Youth pastor had sex with boys because it was his pastoral duty
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It is important to keep people informed about what goes on in their world, and we try to do that. The fact that we report abuse by clergy and other religious types doesn’t mean we are anti-Christian. The fact that we report terrorist attacks by Muslims doesn’t mean we are anti-Muslim.
While both acts are heinous the sexual abuse of boys by some members of the Christian clergy strikes close to home for hundreds of thousands of people. It happens on a regular basis, in communities all over the country. These are not isolated incidents. On the contrary they appear to be relatively common as it is a rare week that passes when there isn’t something in the news about Christians molesting the children that they have been trusted to protect.
I suspect it safe to say that most of us in America learned a little something about prejudice and stereotypes in school. We know it’s wrong to misrepresent whole groups of people by highlighting only the worst behavior amongst them. Anyone can easily “prove” their religion, ideology, or culture is the most supreme by cherry-picking the worst examples of their opponents and “comparing” it to their highest ideals. Stereotyping, quite frankly, is cheating in the discipline of comparative religion/ideology/culture. What is presented in these pages reflects the news not a prejudice or particular dislike for any religion.
A former youth pastor in Council Bluffs, Iowa, says he had sex with teenage boys because it was his pastoral duty “to help (the teen) with homosexual urges by praying while he had sexual contact with him.”
Here’s the story:
Earlier this month, Brent Girouex, 31, was arrested on 60 counts of suspicion of sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist, reported The Daily Nonpareil…
Court documents indicated Girouex told investigators the most sexual contact he had was with one teen over a four-year period, starting when the boy was 14 years old. Calling the contact “mutual,” he said it had occurred between “25 and 50 times” during that period…
“When they would ejaculate, they would be getting rid of the evil thoughts in their mind,” Girouex allegedly told detectives.
Truly a bizarre, counter-intuitive, and horribly disturbing account of a Christian leader exploiting his position of authority and trust to sexually gratify himself at the expense of innocent minors. This is certainly not the first time a priest or minister has abused children and it certainly won’t be the last.
Thanks to LoonWatch for parts of this story.
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Ruin a child’s life…get a slap on the wrist…if you’re caught! 25 years in jail…with toughened criminals is too good for these pedophile priests!
Anti-Religion is a good thing. Mind you my Auntie Jane was quite a good thing too…she once hit a vicar with her walking stick. No real reason. She just had no truck with religion.
LOL! For some reason I believe this story 🙂
In our county alone there were two incidents reported to the police last week of abuse by a local reverend. Three weeks ago a priest was investigated for a similar incident, and in February a christian camp counselor was indicted for molesting three boys. So I don’t know if that would qualify as “common” from a global perspective but it sure would where I live.
” These are not isolated incidents. On the contrary they appear to be relatively common as it is a rare week that passes when there isn’t something in the news about Christians molesting the children that they have been trusted to protect.”
Really? Is that statement really accurate? There are thousands of congregations and “youth pastors” across the nation. I wonder what percentage of them have incidents like this. Greater than the norm? Less than? Equal too? I’d like to see some information backing up these claims.
I’m no apologist for christian fundies. I find them nauseating at best, but I also don’t agree with sensationalism and fabricated crisis on any side.
Also, if we’re going to condemn these people and/or discuss such matters how can we ignore the toll on our society that sexual repression causes us to pay? All this religious bullshit around sexuality is but a symptom of repression and oppression on a number of levels. When people are not free to be who they are in an open and accepting society, things get twisted around in people’s head and people get hurt.