Glad to hear the Christianity Today editors took that piece of trash down. It was disgusting. The rapist focused entirely on himself, discussed his crime like an extramarital affair, used the passive voice to describe how grooming the victim "just happened", blamed his wife (who birth two kids during the time) for his "infidelity", and failed to consider, even briefly, the harm he might have inflicted on his victim. Libby Anne over at Love, Joy, Feminism had a pretty good take-down last week which I encourage readers to seek out if they're interested in how this intersects with Christian purity culture.

I've always thought that anyone who wants to be a minister has to be at least a bit creepy.

I love the passive voice, "I pleaded guilty to 2 felonies, am serving time in prison and will be a registered sex offender"

Not "I COMMITTED (more than?) two felonies*." or "I AM a sex offender and will always be labelled as such."

* You can't plead guilty to anything without swearing an oath (presumably with "so help me God") stating that you REALLY are guilty and not doing so for any other reason.

Poor persecuted Protestants. They should get themselves their own little city state where their molesters can hide to avoid that evil secular thing known as courts of law. It works well for the Catholic Church.

An actual apology! Those are rare these days.

@kwodell

Having a little city state is the poor cleric's way.

Until recently, the Catholic Church did have Ireland ; alas, the best things always end ; and after one's rule is too loosened, someone always end up unearthing the bones in the septic tank just to give you a bad name.

Why not have an entire but lone state, at war with all its neighbours, where the deeply religious mob can be trusted to hush bad stuff up, because hey, that would reflect so badly on our beloved religion ?

Why not have an entire constellation of theocratic countries, with a holy book that praises marriage with six-years-olds and sex with 9-year-olds ?

It's not one religion. It's every established religion that preys on children.

That TIME article illustrates everything that is wrong with the anti-rape movement. "Because the ONLY story that should garner attention is the VICTIM’S story", they say - as if only the victim is human, and the rapist is not? As if the accused has no right to tell his side of the story?

I am against rape. I want to see more rapists go to jail. I want victims to be honored and supported. But I also want people to stop turning this issue into a witch hunt. Rapists are people too and being convicted of a crime shouldn't be the end of your right to free speech, nor should we treat this issue like there are no complexities or gray areas to be found in it. I am so sick and tired of the black-and-white, "with us 110% or you're with the rapists" attitude.

Saying that Tim is a sleazeball who hasn't come to grips with the true nature of his crime is fine. Silencing him is not ok.

@7: No one wants to take away his freedom of speech. But it's a legitimate question as to whether a mainstream Christian magazine should give him a platform.

Free speech does not mean a magazine is required to publish you. By that logic anyone who's never had an article they wrote published in the magazine of their choice is a victim of censorship.