Civil Commotion

I guess money donated to church for the deserving includes pastors, too.

A Huber Heights priest who stole from his own parish will be formally sentenced Wednesday.

In March, Father Earl Simone pleaded guilty to aggravated theft. He admitted to stealing more than one million dollars from St. Peter Catholic Church in Huber Heights where he was pastor for more than two decades. Much of the money came from Sunday collections and was reportedly used to buy real estate.

And a missionary-doctor in Michigan has some explaining to do.

A former Baptist missionary doctor who allegedly molested 23 girls and women in Bangladesh in the 1970s and 1980s is now facing new allegations, Target 8 has learned.

Dr. Donn Ketcham, now 85 and living in the city of Wyoming, has never faced charges because his first alleged crimes happened in Bangladesh and happened so long ago.

A Texas pastor is accused of sexually abusing two girls, age 8-years and 10-years.

A Mansfield pastor charged with sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl at his church now faces a second charge after he was accused of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old in 2013.

Jose Luis Pizarro, 40, faces two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child. He is being held in the Tarrant County Corrections Center, with bail set at $500,000.

An Alabama church has fired its pastor because — GASP!! — he thought it would be a friendly Christian gesture to invite black children to Vacation Bible School.

This morning, I was alerted to a story that seemed to belong to another era – but sadly it happened yesterday. A young pastor in a small Southern Baptist church in small town Alabama tries to lead his church to do outreach and invite children from the community to their upcoming VBS. The church is all white and the surrounding community is mostly black. Opposition arises from church members and they tell him that they do not want to reach out to black people and invite them to church. He persists and says the gospel of Jesus Christ demands it. They tell him that if he keeps going with this, then he will be removed. He says that he will take his appeal to the church and on the next Sunday, he preaches boldly against racism and calls the church to repentance. A vote is scheduled on the future of the pastor and he is voted to be removed immediately by a unanimous vote last night. As of today, he has no job.

The details are still a bit fuzzy, and one of the deacons says race had nothing to do with it. Who knows?

I certainly have no difficulty believing it. All ‘right-minded’ southerners are Southern Baptists, and the Southern Baptist Convention undeniably fueled and sustained racism and the Jim Crow laws. Many SBC churches will not, even today, allow interracial marriages. And just one month ago a (successful) resolution discouraging display of the Confederate flag was greeted by many Baptists with rage.

I have heard from two independent sources that, at a Baptist church less than 1-mile from where I sit, an almost identical scenario played-out several years ago; that church, ironically, today has a heavily-promoted outreach to … Hispanics.

Here in the south, religion and racism go together like peanut butter and jelly.

Well.

It appears that now Satan His Very Self might be in the game.

Warzywak: Satan Behind the Never Trumpers

Rick Warzywak is the head of the Michigan chapter of the Oak Initiative, a Christian dominionist group with incredibly extreme views. He just sent out a message to all Oak Initiative members saying that Satan is behind those who refuse to support Donald Trump.

Trump seems to think that might explain a lot.

So there.

In his latest foray of insults, Mr. Trump has attacked the parents of a slain U.S. soldier. Where do we draw the line?

Secretary Clinton has issues that, depending on where one stands, can be viewed as great or small. But she stands and has stood for causes bigger than herself for a lifetime. That matters. Mrs. Clinton has promoted many of the issues I have been committed to over the years including expanding education and supporting women’s health care.

While I disagree with her on many issues, I will vote for Mrs. Clinton.

Rep. Richard Hanna (R)