Chronicles of Hypocrisy #16

There are six new cases in this post and updates on a few more. It’s all stories of hate and wickedness of the worst kind. Kids are abused and people are hurt, all by men of God. It never stops. The corruption eats everything.

I read the Baylor study on Clergy Sexual Misconduct recently. I was struck by this fact: "In the average American congregation of 400 persons, with women representing, on average, 60% of the congregations, there are, on average 7 women who have experienced clergy sexual misconduct.”

Discretion is the polite word for hypocrisy - Christine Keeler

New Cases

Baptist youth pastor and teacher William Lewis, 26, of Brunswick, Ga., was arrested on two counts of child molestation. He allegedly touched and rubbed a ten year old boy. Lewis was the youth pastor at Grove Baptist Church and a first grade teacher at Altama Elementary School.

Youth pastor Jimmy Chang, 32, was arrested for sexually exploiting a teenage girl. Chang is charged with second-degree sexual assault. Chang was the owner and chief instructor at a Kumon learning center in Manchester, Conn. The center has since been shut down by Kumon North America.

Daycare worker and self described youth pastor Matthew Shaw was arrested after uploading thousands of images containing child porn. Google alerted authorities. Shaw’s Facebook profile claims he is a youth pastor Harvest Christian Church. I’m not sure if a cook at a daycare center qualifies as a youth pastor, but hey, people can say anything on Facebook. Shaw’s twitter profile @PastorMatthea makes the same claim.

Pastor Melvin Ollison Sr. (Facebook) was arrested on multiple counts of rape. At least one victim was five. At one time, the alleged serial rapist lead the Giants 4 Jesus in Byboro, Ollison’s bail is set at $1 million dollars.

Roman Catholic pastor Octavio Munoz Capetillo was removed as pastor of St. Pancratius Church in Brighton Park amid an investigation into sexual images found on his computer.

"Given the nature of the material, we reported our concerns to the civil authorities and will cooperate fully in their investigation," the archdiocese said in a statement. "In the interim, Archbishop (Blase) Cupich has withdrawn Father Munoz's ... authority to minister."
- via chicagotribune.com

Roman Catholic pastor Monsignor Michael Heras of the Diocese of Corpus Christi, resigned amid accusations of inappropriate conduct. The Nueces County District Attorney’s office is investigating.

Updates and interesting stories

The rape charges against Pastor Yohandry Bravo have been dismissed. I’m not sure of the details, but it looks like there may have been credibility problems with the accuser. I originally posted on Yohandry on May 9th.

Two churches are cooperating with authorities on the investigation of Baptist youth pastor Brian Burchfield. Both churches released statements confirming cooperation and support for the investigation. Odd really… this kind of things almost never happens with Baptists.

These was an interesting story at CNN related to child abuse by a Hindu spiritual leader named swami Prakashanand Saraswati. I posted on it too.

Former Patriots receiver turned hypocrite pastor Irving Fryar, was convicted for his role in a mortgage scam and faces 10 years in prison.

Charges were dropped against baptist pastor Larry Jones. It turns out his teenaged rape fantasies were protected by the first amendment. I’d keep an eye on this one. See CoH#1 for more.

Rev. Joseph D. Maurizio’s trail is set to start in September and will require translators because the government is bring in witnesses from Honduras to testify about his alleged sexual abuse of orphan children.

M.M. Cox writes about disgraced baptist youth pastor Brian Burchfield (CoH#15) and her desire to paint her church as a place of love, fellowship and commitment after allegations of sexual abuse surfaced earlier this year. Her words ring true, but are naive.

Then, as a church, we move forward. We all make mistakes, and Christians never claim to be perfect. But we don’t condone criminal acts, and Quail Springs Baptist has shown that in their statement to the public:
- via The Edmond Sun

As for “moving forward” the most likely scenario in Burchfield's case is a painful and ugly trial, followed by an even more painful civil suit or suits, followed by the church struggling to pay its judgments, and in the worst case scenario, Quail Springs Baptist Church will close. It happens all the time. Don’t worry though… there in another church with another youth pastor, just down the road.

Link to Chronicles of Hypocrisy #15