Hollywood and Baptistland

On the October 3rd broadcast of “Richard Land Live!” the Southern Baptist Convention’s top-dog ethicist had a lot to say about how some Hollywood celebrities are urging leniency for film director Roman Polanski, who was convicted on child sex charges 30 years ago.

This is a man -- Richard Land -- who wouldn’t even shake my hand.

Land’s official title is President of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. With a title like that, I imagined that Land might be the right person to try to talk to about child sex abuse and cover-ups among Southern Baptist clergy. So I wrote to him, and then at Southern Baptist headquarters in Nashville, I stepped forward and extended my hand.

“Dr. Land, I’m Christa Brown. I work with SNAP and….” Before I could even finish my sentence, he had turned away.

So I listened in wonder as Land seemed to express such outrage over “Hollywood elites.” Where was his voice of outrage about the Southern Baptist minister who repeatedly molested and raped me when I was an underage church-girl? Where was his outrage about the music minister who knew about it, then and now, and called it “consensual”? Where was his outrage about Texas Baptist officials who put my perpetrator’s name in a secret file of “known offenders,” but then kept quiet about it while the man continued to work in children’s ministry? Where was his outrage about the 18 Baptist leaders who were informed about my substantiated report of clergy abuse and did nothing?

And where was Land’s outrage about prominent Southern Baptist pastor, Steve Gaines, who kept quiet about a minister’s admission to sexually abusing his young son? Gaines said it was “under the blood.”

And where was Land’s outrage about a former California Southern Baptist Convention president who claimed he “erred on the side of grace” when he kept quiet about a deacon’s molestation of children in his church?

And where was Land’s outrage about a Southern Baptist children’s home director who urged no prison time for a prominent Southern Baptist pastor who had been convicted of sexually abusing teen church girls?

And where was Land’s outrage about a former Arkansas Baptist State Convention president who urged leniency and no prison time for a prominent Southern Baptist minister who sexually abused dozens of adolescent church-boys?

And where was Land’s outrage about the many good Baptist people of Benton, Arkansas, who recently begged the court to give convicted minister David Pierce probation, citing Pierce’s good deeds and saying it was punishment enough for Pierce to lose his livelihood and reputation?

All these stories and more ran through my mind as I listened to Richard Land rail about the “Hollywood elites.” Did he imagine that child sex abuse was somehow less heinous if the perpetrators subdued their prey with Bible verses? Or was Land’s silence based on the simple fact that the people in these stories carried the “Baptist” name, instead of the “Hollywood” name?

That’s when I realized that you could take Land’s own words, and they would be equally applicable to Southern Baptists. Read the excerpts below. Then read my version that follows. I’ve highlighted the places where I made changes. For example, whenever Land says “Hollywood,” I say “Baptistland.”

Richard Land’s words:

“There are sometimes stories that in and of themselves don't take on a great deal of significance, but when they are seen as symptoms of a serious problem in society or in certain segments of society, they rise to the level of becoming symbolic. I think we had an example of that this week, and that was with the arrest in Switzerland of Roman Polanski. . . .

The Hollywood community has lived in its own sexual cesspool so long that it no longer has any understanding of the enormity of the crimes that Roman Polanski committed.

Maybe we have been misjudging these Hollywood producers and directors. . . . Maybe they're just reflecting their own sexual paganism. Maybe they think this is normal. . . .

What this has revealed is the total demagnetization of the moral compass of the Hollywood elite. . . .

How can liberals defend such heinous actions? How can they simply look the other way . . . . For one, they believe the pervert . . . . He says that the encounter was consensual. Just for the sake of argument for a moment, let's say he is telling the truth. . . the act was still illegal. . . . But many liberals scoff at age of consent laws . . . . Let's remember that the next time some liberal spouts off about some program designed to protect children. . . .

These people are moral pygmies. . . .

Just because a person is a talented artist doesn't mean they have any sense whatsoever. . . .

Why did so many of Mr. Polanski's artistic peers rush to defend him? …. I think it has more to do with the rich and famous having lots of skeletons in their own closets, and they want a bypass for artists. . . .

I do think there is a lot of elitism involved in this whole Roman Polanski case. I think that basically the elite -- not just the artistic elites but the cultural and political elites -- think that they are different and they are entitled to a different standard of justice.”
____________

My modified version of Land’s words:

There are sometimes stories that in and of themselves don't take on a great deal of significance, but when they are seen as symptoms of a serious problem in society or in certain segments of society, they rise to the level of becoming symbolic. I think we had an example of that this week, and that was with the conviction in Arkansas of Southern Baptist minister David Pierce. . . .

The Baptistland community has lived in its own sexual cesspool so long that it no longer has any understanding of the enormity of the crimes that David Pierce committed. . . .

Maybe we have been misjudging these Baptistland ministers and leaders. . . . Maybe they're just reflecting their own sexual paganism. Maybe they think this is normal. . . .

What this has revealed is the total demagnetization of the moral compass of the Baptistland elite. . . .

How can Baptist leaders defend such heinous actions? How can they simply look the other way . . . . For one, they believe the pervert . . . . He says that the encounter was consensual. Just for the sake of argument for a moment, let's say he is telling the truth . . . the act was still illegal. . . . But many Baptist leaders scoff at age of consent laws . . . . Let's remember that the next time some Baptist leader spouts off about some program designed to protect children. . . .

These people are moral pygmies. . . .

Just because a person is a talented preacher doesn't mean they have any sense whatsoever. . . .

Why did so many of Mr. Pierce’s Baptist peers rush to defend him? …. I think it has more to do with Baptist ministers having lots of skeletons in their own closets, and they want a bypass for Baptist ministers. . . .

I do think there is a lot of elitism involved in this whole David Pierce case. I think that basically the elite – the Baptist elite -- think that they are different and they are entitled to a different standard of justice.