I gotta tell you. This is the sort of thing that drives me nuts. So I’m just gonna go ahead and rant a bit.
The headline in The Daily Home of Alabama said this: “Pell City man pleads guilty to sexual abuse.”
But here’s the thing . . . this “man” who pled guilty to sexual abuse wasn’t just any man in town. This “man” who pled guilty to sexual abuse was a Southern Baptist minister at the Eden Westside Baptist Church in Pell City. It’s a church that claims 1,702 in membership and has an average attendance of 750.
In Pell City, Alabama, that probably makes it a pretty prominent church.
And one of their ministers, Gregory Lee Bowman, just pled guilty to sexually abusing a 14-year-old kid.
And the newspaper reports it as “man pleads guilty.”
If that were a Catholic priest, do you think the headline would have been “man pleads guilty”?
I think it would have been “priest pleads guilty.”
So here in the South, why is it so often glossed over when the “man” is actually a Southern Baptist minister?
You tell me.
I’ve seen this sort of low-profile news coverage of Baptist clergy abuse cases over and over again. And frankly, it makes me angry.
At least The Daily Home mentioned in the body of the article that the “man” was a minister. I’ve seen news reports that didn’t mention it at all -- as though the “man” were just some ordinary guy off the street.
Yet, when the “man” who abuses a kid is a minister in a Baptist church, it is news that deserves to get the attention of people in the community.
It is news that deserves a headline with something more than “man.”
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
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4 comments:
I agree 100%.
What happens in the South is everyone thinks these kind of things concerning issues like this is "of the devil" and that these men have just made a mistake.
These newspapers and their writers are so brainwashed with the..... "Oh, you do not speak that of a "man of God" mentality that they feel guilty for reporting such incidents. He probably was a fixture within the community and had Deacons keep it hidden from the membership too.
Like everything else, he has been doing this for a while, but just now got caught.
Wonder what was on his computer history folder?
Wonder if his accuser would have been thrown out of his church?
Put him on that list.......
HI Christa -- and what a shock really to open your blog and read this story from my home town of Pell City Alabama! Well the shock really wore off quickly as I read the story and the pitiful sentence he received -- 6 months!! The church never made an official statement regarding this incident of sexual abuse by one of their minister!?! WTF? I'm angry about this because ONE incredible, amazing kid has the COURAGE to speak and not one of the pastors of this church could publicly say "I'm sorry this happened to you, and we are..." But on his Pastor's page, he's drowning/swimming in the bliss of his own love & devotion to Jesus.
I'm sorry, but it is a strange church whose main ministry appearing on it's webpage is a GYM!
Really... pics of workout equipment encouraging development of their abs! It sure looks like it is the pastors/deacons desires to see the gleeming hard bodies of it's fine young men and women up close and personal in this so-called "church".
Dear Folks of Pell City, this is not a one time, single incident. Bowman is a sexual predator and there are more victims of his out there I assure you.
"I'm angry about this because ONE incredible, amazing kid has the COURAGE to speak and not one of the pastors of this church could publicly say 'I'm sorry....'"
Yep... an incredible, amazing and courageous kid . . . and the pastor, ministers and deacons are cowards.
Every single minister in this church is corrupt and are cowards. Also this church is mostly based on money. Their salaries are so high you would think they were covered in gold them shelves. Anyone who would send their child to their "gym" is putting that child in danger. There is a huge cover up going on here. It is also rumored that there are high powered Satanists that have infiltrated this church to work in children's ministries. Beware! Beware! My friends. Stay away.
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