One Sentence Statement about the Passing of Pope Benedict XVI

There is a Circle of Hell dedicated to those who betrayed their position of office, there is a Circle of Hell for priests and bishops and Popes who allowed pedophiles and rapists to attack the children and families of their own parishes, there is a Circle of Hell for those who lied against the victims, there is a Circle of Hell for those who covered up crimes for the sake of power and money, and so there is a Circle of Hell tonight for Pope Benedict XVI who died knowing full well that thousands of young women and men of his own Catholic Church had their lives broken or destroyed all so he could be Pope.

Grooming Hypocrisy

In the past month or so - especially as the anti-LGBTQ+ legislation like "Don't Say Gay Florida" got signed into law - we've witnessed an uptick in a particular form of Republican attack, where they go on the offensive (by being offensive) and accusing their political opposition of crimes they haven't proven.

You've probably been overwhelmed by now from the Far Right Narrative that the Republicans are passing all these anti-gay bills to protect our families and children from the dread threat of Communism The Big Scary Blacks Satan Worshipers Feminazis Baby Parts Factories and now Groomers. The accusation is that the gays and lesbians and trans people are infiltrating our schools in order to "groom" the next generation of teenagers to be gay/lesbian/trans themselves.

It's as though the Far Right still believe that homosexuality, or any alteration of gender identity, is a "choice" rather than the personal psychological self-awareness that every person - straight, gay, bi, trans, or fluid - goes through growing up. We've had decades of studies providing some evidence that the self-identity is biological, internal, that you're born to it, and it's not something you can plug into another person like teaching them math or history.

It may stem from the fear/belief that the Far Right has - given their religious absolutism and devout faith - that such sexual identities can be programmed into people the same way churches program people into their dogma. It ignores the hard-wired nature of self-identity, and it's all projection and hypocrisy.

The hypocrisy comes from the facts that 1) there's no proof of wide-spread grooming conspiracy going on (remember Pizzagate?) and 2) the Republicans are willing to overlook how heterosexuals - especially older men - are willing to chase after the younger generation of women to "groom" them as their second (or third) wives / mistresses on the side.

These Republicans yelling and screaming about "Gays grooming yer kids" have no problem rewriting state laws like the one in Tennessee, where they were trying to create loopholes to deny gays right to marry... while at the same time getting rid of the restrictions that protected girls as young as 10 from forced marriages. Nationwide outrage finally pushed the state legislature to re-insert the age restriction, but this was how the Far Right religious bastards wanted to take it (via Jon Skolnick at Salon):

H.B. 233 gives Tennesseans "an alternative form of marriage" between individuals who have a "conscientious objection to the current pathway," according to state Rep. Tom Leatherwood, the bill's Republican sponsor. 

As WKRN ​​reported, the GOP bill, first introduced in January, establishes a common-law marriage between "one man" and "one woman" but omits any age requirements for the union, an omission that Democrats have blasted.

"I don't think any normal person thinks we shouldn't have an age requirement for marriage," said Democratic state Rep. Mike Stewart. "It should not be there as it's basically a get out of jail free card for people who are basically committing statutory rape," Stewart. I mean it's completely ridiculous, so that's another reason why this terrible bill should be eliminated..."

The measure is a significant step back from a Tennessee law passed in 2018 that prohibited minors under the age of seventeen from getting married. 

According to Unchained at Last, Tennessee ranks the 13th highest state in child marriages per capita. Nearly 10,000 children were granted marriage licenses in the state between 2000 and 2018... 

While the original intent of that law - which is still getting voted on - was to get around the gay rights to marriage, the fact that the Far Right didn't care they had removed the protections for children vulnerable to older sexual predators spells out their utter hypocrisy when it comes to "think of the children". The fact they didn't address this as a problem until 2018 (!!!) and were happy to undo what they had done just six years prior ought to horrify people.

Republicans - especially the religious wingnuts - look at gays and lesbians and bi and trans going public with their gender identities and scream "THEY'RE GONNA BRAINWASH YOUR KIDS INTO TEH GAY." Those same Republicans will then look at hetero men in their 20s and 30s chasing after 14-year-olds to get them pregnant and proclaim "Well this is the natural order of things as God intends."

Statutory rape means nothing to them. Actual rape - where the young girls are abused one way or another (physically or emotionally) into submitting to those men's wills - means nothing to the Far Right. The age differences between the sexual predators going after teen girls means nothing to them. Republicans pushing their religious wingnut agenda are going to make sure rape victims are forced to bear babies they didn't want for the glory of the sons-of-bitches who raped them. All they see is their sexist "make 'em barefoot and pregnant" agenda regain its "proper place" in the goddamned Patriarchy.

They've been like this for decades. We've seen their behavior in public over and over again. This blog has railed against the likes of Roy Moore - who was chasing after teenage girls while in his 30s, so much so a local mall had to trespass him to stop him stalking girls there - and other religious extremists like the Duggar family, which had sided repeatedly with their sexual predator son Josh who molested his own sisters (the parents' own daughters!) and was convicted in 2021 for possession of child porn. 

That is all young women are to these forced-birth zealots: Sexualized targets regardless of age, whose only purpose in their Christian Utopian is to breed. As often as possible, as early as possible.

The threat of "gay grooming" is a fake news story compared to the real threat girls and women from the ages of 10 to 50 are facing from the wingnut Religious Right the very minute Roe v Wade gets nuked by this ultra-conservative Supreme Court.

Gods help this nation the minute we turn half of our population into cattle.

Breaking: Justice For a Moment For Abused Young Women, But More MUST Be Done to Serve Justice Forever

Was going to write something else, but this news broke while I was stuck at the train crossing on State Rd 60 earlier this evening. Socialite Sex Trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell found guilty by jury on five counts (via Jasmine Garsd and Vanessa Romo at NPR):

A federal jury deliberated for five full days before finding Maxwell guilty on five of the six counts she faced, including the sex trafficking of a minor. The 60-year-old was acquitted of enticing a minor to travel with intent to engage in illegal sexual activity. Epstein, a convicted sex offender, died in 2019 while in a Manhattan correctional facility.

Throughout the trial, jurors heard from four women who accused Maxwell of luring them into Epstein's lavish homes to have sex with him and other powerful men. Over three weeks, the women described how Maxwell, who dated Epstein in the 1990s, presented herself as a friendly older sister, earning their trust with gifts and shopping sprees. Two of the women testified they were 14 years old when Maxwell coaxed them into engaging in sexual acts with Epstein. One woman testified that Maxwell was present and even participated in some of the encounters...

Epstein, as noted earlier, died under questionable circumstances back in 2019 when the legal system re-opened cases they found out were illegally pled out against the wishes of Epstein's victims back in 2007. Between them, Maxwell and Epstein had ties to multiple political and business figures who were alleged - then and also in this trial - to have sex with these underage girls as trade-off for business deals and favors that Epstein would exploit. Back to the article: 

It's a case that has captured international attention and sparked countless conspiracy theories. And there's plenty of fodder: Maxwell and Epstein, who were a couple in the 1990s and early 2000s, surrounded themselves with wealthy and powerful men, including Bill Gates and Bill Clinton.

Over the past few years, a steady stream of women have accused Maxwell and Epstein of abusing them when they were underage. Some have also said the couple forced them to perform sex acts on famous men such as Prince Andrew and former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. Both deny these accusations...

These men can deny all they want, but the evidence is all there, and this jury saw enough of it to convict Maxwell of sex trafficking to these men of power. And they were named in this trial: One witness mentioned meeting donald trump back in the 1990s, another witness - one of Epstein's pilots - detailed a veritable list of Who's Who traveling to Epstein's residences where a lot of the sexual abuse took place.

At some point, all of these sins connect to each other.

Maxwell's conviction is a good day for justice in defense of many women and girls who are sexually abused and raped by those in power, but it dare not end here.

This conviction is meaningless if the prosecutors fail to go after the men of wealth and power who profited from Epstein and Maxwell's actions, who abused these young women for their own perversions. They had enough evidence to prove Maxwell was working much like a madam/pimp, recruiting teen girls and molding them into playthings.

There's already a lawsuit filed against ol' Randy Andy that's due to get a hearing next week. There ought to be more of them, if there is to be any true justice in this world.

If men of power like Clinton and trump and Gates - and even those not connected to Epstein like Matt Gaetz and Roy Moore and a thousand others across the spectrum - are allowed to walk away from this scandal untouched, it will merely grant them the ability to find the next wannabe pimp willing to recruit and farm out young girls for abuse and rape and worse.

If there's evidence Bill Clinton had sex with any of these women when they were teenagers, charge him. If Bill Gates did, charge him. If donald trump did, charge him. If Prince Andrew did, charge him. If there's evidence Alan Dershowitz got more than the massage he claimed he got, charge him.

Going after the Pimps is one thing. Going after the Johns is where the justice matters.

Further Proof Republicans Can't Understand Statutory (w/ Update)

You know, for a guy who's trying to be on hiatus, I'm not staying away from this blog all that much.

I did say I would pop back in from time to time, if the news be worthy enough of comment, and while YES there is something else I need to blog on that's a serious matter, the schadenfreude of commenting on stuff like this is too easy to pass up:

Such as yet another hypocritical Republican elected official getting investigated for sexual misconduct of a VERY scandalous nature. Per the New York Times, but I have to quote it through Yahoo! News because I'm a cheap bastard:

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., is under investigation by the Department of Justice for a sexual relationship he allegedly had with a 17-year-old girl, the New York Times reported Tuesday. 

The investigation was started in the final months of the Trump administration under then-Attorney General William Barr, the Times reported. The agency is looking into whether Gaetz, a close ally of the former president, violated federal sex trafficking laws by paying for the young woman to travel with him outside of Florida. 

Gaetz has yet to be charged with a crime. 

Earlier Tuesday, Axios reported that Gaetz, who is 38, had told associates he was considering not seeking reelection so that he could pursue a job opportunity with the staunchly conservative network Newsmax...

I dunno if jumping from Congress to a media job is going to save him, because what Gaetz did at the time - apparently two years ago when he met the young woman - violated Florida Statutes 794.05:

794.05 Unlawful sexual activity with certain minors.—

(1) A person 24 years of age or older who engages in sexual activity with a person 16 or 17 years of age commits a felony of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084...

To be serving in the House of Representatives, you HAVE to be over 25 (Gaetz was 36 at the time this allegedly happened). The girl in question was 17 when this allegedly happened. The girl's ability to give consent doesn't apply: Statutory is statutory. Gaetz is facing a serious felony charge that would involve jail time (up to 15 years), and no media outlet is going to let him broadcast from Cell Block Six.

And somebody like Gaetz who is SUPPOSED to know the laws - federal and state and otherwise - should have known better.

But no, he did not (allegedly). He didn't even care (allegedly). Gaetz, a big bullying blowhard for the Far Right talk shows, likely thought the laws never apply to HIM (considering his history of getting out of legal jams...).

Back to the Times report (this link may end up behind a paywall):

The three people said that the examination of Mr. Gaetz, 38, is part of a broader investigation into a political ally of his, a local official in Florida named Joel Greenberg, who was indicted last summer on an array of charges, including sex trafficking of a child and financially supporting people in exchange for sex, at least one of whom was an underage girl...

So there seems to be (allegedly) a Republican-led sex trafficking ring operating in Florida, of which Gaetz became a target of investigation involving the charges against Greenberg. There is a likelihood of other Florida-based officials being caught in the same orbit.

And that's the thing, isn't it. The hypocrisy of a Republican Party that parades around as God's chosen, screaming at everyone else for our heathen ways, even as they themselves commit sins both sacrilegious and secular. Yes, we catch Democrats in the act of treating young women in abusive and degrading ways, but they don't go around throwing stones at other glass houses, planting the Ten Commandments in our front yards while violating at least six of those Commandments behind closed doors.

The schadenfreude of watching another holier-than-thou Republican confront their sins (allegedly) would be fun to enjoy, except for the fact these Republicans are abusing their powers in office to make the rest of us suffer for their own sick amusement.

Gods help us.

(Note: And yes, I *do* watch Letterkenny for the memes.)

Update 4/2: As all sex-and-money scandals unfold, so too is this one, ensnaring a number of other Republicans and revealing just how deep the rot goes. As Betty Cracker puts it over at Balloon-Juice:

Man, this Gaetz-Greenberg scandal has everything. Snot-nosed rich boys who use their daddies’ money and connections to buy office – check. Arrogant Trump-humping douchebags who think their power enables them to act with impunity – check. Abject morons who leave a trail of literal receipts behind to incriminate themselves – check...

It's even getting worse than what Betty Cracker covers. TPM is reporting how Gaetz was constantly showing off nude photos of his sexual conquests on the floor of the U.S. House. That even then-Speaker Paul Ryan had to call Gaetz to his office to remind him about decorum and behavior in Congress. 

This is something from last year in the Orlando Weekly, for God's sake, reported in 2020 but overshadowed by the pandemic: Gaetz may be part of a gang of Florida elected officials as far back as 2013 who were "scoring points" going after women employees or co-workers at the state legislature. Jesus. The last time I heard about this type of behavior it involved a rape-gang of high schoolers.

The bad behavior has always been there. It's been his family's wealth, his political ambitions, and his white male Frat Boy (tm) Privilege that's allowed him to be this bad for so long.

And now think about all the other white male Frat Boys (tm) we know out there in their 30s and 40s who never grew up and still act like this, running around in the halls of power between Wall Street and K Street.

It's always been this bad. The same entitled assholes running around shilling fear and rage on the talking head shows while raping and pillaging behind the curtains because nobody will stop them until it's too late. When the hell are we really going to clean this shit out of the top floors?

One Sentence About My Thoughts Regarding Jeffrey Epstein's Death in Jail

For starters I'm not buying the suicide report because he'd already tried something like this earlier and for the love of GOD should have been under 24/7 suicide watch just to make sure nobody tried to shiv him, because Jeffrey Epstein's career as a Pedophile Pimp for an exclusive club of billionaire greed-heads and political figures - a list including the Shitgibbon himself, Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew from the UK (!) - along with growing evidence Epstein was involved in human trafficking across the globe made him a high risk for certain powerful figures who would risk Epstein's death in jail and withstand the coming public outcry against such an obvious conspiratorial move by fearing the possibility of Epstein exposing global diabolical criminal activities, and so I call on the New York District Attorneys investigating Epstein and his Circle of Carnal Crime to keep digging and arrest every child-fucker and human slaver they can find. Gasp. Shit, that's two sentences. SHIT, THAT'S... okay you get my gist.

What Epstein Proves, As All Corruption Proves

With the weekend developments surrounding Jeffrey Epstein's arrests on sexual abuse of underage girls, after months of investigative reporting exposed not only his empire of sleaze but how a political-driven prosecutor like Acosta pretty much gave him an earlier slap on the wrist, we as a nation - we as humanity - ought to recognize these established truths.

There are far too many men of power who abuse people they view as their lessers, who are poor, often young, almost always women.

I rattled off a list of names in a couple of tweets this morning.

And that list is incomplete.

The sexual abuse, the financial corruption, the political rot, it all ties together. Everyone looked the other way on Roy Moore's open pursuit of teenage girls for decades in Alabama because even in his 30s he was a politically connected attorney. Hollywood moguls and celebrities, rolling in their wealth, have their goddamned casting couches. Any institution that holds ANY power over people, political or financial or religious, is going to have some nasty rot hidden among their elites, like the priests who kept molesting children while their superiors covered it up to avoid any scandal weakening their authority (or because the reforms needed to reduce such crimes - like the Catholic Church changing rules to priests can have normal sex and get married - would violate their dogma).

And as the Epstein case is proving, all of these rich, authoritative, politically connected men travel in the same goddamn circles.

We do not take rape and sexual abuse claims serious enough.

These men of power get away with what they do because our culture eagerly looks away, or excuses bad behavior out of certain - hint: White Upper Class - boys whose parents and friends all claim "He comes from a good home" after the accusations and evidence come out. How many judges have tossed aside allegations of violent sexual assaults by teen boys on teen girls, or college boys on teen girls, or 30-year-olds on teen girls, all because "Well, we don't want to ruin the bright future that's facing these fresh-faced young men." Christ, it happens enough that we've made it a cliche.

It does not help that these upper class families can afford teams of lawyers to overwhelm the courtroom, throw doubt into the mix with psychologists and privately-paid research to counter the evidence and witness testimonies. Yes, every person has a right to a legal defense. But the rights of the victims in these cases get tossed to the curb.

Nearly every state has a backlog of rape kits, untested and going bad, numbering in the tens of thousands, which allows those rapists - they never stop at one - to continue raping because the cops don't have enough physical evidence to arrest them yet.

And despite most evidence and research proving that a majority of rape and assault charges are legit, our culture cannot abide such reality. We live in a situation where every accusation becomes a "He Said She Said" and we rarely believe the She Said (even when the victim has scars and bruises across her body). We have juries who come back with Not Guilty decisions because of what the woman wore (she deserved it) or if she drank (she deserved it) or she should have known not to go to a man's house (she deserved it) or get a ride in his car (she deserved it). In this reality, we seem to blame the victim first.

Of any ethnic street gang out there, none of them have the destructive power or violence like Wall Street White Boys.

You think MS-13 is bad, or the Crips and Bloods, or the Triads? They ain't got shit on investment bankers and third generation rich boys rolling in drugs, human trafficking, and billion-dollar acts of fraud. A biker gang might mug you for your wallet. A hedge fund manager from JP Morgan will mug you for your mortgage, college debt AND pension plan.

Our nation has had a long, troubling history of Rich White Boys Behaving Badly. At what point will the bill come due?

Still Vulgar

A columnist for the New York magazine came out Friday about getting sexually assaulted by donald trump years ago.

Before I discuss him, I must mention that there are two great handicaps to telling you what happened to me in Bergdorf’s: (a) The man I will be talking about denies it, as he has denied accusations of sexual misconduct made by at least 15 credible women, namely, Jessica Leeds, Kristin Anderson, Jill Harth, Cathy Heller, Temple Taggart McDowell, Karena Virginia, Melinda McGillivray, Rachel Crooks, Natasha Stoynoff, Jessica Drake, Ninni Laaksonen, Summer Zervos, Juliet Huddy, Alva Johnson, and Cassandra Searles. (Here’s what the White House said:  “This is a completely false and unrealistic story surfacing 25 years after allegedly taking place and was created simply to make the President look bad.”) And (b) I run the risk of making him more popular by revealing what he did...

Just look at the list of names E. Jean Carroll rattles off. She names 15 other women as credible witnesses to their own assaults at donald trump's - the Pussygrabber in Chief - hands. There are other accounts out there. Like all rapists and sexual predators, trump never stops at one...

There are several facts about what happens next that are so odd I want to clear them up before I go any further:

Did I report it to the police?

No.

Did I tell anyone about it?

Yes. I told two close friends. The first, a journalist, magazine writer, correspondent on the TV morning shows, author of many books, etc., begged me to go to the police.
“He raped you,” she kept repeating when I called her. “He raped you. Go to the police! I’ll go with you. We’ll go together.”

My second friend is also a journalist, a New York anchorwoman. She grew very quiet when I told her, then she grasped both my hands in her own and said, “Tell no one. Forget it! He has 200 lawyers. He’ll bury you.” (Two decades later, both still remember the incident clearly and confirmed their accounts to New York.)...

Why haven’t I “come forward” before now?

Receiving death threats, being driven from my home, being dismissed, being dragged through the mud, and joining the 15 women who’ve come forward with credible stories about how the man grabbed, badgered, belittled, mauled, molested, and assaulted them, only to see the man turn it around, deny, threaten, and attack them, never sounded like much fun. Also, I am a coward...

I am not going to describe the assault. It's too painful to read.

The whole episode lasts no more than three minutes. I do not believe he ejaculates. I don’t remember if any person or attendant is now in the lingerie department. I don’t remember if I run for the elevator or if I take the slow ride down on the escalator. As soon as I land on the main floor, I run through the store and out the door — I don’t recall which door — and find myself outside on Fifth Avenue...

I wrote this before the election:

We've known for some time Trump is lewd towards women - the number of stories about women fleeing from him in tears have been out there for decades - but this is in his own words. His own honest-to-God view of women as his objects of lust and acquisition.

He talks in the language of the rapist. Uncaring. Self-absolving. Everything justified because he's a "star" and he can do anything.

How is this abomination of a lifeform even allowed to go out in public to meet people?
I have friends who have endured sexual assaults, unwelcomed advances, moments even in public where guys attack them in variations of what Trump brags about doing (please note: TRUMP IS BRAGGING ABOUT THIS). As a guy who will never have to go through this hell, the best I can do is understand the pain my friends go through every time this shit happens to them, all because there are other guys out there who are sexual predator assholes who don't give a fuck about how women actually feel...

A vote for Trump is a vote for vile vulgarity. It is a vote against every woman who ever lived. It is a vote against every kind and decent thing any American has ever done for others.

Damn you forever if you vote for THAT...

And now it's 2019. People voted for that vulgarity in enough numbers to "win" a broken Electoral College. In 2017 we watched Republicans fall over themselves supporting an Alabama teen stalker in Roy Moore (self-appointed moralist and ex-judge) all because they loved sexual predators more than any Democrat.

And now we're getting more stories public - because of the public view AGAINST rape/assault victims makes it difficult for them to even report it when it happens - the mainstream media is shrugging this off. Not a single major newspaper ran with this story as front-page news. As though we've normalized the "reality" that trump is a goddamned rape monster.

We're living in a nation and a timeline where the political leadership is committing crimes - has committed crimes - and are simply allowed to get away with it because nobody wants the hassle of even bothering.

There are still 42 percent of American voters still willing to vote for this vulgarity.

Jesus.

When Churches Betray Faith, Churches Become Conspiracies

God. (via the Houston Chronicle and reporters Robert Downen, Lise Olsen, and John Tedesco):

In the decade since Vasquez's appeal for help, more than 250 people who worked or volunteered in Southern Baptist churches have been charged with sex crimes, an investigation by the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News reveals.

It's not just a recent problem: In all, since 1998, roughly 380 Southern Baptist church leaders and volunteers have faced allegations of sexual misconduct, the newspapers found. That includes those who were convicted, credibly accused and successfully sued, and those who confessed or resigned. More of them worked in Texas than in any other state.

They left behind more than 700 victims, many of them shunned by their churches, left to themselves to rebuild their lives. Some were urged to forgive their abusers or to get abortions.

About 220 offenders have been convicted or took plea deals, and dozens of cases are pending. They were pastors. Ministers. Youth pastors. Sunday school teachers. Deacons. Church volunteers.

Nearly 100 are still held in prisons stretching from Sacramento County, Calif., to Hillsborough County, Fla., state and federal records show. Scores of others cut deals and served no time. More than 100 are registered sex offenders. Some still work in Southern Baptist churches today...

And these are just the ones we know about, from 20 years or so. This is rape and sexual assault that likely had been going on for decades earlier.

For all the goddamn Christian wingnuts yelling and screaming about Muslims, the greatest threat to our families in the United States are the goddamn Christian wingnuts.

Did you catch that last bit? Some still work in Southern Baptist churches today.

Did you catch that earlier bit, where some of the victims were forced to get abortions? The Southern Baptists are one of the biggest religious groups to rail against abortion, but by God if their own should rape a woman or young girl then hey let's just make sure that medical procedure we don't talk about that it gets done in another state where nobody will find out.

Goddamned hypocrites. (Edit: I used an offensive word here earlier, I removed it for the sake of good friends)

How is this any better than what the Catholic Church has been doing for decades (if not centuries) covering up their own pedophiles and rapists? The Pope just had to come out recently and confess his church has been covering up the rape and sex slavery of nuns, on top of the recent revelations of what priests have been doing to children.

This isn't about God (other than perverting the Lord's work) this isn't about Faith (other than destroying it for thousands of victims) this is about Power, the power of institutional control that a church can grant to those in charge. This is about a blinded, lustful Patriarchy that views their flock not as followers but as the next meal.

There is no God in these churches the second their own politics demanded they protect the rapists and abusers instead of their children and victims.

To hell with these scandal-plagued institutions. For all that the laws of man have brought against them - charges and convictions and jail time - the churches themselves remain relatively unpunished, still standing, still seeking more converts and members (and victims for their abuses). Utterly convinced God has forgiven their sins as though THEY can judge their own corrupt selves.

To hell with them. We need our government to step up here. We need accountability.

These churches need to lose their tax-exempt status.

It is an argument cropping up across the world wherever these Church scandals have struck. A lot of nations grant tax-exempt status to churches out of respect to the idea that churches are charitable institutions, looking out for the well-being of their parishioners and their communities. They also do it as a sign of separation of Church and State, to avoid the political abuse of faith that history has shown doesn't end well for a lot of innocent people.

But these sex abuse revelations are exposing that concept as a lie. These churches are so horrified by exposure they've covered up, lied, betrayed victims, all because the threat of liability - of paying restitution to victims - drove them to cover up.

These churches love Money and Power more than they love God and People.

So if money is what they love(worship), that's where the punishment should be.

End their tax-exempt status.

Oh, they'll yell, they'll scream, they'll claim we're violating their First Amendment rights to free worship. Which won't be true. If they want to keep gathering and praying, they can do that. It's just they can't keep all the goddamned cash that rolls in when they do.

We have to recognize this truth: These churches that protected sexual predators and abused their own members are no longer churches. These organizations are now criminal conspiracies.

Goddamn them.