Unfortunately, It Happens In Every Religion

So, I just read an article that stated a youth pastor in Iowa has been arrested. Why, you ask? Well, he thought it was his "duty" to help them with their homosexual urges by praying with them...while he had sexual contact with them. Wait, what???? Yes, you read that correctly. This 31 year old MALE youth pastor believes that he could get rid of their homosexual urges and help them gain "sexual purity" in the eyes of The Lord, by essentially molesting them. 

 There were 8 men to come forward. At least one of the victims was 14 when this began and it lasted 4 years. That kind of sounds like an inappropriate relationship with a minor to me. 

So, here is my take. This PASTOR is the most vile, despicable form of a human being possible. To exploit their sexuality and their want for "help" for something that they felt was wrong (no doubt because they have been taught that being gay is wrong) and using that in a way that I feel was for his own twisted needs. To do that, makes me sick. I do not know the specific religion here. But it happens all the time. Mostly we hear about it with Catholicism and Altar Boys and there are tons of "jokes" about it. But it happens in EVERY religion and it isn't funny. The stories are there. You can Google them and find them out there. 

What is wrong with these people that do these sorts of things? These kids are genuinely looking for help and are time and time again betrayed by the one person they SHOULD be able to trust....and it's the ultimate betrayal. Tell me again how you, a man, can molest another male to make their sexual urges go away??? Aren't you, the Pastor, just confusing them even more....And let's talk about your own sexual orientation and urges. How's THAT working for you, hypocrite? Oh...and these aren't alleged allegations against him. He admits doing this because he thinks he was doing the kids a favor. 

And the kicker was the sentencing. He was facing 17 years in prison and he was actually sentenced to the full 17 years. But the judge then suspended the sentence opting to give him lifetime supervised probation....whatever that means. Should he violate the terms of his probation, he could serve the entire 17 year sentence. 

You can read the crap, I mean, the full story here. I should say that the sentencing was last year. The whole thing started in 2007. But it doesn't really matter when it happened. Only that it did happen. I feel bad for the victims and their families...and for anyone that may be victimized in the future that reads this story and decides not to say anything because they think it won't do any good. Because, that is exactly what will happen.