Pastor Doug Wilson, pedophile Jamin Wight, and Christ Church
Jamin C. Wight and Doug Wilson
Please note: the following article was written by R. L. Stollar, of Homeschoolers Anonymous and posted here. Ryan has given me permission to cross-post it at SSB. Thanks, Ryan!
Pastor Doug Wilson Has Been Involved in Another Disturbing Pedophile Case: Jamin Wight
Content warning: sexual abuse of children, physical and sexual abuse of an animal.
Over the last few days, Doug Wilson and Christ Church have received mounting attention and criticism over the case of Steven Sitler. Sitler, a homeschool alumnus who attended New Saint Andrews College as a student and Christ Church as a parishioner, was sentenced to life on September 26, 2005 for molesting children. Sitler had a long history of sexually abusing and preying on numerous young children, allegedly including children at R.C. Sproul Jr.’s Highlands Study Center in 2003. You can read a comprehensive timeline of events and evidential documentation here, though be warned that the court documents contain detailed descriptions of child sexual abuse.
Despite Sitler’s crimes, Doug Wilson — who served as Sitler’s counselor and petitioned Sitler’s judge for “measured and limited” civil penalties — continued to welcome Sitler in his church after his sentencing. Furthermore, in spite of Wilson becoming aware of Sitler’s history of sexual predation on March 11, 2005, it was not until eight months later, in November, that Wilson informed the leaders of Christ Church about Sitler’s crimes, and not until nine months later in December that he informed the families of Christ Church in general.
On May 8, 2007, Sitler was released on probation. A mere one month later, Sitler was arrested again for violating his parole due to using binoculars to spy through an underage girl’s bedroom window. He was again released on probation. Four years later, Doug officiated a wedding between Sitler and a young woman in their community, even though the two became engaged after only their second date. Wilson apparently considered it prudent to bless the union between a serial child molester and a young woman who barely knew a serial child predator — and against the wisdom of a court judge, who determined that it would not be wise for Sitler to “reside with his wife and child in the future if in fact they have children.” Nonetheless, Sitler and his new wife became pregnant and had a child, a young boy.
Tragically, Sitler’s situation resurfaced this last week and the concerns of that judge appear newly justified. A news report by the Moscow-Pullman Daily News revealed that Sitler cannot have unchaperoned contact with his infant child. This is because of new disclosures that, when Sitler had contact with his son, “actual sexual stimulation” occurred. From the Moscow-Pullman Daily News:
A Latah County 2nd District Court judge ordered Tuesday that a convicted sex offender, Steven Sitler, must continue to have an approved chaperone present, within his direct line of sight, at all times he is around his infant child in the wake of new disclosures of “contact resulting in actual sexual stimulation.” …The incidents in question occurred while Sitler was chaperoned. “In some extent the state’s worst fears appeared to be realized by some of the recent disclosures in the polygraphs,” Thompson said. “The actions that he has engaged in and disclosed are a compelling basis that he cannot have anything close to a normal parental relationship at this time with his child,” Thompson said. “Everybody would love for Mr. Sitler to become a normal person, but the fact is he is not. He is a serial child sexual abuser.
This new information has rightly brought revived attention to the role Doug Wilson and Christ Church played in handling revelations of child molestation within their community. Everyone from GRACE’s Boz Tchividjian to Spiritual Sounding Board’s Julie Anne Smith to Love Joy Feminism’s Libby Anne has raised important points and questions concerning Wilson and Christ Church’s severe and horrific mishandling of abuse (as well as continued refusal to own up to their mistakes). However, while it is important that we revisit and bring new light to the case of Steven Sitler, it also important that we shine new light on a less-known child molester who was similarly aided and abetted by Doug Wilson, Christ Church, and New Saint Andrews College: Jamin C. Wight. This is particularly necessary because one of the Wight’s victims is now an adult and has spoken out publicly about her abuse and how cruelly Wilson and his community treated her as a victim and survivor.
Like Sitler, Jamin C. Wight was a homeschool alumnus. Wight was attending Greyfriars Hall, a ministerial training program founded by Doug Wilson that, according to the program’s website, “consists of approximately three years of study with two colloquia a year under the oversight of the board of elders of Christ Church.” Between the years of 2000 and 2003, Wight — who was 24 years old at the time — groomed and sexually abused a young girl who was only 13 years old when the abuse began. (Wight was only charged for abuse that occurred over 1 year, from 2001 to 2002, but the abuse survivor today says the abuse actually happened over a span of 3 years, from the time she was 13 until she was 16.) Like Wight, the 13 year old girl was also homeschooled. Wight was a boarder at the home where the girl lived, the home being part of Wilson’s student boarding network among Christ Church’s parishioners.
The abuse wrecked havoc on the abused girl. She began experiencing insomnia, stomach ulcers, and panic attacks; she suffered serious behavioral problems, mood swings, and painful flashbacks. In 2004, when she was 17 years old, she confided in a friend about the abuse. That friend convinced her to go to her parents and the police and press charges. This began a long and difficult process for the abuse survivor, a process which reached fruition on August 17, 2005. On that day, after receiving word of the abuse, the girl’s mother filed a criminal complaint against Wight. A warrant for Wight’s arrest was issued the next day. On August 24, 2005, a search warrant was issued the Latah County, Idaho district court for Wight’s personal possessions that provided evidence of the abuse. Court documents show that on October 28, 2005, Wight was arraigned and informed that three charges were being brought against him, one count of Sex Abuse Against a Child and two counts of Lewd Conduct With a Child Under Sixteen Years of Age. Wight pled not guilty to all three charges. Then on May 12, 2006, Wight’s charges were reduced to a Felony Offense of Injury to a Child. Wight pled guilty to that much-reduced charge and was able to made a deal such that he only had to serve 4-6 months in the North Idaho Correctional Institution.
During his court hearings, documents reveal that Wight and his legal team attempted to argue that the 13-year-old girl he had groomed and abused had consented to their sexual activities. Wight also tried to publicly make a case that a conviction for his crimes would put a damper on his plans to become a Christian youth minister. The prosecuting attorney had to file motions to prohibit both of those lines of argumentation.
Joan Opry, a Moscow, Idaho-based reporter for the digital newspaper New West, attended the sentencing hearing. Opry reports that, “The judge spoke at some length about the immaturity of many of the home-schooled young men of his professional acquaintance — men in the loosest sense of the term. Men in age only.” This remark by the judge has more chilling implications, as Wight’s victim, now an adult survivor, puts the remark in a different context:
Sadly, my story did not have a just ending. My abuser, who was originally charged on 3 counts of “child sexual abuse”, “lewd and lascivious acts”, and “forced sexual contact”, was convicted of “injury to child”- the same term that would have been used had he slapped a child on Main Street. We were encouraged to go to mediation rather than to trial, and at the last minute the visiting judge decided the sentence/label of ‘sexual offender’ was too harsh. He equated what had happened to a “homeschool teenage love affair”, despite the fact that my abuser was 10 years older than me. As a result, rather than being labeled as a sex offender (which was the only outcome I desired), his charge was lowered and he was sentenced to 4 months in Cottonwood prison and a few years on probation (which he was released from early a few months ago).
Court documents show that both Doug Wilson and Peter Leithart, New Saint Andrews College’s Dean of Graduate Studies and writer for First Things, were aware of Wight’s crimes no later than August 2005. At the time of the crimes as well as the court hearings, the victim and her family were members of Wilson’s church Christ Church and Wight was a member “in good standing” at Leithart’s church, Trinity Reformed Church. (Yes, even after Wight’s crimes were made public, Wight continued to be “in good standing” at Leithart’s church.) Yet it was not until November or December (at least two months later regarding Wight and eight months later regarding Sitler) that Wilson alerted his congregation about the predators in their midst. Furthermore, court documents also reveal that Wilson and Leithart fought to keep their conversation with Wight about his crimes out of the court records. This is perfect example of what not to do, as Boz Tchividjian points out:
A church that cares will inform its members of the allegations knowing that sexual offenders often have many victims. It will also encourage them to immediately report any suspected abuse to the police. A church that cares will not limit its efforts to only current members. It will reach out to those who previously attended the church and had interactions with the perpetrator and may have been targeted for abuse. A church that cares will not sleep until each and every person victimized by the offender has been found.
In the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)’s October 19, 2006 Intelligence Report on Doug Wilson and Steve Sitler, entitled “Idaho Pastor a Hard-Liner, With an Exception or Two,” Wight’s case makes a brief appearance. In that article, after describing Wilson’s mishandling of Sitler’s case, SPLC mentions an anonymous father and daughter and the abuse they experienced and how Wilson also mishandled their case:
Five months after Sitler’s confession, another man who had been boarded by a Christ Church family while he studied to become a minister there was arrested and ultimately pleaded guilty to lewd conduct with an underage girl. When details of the matter came up on a local blog run by a disgruntled Wilson follower, part of the pastor’s response was to liken the blogger to “a sucking chest wound.”
The father of the girl in the second incident told the Intelligence Report that church officials tried to keep that quiet as well. At one point, he said, they threatened to bring him under church discipline for failing to protect his daughter. “It would be like me getting robbed and the police coming over and arresting me because I didn’t have five locks on the door, only one,” he said. “It was just bizarre.”
After SPLC wrote about the Wight case, Wilson took to his blog one month later on September 19, 2006, to publicly attack the father of the abused child. Wilson claimed the father was “neglecting” his daughter because the father dared to make public Wilson’s mishandling of Wight’s abuse:
Let’s just say that I have never seen quite so striking an example of a father neglecting his daughter. But this is not one that you have to take my word for. Just look at the previous paragraph. This is a father who was willing to talk to Intelligence Report about this particular incident because he doesn’t believe his daughter has been through enough. And the ghouls at SPLC were willing to print it.
Fortunately, we can easily resolve this question — was the victim’s father or pastor more neglectful? — because the daughter has publicly spoken up about her abuse. And her account is chilling proof that Wilson, not her father, is the one who made truly horrific errors.
The young girl groomed and sexually abused by Jamin C. Wight is now an adult. As an adult, she began publicly blogging under the name Natalie Rose in 2010 about Wight’s abuse and Wilson’s mishandling of that abuse. Her first post was on July 29, 2010. Rose writes,
I was molested as a young teen. A man living under my parent’s roof, paying his rent by helping with the remodeling of our home, in training at Greyfriar’s Seminary to become a pastor, groomed me, sexually abused me, and molested me from the time I was 13 until I was 16 years old. He was 10 years older than me. A true monster; I was made to feel worthless, as though no one but he would ever love me… I was forced into sexual acts time and time again that no young girl should ever be subjected to.
Rose began to break free from Wight’s grip when she confided in a friend about the abuse. Rose explains that,
When I was 17 years old, a friend whom I had confided in (and who I am forever grateful to) convinced me to go to the police and press charges against my abuser. After much persuasion from her, I went to my parents and to the police.
Tragically, while Rose received the support of her family, she received little support from her pastor and church: Doug Wilson and Christ Church. In fact, the actions taken by Wilson and his church only added salt to the wound, as they chose to abandon Rose and her family and instead stand by Wight. According to Rose,
The process that followed was long, painful, traumatic and awful. During this time, I was offered little to no support from the church I attended, in fact, on the day of the sentencing my former pastor and my abuser’s pastor sat on *his* side of the courtroom, successfully compounding my own feelings of guilt and shame. I felt terribly alienated and many times regretted [ever] saying anything about the abuse. Sadly, my story did not have a just ending. My abuser, who was originally charged on 3 counts of “child sexual abuse”, “lewd and lascivious acts”, and “forced sexual contact”, was convicted of “injury to child”- the same term that would have been used had he slapped a child on Main Street. We were encouraged to go to mediation rather than to trial, and at the last-minute the visiting judge decided the sentence/label of ‘sexual offender’ was too harsh [emphasis added].
Yes, you read that right. The child abuse survivor’s pastor, Doug Wilson, sat on her abuser’s side of the courtroom during the trial. And Wight’s pastor, Peter Leithart, similarly joined the abuser’s side. I cannot think of a better example of what GRACE’s Boz Tchividjian himself experienced as a sex abuse prosector as described in Kathryn Joyce’s American Prospect article, “The Next Christian Sex-Abuse Scandal”:
“When Tchividjian requested to take on all the district’s child sex-abuse cases, the other prosecutors happily obliged. In time, he established a sex-crimes unit that handled hundreds of cases over eight years. All too often, he says, a pastor would come to court in a supportive role, almost always sitting on the perpetrator’s side of the aisle, not the victim’s. The Wisconsin case made Tchividjian think back on those pastors. He began to realize that he had a calling of his own: to teach the Protestant church to be part of the solution, instead of part of the problem.”
But Wilson, Christ Church, Leithart, and Trinity Reformed Church didn’t just sit on Wight’s side. They also allowed him to remain in good standing at and continue to attend church. This understandably forced Rose (as well as her father) to feel she had to leave. Rose tells Homeschoolers Anonymous in a comment that, “My father left the church after everything that had happened. I also left. My mother and younger sister are still active members of the Christ Church.” Despite her mother and sister staying, Rose says that she enjoys “a full and loving relationship with both of them.”
Furthermore, Wilson and Christ Church believed that Rose was just as much at fault for the sexual relationship as Wight (they believed Rose, at 13 years old, consented to the relationship). They consequently placed Rose under church discipline. Wilson emailed Rose and said he would have to withhold communion from her until she meet with the church elders to discuss why she left the church. However, as Rose tells Homeschoolers Anonymous in a comment, “I wouldn’t do so. I was so traumatized and averse to the idea of interacting with the leaders of the church I don’t even think I responded to any of his emails.”
Meanwhile, since Wight “repented,” he was welcome with open arms. Rose writes,
In the decade since Wight abused Rose, Wight has run into trouble with both his church as well as the law numerous more times. In 2013 Rose wrote that,
The criminal [Wight] is now under church discipline for abusing his wife and children. I’ve also recently found out the girl to whom he was engaged when I went to the police about the abuse (2 years after the abuse ended, right before I turned 18), was also abused by him for the duration of their relationship, which ended promptly after I went to the authorities. Who knows who else he’s abused in his life. I once watched him hold a dog by the neck and smash its head repeatedly against a concrete wall because it didn’t lie down when he commanded it. Minutes later he embraced the dog and madly licked its mouth and tongue.
Katie Botkin, cousin to Geoffrey Botkin’s famous “stay-at-home” daughters Anna Sofia and Elizabeth, also makes reference to Wight’s later crimes:
Doug Wilson’s denial of the realities that made such a situation possible [another Christian Patriarchy and homeschooling advocate, Doug Phillips, sexually assaulting his nanny, Lourdes Torres-Manteufel] only ensures that such things will continue to happen, perhaps even in his own community. They already have, of course. I’m thinking specifically of the case where a young teenage girl was molested, and Wilson saw fit to accept the abuser’s “repentance,” and refused the girl communion because, naturally, she wasn’t a victim either; she was a fornicator, and her refusal to admit to such a charge meant she was unrepentant. Unshockingly to probably everyone but Doug Wilson and those who think like him, the same abuser, who for a long time was a member in good standing at Wilson’s church, has now been charged with various domestic violence suits in Latah County, and his own children are being sheltered from him by the courts [emphasis added].
In light of these recent revelations, Rose reminds readers that these later crimes could have been prevented. If Wilson and his church had not thrown her and her family out of fellowship, if Leithart and his church had listened to her cries and warnings, these other victims could have been protected. Rose writes,
I think this might be the part where I say – I told you so. And not to the innocent individuals who trusted and were consequently in a position to be harmed by the criminal, but to those who I so desperately reached out to, those who I begged to protect others from the horrors I suffered, those who told me it was my fault for not saying no, or my father’s fault for not knowing better, or my mother’s fault for not teaching me to be more ladylike. To those who wrote letters to the judge presiding over the case heralding the character of the criminal and requesting leniency in the sentencing, to those who wrote letters on behalf of the criminal and in them criminalized a young girl, to those who welcomed the criminal back into society whilst shunning and scorning the victim, to those who found it more convenient to close their eyes to something they did not want to see rather than face the truth and take a stand, the sad fact of the matter is that you, each of you, perpetuated abuse.
It is sad, and it is a fact. Doug Wilson, Christ Church, Peter Leithart, and Trinity Reformed Church, by failing Rose and her family, perpetuated abuse — and consequently failed another woman and another family as well. While Rose cannot change what happened to herself or what happened to this other woman and her family, she hopes that by speaking up now, she can save others from future harm:
For speaking out about my abuse I’ve been told that I’m ‘hungry for drama’, ‘living in the past’, ‘sensation seeking’, and a ‘pot stirrer’. I’ll bear each of those labels if it means one hurting girl will read this blog and know that her value is greater than what she’s been made to believe by an abuser and that she, too, can speak out, or if it means that one man in a position of power will look closely at his own motives and make the changes necessary to, insomuch as he is able, ensure the safety and well-being of those who look to him for guidance.
What happened to Natalie Rose is a tragedy. And how Wilson, Leithart, and their churches responded is not only an atrocity; it’s also a sin. It is an atrocity because their response only caused a young woman more pain and trauma, and no justice. And it is a sin because Wilson, Leithart, and their churches refused to follow the path of Jesus by caring for a hurt and wounded sheep. Instead they welcomed a wolf back into their fold and slammed the door on the wolf’s victim. What this communicated to that victim, now a brave survivor, is clear. As Rose asks, “How can an army of people turn away a young girl who needs their love more than anything?”
How indeed. That is a question that Doug Wilson, Peter Leithart, and every member in their churches and communities who failed a broken young girl will have to answer before God.
To conclude, I’d like to share Natalie Rose’s courageous declaration of fearlessness and freedom. (And Natalie, if you’re reading this, know that we here at Homeschoolers Anonymous stand in solidarity with you and respect your amazing courage. You are always welcome to join the private Homeschoolers Anonymous community; just send us an email.) I hope Natalie’s courage in sharing her story can inspire other survivors to bravely speak up, too:
UPDATE, Wednesday, September 9, 2015, 1:30 pm PT:
Several corrections were made this story after Natalie Rose, the abuse survivor bravely speaking up about Jamin Wight, pointed out inaccuracies. First, we stated that that Doug Wilson and Christ Church refused communion to Rose; however, they actually withheld communion until Rose was willing to meet with the church elders, something she refused to do as a result of the traumatizing nature of the whole ordeal. Second, we stated that Rose and her family left Christ Church. This is only partially true. While Rose and her father left the church, her mother and younger sister stayed. Our story has been changed to reflect these clarifications. You can read Natalie Rose’s comment in full here. Accuracy and truth in reporting is important to us at Homeschoolers Anonymous, so we are grateful to Rose for helping us meet these standards.
Spiritual Sounding Board 
Lydia,
I think I am confused also. I don’t see a major difference between pedophiles and child molesters.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Re: The pic up top of Short Eyes #2, Jamin Wight:
I have NEVER seen such an “I WIN, You Stupid Suckers!” smirk in my life.
Except maybe my younger brother (who I am convinced from experience is a narcissist and sociopath).
THAT is the smirk of a sociopath when he is away from any witnesses except his prey and can afford to drop the Angel of Light mask.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Here are the interviews with Dr. Anna Salter from the Corrections One program called “Tier Talk”, a professional organization for those who work in prisons, about sex offenders. This Part 1 of 5 interviews about sexual predators.
LikeLike
I think we as a society need to work to harden our understanding of what childhood and adolescence really mean. I work with kids across the entire age spectrum, and I have watched countless kids grow up while I worked with them across a span of several years. Teenagers are even *less* accountable and coherent, in many respects, than preteens, elementary and preschool children, and in many ways are even more vulnerable because they are beginning to have the *appearance* of autonomy but without the requisite mental machinery.
Teenagers are rolling balls of catastrophic hormonal confusion. Watching a teenager trying to reason through their emotional turmoil is like watching a drunken squirrel attempt to carry a pineapple home. It is for that reason alone that to attempt to hold a 13-year-old girl equally responsible for the behavior of a 23-year-old depraved and perverted predator is blindly irresponsible. A 13-year-old doesn’t know which way is up. A 23-year-old pervert knows exactly what he is doing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Marsha, just musing but I wonder if our judicial system lowered the boom if that would make some churches think twice. The church tends to respond to culture either way.
Unjust judges are a real problem. But again, you see this with sex crimes a lot.
I know a female teacher, age 29, caught having sex with a 15 year old student in her car parked at a park. She was fired and the judge sentenced her to probation. She had 2 kids under 8 and her husband a doctor.
I wish our system spent the money on victims and that includes medical research. Anything to help them get strong. And fight back.
LikeLike
Interesting article by a pastor who had to turn in his own father (also a pastor) for sexual abuse at the church they have both pastored. The father is now serving a life sentence in prison.
http://wineskins.org/2014/04/08/what-place-do-pedophiles-have-in-the-church/
LikeLike
*I think we as a society need to work to harden our understanding of what childhood and adolescence really mean. ”
Bingo. Instead of spending money to study pedophile brains, study brain development more. I have read some articles on it which only made me see crimes against children more stridently. This is the sort of offense needed in court. The long term damage done. And the stealing of normal development. It really is physical abuse.
LikeLike
Lydia00: The 29 year old teacher example raises the issue of disparate sentencing of female sex offenders, as well as the question of whether the rate of female offending is increasing.
Dash: i like the drunken squirrel illustration!
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Sitler had a long history of sexually abusing and preying on numerous young children, allegedly including children at R.C. Sproul Jr.’s Highlands Study Center in 2003.”
Wow! Is this common knowledge? I don’t see how it could be. Something that big really should be. We had friends in Sproul’s church during that time and I’m 99% sure no one was told by Sproul that a paedophile had been in their midst possibly preying on their children. There had to be some kind of major cover up for this to happen, and that cover up must have come from Sproul. Sitler was prosecuted for his crimes in Idaho. Why wasn’t he ever prosecuted for molesting children in Virginia? Obviously someone would’ve had to step forward and report it to the police. Sitler molested multiple children on multiple occassions in multiple states. He needs to be in prison the rest of his life, or at least a whole lot longer than the one year he got. Not much chance of that happening if people like Sproul and Wilson cover up for Sitler and they won’t encourage (maybe they even discouraged?) their church members to file charges. I’m so disgusted right now.
LikeLike
Keith, pedophilia among women is still very rare but we are seeing a lot more cases of women molesting young teenaged boys. I don’t know whether the behavior is increasing or whether as a society we are recognizing that this behavior is damaging to boys as well as to girls and so it is just getting reported more. I think in the past, the response was more like, “Lucky guy; wish I had had a teacher like that.” I still hear men say this.
LikeLiked by 2 people
“So why are people getting upset with me when I say that pedophiles are capable of not acting on their desire for children? Aren’t we all in agreement on this?”
Marsha, I think the posters are scared of science. That’s what it gets down to. But just like alcoholics who don’t drink, there are people who are sexually attracted to children who do NOT act on their desires.
LikeLike
“Lydia,
I think I am confused also. I don’t see a major difference between pedophiles and child molesters.” pedophiles are sexually attracted to children. Child molesters are more about the power trip.
LikeLike
“Lydia00: The 29 year old teacher example raises the issue of disparate sentencing of female sex offenders, as well as the question of whether the rate of female offending is increasing.”
It seems to be increasing. I think it has a lot to do with the over sexualization of our culture. Sex is now a huge topic at church with smokin hot wives and young pastors talking about sex a lot. Then popular culture is engrossed with it and very PC. . And privacy is a thing of the past. Even your tweens doctor has to mention it on visits. And encouraged to get the vaccine.
And trust me, I think the purity culture is just as bad and creates the same problem with another method.
What can we do? Our legal system is sending a message to victims and it is not a good one.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Marsha and Lydia: Re: inconsistencies in sentences. Most states accord judges wide latitude in sentencing. The two examples you mention sound especially egregious. Are your judges elected?
The 19 and 15 year old example reminded me that in my state there was once a provision of the law whereby the Defendant was discharged from liability if he/she married his the other party. This provision was repealed several years ago, and I do not know why. it makes sense to me when the parties are close in age.
Regarding sentence range, the goals of sentencing are said to be 1) Retribution 2) Rehabilitation 3)Special deterrence (preventing this Defendant from reoffending) and 4) General Deterrence (sending a message to others who might be tempted to commit such a crime).
In practice, prior record, contrition, victim input and injury to victim have played the greatest roles in cases I have had. It also makes a big difference who the judge is, as you have illustrated. I used to wonder if judges who were weak on this type of crime had a problem believing it happens, or secretly did not think it was a big deal. Some are concerned about the so-called moral panic created by the day-care cases back in the late 80’s, wherein innocent persons were convicted.
LikeLike
” I think the posters are scared of science. ”
????
Can science tell us what difference the reasons why victims were horribly harmed, make to them? Should sentencing be different based on their “reason” for the crime?
Why can’t it just be evil?
Did you miss my comment on studying adolescent brain development for offense? I am all for science. I would love to see it used to help victims more.
LikeLike
* I think in the past, the response was more like, “Lucky guy; wish I had had a teacher like that.” I still hear men say this.*
You are right. Had she not been his teacher, you have to wonder how it would have been handled.
LikeLike
In practice, prior record, contrition, victim input and injury to victim have played the greatest roles in cases I have had.”
I want to see more resources go for victim input and injury.
LikeLike
I am not scared of science, i do fear judges being swayed away from. I fear for the victim of molestation who gets assaulted by some pervert and hangs tough through the whole process, only to have the judge give the defendant probation. It is difficult enough for these kids.
LikeLiked by 1 person
@Keith,
Hopefully the State of Idaho will change their sentencing laws. It is unconscionable that Sitler was supposed to serve a nearly life sentence for child sexual abuse of multiple children, he had sexually abused many children across the U.S., and he was let out of prison. How did this happen? What is going in in their state?
LikeLiked by 2 people
Lydia: We have jury sentencing in Virginia which means that if they find the perv guilty, a second phase of the trial occurs. At this phase we can put on the victim, victim’s family, etc. to testify to the impact of the crime on the victim. We also have better resources than we did in the 90’s, with trained interviewers at the Child Advocacy Center, and good training for judges and prosecutors. So progress has been made, but you are right, these should be the focus.
NMgirl: I meant to put in the comment above that I feared judges being swayed from justice. It has nothing to do with “fear of science”.
LikeLike
Velour: I don’t really understand the Idaho system. We do not have parole in Virginia (abolished in 1995), but it sounds like a parole-type system. I can do a little research on it if you would like.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Keith, Are your judges elected? Ours are.
LikeLike
Lydia00: Our judges are picked by the legislature. With elected judges, the people have a more direct way of addressing lenient sentencing. That being said, God has blessed us with a wonderful Circuit Court judge. I just hope she does not go up to the Court of Appeals!
LikeLike
Hi Keith,
That would be great if you could do some research on Idaho’s corrections system and share your findings with us here. (I don’t have time at the moment.) Thank you.
LikeLike
@Marsha:
It’s the Beavis & Butthead Response:
“HE SCOOOORED! HEH-HUH! HEH-HUH! HEH-HUH!”
Outside of Beavis & Butthead, you can also hear that reaction on talk radio.
LikeLike
For Lydia and Marsha
I don’t know if this is of interest to either one of you, but in the course of reading up on some topic a year or more ago, I found an article that had an interview with some person (a lady, I think) who studies pedophiles.
She found groups of adult pedophiles who admit to being attracted to children, but they say they don’t act up on it (they don’t actually molest kids).
Some of these guys are MARRIED men who have biological children of their own (whom they say they do not molest).
Some of these guys set up some web site to discuss all this, I am pretty sure. I can’t remember the name of their site, and I’m not sure I want to go do a google for it, lest all sorts of freaky nasty stuff should turn up that I really don’t want to see.
I think their site was called something akin to “Pedophiles of Valor,” “Harmless Pedophiles,” or “Pedophiles with Honor” – something about pedophiles and some word that describes that they don’t act on their impulses.
Oh yeah, years ago, there was some pedo who had a blog or site where he admitted to having sexual feelings for kids. He would post photos of kids on his site that he saw while out in public, these were kids he found “attractive” he said.
He claimed he never actually touched these kids, he just liked to snap their photos and share them on this site (these were kids fully clothed, out in public in play grounds and what not)
Parents heard of this site, raised holy hell, contacted various authorities, but the site could not be pulled, nor the guy tossed in jail because technically he was not doing anything illegal. But it was creepy as all get out.
Sorry I cannot remember the guy’s name or site. This was years ago.
LikeLike
And P.S. I read about that creepy guy’s site or blog in the news. It was being discussed in the media several years back.
LikeLike
DW, Scott Brown (NCFIC), Doug Philips (VF), Bill Gothard (ATI) and others of their ilk are posing as great teachers. They are wolves in sheep’s clothing. If your church leadership has anything to do with them I’d recommend you run for the hills. If your church is a member of the NCFIC talk with your pastor. He may not know the roots of the organization. These men are all excellent salesmen. I recently spoke with a pastor from Oregon who knew nothing of Scott Brown’s history. Trust me it is NO good. He and DW are likely friends.
LikeLiked by 1 person
TRIGGER WARNING
~~I discuss graphic details towards bottom of this post involving Crush Films (animals killed for the viewing pleasure of sexual deviants on film)~~
——-
HUG said,
Sometimes it’s dogs or dolphins.
Someone, can’t remember if it’s a lady or a guy, claimed to be having a love affair with a dolphin, said he/she had sex with a dolphin.
There was a guy (was this in Germany maybe?) who said he was in love with his German Shepherd dog and wanted to marry her, and I think he was having regular sex with this dog and was in a court case arguing he should be allowed to marry the dog.
Also very disturbing – people who get off watching living dogs, puppies, kittnes cats, mice, rabbits, and other animals being tortured and killed on video while some half dressed woman abuses the animals. These are called Crush videos.
One big case updated lately is a woman out of Texas who hacks animals to death on video while she is half nude, she cut off their paws with meat cleavers, hacked into their heads, urinated on their corpses after, she pierced out a cat’s eye with a heel on high heel shoe, she suffocated kittens to death, etc.
I think these people are just absolutely sick, so sick I cannot even put it into words, and the people who get other jollies watching, who buy this trash are just as sick.
There is a group of people who are dedicated to stopping animal crush films and video.
You can visit their site here (which usually does not feature photos of dead animals on their home page):
_STOPCRUSH.ORG International_
LikeLike
I am familiar with the site, Daisy. There is also a group of psychiatrists who have banded together to try find a preventive treatment for pedophiles. Horrified young people were coming to them for treatment and they had to idea what to do other than management. I actually heard about the group here on SBB when some guy came on to condemn the psychiatrists. He said their real agenda was to normalize and legalize child molesting which is not true. He might be a follower of Wilson who writes that therapists and secular people and just about everybody outside his church who condemns child molestation and incest have a secret agenda. We are only pretending to hate child sexual abuse to blame churches for mishandling it and to hate father predators so that later when we try to normalize it our biggest opponents (the church and fathers) will already by discredited and not be able to successfully oppose our heinous plot. Yes, he really wrote that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Marsha said,
I read in the news a few years ago a judge who blamed a rape victim for being raped.
There was something to the story about how she was wearing a fashion called “skinny jeans.”
The judge was saying he thought she must want to be raped because she was wearing those jeans, or if she had not wanted to be raped, she should have worn pants more difficult for a man to remove – or something. It was incredibly victim-blaming to an absurd degree.
You said,
Yeah, I remember reading about that in the news. It is so disgusting.
LikeLike
nmgirl said,
I’m undecided on that part of the topic, but to be fair to the 2 or 3 people in the thread who were disagreeing about the “how are pedo brains wired”, it’s not that they are afraid of science, but rather, what will happen if that science is used to defend pedophiles (if I am understanding their position correctly).
I can just see defense lawyers using the “but your honor and the jury, my client can’t help raping kids because he was born that way, go easy on him!” as a strategy that might get a reduced sentence.
I don’t think that is a baseless concern or an anti-scientific position.
LikeLike
This is what I’ve seen only rarely implemented in clubs and churches that helps to prevent child abuse. First, the organization does thorough background checks on all the staff and any volunteers who help with youth. Second, they make sure that more than one adult volunteer is with more than one child at all times. No one on one interaction in any classroom or any other setting. Third, have a protocol for reporting anything suspicious. Fourth, make sure all adult volunteers and child members are trained in these security measures (no one on one contact, etc.) Fifth, have a sign in and out system wherein the children leave with the proper persons (especially with toddlers.) None of this takes that long. I think the expense of the background checks is often an excuse not to do so. But that is a bogus excuse. Most mega churches have plenty of money to afford it. And for any poorer churches it would still be worth the investment and a good advertisement that “hey we have a church that is safe for your children.”
LikeLike
Okay, I know it’s not very Christian of me to say this, but when I thought of Doug Wilson today I thought of the They Might Be Giants song, “When Will You Did?”
LikeLike
Lydia said,
I’m over 40 and celibate, never had sex. And yes, churches are just as obsessed with sex as secular culture.
Most sermons in evangelical churches have titles such as, “How to Spice Up Your Married Sex Life.”
Like as a celibate adult I really, really need to have that shoved in my face every time I go to a church, watch Christian TV, or visit a church blog.
But Christians are constantly pontificating about and extolling the greatness of marriage ‘n’ sex.
LikeLike
Reading over kids science notes and one of the quiz questions was:
Science, Art and Religion do not contradict each other because……
?
:o)
LikeLike
Brian, Not long ago Al Mohler was playing footsy with Scott Brown to introduce FIC stuff into SBTS curricula.
LikeLike
Lydia, my old church leader came to our church from a failed church plant and began what he called (in a telephone interview on the NCFIC site) a ‘5 year deprogramming plan’. Unwittingly I warned him about Scott Brown and Doug Wilson. Re SB he told me, “He’s one of the godliest men I know”. Re DW he said, “He’s a friend of mine.” We are now gone but very hurt as he was very likable. Just like these other men.
LikeLike
In other news, Pope Forgives Molested Children
LikeLike
@David C,
Whew…the article was dated in 2002 about the then Pope. Hopefully the churches will get better about handling cases of child sexual abuse. Having the internet, Twitter, and Facebook definitely helps.
LikeLike
How sad is it that Doug Wilson’s blog actually reads like a 13-year-old page from The Onion?
I’m going to dig around on the Landover Baptist website later, I bet they have some relevant commentary as well.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Velour,
I was glad to see that you found the link to Jimmy Hinton’s story. His mother Clara Hinton also writes her story on Finding a Healing Place. Both, fight in the battle to educate the church and advocate for children to be free from pedophiles. John Hinton is a vile man and is in prison where he belongs. He went way, way out of his way to groom the parents of children so that he had access to small children, even driving 3 hours to babysit for free. The Hinton’s stories have helped me understand why others did not see my pain while being used by a pedophile. To this day John Hinton does not see where he did anything wrong.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Pope forgives molested kids.
That is about the most sickening thing he could have done. In one action, probably in front of millions, he has said that they caused what was done to them. If they needed forgiveness for any thing else, that would only come through Jesus Christ, not the pope.
LikeLike
Brenda, dear- The Onion is a satire website.
LikeLike
Dash,
Brenda, dear- The Onion is a satire website.
What am I missing?
LikeLike
Other than, my mind that is!!
LikeLike
Lydia,
You mentioned the ‘over-sexualization of our culture’ in addressing a serious problem within the church as well as what is called ‘those worldly sinners.’
We attended a bible(?) study at a local conservative church discussing the topic of marriage. In one session, we watched a video on sex with other couples and afterwards engaged in discussion. One of the key points of the video was “Sex begins in the kitchen.” Mere words cannot express how uncomfortable, how inappropriate, and how ungodly the video and the conversation that ensued afterwards, was in the presence of the other church goers. The public forum was not a place for such detailed discussion of one’s sex lives between heterosexual couple, many of who ended up separating in the following years.
We DO live and breathe in an over sexualized culture and frankly, it seems to be getting worse and will get worse before Jesus comes back again. Even in our farming publications, we have the displeasure of reading articles concerning the topic of sex, amongst of the interesting articles on machinery, equipment, farming methods, and supporting agriculture. One article in particular that I will never forget, was written by a charismatic/Pentecostal denominational woman who submits her columns from time to time discussing family life and moral issues. Some of her articles have been wonderful, but this one article lost me as a reader of her column forever, never to return.
The last article that I read from this churched woman, spoke highly of a man named Alfred Kinsey and his ‘positive research’ concerning sex. I was sick to my stomach and my heart burned with anger of days and days and what I should have done, was email her a private rebuke concerning this sick man.
Many of you know who Alfred Kinsey is, but for those of you who don’t, here are a few details of his life and the impact he/it has had on our culture.
Alfred Kinsey (1894-1956) Obtained his “PHD” from Harvard University in entomology, becoming a worldwide expert on the gall wasp. He was strongly committed to Darwinian evolution, releasing his most famous books “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male” in 1948 and “Sexual Behavior in the Human Female” in 1953. These books “claimed” to be sexual studies, however they were far from it, but instead proved to be sexual propaganda to convince our culture that sex is appropriate and acceptable, regardless of whether it is between people of the same sex, opposite sex, adults with children, or humans with animals.
Continued in next comment:
LikeLike
Alfred Kinsey continued:
Due to the aberrant details of his perverse research for they are deeply disturbing, I will not mention them here, the research is available to anyone via the internet. Use your anger barometer carefully for the articles will make the average believer in Christ fume with tears of utter disbelief and brokenness.
Kinsey was a highly educated, powerful, and well respected man within the realm of education, he wrote, “that children are born sexual but that religious tyranny suppresses their otherwise natural sexual activity. He believed that as long as a child gave “consent,” it was completely normal and healthy for adults to engage in sexual activity with children regardless of the age of a child.
Our culture, including the church system, has been soaking up the influence of this wicked man for years and years, believing the lies he researched in the name of science, junk science.
Many within our church systems, embrace and promote Kinsey and his twisted research as the topic of sex has become the worshipful master in many of the minds from pastor, leadership, to the least of the lower laity.
As our culture becomes increasingly dark, I have but one concern to ask, “Is there a difference between the church culture and all of those worldly ‘sinners’ out there concerning the perversion of sex? In all honesty, I have seen and heard (out of the heart the mouth speaks….yes, even in the area of sex, and I hate it when men in the church make sexual comments about the women there) absolutely NO DIFFERENCE between the two, for perversion in the church is at an all time high.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Katy,
I had never heard of this man, but have heard of such research. Churched or unchurched there is no difference unless the Spirit of Christ has truly entered the heart. Even then evil tries harder to get a grasp on that person. It would not surprise me at all if Alfred Kinsey’s books are not in the library’s of many Seminaries with the premise of helping a potential pastor know what they may encounter in their church one day.
In many cases it is the highly educated, powerful and well respected men that are the most twisted. All of that is so useless in the end when that man has perverted everything that God says is wrong.
LikeLike
Amen Brenda. And there is hope for the broken found only in Jesus. You are right.
LikeLike
Kinsey was a creep who engaged in shoddy scholarship to normalise his own world view. Still very influential.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t believe the allegations against Kinsey.
LikeLike
About Wilson notifying authorities of Sitler, I find this:
“On March 11, 2005, Wilson advised the victim’s family to retain longtime Christ Church attorney, Gregory Dickison, who was a member of Christ Church … to accompany them to report the crime to the authorities. (For the record, Gregory Dickison is an utterly incompetent and unethical attorney; in fact, he recently terminated his law practice to begin a career selling real estate.) Unbelievably, while the victims notified the authorities, Steven Sitler whisked his way back to Colville, WA, where his family retained NSA’s attorney, Dean Wullenwaber, who was also a member of Christ Church. (For the record, Dean Wullenwaber is one of the finest attorneys on the Palouse and certainly one of the most powerful; please see the photograph of him posing with President George Bush.) ” – http://federal-vision.blogspot.co.za/2008/03/serial-pdophile.html
Was this notifying the authorities a CYA move while Doug actually got them someone incompetent and unethical to spin the story in a way that works for DW’s agenda?
LikeLike
@Daisy:
Oh, that takes me back to some of the WEIRDER fallout from The Sixties.
Where dolphins were held up as Far Superior to Humans in Every Way and their pods as The Perfect Society. You see, dolphins didn’t invent The Bomb or draft their kids and send them to VIETNAAAAAAAM!!!!!
And the kinky sex angle: Another sign of their Moral Superiority was the news about dolphin sexual behavior: Bisexual Nymphomaniac, soon pitched as The Superior Sexual Morality. After all, dolphins were So Morally Superior to us humans…
“What a long, strange trip it’s been…”
— The Grateful Dead
LikeLike
@Daisy:
Basking in their Moral Superiority to those pedos who DO “act on their impulses” (or are just dumb enough to get caught).
Do you have Parker & Stone on speed-dial?
Because this IS South Park material!
LikeLike
Dash, you are right. But I have heard that holding teens responsible is part and parcel of this worldview.
Libby Anne, an atheist blogger who grew up as the oldest sister in a Christian™ Patriarchy home, once wrote part of the teachings her parents learned was that teenagers do not exist. The Bible does not have the word teenagers, said her parents. Teens in her home and culture were expected to act as adults, with adult responsibilities, but with the same level of obedience as was expected of little children.
(“Bible does not have the word teenagers”: scholars believe that a certain Hebrew word, present in the Bible, usually refered to people between 12 and 20 – very close to the 13-19 we called teens. Said word for young people relates to “shaken off”, and imply – unlike religious patriarchy – that this age group was being “shaken off” from parents, on their way to autonomy.)
LikeLike
I reiterate on this new page:
Regarding the pic up top of Short Eyes Jamin Wight:
Look hard at his expression.
I have NEVER seen such an “I WIN, You Stupid Suckers!” smirk in my life.
THAT is the face of a sociopath when he is out of sight of any witnesses (except maybe his prey) and can afford to drop his Angel of Light mask.
LikeLike
HUG,
I have to agree. I thought Wight was creepy from the first glance.
LikeLike
Interesting and enlightening read, “Kinsey and Our Culture,” a white paper copy by Concerned Women for America revised by Robert K. Knight, August 2004.
Also, read Robert K. Knight’s “How Alfred C. Kinsey’s Sex Studies Have Harmed Women and Children.” Knight quotes Linda Jeffries and Ronald D. Ray’s publication “A History of the American Law Institutes Model Penal Code: The Kinsey Reports’ Influence on Science-Based Legal Reform 1923-2002.
Alfred Kinsey was masterful in influencing sex education within the public school systems, and not in a godly way. He also personally worked to reduce penalties for sex offenders. With Columbia University law professor Herbert Wechsler, he promoted the American Law Institute’s Model Penal Code (1955). States cite this code, mostly based on Kinsey’s sex work, as the blueprint to ease penalties for sex offenses, resulting in less protection for women and children from sexual predators.
Sorry to offend anyone here, as I DO believe the allegations against Kinsey to be the absolute truth here in the public forum.
LikeLike
Katy: Thanks for posting that re: Kinsey. The critics of David Barton in the field of history should take a look at Kinsey. Who were his subjects? Certainly not a representative group. Kinsey, a zoologist, picked his subjects from those who were definitely not the norm . Also, he apparently collaborated with child molesters to obtain some of his data. Judith Reisman wrote a book about this “scholar” and his questionable actions. And lest she be dismissed as a right-wing nut, look at his contemporary critics, including Maragaret Mead, Eric Fromm, Karl Menninger etc.
He was also the source of the thoroughly debunked 10% myth regarding the prevalence of homosexuality. Yet he is one of recent history’s “winners”, as his influence has created huge changes of public policy and opinion.
LikeLike
The criticisms of Margaret Mead and others are methodological and acknowledged by Kinsey himself and are not the same as those of Reisman whom I consider to be a right wing fruitcake who cannot get any of her work published in peer reviewed academic journals. All the current critics are far right wing.
Some of the legal changes since Kinsey’s time include the decriminalization of sexual behavior between same sex consenting adults and the repeal of laws forbidding birth control devices, both of which I am happy about.
I am pretty sure I have already addressed this issue before on this site and I am too tired to do it again after yesterday. I just want to go on record that there is another side to this issue.
LikeLike
“The criticisms of Margaret Mead and others are methodological and acknowledged by Kinsey himself and are not the same as those of Reisman whom I consider to be a right wing fruitcake who cannot get any of her work published in peer reviewed academic journals. All the current critics are far right wing.”
Maybe all the academic “peers” to review her are from the loony left? :o) It is not unheard of, actually. It must be quite the honor to be “acknowledged” by Kinsey himself?
LikeLike
Here we go. I wrote that the criticisms were acknowledged by Kinsey himself, not that he acknowledged the critics and that was some kind of an honor. If you are going to ask people to let you interview them about their sexual behavior in the 1940’s, your sample is going to be skewed towards people who are more comfortable talking about sex, people with a higher education, and probably the more sexually adventuresome. That doesn’t mean that the research wasn’t worth doing. You can’t make people respond to you (but at least he was able to get thousands if responses). All you can do is make clear the limitations of your work which both Kinsey and critics like Mead did. In the case of Kinsey, gays were over represented in his sample, 10 percent instead of the 1-4 percent that more modern studies are finding.
Today, there are better technologies and survey methods to allow you to get much closer to a random sample of the general population. (Of course it will still be skewed in that the homeless and the poor and non-English speakers will be underrepresented). You also get fewer refusals when people are contacted about any subject. You can pretty closely predict the Presidential vote by surveying a sample of 1400 people around the country close to the election, for example.
If believe that there is no academic journal that is not loony and left, well you agree with Reisman that that is why she can’t get published.
LikeLike
Douglas Wilson Mod John McNeely • 2 hours ago
http://dougwils.com/s7-engaging-the-culture/the-only-kind-of-gospel-there-is.html#disqus_thread
“John, the reason I referred to the Texas father was precisely in order to not gloss over the horror of what Steven had done.
I don’t think that I did sit on Jamin’s side of the courtroom. People say that, but I don’t think it is accurate. I didn’t create the system that led to her victimization. That is false.
And I have said elsewhere in the comments that I would be happy to explain why we said that to Gary Greenfield in that letter, but only if the relevant parties gave me to permission to do so. Natalie commented that this is not going to happen. And so I will continue to be silent on that topic for their sake.”
I was in the courtroom with a friend the afternoon of Jamin’s sentencing. I saw Doug Wilson there and he was indeed sitting of the defense “side” of the courtroom.
LikeLike
Thank you, Rose.
LikeLike
I’ll add my thanks to Julie Anne’s, Rose. We appreciate your keeping us up to date on what happened in this despicable, EVIL, felonious cases of child sexual abuse.
Here’s hoping that church and Christian college get sued. Ditto for the pastors/elders’ negligent acts if they can be enjoined in litigation.
LikeLike