A youth pastor was arrested this week, accused of having an inappropriate sexual relationship with a 16-year-old girl in a Palm Harbor home. Scott Dewayne Wright, 35, who lives in New Port Richey, turned himself into Pinellas authorities Monday. He was charged with two counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor. Detectives say Wright met the teen in September 2006 when he was a youth pastor at Calvary Chapel in New Port Richey….
In 2005, Wright was featured in the St. Petersburg Times in a story about a weekly program for teens at Calvary Chapel. “We have a youth that is in crisis, and we need to reach out to them before it’s too late,” said Wright, who headed the program.
Criminal Court Judge Don Poole on Monday sentenced William T. Johnson to 17 years in prison in connection with a home invasion on 14th Street on Jan. 16, 2008…. The sentences are consecutive to another three-year term Johnson is facing in Georgia—making his total sentence 20 years.
…
Prosecutor Williams said Johnson had testified that he was a youth minister at Orchard Knob Missionary Baptist Church by day and a drug dealer by night.
Tyson Abram, 44, called authorities at about 5:40 p.m. March 6 to report that bullets were ricocheting off a homemade range at City on the Hill church, located at Arapahoe Road and 75th Street in unincorporated Boulder County, according to a sheriff’s report released Tuesday…. When deputies arrived at the church, they found [Youth] Pastor David Vidal, 29, of Frederick, along with his children and Brendan Winans, 21, of Broomfield, shooting at a makeshift target behind the church.
They were firing a 9mm handgun, a .40-caliber handgun and a .22-caliber rifle, according to the report. A deputy noted “there was nothing behind the wooden stand or anything to stop the bullets.”
The youth minister for a township church stands accused in a federal complaint of downloading 134 images of child pornography to his personal computer.
Robert Kevin Carlino, no age available, of Dutch Mill Road is charged with knowingly receiving more than 10 graphic images of child pornography…. Carlino—who had been the paid youth minister for the Malaga Assembly of God—was arrested at his residence Friday by agents for the FBI…. Carlino is accused of downloading between Nov. 6 and 13 a computer folder containing 134 images of a girl engaged in “explicit sexual conduct with an adult male wearing only white socks,” according to an affidavit accompanying the arrest warrant for Carlino.
The child was known to be approximately 9 years of age at the time the photographs were taken, the affidavit said.
Dan,
Counseling might be a better way to exorcise your demons.
I’ve decided that I missed my calling in life. I should have become a youth pastor.
Perhaps @2, except for the fact that many youth pastors don’t seem to be bright enough to cover their own tracks after they’ve committed felonies.
I’d like to think you’re smarter than that.
In response to the allegation that “there is no morality without religion,” one need only SHOW morality without religion in order to prove the assertion false.
Show non-religious people doing good things. Argument won.
Dan, instead, shows religion without morality. That would be the response if someone had asserted that “ALL religious people are moral.”
Nobody here is making that argument, Dan.
What conclusions should we draw about Youth Pastors who do not get featured on the ‘Watch’?
The evil plan is working! Soon everyone will think that all youth pastors are child molesters and rapists! All thanks to devious Dan Savage and Satanist Slog!!!
And he would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for that meddling Lenny!!!
Why thank you, Comte. Yes, I’d like to think so too.
@4
You are 1000% correct.
I wish Jonathan could explain it to Dan.
8, but how would that upset the easily offended, thin skinned folks? And how would it be fun for us, who love to watch this play out on slog?
Rob, you, TOO, can set a Google Alert to fill your daily need of salaciously detailed child-victimization stories.
Good to see Chattanooga representing.
10, I have my Google alert set to easily offended, thin skinned slog folks, and you broke my inbox!!
@6 – Dan’s real goal is to force people responsible for these “Youth Pastors” to actually screen & monitor these folks. Bishops, elders, congregation… they all bear responsibility for allowing predators to assault their children. It seems pretty reckless to some of us, but Jesus-lovers will let anyone who says the right things full access to their kids, even though the dude just walked in from the street. Just say you love Jesus, and you can’t possibly be bad, because (all together now) “JESUS MAKES YOU BETTER THAN OTHER PEOPLE”.
Five atheist orgasms for Dan.
14, Loveschild, did you have them all in one sitting?
13
Is Dan concerned about teachers or day care workers or health care workers or social service workers who molest, or only people with some connection to religion?
Dan, I’ll bet you smacked your lips at the one about the youth pastor and his kids committing the heinous offense of plinking outside their rural church instead of at a proper shooting range. It has two of the urban left’s biggest bugaboos: Christianity and guns. Of course there was no taking of inappropriate sexual liberties here, but that didn’t matter, Dan had to get his ideological rocks off. What’s next, righteous indignation over youth pastors who jaywalk? Oh, the rank hypocrisy!!
Jeez, I’m agreeing with Loveschild. Man, do I feel creepy!!! I need to go take a shower…
16, As a group, do teachers, day care workers, health care workers, or social workers claim that their beliefs are the only true beliefs, and that they hold the ultimate word on morality?
#19
Does it matter what those people believe if they, too, are molesting children?
Can you SHOW that these people commit less crimes per person and should be exempt from this discussion?
19
So it’s not really about protecting children after all,
it’s about making religious people look bad?
And in fact the more abuse that occurs the better for Dan (sorry kids, you’re collateral damage in the Culture Wars)
@16:
If you’d been paying attention, instead of just randomly shooting your mouth off like Yosemite Sam’s six-guns, you would have taken note of the fact it has already been pointed out on several occasions that teachers, child care workers, social service agency workers, and health care workers are, in almost every state of the union, required by law to undergo fingerprinting/criminal background checks BEFORE being accepted for employment. Youth Pastors OTOH are not required to undergo any such rigorous screening, which is apparently one factor in why so many scumbag pederasts end up in the business.
Next time, please try to put in at least a minimal amount of effort before saying something completely stupid, OK? Thx!
@20:
See @22.
@22
Can you SHOW that these screenings and background checks are working? If so, then those groups can be excluded from this discussion.
Furthermore, if that is shown, the argument should be made that youth pastors and churches should institute the same policies as the above agencies.
That argument should be made to the involved agencies, i.e. the churches, for the benefit and safety of the children.
That argument is not being made by this series of posts, nor are these posts directed at church leaders.
If I am mistaken, and that argument IS being made (by Dan or the Slog), please reference it for our benefit.
Christianity is a religion based on faith as well as morality. That representatives of this faith engage in behaviour such as this merely goes to show that anyone can say they’re ‘moral’ and ‘good’ etc., and it mean absolutely nothing. This has a lot to do with more than jsut youth pastors, it also asks why religion (the Christian religion, mind you) plays so much into American politics? Why is Christianity important to some voters when there are stories like this that prove not all Christians are good ones? The same is true in reverse, but I believe the first point is the more important one.
Having said that…fuck the pope and his anti-birth control stance in Africa….you just killed a bunch more people, way to go fuckface.
@24
It’s called extrapolation.
20, & 21, It’s not about the child molesting. It’s like math teacher trying to explain fractions to you using an apple pie, and you go off on a tangent about why you hate apple pie. Not the point. If you haven’t gotten it by now, you’re not gonna.
27: Okay, then… What IS the point of these posts? What is the teacher in this scenario trying to explain? What is Dan trying to prove here?
Please don’t back out of that question by simply accusing everybody of not getting it.
If there’s a point, then state it. Otherwise, we are left to conclude that these posts are, in fact, pointless.
28, Fine, the posts are pointless. Keep screaming about how you hate apple pie.
@22
And yet; teachers, child care workers, social service agency workers, and health care workers do commit crimes against children despite those measures, does Dan not care about that? Is a fingerprinted background checked molester OK by Dan?
Good try at totally reframing the issue, since once again, Dan has never made the argument you’re suggesting he SHOULD be making.
Maybe if we start reframing anything YOU say, by going off on a tangential line-of-inquiry such as: “You know lenny, if you REALLY want to convince us of the validity of your argument, you SHOULD be talking about such-and-such, instead of so-and-so, like you’re doing now” maybe you’d begin to understand why trying to argue a point that nobody else is arguing isn’t exactly the best way to convince people that you know what you’re talking about, and aren’t in fact just another bat-shit crazy Fundie to whom absolutely nobody around here is going to give even a fraction of an ounce of credence.
But then again, I seriously doubt you’re capable of capable of that, so it’s really just a wishful hypothetical on my part.
@30:
Well, if you’d care to cite credible statistics on the number of felonies committed by individuals who undergo criminal background checks as a ratio to the total number of individuals who undergo them, and weigh that against the number of Youth Pastors who commit felonies as a ratio of the total number of YP’s, I’m sure the audience here would be more than happy to take those statistics under consideration.
In the meantime, we eagerly anticipate seeing the results of your exhaustive research…
COMTE, Lenny at 24 actually made a proposal of how these posts could have a worthwhile purpose.
If you disagree, can you propose another purpose?
Can you state the point of these posts or do you, like Rob in Baltimore, agree that they are without a point?
Please refrain from just calling people names in your retort and accusing them of not getting it.
@33
So you think Rob in Baltimore agrees that these points are pointless??
Does everything go over your head? Or just sarcasm?
@32 Comte, you have offered no numbers or statistics to support the idea that youth pastors are more likely to molest children than any other occupation that deals with children.
Nor has Dan Savage.
Yet you shit on others for not having numbers to show.
I offer, as retort, the wisdom from comment 22:
“Next time, please try to put in at least a minimal amount of effort before saying something completely stupid, OK? Thx!”
“We have a youth that is in crisis, and we need to reach out to them before it’s too late,” said Wright, who headed the program.
Could the youth pastor be a Marilyn Manson fan?
Sex at the best
Puts me to the test
Things on your chest
You need to confess
I will deliver
You know I’m a forgiver
Reach out and touch faith
Your own personal Jesus
Someone to hear your prayers
Someone who cares
32
The burden is on Dan and his asslickers to show that Youth Pastors are any more likely than the general population to commit these crimes. Till then the ‘…Watch’ can be dismissed as the product of misleading distorting hate filled bigotry.
That’s because lenny, since you seem to be so willfully obtuse on this point – as with so many others – NO ONE HAS EVER MADE SUCH A SUGGESTION.
Dan has NEVER argued that “youth pastors are more likely to molest children than any other occupation that deals with children”. Once again, you make an inference where none has been suggested – except of course, in your own mind.
What Dan HAS been pointing out (and this has been iterated to you on a number of occasions, although you continue to refuse to acknowledge it) is that people who argue their belief system grants them an a priori moral superiority over everyone else, are in point of fact no more moral than the rest of us. Furthermore, because believers consistently FAIL to adhere to the same moral standards they insist everyone else must live up to in order to be considered “moral”, they lack any credible authority to impose their morals on others.
It’s really a pretty simple position, lenny, and if you want to present an opposing argument on the basis of what is ACTUALLY BEING ARGUED, such as, for example: “believers do in fact adhere to a higher standard of moral behavior, and as such have been granted a legitimate authority to impose those standards on others, and here’s why”, then fine – fire away. But, your continuous attempts to steer the discussion away from the central thesis simply points up your inability to defend a counter position based on the parameters of the actual argument itself.
Comter, please refer to comment #4.
Show where Lenny fucked up, other than trying to engage you in a rational discussion.
Reading your posts, all I find is some douchebag crapping on other people but failing to put forth any actual point.
For fucks sake, man, SUMMARIZE. You just fucking spew rhetoric and then act astonished people can’t find your point.
37 summed it up well, referring to you and your ilk as Dan’s asslickers.
@39 – not how I would have put it.
@38 – “people who argue their belief system grants them an a priori moral superiority over everyone else, are in point of fact no more moral than the rest of us”
No joke. No disagreement. That’s an obvious point nobody is trying to argue against.
I’m arguing against the MANNER in which Dan is trying to point out the obvious.
You, on the other hand, are just bickering with anybody and everybody and falling back on insult when you can’t find a point to make.
37 39
It is inaccurate, unkind and unfair to say COMTE licks Dan’s ass. COMTE french kisses Dan’s ass.
Let me rephrase that.
Dan is pointing out an obvious truth: religion does not bestow morality.
Dan is pointing out an obvious truth in the WRONG way.
Refer to my comment at #4.
lenny “fucks up” to use your phrase @39, because he attempts to refute an argument – that isn’t being argued. He WANTS it to be the thesis, but it’s not.
It’s like, we’re all over here discussing whether or not ice cream is good for you – a thesis that can be argued very easily from either a pro or con position – meanwhile lenny is over in a corner shouting to anyone he thinks will listen, “DAN SAVAGE SEZ COWZ IZ EVIL!”.
lenny even admits above @42 that he can’t refute the argument itself- so he attempts to redirect the discussion, because he personally dislikes the manner in which the argument is presented, as if this was in the least bit relevant.
The argument is what the argument is; it’s either effective in making the point or it isn’t. lenny admits the former, but regardless still wants to discredit Dan because he disapproves of the manner in which he presents the argument. It’s just as much an argumentum ad hominum as is calling me an ass-licker; you-all can’t argue against the message on its merits, so you resort to attacking the messengers.
Holy crap. COMTE what are you even talking about?
I’m not sure about Lenny but I totally agree with comment 39.
OK, folks, let’s get back to the point.
Dan comes up with, what, a dozen YPW items a month? For lack of the precise statistics requested above, we have to rely on observation. How many references, per month, do you hear of public school teachers, et al, being arrested for child molestation & other serious crimes against kids? Those things are reported, and quite sensationally too, when they happen. It appears that more youth pastors are making this headline than jr high drama coaches.
Let’s also look at another factor of YPW: how many of the guys listed by Dan turn out to have priors when they are arrested for their current crime? A ton of them. Background checks would reduce that number greatly.
It’s called Youth Pastor WATCH, because the churches themselves obviously aren’t watching their youth pastors, so someone has to do it for them. Most state governments have background checks for anyone that deals with a child that is not their own, except for people involved in religious groups. (You do know that most little church schools are proudly unaccredited, right?) In light of the unending succession of Youth Pastors victiming children, asking for some sort of preventative measures, WHEN THERE ARE NONE CURRENTLY, is not too much. That’s how most laws come about: as a response to an existing problem.
As for the anti-religious bent…. shouldn’t a church youth group be a SAFE place for a kid? Isn’t the whole point of religion the morality code? It seems that someone who uses the pulpit & collar to deceive their victims is even sleazier than the creep hiding in the bushes waiting for Chandra Levy.
@45 All your points are well expressed and I appreciate the way you make them.
However… Dan was using examples last week from Australia. If he has to cast a net that wide to provide examples, then the comparison to teachers, social workers, etc. in the U.S. is no longer a valid comparison. Now you’re looking at the entirety of humanity and the evils contributed by youth pastors becomes near immeasurably small.
I disagree that Dan is doing this for the benefit of children. If that were true, he wouldn’t limit his finger-pointing to the single group he has designated. He might, instead, be pushing for exactly the kind of regulations you described, but he isn’t.
I don’t deny that public school teachers, et al, also commit such atrocities. These things are reported. Just not in the Slog and not by Dan Savage. His careful selection of examples is apparent, hence your observation that “more youth pastors are making this headline than jr high drama coaches.”
You and I have different ideas of what Dan’s REAL goal may be, but I’m no longer trying to guess what his motives are. If your idea is correct (#13) then I’ll argue he’s going about it in the wrong way (#4).
Stay cool, Sir Vic. You provided a refreshingly lucid and coherent series of points.
There you go again, lenny, trying to drive the argument back into your favorite “Dan’s being dishonest because he doesn’t argue the way I want him to!” canard.
YOU (well, you and your sock puppets) are the only one here trying to argue that Dan is being disingenuous because he lists ONLY felonious YP’s and not public school teachers, social workers et al, or that “Dan is doing this for the benefit of children”, yet another in a seemingly unending number of assertions you keep insisting Dan has avouched, when in fact he never has. It seems pointless to have to keep pointing these out, but since you seem so insistent on putting words into people’s mouths, I guess it’ll just have to bear repeating.
And nice try with the “damning with faint praise” tactic inre @45, but unsurprisingly, it’s also pretty obvious.
If you want to provide a counterpoint to Dan’s posts with some citations of your own, nobody’s stopping you. If these incidents are as common as you assert, it would seem to be a relatively simple matter for you to come up with a good handful with a quick Google search, just the way Dan does it, no doubt – heck, I’d even be willing to spot you a couple of posts from out-of-country, if you think that might even the odds.
In other words lenny, to put it in terms you and your tribe should find unambiguously clear: it’s time to “shit or get off the pot”, as my late grandpa used to say.
Show us what you’ve got.
On a slightly different tangent than previous postings so far, Thanks,Dan for including Mr. Gun-nut YP blowing off rounds behind the church. I live about a mile away from COTH and this area is actually pretty well-populated. This shows a real lack of judgement for a “molder of young minds”
The burden is on Dan to show that Youth Pastors are any more likely than the general population to commit these crimes. If the cases he cites are all that occur in the world (and he does include cases from all countries and people who just claim to be youth pastors) then the % of all youth pastors committing these crimes is very small. Until Dan provides some context these little reports are just juicy tidbits of salacious gossip for the religion haters. Till then the ‘…Watch’ will be dismissed as the product of misleading distorting hate filled bigotry.
And you ere @43; it is simple to demolish your half ass arguments and point out the ass lickery at the same time.
Hey, if I were a head-pastor, priest, bishop, whatever, I would have these so-called “youth-pastors” investigated, fingerprinted, background checked etc. as a condition of employment just like they do for teachers and school bus drivers. Just cuz your’re a church doesn’t mean you have to have standards and licenses. Does the state regulate these people? They regulate everyone else who works with children. The catholic church got away with abusing children for years. Haven’t we learned anything? Do we need a protestant/non-denominational SNAP? Focus on protecting the children not demonizing the religious.