Southern baptist church knowingly placed convicted sex offender in pulpit

[Bluebear]

ROMEOVILLE, Ill. (ABP) – Despite warnings from a denominational official as well as another church, a Southern Baptist congregation near Chicago allowed a convicted child molester to preach for years.

In the end, it took media inquiries for Jeffrey Hannah, 42, to relinquish his leadership positions at, and resign as a member of, First Baptist Church of Romeoville, Ill.

The news about Hannah comes at a time when the Southern Baptist Convention is under heightened scrutiny about its role to protect children from sexual predators in the ministry. Unlike in more hierarchical denominations, Southern Baptist congregations have had few methods for vetting potential ministerial candidates. Many have unwittingly employed convicted sex offenders to work with children and youth.

“Clergy child molesters use their position of spiritual trust as a weapon. No matter how remorseful they may seem, that weapon should never again be placed in their hands,” according to Christa Brown, Baptist outreach director with Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and founder of http://stopbaptistpredators.org/index.htm

“They cannot be allowed back in the pulpit. It's a faulty forgiveness theology that would require kids to serve as the litmus test for finding out whether a child molester’s remorse is genuine.”

http://www.abpnews.com/2708.article

[IndianaJones]

1. my only question...

what are Southern Baptists doing way up here? Can't we build a wall along the Mason Dixon line?

[BOSSHOG]

7. Would that not prevent them from ministering

to all the Klansmen in Indiana? Building a wall along the Mason Dixon Line will inoculate the north from Hate? Wow, one has to be an incredible dumbass to posit that notion.

[Swamp Rat]

9. Yeah you rite!

peace from New Orleans. :hi:

[BOSSHOG]

11. Peace to you Swamp Rat

Ain't the newest part of the French Market Awesome?

[Swamp Rat]

13. I wouldn't know

I've had my face in books for the last 2 months, day and night non-stop. I was supposed to go yesterday, but it rained and I deceded to study instead. Last time I saw the market it still had a chain link fence surrounding the east side (renovation was almost complete), when I went to a shindig at the old mint bld. I had been hanging out on the Square early this summer, but I have too much work to do now.

Yeah, it's awesome. I hope they start selling big plates of gumbo and red beans and rice for 5 bucks like they used to. I also miss gnawing on boudin or alligator while I talk to friends who work there.

[BOSSHOG]

15. You study on my friend

and best of luck in all your endeavors.

[IndianaJones]

12. sore loser....anyway, we got 1st Baptists to minister to the Klan. nt.

[BOSSHOG]

16. Wow Indy drunk again early in the day and trying to make a name for yourself

You don't have to drink to do that.

[IndianaJones]

18. nah...always gotta give a shout out to my personal stalker. nt.

[Maddy McCall]

21. Now THAT is funny.

Poor Indiana guy, always stalked by us unruly Southerners.

:rofl:

[IndianaJones]

22. Southerners? Where? nt.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

29. or by liberals.

[Maddy McCall]

14. Oosh.

That one did sting.

:thumbsup:

[BOSSHOG]

17. Hi Maddy. Can you imagine

anyone wanting to keep me and you out of their community?

[Maddy McCall]

19. Can you imagine them thinking that they could successfully do so.

:rofl:

You bring the jambalaya and I'll bring the beer, and I bet we can go damned near anywhere in this ol' US of A that we wish to go. :D

[SemiCharmedQuark]

26. *ZING* I'm in school in Indiana. My school is less than an hour from Chicago

And it is one of the most racist areas I know. I have overheard so many vile things directed at any number of groups: Catholics, african americans, hispanics, jews, gays.

Indiana is every bit as racist as any stereotypical southern state could be. That's not even mentioning the love affair with the KKK.

[Maddy McCall]

2. Dang.

That's sick.

[Bluebear]

3. Jeez louise, see that "stop predators" website in the article...

the Catholic church has nothing on these guys!

[Maddy McCall]

4. I chuckled...

when I read that the church is located in "Romeoville."

*snicker snicker*

[walldude]

5. Man I did a gig for those guys once

The head dude at the time(his name escapes me) was in a huge fight with his wife who caught him with another woman and in retaliation she burned down their house. I had to meet with someone in their production office and when I went in there I could not believe what I saw. There were 4 people in there counting cash. And I mean CASH! Literally piles of money from the mornings collection. All I could think of was the movie Casino where everyone was skimming a bit of the cash off the top. If Jesus had been standing there I believe the term for what he would have done would be SMITE.

[Kookaburra]

6. Smote or Smoke?

Doesn't matter really, because it's still all your fault. Walldude, you sure you didn't supply Mrs. Fundie-Weirdo with a box of matches of perhaps a lit cigarette?

[walldude]

24. Alas.. it's true.. it's all my fault. n/t

[The Vinyl Ripper]

8. Cash..

Mammon..

That is what it's really all about with these folks..

Matthew 6:24
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

[Perky]

10. Oh come on now.....

I used to do the Deacon thing and count cash myself. THe bigger the Church the more bills as opposed to check. It has to be counted for bookkeeping and making that Monday Banking deposit, :shrug:

ALthough the Casino reference is funny.

[walldude]

23. Uh this was at the National Convention..

It wasn't just one church it was all the members of the Southern Baptist Convention. There had to be half a million in cash from collections. Tell me again how nobody was skimming from that.

[Perky]

27. Personally I doubt they were

But neither you or I have proof either way.

[Perky]

28. Personally I doubt they were

But neither you or I have proof either way.

[porphyrian]

20. They don't mind child molestation as long as it isn't homosexual. -n/t

[bleedingheart]

25. Churches are some of the best hunting grounds for predators

It is the church that folks turn to when they are suffering trying times...
It is in the church that folks shelter themselves and their children from the rest of the world...
The church is considered "good"...

What a perfect place for a predator to work...a bunch of folks suffering needing guidance..weak and emotionally unstable..and a bunch of gullible sheep...

When the folks who do sense something is going on...they are typically ridiculed by the folks who are sufferng Stockholm's syndrome...