Former Iowa Pastor Faces 60 Felony Charges for Sexual Exploitation of Youth

[marmar]

Former Iowa Pastor Faces 60 Felony Charges for Sexual Exploitation of Youth


Apparently 60 counts of felony sexual exploitation charges may just be the beginning for Brent Girouex, a 31- year-old former youth minister in Iowa for the Victory Fellowship Church. CNN reports:

Court documents show four alleged victims came forward to the church's pastor. The young men explained how Girouex talked them into having sexual contact with him by explaining to them they would gain "sexual purity in the eyes of God."

Church leadership told Girouex to turn himself in, which he did on Feb. 16, telling police he wanted to confess what he had done.

Girouex told investigators he engaged in sex acts with a 14-year-old victim at the time 25 to 50 times over a four-year period, all the while praying while they two had sexual contact.

Although apparently the victim's account details it being more like 50 and 100 times. And the number of victims who have come forward has since climbed to 8. The church claims it knew nothing before one of the boy's told them what had happened this February -- although why they asked Girouex to turn himself in instead of immediately contacting the authorities is beyond me.


By Tara Lohan | Sourced from AlterNet
Posted at March 21, 2011, 4:01 pm


http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/536255/former_iowa_pastor_faces_60_felony_charges_for_sexual_exploitation_of_youth/

[Orrex]

1. I've never heard of a pastor doing such a thing.

Impossible!

[DeSwiss]

2. "....all the while praying while they (sic) two had sexual contact."

K&R

[Kolesar]

5. Yeah, that is way yucky...eom

[bobbolink]

3. That's going to be quite the Victory.

:puke:

I hope he gets what's coming to him.........

[randr]

4. Another single occurrence?

[jschurchin]

6. A pastor?

That has never happened before.:sarcasm:

[yardwork]

7. This is the face of "pray away the gay." This is Exodus International. This is the Apple app.

For those who are wondering here why anybody should be concerned about Apple allowing Exodus International to offer a free app aimed at young people to "cure" them of being gay - this is an example why we're concerned.

[Newest Reality]

8. No shock here.

When you go "there" you can pretty much justify anything you want to, though it may not play out well in consensus.

However, many really strange things have actually played-out over the centuries and now, here we are, able to understand this type of "revealed" religious thinking, address it, call it out, and move out of it. We, in the West, are living in the results of codified and unsubstantiated tribal, folk religion that utilized memes that were once powerful and seemingly irrefutable, (word magic) that managed, due to illiteracy and ignorance, to cast a spell on vast numbers of people, (somewhat like mass media does today) in order to influence and control their behaviors and subjugate their labors, lives and possessions.

That day may be drawing to a close for many of us as we witness the atrocities these people attempt to perform on innocents and other believers. I am not against beliefs when they are ones chosen by people with full understanding, since much of the human world is about abstractions and beliefs about them. I do not advocate inculcating beliefs into people at an early age before they have developed the skills and abilities to choose this or that belief for themselves. That is coercion and an insult to the great capacities of human intelligence.

After I learned to believe in nothing at all, it is then that I could understand belief and have a lot more tolerance for it, (with the exception of forcing a belief or way of life on others). After that, having beliefs became about choice and fun and what was best suited to the most enjoyable, tolerant and humorous perspective. One can then change, rearrange, add and subtract them as needed.