Who Would Jesus Molest?

Part nine zillion in an ongoing series, unfortunately…with the Southern Baptists gettin' all Catholic and shit:

Pastor Paul Williams, who directs prayer programs and special projects at the Bellevue Baptist Church outside of Memphis, has been forced to take a leave while a church committee investigates charges that Williams sexually molested a family member 17 years ago. Williams has been at Bellevue for 34 years, reports Agape Press, a news service run by the American Family Association.

In a statement issued by the church and obtained by PageOneQ, the church's personnel committee says that Williams has taken a paid leave of absence in the wake of "a past, but highly concerning moral failure."

That's certainly one way of describing it. Maybe Pastor Williams can arrange to share a cell with Lou Beres, and they can wax nostalgic about what an awesome religious experience it is to molest family members. Scumbags.

The head pastor of the church, Dr. Steven Gaines, learned of the allegations in June, but didn't do jack about it, because "he thought the issue had been resolved" and, besides, "the event occurred many years ago." Apparently, the church placed Williams "in a counseling program," which I'd bet my last red cent is about as effective as the degayification programs for forcibly-outed godbotherers, where they wave chicken bones over your big gay head and pray to Foghorn Leghorn to excise your dirty, dirty cocksucking urge. Or something.

Of course, while there's no imperative for Gay-Away Camp to work, and its failure is the source of much amusement to those of us who don't think being gay is wrong in the first place, the same cannot be said for faith-based pedophile counseling. It's all just many shades o' deviance (or, "highly concerning moral failures") to Gaines et. al., who conveniently ignore, as ever, the little concept called consent that separates what any two adults do and what an incestuous molesting freak does with a child. And I truly despair that their continual charges that extending equal rights to the LGBT community will ultimately "normalize" dangerous, non-consensual sexual deviance is actually just more of that infamous fundie projection. It's not the rest of us who shrug at pederasty as if it's "no worse" than homosexuality. We know there is a discernible and very important difference; I'm not sure they can honestly say the same.

(Thanks to Constant Comment for passing that one along.)