Day of Doom: Children beg God for his mercy

O great Creator, why was our Nature
depraved and forlorn?
Why so defil'd, and made so vild
whilst we were yet unborn?
If it be just, and needs we must
transgressors reck'ned be,
Thy Mercy, Lord, to us afford
which sinners hath set free.

You sinners are, and such a share
as sinners may expect,
Such you shall have; for I do save
none but mine own Elect.
Yet to compare your sin with their,
who liv'd a longer time,
I do confess yours is much less,
though every sins's a crime.

Day of Doom - Michael Wigglesworth Stanzas 169 & 180 (1662) (Children who die before the age of accountability beg for their souls.)

Children barred from Florida church where sex offender preaches

Gilyard was accused by about 40 women in between 1987-1991, one woman in 2004, and two teenagers in 2008.

A Florida church has caused outrage by turning away children from its popular Sunday services to cater to a pastor who is a registered sex offender.

The decision to allow convicted child molester Darrell Gilyard into the pulpit has angered neighbouring pastors and members of the congregation of the Christ Tabernacle Missionary Baptist church in Jacksonville.

Gilyard, 49, is allowed no contact with minors under the terms of his release from a three-year jail sentence for abusing a 15-year-old girl at another church in 2009. As a result church leaders have made his services "adults only".

Parishioners claim security guards hired by the church have begun refusing admission to families with children, including a woman who tried to attend on Sunday with a two-year-old boy.

Instead, they say, children are directed to remain "off site" while Gilyard is preaching, and they accuse the church of dismantling its playground to keep them away.

Since Gilyard was hired last month, soon after his December release from jail, the church in Northside, one of Jacksonville's poorest, mostly black neighbourhoods, has become the scene of angry exchanges between protesters and his supporters.

A group of demonstrators calling itself the New Black Panther party clashed with churchgoers and promised to protest each time Gilyard led a service.

"We came because the children who we should be teaching and preaching cannot come out today," said Mikhail Muhammad, the group's leader.

"The black ministers in the city of Jacksonville ought to be ashamed of themselves. How can you say you're a follower of Christ but you won't stand up and speak out against this injustice?"

Despite the protests, the church appears to have benefited from Gilyard's notoriety. His first service in January drew an estimated 150 people, up from a regular attendance of only five to 10, with dozens attending the most recent service on Sunday.

Deacon Paul S Newman, chairman of the church ministry, said: "He was down on the ground, and the church was down on the ground, and we both needed to get up."

But fellow Baptist leaders have denounced Gilyard's appointment, saying he needs to apologise to his victims and the community before being allowed to preach to others.

"We love Mr Gilyard as a human being and have no personal animosity, but he is a very wicked sinner who has committed hideous crimes against women and children," said Pastor George Harvey of the nearby Mount Charity Baptist Church.

"Any minister who has done such evil should not be restored to the pulpit until his repentance is as notorious as his sin."

Before his conviction on two counts of molesting minors, Gilyard was a shining star in the Baptist community, having spent 14 years preaching to thousands at Jacksonville's Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church.

One mentor hailed him as one of the "most brilliant men in the pulpit" and he was also once praised by the noted evangelical Jerry Falwell, founder of the Moral Majority movement, in his video The Darrell Gilyard Story, which chronicled his rise from a teenage orphan living on the streets.

But Gilyard, once a protege of Pastor Jerry Vines, a past president of the Southern Baptist Convention, was no stranger to controversy. He was formerly pastor of a church in Texas, but left in 1991 following allegations of sexual misconduct.

When charged with sex crimes in Florida in 2008, Rev Vines issued a statement saying that he had previously forgiven Gilyard for his problems in Texas but could no longer stand by him.

"I extended forgiveness and mercy to him and evidently he trampled upon them," Rev Vines wrote at the time.

"No minister, if guilty of sexual improprieties, especially with underage children, should ever be allowed to stand behind the sacred desk again. Let the truth be found and let justice be done."

In 2004, Gilyard admitted that he had fathered a child with a woman who had accused him of raping her during a counselling session, according to court records. Gilyard has not been charged with rape.

Gilyard's public comments have been few and he has refused to speak directly with journalists, slamming a door on a television crew that confronted him at the hotel where he resides near Jacksonville International Airport.

But in a statement sent by text message to the Florida Times Unionnewspaper this month he remained defiant.

"Somehow I will prove that life isn't over when one has committed a crime for which he receives this heinous label," he wrote. "You don't have to languish on the fringes of society."

In earlier comments he described his church comeback as "refreshing and invigorating" but revealed that he had initially declined the offer of work because he knew that it might create controversy.

"I was scared to death," he admitted, adding that his probation officer had cleared him to work there and that he was a man reformed. "I'm happy to have that dark part of my life over," he told the paper last month.

Nobody from the church was available for comment Tuesday and a call to Gilyard's lawyer was not immediately returned.

Roger Oldham, spokesman for the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, which has more than 16 million members in the US, said it was not empowered to step into the dispute.

"We have taken a strong position on the protection of children and believe it to be of paramount importance in a local church setting but have no authority over the actions of any individual church," he said. [1]

The Christian Post quotes a blogger that sums up my thoughts as well.

A website titled "Let's stop pastor darrell gilyard together," created by Tiffany Thigpen Croft, a wife and mother from Jacksonville, offers a long series of sexual crimes allegedly levelled against the pastor.

"We have a convicted, confessed, and known child/woman abuser. A man that used his position for 3 decades to manipulate his way into positions of trust and to ultimately become sexually perverse with girls and women. Not only did he seduce some, but let's not forget that he took (by rape) from those that said no," Croft writes in a blog post.

"He twisted young girls into thinking he was the 'only one' that could really love them, sending text messages, 'counseling' with them behind closed doors, calling at odd hours...to young, innocent, naive, young teen girls. And he forever has altered the course of their lives...please do not underestimate the damage that has been done to hundreds (over 3 decades)," she adds.

The blog acknowledges that Gilyard is considered a talented pastor who speaks well at sermons, but Croft questions the ethics behind allowing a man accused and convicted of sexually abusing a teen to influence the community again. [2]

Jim Denison explains why Matthew 18 does not apply to child abuse

Jim Denison seemed to alleged that rape victims should approach their rapists in private according to Matthew 18.  Last  November, he explained himself.  He does not think that Matthew 18 applies to child abuse.  I, however, still maintain that any "no" to an attacker counts as meeting in private under Matthew 18.  This is a good example of common sense theology.

(ABP) -- On Nov. 14 the Associated Baptist Press published an essay I wrote on Herman Cain and Joe Paterno. Here's the background behind my article.

I write a cultural commentary for our ministry each weekday morning based on that day's news. On Nov. 8 I responded to the Herman Cain allegations by quoting Matthew 18:15, "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you." Jesus' words were clearly intended for adults, describing the process by which Christians who are dealing with relational problems can initiate reconciliation.

The next day I wrote an essay titled "The tragedy of Joe Paterno." In it I said, "The greatest tragedy is that on his watch, eight boys were allegedly abused by Sandusky over a 15-year period. They are innocent victims who will live with the scars of their abuse for the rest of their lives."

I stated that Coach Paterno "should apologize personally and directly to the men victimized by his employee. He should lead Penn State to take steps ensuring that such a failure of accountability does not happen again. And he should resign for the sake of his players, protecting them from this scandal and its repercussions."

On Nov. 10 I combined my previous Cain and Paterno essays into my FaithLines submission. Then I made a mistake. When I came to the statement from my Herman Cain essay that cited Matthew 18:15, I combined the Paterno story by including these words: "It would have been best for the alleged abuse victimsat Penn State and the NRA to go directly to those who wronged them." I was writing on deadline; had I checked the essay before submitting it, I would immediately have omitted those three words. Nonetheless, the mistake was mine alone.

Today I want to describe what I have taught for many years on the subject of child abuse, not only to set the record straight but also to set out clear biblical guidelines for dealing with such tragedy.

First, our Lord made very clear his love for children: "Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them. Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.' When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there" (Matthew 19:13-15).

Jesus taught his disciples to "change and become like little children" if they would enter the kingdom of heaven. He then declared that "whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3-4). When we love children, we prove that we love their Father. Anyone who abuses children has committed the most heinous crime imaginable.

Second, Jesus condemned those who would harm a child: "If anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea" (Matthew 18:6). Child abuse is a horrific crime. It leaves deep scars that can last a lifetime. There are no words to describe adequately the tragedy of this depravity. Or God's anger against those who commit it.

As a result, it is always wrong for institutions to shelter those who abuse children. Always. In the churches I pastored, adults who worked with children were subjected to periodic background screening and monitored carefully. Anytime a school, church, or other organization learns that a child entrusted to its care has been harmed, it must take immediate, proactive steps. It must remove the adult from any contact with children, initiate every means of helping the child and his or her family, and notify legal authorities about the crime committed on its watch.

The only currency for ministry is trust. In a culture that views people as commodities and measures success by possessions, we are entrusted with the good news that God loves us personally and passionately. But people will believe that God loves them only if we do. [1]

CIA interrogators allegedly threatened to kill and rape relatives of detainees

Liz Cheney notes that there is a big difference between rape and rape threats.

I know I make this claim a lot, so here is a source.

The declassified document released by the justice department said that one agent told key terror suspect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed that "we're going to kill your children" if there were further attacks on the US.

Another agent allegedly told Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a suspect in the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, that his mother would be sexually assaulted in front of him. The agent has denied the allegation. [1]

Further Reading

The Actual 2004 CIA Report

CIA Report Calls Oversight Of Early Interrogations Poor

Reading the C.I.A. Interrogation Report

CIA report: interrogators threatened families of detainees

A couple of things

• Bush ended and investigated this in 2004.  What is really going on here is a public outrage.
• Two, these are only two incidents recorded over years of interrogation.  One of them was denied by the agent.  There is no pattern here.  
• Three, yes, there is a big difference between threats and action.  However, weren't we told over and over again that when someone makes threats you believe them.
• Four, what has shocked me is how some people have defended this as moral behavior.  This is acceptable to notable Christians.  At what point do you draw the line?  Apparently the line is now drawn at rape threats and threatening to kill children.  
• Update - I bet all the views to this page were to read my typo (now corrected) of hear instead of here.