Five Christian Athletes Face Felony Charges After Allegedly Sodomizing Student

[trotsky]

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2017/09/19/five-christian-athletes-face-felony-charges-after-allegedly-sodomizing-student/

Wheaton College, the evangelical school in Illinois, will expel you if you have pre-marital sex with your long-time partner.

They will kick you out if you’re in a committed same-sex relationship.

You’re not allowed to watch porn.

...

But apparently, administrators at the school take their sweet time expelling students when it comes to football players who allegedly kidnap a freshman, sodomize him, leave him in an empty field to fend for himself, all while pretending to be Muslim terrorists.

Shocking story, not just for the victim, but for the school administrators who sat on this for a year and did nothing.

[nycbos]

1. Well I am not shocked.

People who lecture and preach about religion and morality usually don't live up to the standards themselves.


It is sickening but not shocking.

[trotsky]

2. And how they prioritize certain "infractions" over others.

Consensual sex with another adult? EXPELLED.

Raping a fellow student? Community service.

Insane.

[nycbos]

3. Well they are athletes that makes them above the law.

I am huge pro sports fan. Being from New York City college sports isn't a big deal.

If a player one of the teams i root for did something like this I would want to see both the police and the team take action.

[niyad]

4. sadly, this surprises NONE of us.

when I was in high school, a friend was applying to a reichwing college. she showed me the application, which included a demand that she provide them with her menstrual cycle information. she wanted to know what I thought--I told her she would be nuts to go there.

[3catwoman3]

16. I hope she...

...listened to you. To hell with THAT kind of a demand.

[niyad]

36. she did indeed.

[vlyons]

5. I really don't know what to say

I'm 70 years old. I lived in SF for 11 years, and when it comes to sex, there is nothing that I haven't done, haven't seen, haven't read about, or haven't heard about. Nothing about sex freaks me out, except violence and cruelty. I can only assume that those athelets have mindsets that see sex as dirty and have lots and lots and lots of body shame. I also assume that a few of them, if not all, have secret homosexual desires that are hidden way way back in a dark dark closet.

Do we know if the victim brought sexual assault charges?

Now for the millioneth time -- REPRESSION DOES NOT WORK!!!

[Act_of_Reparation]

7. I doubt very much this has anything to do with repressed homosexuality.

Some people derive sexual pleasure from dominating and humiliating others. Sadism seems a more apt culprit here.

Religion factors here because of its abject moral ineptitude. Any sensible person would conclude that, in the grand scheme of things, kidnapping and raping a young person is a severe crime worthy of a severe punishment. Whatever one thinks of pornography or extramarital sex, no way in hell does it rate anywhere near the aforementioned offense. And yet when given the opportunity to adjudicate these issues, the clergy -- God's own moral hall monitors -- trip over their dicks in the most spectacular fashion.

[delisen]

6. Wheaton graduates: Denny Hastert & Billy Graham

Billy Graham is on tape in the Nixon White House making anti-semitic comments while advising the president in the Oval Office.

Denny Hastert former Republican Speaker of House and Christian youth leader convicted on abuse-related charges.

Sex-obsession and Organized Religion.

[bobbieinok]

9. Wasn't Billy G a grad of Bob Jones?

[delisen]

10. I think he graduated from Wheaton in 1943 with an

anthropology degree. It is where he met his future wife.

[chaplain_M]

21. If he has a future wife...

...he'd better marry soon.

[delisen]

24. I guess I should have omitted the "future"

or wrote Ruth Bell Graham, and respected her personhood.

Would "wife to be" have worked?

[bobbieinok]

8. College's had lots of bad press lately

1) only African American woman faculty member was fired for expressing solidarity with Muslims

2) Dennis Hastert, an alum, was on board of college and had law school named after him; took a while for them to remove him and name from school

See blog slacktivist at patheos for discussion of both items.

[delisen]

25. Full Disclosure. I was related to a man who was raised as

evangelical but with a concern for equality. He completed just one year at Wheaton, and had the distinction of being the only student who picketed Barry Goldwater's appearance on campus.

For that action he had the honor of being beaten up by Dennis Hastert and the members of the wrestling team.

[ProfessorPlum]

27. I also recommend the Slacktivist blog

brilliant writing

[Cuthbert Allgood]

11. Wonder why this wasn't part of the "GOOD NEWS!" series I've noticed here.

Well, you know...

[Bernardo de La Paz]

12. Allegedly christian school . . . nt

[trotsky]

14. It's a Christian school.

You don't get to decide who is or isn't a Christian.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

18. I don't, but neither do they. You could call DU a christian website and be just as wrong.

Since when is covering up forced sodomy a christian act? An act that allegedly christian officials at an allegedly christian school committed in god's name.

What would Jesus have done?

[Mariana]

20. Oh, but they do.

Everyone gets to decide for themselves whether or not they are Christian. It isn't required that you agree with their particular interpretation of the source material. Similarly, members of an organization get to decide if their organization is Christian.

[trotsky]

30. DU doesn't claim to be a Christian website.

That's the key difference that fails in your attempt at an analogy.

"What would Jesus have done?"

If you're serious about this topic, we can have a discussion about this very question. What WOULD Jesus have done? And once you answer that question, you must explain how YOU know, how you can prove you are correct, and why everyone else who thinks differently than you is wrong.

Once you've done that, you will have united the world's Christians in peace. I hope you get started right away!

[3catwoman3]

15. No alleged about it.

This is at the top of the "About Wheaton" page on their website -


Wheaton College is an explicitly Christian, academically rigorous, fully residential liberal arts college and graduate school located in Wheaton, Illinois. Established in 1860, Wheaton is guided by its original mission to provide excellence in Christian higher education, and offers more than 40 undergraduate degrees in the liberal arts and sciences, and 14 graduate degrees.

There's lot more -

Originally written in 1924 by Wheaton’s second president, Charles Blanchard, the following statements guide the leadership, faculty, and students of Wheaton as an academic community of faith.


Educational Purpose
Committed to the principle that truth is revealed by God through Christ "in Whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," Wheaton College seeks to relate Christian liberal arts education to the needs of contemporary society. The curricular approach is designed to combine faith and learning in order to produce a biblical perspective needed to relate Christian experience to the demands of those needs.

Students who attend there have to sign a pledge acknowledging Jesus as their lord and savior. The mission statement from the school says that they believe Adam and Eve to be the parents of the entire human race. I would love to sit in on one of their biology classes and ask them to explain how that could be possible without Cain and Abel committing incest with their mother and any female offspring born to Eve. Certainly doesn't make any sense from a strictly biological perspective.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

17. Yes, as I said, "allegedly christian". But if the definition includes covering up forced sodomy ...

If the definition includes covering up forced sodomy, then you could drop the "allegedly".

[Cuthbert Allgood]

19. I'll just leave this right here

[Bernardo de La Paz]

22. Actually, not. The school has violated christians' own definition of being christian.

I'm not retroactively disqualifying someone, so I'm not committing a fallacy. I'm say that the christians involved (christian administrators at a christian school) disqualify themselves from their own definition of christian.

Excerpt from Wheaton's own Statement of Faith page:

The task of Christ’s people in this world is ... caring for all of God’s creation and actively seeking the good of everyone, especially the poor and needy.

It highlights how often christians violate their own definition of christian.

But football.

[Mariana]

29. Their statement of faith says a whole lot more than that.

Anyway, I'm sure they managed to convince themselves that they did actively seek the good of everyone who was involved in this matter. They did it wrong, of course, but all human beings are born with a sinful nature that leads them to sin in thought, word, and deed, so it's not really their fault. Also, all who believe in Him are justified by His shed blood and forgiven of all their sins so even though they did fuck it up royally, they're still in God's favor.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

38. Who put you in charge of deciding who is Christian?

I would imagine Wheaton would argue that they are caring for the football players, too. They might even give you some nonsense about what they have done to help the victim. And what they have done to save the souls of the football players.

Point being, about the only thing that one can use to determine if someone is "really" a Christian is if they believe that Jesus is the son of God. Beyond that, it's just denominational nonsense. Baptists don't believe Catholics are "real" Christians. Catholics believe that Mormons aren't "real" Christians (hell, you'll get that argument here on DU).

Just because someone is a fucking asshole, doesn't mean you get to kick them out of the club because "nobody that's an asshole is a Christian." It's a fallacy. And you committed it. Unless, again, you were somehow magically appointed lord of determining who is Christian.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

40. I'm not in charge. I'm simply saying that many christians violate their OWN definition of christian.

[trotsky]

41. I'd say every Christian violates their own definition at some point or another.

So there aren't any Christians at all, by that logic.

[BadgerMom]

13. True.

A friend of mine who arrived at UC Riverside as a junior had been at Wheaton as was his sister, a year younger. They were from New York. To save money, the siblings were spending Thanksgiving weekend at school, knowing their folks would have to pay for two round trips at Christmas. One evening that lonely weekend he visited his sister in her empty dorm so they could keep one another company. He was expelled. So, I've thought Wheaton sucks since I heard that story. This is just beyond.

[trotsky]

33. Wow, that's just insane.

I had no idea.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

23. American football is a bigger religion in the USA than christianity.

Most fans (and most christians are fans) spend more time devotedly in front of the football TV altar and committing football acts than they spend in church and doing christian deeds.

Football gatherings are less segregated than christian churches.

[trotsky]

32. To claim that football is a religion is to weaken the definition of religion.

If you're OK with doing that, then pretty much every sport, hobby, academic topic, or specific interest becomes a "religion."

And when everything is a religion, nothing really is.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

34. Who needs religion? Who really NEEDS religion?

[trotsky]

37. I dunno; some people think they do. n/t

[raccoon]

26. Self-proclaimed Christians are creeps.

I'm beginning to think so poorly of self proclaimed Christians that they might as well say "I belong to the KKK
" as to say that they're a Christian.

[Lordquinton]

28. Funny you say that

As the KKK prides itself as a Christian organization.

[trotsky]

31. Every Christian is a self-proclaimed Christian.

You realize that, don't you?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

35. Many christians are christians by default and never proclaimed it; just go along with it.

The biggest single fact about religion is that most people follow the religion of their early upbringing, whether it is their parents' religion or the dominant religion of their region, but mostly their parents' religion.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

39. Um, as pointed out, the KKK IS a Christian organization.

So, your point is?