General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSome Christians are just plain assholes.
Christian Teacher, Keen on Spreading Bible Stories, Found Hundreds of Impoverished Kids to Rape
by Terry Firma
A Christian schoolteacher from England, Richard Huckle, can no longer prey on vulnerable, impoverished children in Malaysia and Cambodia. The 30-year-old serial pedophile, who was arrested in 2014 after eight years of frequent sexual assaults on children as young as six months, received 22 life sentences from a British court yesterday.
http://links.patheos.mkt5005.com/ctt?kn=46&ms=NTE1NTE2NTES1&r=MTE4MTY1MzAzMTE5S0&b=0&j=OTQwOTY3MDYyS0&mt=2&rj=OTQwOTY3MDYyS0&rt=0
The Producers of Gods Not Dead Just Got Hit With a $100 Million Copyright Lawsuit
by Hemant Mehta
A new lawsuit claims that the producers of God's Not Dead (the original one with Kevin Sorbo playing the atheist philosophy professor) stole the idea for the film from two people who were never given credit or cash for their contributions.The copyright claim, filed yesterday in a California federal court, states that screenwriter Kelly Kullberg and producer/director Michael Landon, Jr. developed the story (called "Rise" that was later used as the basis for God's Not Dead, the Christian film that grossed an astonishing $140 million and spawned a sequel.The plaintiffs are asking for $100 million in relief.
http://links.patheos.mkt5005.com/ctt?kn=78&ms=NTE1NTE2NTES1&r=MTE4MTY1MzAzMTE5S0&b=0&j=OTQwOTY3MDYyS0&mt=2&rj=OTQwOTY3MDYyS0&rt=0
TipTok
(2,474 posts)It almost makes you wish for a hell but then you realize that he could pump out an "I'm sorry" in his last moments or even shortly after his final rape and head right on up to the pearly gates.
Never mind...
Initech
(100,068 posts)Hekate
(90,667 posts)...which is somewhat different.
I say he was posing as a human being.
The guy needs to be put away forever. I read he was given 22 life sentences, so it looks like someone agrees with me.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,311 posts)before he started abusing children. If he'd done nothing as a Christian in the UK, and then turned up in Malaysia saying "I'm a Christian, trust me", that might be one thing, but:
Reverend Rob Sylvester told The Herald Huckle was a regular member of the congregation but only a "peripheral figure" and "never in a position to harm anyone".
http://www.folkestoneherald.co.uk/Richard-Huckle-s-church-minister-reveals/story-29352228-detail/story.html
He used his links to a Christian church in north London and Station Road Baptist Church in Ashford, Kent as a "gateway" to abusing children in Malaysia.
His offending escalated the following year when he took up a volunteer teaching post in Kuala Lumpur, and he eventually moved out there in 2010 to study IT and work as a freelance photographer.
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/prolific-paedophile-richard-huckle-facing-life-in-prison-for-raping-and-abusing-dozens-of-children-a3261446.html
FrodosPet
(5,169 posts)If you do something bad, you are not really a Muslim. Regardless of whether you self identify as Muslim, go to worship services, and follow sharia as you understand it... if you are a bad person, you are not a true Muslim.
OTOH, even if someone identifies his religion as Odinism, and says that he "is not, and has never been a Christian" and there are few things in the world more "pathetic" than "the Jesus-figure and his message", they are still a Christian.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Behring_Breivik#Religious_and_political_views
Hekate
(90,667 posts)The article I read was quite brief, but certainly had all the elements of his crimes, which were heinous and could break the hardest hear -- as I inferred from his 22 life sentences.
Whatever he was or thought he was or presented himself as hardly matters: he preyed on children as young as babies too young to crawl. It's cases like this that make me reconsider the death penalty: send this guy straight to the Hell he professed to believe in on Sundays. In an Earthly prison I am sure he will be a model prisoner and eventually might be able to pose as "reformed" and "repentant."
The OP here caught my eye, though, by tarring all Christians as assholes. Sometimes I react to that like a hook, especially when I've just read a brief essay (not this site, believe me) from someone who said they were an agnostic but whined on about being invited to his/her sister's renewal of vows with her husband, which would be >gasp and horrors< in a church, and the author was certain this was a manipulative plot to get him/her back in the fold. Some agnostics are just plain assholes. Some percentage of any category of human beings are just plain assholes.
I should have just plain let the OP ride.
whatthehey
(3,660 posts)DU still assumes universals?
yellowcanine
(35,699 posts)Holy moly. Crap like this almost convinces me we should have a death penalty for individuals who would do this.
Warpy
(111,254 posts)because nothing makes them appear above suspicion like being pillars of the church and arch conservatives. The ruses work and they're usually caught only after decades of viciousness toward women and/or children.
jmowreader
(50,557 posts)The plaintiffs don't have a case - there are many stories of this kind in the Christian literature, including a Chick tract.
backscatter712
(26,355 posts)Huckle is probably one of the worst child predators to walk the face of the earth. Raping babies, and making manuals on how to be a better child molester. Just for him, the UK should bring back the punishment of being hung, drawn and quartered.
bobthedrummer
(26,083 posts)are going to be under the gun of the new policies come 6-16. Thank GOD!