In a week that has seen the revelations regarding Roy Moore ramp up and up, you do have to wonder if he is simply one lone isolated case that stands out as a contrast to the normal.
Yes he is … in the sense that most people with or without a specific belief generally do not behave like that.
But also no he is not … in the sense that many movers and shakers who deploy religion in your face often turn out to be examples of gross hypocrisy.
Putting the example of Roy Moore aside, in the past week alone, there are many other examples. Here is my personal selection of the top three from the last 7 days.
Item 1 – Pastor Robert Coy accused of molesting 4 year old girl
Pastor Robert Coy is the guy who started a megachurch in Florida then later walked away from it all when he was revealed to be a porn addict. In a new update on that sorry saga something even more tragic hit the news this week. He now stands accused of molesting a young girl over many years and it apparently started when she was just 4 years old.
It sounds so bizarre that you might be tempted to think it might not be true, but there are a few rather startling bits of information about this guy that you should perhaps be aware of that demonstrate that this was very much him. The Miami Times reports the story along with these additional details …
- Prior to finding Jesus his previous career was managing Vegas strip clubs
- In April 2014, he resigned in disgrace after admitting to multiple affairs and a pornography addiction. Coy shocked his flock and made national headlines by walking away from his ministry, selling his house, and divorcing his wife
- His attorneys, meanwhile, persuaded a judge with deep Republican ties to seal the ex-pastor’s divorce file to protect Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale from scrutiny.
Additionally, it is not just one rogue pastor, the entire network of these churches are rife with huge ethical and moral issues …
- The revelations come at a sensitive moment for Calvary’s national network of about 1,800 churches, which have been riven by legal infighting and dogged by claims that bad pastors have been allowed to run amok.
- At least eight pastors, staffers, and volunteers in Calvary Chapel’s network around the United States have been charged with abusing children since 2010.
- In one case, victims claimed the church knowingly moved a pedophile to another city without warning parents.
The latest accusation against Mr Coy is this …
The call came from California. A woman told Coral Springs Police she had recently learned something terrible: A South Florida man had molested her daughter for years. It began when the girl was just 4 years old.
An officer noted the information and called the victim, who was then a teenager. She confirmed the story in stomach-churning detail.
The man had forced her to perform oral sex, she said. He would regularly “finger and fondle her” genitals, make her touch his penis, and “dirty talk” to her. The abuse lasted until she was a teenager, she told the cop. She’d never even told her family about the crimes.
For his next career move he could stand as the local Republican candidate because he appears to be an ideal fit for that and would blend right in.
If you consider that to be a biased political slur, then check out items 2 and 3 below.
Item 2 – GOP Lawmaker Resigns After “Inappropriate Conduct” With a Man in His Office
Ohio State Rep. Wes Goodman not only stood on a platform as a Christian and family values man, but he also (as many right-wing religious people often do) often talked about all of that as a foundational aspect for his political platform and also was of course a screaming anti-gay bigot. This week we learned that it was all a sham.
The Columbus Dispatch reports …
State Rep. Wes Goodman, who consistently touted his faith and conservative values, abruptly resigned late Tuesday after being confronted with evidence of inappropriate conduct with another man inside his Riffe Center office, the second Ohio lawmaker to fall within a month.
House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger, R-Clarksville, met Tuesday afternoon with the Cardington Republican soon after the speaker became aware of an incident from weeks ago in the lawmaker’s office that, sources said, involved a male in a consensual situation.
No harassment complaint, sexual or otherwise, was filed against Goodman. But someone, reportedly not a staffer, who knew of or witnessed the incident informed House Chief of Staff Mike Dittoe of the situation early Tuesday afternoon.
It is not simply one guy making one mistake just once. The Washington Post now reveals more …
On a fall evening two years ago, donors gathered during a conference at a Ritz-Carlton hotel near Washington to raise funds for a 31-year-old candidate for the Ohio legislature who was a rising star in evangelical politics.
Hours later, upstairs in a hotel guest room, an 18-year-old college student who had come to the event with his parents said the candidate unzipped his pants and fondled him in the middle of the night. The frightened teenager fled the room and told his mother and stepfather, who demanded action from the head of the organization hosting the conference.
… and of course you will not exactly be shocked to learn that it was ignored and was swept aside …
“If we endorse these types of individuals, then it would seem our whole weekend together was nothing more than a charade,” the stepfather wrote to Tony Perkins, president of the Council for National Policy.
“Trust me . . . this will not be ignored nor swept aside,”
That’s the GOP way – tell people what they want to hear, and that you have their best interests at heart, then do the complete opposite. Trump has got that strategy well and truly nailed.
Item 3 – 37% of Evangelicals Are More Likely to Back Roy Moore After Assault Allegations
This one has been part of the mainstream big ticket news item concerning Roy Moore. Rather obviously Roy Moore himself deserves a slot in the top three items, but since I did a posting about him a few days ago, I’ll pass on that, and instead focus on the truly bizarre response to it all by many many evangelicals … 71% of them to be precise.
- 37% declared themselves more likely to support him now that he had been outed as a child molester
- 34% declared that it made no difference
Nearly 40 percent of Evangelical Christians in Alabama say they’re now more likely to vote for Roy Moore after multiple allegations that he molested children, even as voters across the historically red state now seem to be punishing Moore for his past actions, a new poll shows.
A plurality of evangelicals — 37 percent — described themselves as more likely to support Moore because of recent sexual assault allegations levied against him, while only 28 percent were less likely to do so. Thirty-four percent of the supposedly devout Christians said that the allegations reported last week in the Washington Post made no difference in their support for Moore.
That is perhaps taking “Love the sinner” to a whole new level, and note that we are not talking about a few cherry-picked individuals, but instead a vast majority of them.
There is however some really good news here. Not everybody in Alabama is a religious hypocrite …
The same poll, conducted in the wake of the Post report that he sexually molested four teenage girls in the early 1980s, also shows that Moore’s challenger, Democrat Doug Jones, leading the race for the first time, with 46 percent of respondents supporting him if the election were to happen today. Moore would get only 42 percent.
The most probable outcome now is that Moore will not stand down and also that Moore will not win. If that is indeed how it plays out, then that will truly be a big win for both common sense and basic human decency.