John Langworthy's Confession - August 7, 2011

On August 7, 2011, John Langworthy gave his confession in the pulpit of Morrison Heights Baptist Church. Click on full video to watch the entire video.


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I know the pastor reminded us that blogs are not accurate. I would agree.  This is why everything said here will be sourced.  There are a couple of things that stand out.

1. "sexual indiscretions with younger males" I assume he meant indiscretion as "an act at variance with the accepted morality of a society."[1] This is what we call groping of defenseless children today.
2. He confessed about one church in Mississippi and one in Texas.  He has accusers from two churches in Mississippi.[2] Coincidentally that Sunday, he only had three known accusers from one church in Mississippi and one church in Texas. Unless he misspoke, he only confessed publicly to what he had been caught doing.
3. He has contacted all involved and asked for forgiveness Let us assume this is true and all seven children, now adults, were contacted in the last twenty years.  Just because a victim is asked to forgive doesn't mean they do.  Also, even if a molested person did forgive, this does not mean they do not want justice instead of mercy.  At the end of the day, it may not matter what the victims want, because in statutory cases, the state files charges on behalf of the child.
4. He was removed from the children's choir and kept on the youth choir with additional supervision.  As a parent, I would have wanted the opportunity to decide for myself whether a known child molester should lead my kids. The church had no right to do this, it was not their decision to make.
5. It was over twenty years ago We know we are in trouble when we spend time repeatedly minimizing crime.   These were not just sins, but crimes.  We should worry more about the molested and less about the molester.  There is only one of him and at least seven of his victims. Remember that Sunday morning we only knew about three.  Due to churches failing to report these molestations, justice has been denied.  I am unconvinced that the molester has suffered more than the molested.


This story reminds me of this Catholic Church Sex Scandal video.