I'm sorry to see this return to SLOG. Printing the photos and home addresses of people arrested on suspicion of a crime, especially one as hideous and panic-inducing as child abuse, is the worst kind of bullying.

I'm all for seeing christian predators get called out... but based on the description given, this is BARELY a crime, just a guy having a good time and not checking IDs.

@2,

Yeah, I'm sure, as a youth pastor, he had NO IDEA how old that girl was.

The moron should've waited three months. Sucks to be him.

He was their youth pastor. It doesn't matter if they were 50. It's abuse.

I don't know. Why bold the fact that she was 3 months away from being 18? It kind of takes the sting out of the crime. It would be a different story if he was busted smoking weed 3 months before legalization took effect.

Does it make a difference that he's accused of a crime and not convicted of one? That used to matter.

Oh, oh, lemme guess! He was going to leave his wife for the girl, but it just wasn't a good time for him. Once things get better, then he will leave her and they can be tog--

Wait? 2 extramarital affairs with barely-legal/almost-legal girls?

Yeah... douchenozzle.

@7

My reading is a threesome.

Stupid, not criminal.

And yeah, Dan, publishing the address of someone who hasn't been convicted yet is one of the worst forms of bullying.

Obviously, the guys not catholic. He was banging girls.

To be fair, Dan didn't tell us what state the guy lives in.

I could see why this would be okay if it were just some random 35-year old and a 17-year old with daddy issues. Her pastor? This guy is preaching to young people about morality and Jesus. I have a problem with this just as much as I would have a problem with a teacher having sex with his high school student, even if she is a senior in high school and almost going to be 18.

@1: No, beating someone to death for being gay is the worst form of bullying.

I would have thought that he'd be charged with a crime related to his relationship to the girls as their pastor.

Anyway, gloating over this strikes me as analagous to gloating over a Republican busted having gay sex. It's primarily about his hypocrisy, and less about the act as such.

Because he is a married Christian youth pastor, the girl would never be acceptable for sex with him. It's even worse if this man was entrusted by the girl's parents to mentor the girl as a church official.

The man's address is in the original article, which is freely available online.

I like that the youth pastor quotes Augusten Burroughs, a gay man, on his Facebook page.

he was nearly twice their age, and old enough to be their dad. that's gross.

Since I am so late to the party here, no one may see my comment, but I'll post anyway. I have been a church youth minister/leader for over 35 years and have never had sex with a kid in the youth group. That is true, I'm sure, for the OVERWHELMING majority of church youth leaders. To paint us all with one brush is the kind of bigotry I would think you would be against. But sensationalism sells, I know. And all of us are not turn-or-burn fundamentalists. There are other kinds of Christians. You use this news report to justify your statement "I don't think kids belong in church." Wow. This is just sloppy thinking and over-generalization. However, I do appreciate you quoting John Shore. He is more representative of where I am coming from.

This guy is supposed to be a spiritual leader, and obviously he did not live up to those standards. Hopefully this does not put a bad reputation on all youth leaders, as Richard writes, because the majority do not behave the way this youth pastor did.

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Youth Ministry Resources
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