.
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-"BB"-
Yes, I suppose I could agree with you ... but then we'd both be wrong, wouldn't we?
Re: Children are safer in drag queen story hours than in church
Safer at a drag show than interning in the legislature, too!
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... uct-internRepublican who called drag shows a threat
to kids quits after sex with intern
Texas lawmaker gave alcohol to intern, 19, and another young staffer, and had sex with intern when she was intoxicated
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan
~ Carl Sagan