The sex scandal in religious circles are as synonymous as violence in pro-football. Just when you think the religious figures begin to settle down, out comes another scandal. Now you can see my reluctance in becoming a full-time minister. I just don't want to get caught up in anything controversial. I know I'm going to have sex when I want it with whom I want it with, and I refuse to apologize when I get it. The very first time I traveled outside the United States, it was with The Salvation Army which was a Christian organization, so I left my royal oats in the sack, and I regret that decision to this very day.
First of all, these two recent high profile sex scandals bored me to tears. Sorry, but there are other worthy news items worth discussing about other than who got caught stalking who. Seriously, there was a high scale corruption case that drew a million protesters out in Kuala Lumpor Malaysia last week and it got little attention from the mediots. Instead it was all about Ashley Madison leaked passwords, Josh Duggar, Subway Sandwiches, and Jared Fogle.
Doesn't the media have more important things to inform the public about?
You have two public self proclaimed "do-gooders" who got caught up in a scandal...actually more than one scandal. For some reason, people love to see a sexual downfall of self professed religious figures. It's like rubbernecking on the freeway during an auto accident. They don't give a shit about whether or not the drivers behind them need to be somewhere, their nosyness is more important.
Likewise, the selfish extreme vengeful activists didn't give a crap other than hurting those who spoke against equal opportunity for marriage. They didn't care about the victims of the sexual crime; they were outed. In the case of Duggar, it was his own sisters. So sexual victims rights took about a step or two backwards because of these self-centered extreme activists who were determined to take out the Duggars just because of the family's beliefs as conservative Christians. That's straight up hypocrisy. Its no better than the Conservatives. When you become so determined in taking out someone who disagrees with you to the point that you victimize others besides your intended target, you set the entire group you're advocating for back because of your selfish behavior, which meant that they inadvertently took about 2-3 steps back on behalf of the LGBT community. You don't publicize the identity of anyone who's been sexually violated, especially if they were underdaged at that time. So they believe that the LGBT lifestyle is "sinful" and "wrong." Does that make it right to out a sexually violated victim? It's wrong on so many fronts. It's a step back on bridging the LGBT community with the conservative religious community, and at this point this episode demonstrates that I shouldn't expect any bridge to be built between these two groups anytime soon. It's a step back on victims rights. And here's the big kicker to all of this: those responsible for leaking out the information may or may not have been members of the LGBT community. They simply leaked the information out just to exploit the Duggars sexual dirt.
Jared Fogle set up a children's charity organization to pretty up his image. He had ulterior motives. So he had the hots for underaged females, and he used his organization as a front to find them. OK. And how was this different from the first church I ever attended?
I was "introduced to Jesus Christ" at a Chinese community church based out of Oakland California. It was headed by a non-Chinese pastor who "felt led to save the Chinese 'HEATHENS.'" I wish I was exaggerating, but unfortunately I'm not. This was a church who utilized "Chinese" on their name, but culture-shamed the community they outreached to. If you attended their church activities for a certain period of time and become absent, someone will be ringing your doorbell from the church, armed with their Bible and with ready to refer to verses to convict you of your "wayward ways."
Eventually this church started a private K-12 Christian school back in the 1970-80s, which still "serves" the Chinese community in the East Bay, but they expanded and moved out of Oakland into one of the East Bay suburbs. All the while, this pastor was "counseling" specific students. He also had the following criteria of those he "counseled:"
1) Female student of the school grade 8-12
2) Parents were immigrants with limited English skills.
3) History of family brokenness such as alcoholism/addiction, ect. amongst the parents.
4) Were also consistent attenders/ preferably full time members of the church
5) Were considered "disciplinary challenged" female students either in school and/or church.
For those of you too dense to "get it," when I say this pastor "counseled" these troubled female students, I meant that he flat out sexually violated them.
In other words, this pastor had a very comfy cushy operation going on there. Even if the girls could've and would've spoken up, (and in the beginning some attempted to) the power structure he created kept his victims at bay. And it was indeed a power structure he took advantage of. He shamed his church of their Chinese heritage so much, they worshiped this guy even to the point of raising money to buy him a car. He was a "can do no wrong" in the eyes of his congregants. Calling him out would've been viewed as a sin by that community. He targeted his victims well because of the reputation of both the student and their families. Their word against his.
Basically Jared Fogle could've taken advice from this pastor. Bear in mind there was no social media during the time the pastor took advantage of those young ladies. This was during the 1980s and 90s, where Asian culture, specifically patriarchal Chinese culture was combined with this conservative independent baptist culture; therefore it wasn't conducive to come forward. Those women basically had nowhere to go. If the situation sounds eerily similar to the situation of the Cosby victims, well yes it's a combination of the power structure and the (lack of) technology and communication resources available then.
So for those who did came forward about the situation, how do you think it was handled? It was handled initially in a very similar way as the Duggars situation. No, not the recent Ashley Madison, but the other situation within the Duggar family. You see, this was a church who also advocated Institute of Basic Life Principles like the Duggars, so the solution to the situation were handled similarly. It was a "God will deliver a solution" to all of this. Even though I don't mention nor identify the church directly, no matter how much you'd "Google" this situation, you will never see any news item on it even though it actually happened and the church is still one of the most prominent Chinese community churches in the San Francisco East Bay Area. The most they did was remove him as pastor after all the damage was done.
I know, I'm an IBLP "alumni." In fact while re-auditing the IBLP seminar 20 years ago, I ran into one of the pastor's past victim. She was taking the courses in order to "heal" her life. So it doesn't surprise me at all that the Duggar family handled their situation the way they did initially. The way IBLP is structured and what it teaches, there's a method to the madness in how to handle every situation. Everything is a "sin" problem, so what does the Bible say about handling "sin?" Confession and forgiveness. Here's the catch: according to the IBLP, not forgiving is also a "sin." So if a Duggar or a pastor or a Fogle "confesses," the person whom they violated, if they too are part of that community or circle, must "forgive" that confessor, otherwise their "sin" of not forgiving is considered to be as bad as the "sin" the confessor confessed. Got all of that? So that's why the Duggar sisters want to move on, and that's why Josh's wife will remain his wife.
As for that Fogle dude...
I guess he should've became a Christian pastor to a community of color where English is a second language; then he could've enjoyed his perversity a little while longer before getting caught.***
***-Please note sarcasm...
As for that church, one of the aftermath footnote about it was the fact that the community was so cultured-shamed to the point that when the replacement pastor was Asian descent like the congregation members, a portion of the church split to find a "more qualified shepherd," to pastor their group. What was the "more qualified?" NOT being Asian.
