Thursday, October 23, 2008

She's at it again

Baptists as a percentage of all residents, 2000. From the website of the Geography 200 class at Valparaiso University

Raani over at baptisthomeschooling blog put up another rant about homosexuals. She didn't call for them all to die this time, just went on and on about perversion and how they're dangerous to everyone and unsavable. The usual.

(Edit: Yesterday her name was Raani, today she has it listed as Janine. It's the same blog. She also changed her location, which is sensible considering she was silly enough to put her home address on her blog. While I don't foresee the liberals storming her house (although I wouldn't want to have to clean out her e-mail box) fixing that was a wise move.

Not to worry someone kept a screenshot of the post that started all this. ( Warning, ads at the top NSFW or kids. Will whoever did it please speak up so I can give credit where due?))


Looks like she copied much if not all of it from a Pastor Stephen L. Anderson over at The Faithful Word Baptist Church in Phoenix. Or so she says on her post. According to the church site
We are an old-fashioned, independent, fundamental, King James Bible only, separated Baptist church and not ashamed to say so.
That's nice.

Let's start simply. (h/t to Dave at The Meming of Life)

According to the Federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, violent crime rates across the board have declined continuously since 1994, reaching the lowest level ever in 2005.7

Child abduction rates—always infinitesimal—continue to fall. Rates of violent crime against children have fallen by nearly 50 percent since 1973. The child murder rate is the lowest in forty years.9

Odds of any given child being abducted by a stranger in any given year: 1 in 1,000,000
Odds of that child being killed by a world-ending meteor in any given year: 1 in 20,00010


7www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/gvc.htm#Violence
8www.guttmacher.org/pubs/2006/09/12/USTPstats.pdf
10“A Fistful of Risks,” Discover Magazine, April 1996.

In addition, 90% of child molestations the offender is someone the family knows and trusts. So the chance of some evil stranger, regardless of religion or sexual orientation, going after your kids is rather small.

I couldn't find statistics on the fail of child molesters, but if the population in federal prison is any indication, it's about 70%. I got that by following Dale's research here, and adding up Mainline Protestant, Catholic, Church of Christ, Pentecostal, and Orthodox Christian. Before you ask, I believe the count Baptist as Mainline Protestant. I believe they count Evangelical and Fundamentalist as well, or else I could add in "other". That would bring the percentage up to 73. It's a rough, seat of the pants estimate, I admit.

Now, I also admit that statistics can be hard to follow at times. But I'd put my statistics up against 4-14,000 tales from religious mystics any day. Or better still, actual cases. How about that Raani, show me proof, statistics from non-biased sources or actual cases to back up your claims.

Like these (All from Sara over at Orcinus and StopBaptistPredators.org)

Kevin Ogle, pastor of Northgate Colonial Baptist Church in Camden, GA, pleaded guilty in May to 15 counts of sexual exploitation on the Internet. A deacon for the church said, "A pastor is human just like everybody else is."


Jeff Hannah served for at least three years as the youth minister at The First Baptist Church of Romeoville, IL -- even though the church's leaders knew he was a convicted sex predator. He resigned in August when the Chicago Sun-Times revealed his past. "We believe in forgiveness," said one of the deacons who hired Hannah.


On October 17, Steven Haney, former pastor of the Walnut Grove Baptist Church in Memphis, was indicted for sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy from his church over a five-year period. He told the boy that his attentions were "a test from God."


On November 1, SBC Deacon Roy Long of Victorville, CA was charged with molesting two seven-year-old girls over a four-year period. Police and prosecutors are looking for other victims.


Last week, SBC youth pastor Marshal Seymour confessed to sexually abusing several teenage boys he met through his church in Lakeland, FL. Police discovered he'd been let go from his previous church in Mobile, AL for sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy.


The former pastor of Northgate Colonial Baptist Church in Camden pleaded guilty to 15 charges of sexual exploitation of children. The Walton County District Attorney's Office said Friday that 42-year-old Kevin Ogle of Camden pleaded guilty Monday. He was sentenced to 20 years of probation, and five years behind bars. Kershaw deputies arrested Ogle after they say he solicited what he believed to be a 14-year-old girl online.


Minister Shawn Davies, of First Baptist Church of Greenwood, pled guilty to 21 counts of child molestation. "He was allowed to move unchecked from one Baptist church to another, sexually assaulting young boys at almost every stop along the way."


On Oct. 24, the Illinois Attorney General's office charged 35-year-old Leslie Mason with 10 additional counts of criminal sexual assault. Mason had been pastor of Olney Southern Baptist Church in Olney, Ill., for seven years until church members unanimously voted to dismiss him Oct. 24, 2001.


John Puga, former youth minister is the 3rd official from Marquette Manor Baptist Church to be sentenced on child molestation charges. He will serve one year in the DuPage County jail with work release privileges after he pleaded guilty to molesting a 17-year-old girl.


Now every gay parent I have ever met has been fabulous. They want their children, clearly, love them dearly, and take excellent care in raising them. I would have no problem whatsoever asking any of my gay friends to babysit. I have every confidence they would be well looked after.

However, as a future parent, Baptists scare me nilly.