Fun With Hypocrites, East Texas Preacher Edition
Marshall, Texas, is in northeast Texas and is famous for its pottery.
And Pentecostals.
An East Texas pastor has been sentenced to two years in prison for an online chat from church with an alleged 14-year-old girl who turned out to be a Louisiana trooper.
Raymond Earl Cooper also received 10 years’ probation during his sentencing Wednesday. He’s the former minister for First Church of the Nazarene in Marshall. Cooper pleaded guilty Tuesday to online solicitation of a minor.
Prosecutors say Cooper used a church computer to solicit a person he thought was a girl from Lafayette, La.
A jury gave him 2 years prison time and ten years probation. They took away his preachin’ license.
I’m not saying that every Pentecostal preacher in East Texas is a pervert. I am, however, saying that every pervert seems to be a Pentecostal preacher.
Thanks to Michael for the heads up.
OK, JJ! Just why did I know this was going to happen!
1JJ, if you’re saying what I think you’re saying, then ALL those Roman Catholic priests found guilty of sexually abusing minors are Pentecostal? How about their superiors (bishops, archbishops, cardinals & popes) that are guilty of covering up those crimes – are they Pentecostal, too?
2With preachers………….nothing surprises me anymore.
3When I was 12 years old (shortly after the Ice Age) a 30-40 year old preacher hit on me. The denomination was Southern Baptist. Due to growing up in an unconventional family and endowed with more confidence than most kids of that time, I was a cynic and showed him the door.
4Looks like the preacher won’t be needing a computer or on-line chat room to schedule his liaisons for a few years.
5In fact, I’ve heard that other prisoners tend to teach child molesters the definition of the word consensual, by showing them what’s not consensual. I don’t know if Pentecostals dance, but this preachers dance card is sure gonna be full on arrival.
Want to know what’s truly interdenominational? Clergy who are child sex abusers. This morning there was news in Chicago about a rabbi in the far north West Rogers Park neighborhood being arrested for sexually assaulting a 15 year old boy in 2006. Clergy are huge authority figures among younger members of their congregations. Misusing that authority should qualify them for most severe legal punishment.
http://www.rickross.com/groups/clergy.html
Maybe to protect their children, churchgoers should assume that pastors and volunteers are guilty until proven innocent.
6Two words: Elwood Gallimore
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-929777.html
Never will forget Elwood walking down the sidewalk toward the Pulaski County Courthouse, old wife Janice on one arm and the little Chicky-boo on the other. Praise God, Janice was going to stand by her man, because the LORD JESUS told him to marry that girl.
And she did, too. Right up until Elwood gave that girl Janice’s shiny new Cadillac when she got her driver’s permit. Janice filed for divorce the next day.
http://newspaperarchive.com/pulaski-southwest-times/1993-05-14
You can’t make this stuff up. Sharyn McCrumb wrote all about Elwood in The Rosewood Casket.
7Rick, I am disturbed by you comment. Disturbed but not surprised. You are celebrating the gang rape of an individual. This is something that seems to be part and parcel of our penal system.
Rape.
As punishment.
Rape.
Think about that.
Regardless of my feelings for these criminals, I just can’t condone rape.
8Moms Hugs, the Pentecostals & the Roman Catholic clergy do have a lot in common. Trust me, I was raised a Catholic.
9I don’t think Rick condoned rape or violence of any kind. Facts are just facts, and I think Rick summed up what the “preacher” can expect pretty well. His sentence will doubtless seem to him to be very long indeed.
10I will bet there’s not a denomination without at least some sexually misbehaving persons in authority. The more authoritarian they are, the more “purity” they demand of their followers, the more likely it is that they’ll abuse. And not just children Religious leaders have harassed, pursued, and raped adults as well.
I do agree with Mark that gloating over the likelihood of prison rape for child rapists is not a good way to go. Rape is the problem, whether it’s children or adults, and using rape to punish rape isn’t a way to stop rape, of children or adults. Should rapists be punished? Sure.
But we need to face up to the rape culture (a worldwide rape culture), confront it, and change it. And that, gentlemen who are not rapists, means that you guys need to step up your immediate and public refusal to joke about it, or accept the usual excuses other men make, or consider that “real men” ever, under any circumstances, force sex on someone who doesn’t want it. Rape culture exists because it is tolerated, with only the most blatant cases being prosecuted, with rape victims still being disbelieved and harassed and threatened. It should not make a particle of difference whether the rapist is also a good family man, founded charities for disadvantated youth, is a football star on a winning team, is a pro athlete making millions a year, is a prominent lawyer or doctor or financier…all of which have been brought forth as reasons not to “ruin his life.” No man who opposes rape should put up with a Congresscritter who debates whether this or that rape is “legitimate.” I used to have a button: Men Can Stop Rape. But they have to be direct, they have to actually oppose it, actually try to stop it and every other man who is excusing or even supporting rape. I know men who are not rapists, who are good guys in many ways, but who, if you ask them to speak out against rape, will start shilly-shallying around and making excuses. That needs to stop.
Because then, when some preacher or doctor or lawyer or auto mechanic or next door neighbor or teenage football player starts thinking about how much fun it would be…they’ll know that every man’s hand is against them. And they’re less likely to do it if they know other men won’t make excuses for them.
So yeah, I hate the hypocrisy of preachers who actually do, or plan to, rape underage girls and boys…and the ones who also try to get into the pants of grown women. But they learned those behaviors from the culture around them, maybe including their families and maybe not. Just like Tea Partyers have worked up more and more people into thinking taxes are unjust period, the rape culture has convinced many boys and men that they’re owed sex–that they have a right to take what they want.
11Rubymay, Rick did in fact condone rape and violence.
“’Ive heard that other prisoners tend to teach child molesters the definition of the word consensual, by showing them what’s not consensual. I don’t know if Pentecostals dance, but this preachers dance card is sure gonna be full on arrival.”
I don’t know how you can read that and pretend that it is anything other than a glorification of gang rape.
12@Mark; Sorry if my remarks came across as celebrating the preachers fate. My intention was simply to point out that he was more than likely going to reap what he had sown. I don’t condone it, but as you and I both pointed out (in different ways) , it seems to be part of the prison system culture. The only thing I do celebrate is that there is one more pedophile off the street and one more hypocrite out of the pulpit.
13@EMoon: well said.
(I tried to get down a similar road but flipped over in the ditch. After a couple of tries I quit and returned to safer ground.)
I would opine, Sexual Assaults inside jails and prisons are occasionally prosecuted, but not in proportion to their occurrences. Amongst others this is a reason to handle first time offenders differently inside, if you can. Obviously assaultive behaviors likely will land first timers into general population and far away from the other first offenders. If this ex-pastor is not assaultive he likely will land in and serve his time in a first offender program.
14Okay, confused: Did he get 2 years + 10 years probation after? Or did he just get 10 years probation? Just curious if he’s going to be spending any time in the ol’ lockup.
I’m a little disappointed that he didn’t turn out to be from my little east Texas town. Was hoping to reduce the population of nutjobs, but oh well.
15Don’t mind me, I misread the information. Yes, he got two years plus probation. Well, I’m glad for that! Forgive my after-midnight weariness =)
16@Rick
Yeah it really sucks when your remarks come across as celebrating the preachers fate. You know, because you were in fact celebrating the preacher’s fate. You were in fact taking great delight in it.
17There would appear to be a certain satisfaction in vengance, the old eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth thing, but it is hollow. Perhaps “celebration” does not precisely describe what Rick feels about the preacher’s likely fate, and of course, one can’t feel another person’s feelings and one’s own opinion doesn’t render those feelings invalid either. Just sayin’!
18This might be a good place to really consider what EMoon said about our culture, worldwide. We have accepted rape as one of the “spoils of war” as “the lot of women” as “brought on by the victim” (preacher fits there, he “deserves” it?) as “succumbing to temptation” and, in fact, as natural and unavoidable. It is not. It is an act of violence in which the perpetrator uses his or her body (or a suitable object) as the weapon, in the most cruel and personal of violations. We are horrified if someone uses teeth in an attack; phalluses, not so much. This really does merit consideration, folks. WHY do we accept this as a matter of course? I think that may be the root of the problem – one either ACCEPTS the act of rape as an inevitable occurrence, or one REJECTS it as unacceptable under any imaginable circumstance.
So thanks for the provocative discussion, because I have always accepted rape as one of those things that can’t be stopped – but I was wrong, and will double down on my efforts to break the cycle!
@Rick
19I’m very much against rape, even for this twerp, but I’m not against him being forcibly neutered with one of those plastic shanks we see on “Lockup.”
Dear EMoon and Liz,
20Thank you; you have phrased your thoughts on a difficult, serious issue most eloquently.
I enjoy Ms. JJ’s sendups of Louie, Rick, et al, but I am a regular visitor to the WMDBS because it is comforting to hear the voices of other liberals dicussing the craziness that passes for political discourse these days.
Rape survivor here throwing in her $0.02:
I take solace every time a rapist is convicted and has to face the music for his (not always, but usually “his”) crime. It needs to happen much more often.
I take no solace whatsoever in prison rape. Taking glee in stories of prison rape feels like I’m part of the rape culture that has already cost me dearly. It feels as though I’m supporting the idea that it’s okay to use rape as a tool to punish or correct someone’s behavior.
It’s not. Ever. It’s not okay to rape me because I wore something low-cut, or I flirted with you but didn’t want to put out. It’s not okay to rape me because I chose not to conform to commonly held notions of what “appropriate” female behavior is, because I didn’t follow the “rules.” If I want to assert that, I can’t turn around and say it’s okay to do to that guy because he behaved badly (no matter how many worlds away his bad behavior is from mine).
I WILL take great pleasure in knowing he can’t hide what he did anymore. That he can’t use his position as a weapon anymore. That? I’ll gloat over any damn day of the week.
21@Mark – I suppose this is going to end up a “did so, did not” exchange, but I thought I would add one more explanation of why and how I wrote my comments.
22Were my comments flippant? Yes.
Was I in a hurry when I wrote them? Yes. It was a busy day.
Did it turn out to be a failed attempt at humor? Yes.
Will I be more careful in the future? Yes.
Do I condone rape? No.
Ironically, I also saw and read this article this morning. It is a really good statement about putting what becomes a rape-toleration attitude back at its roots–not respecting others and having “boys will be boys” shrug instead.
You might like reading it as part of that change the culture EMoon advocated for.
http://oddlyclad.tumblr.com/post/51530117283/the-problem-with-boys-will-be-boys
23Mark: your comment was valid, not celebratory, and furthermore, since experience is sometimes the best teacher, these child abusers my have to learn the hard way how it feels to be powerless and afraid like their victims were.
24Unfortunately, this crime seems to have the most repeat offenders and the least likely success with psychiatric treatment.
Why do these people go into the Clergy? Simple answer is power over others. Some are seeking power to control themselves from urges that frighten them. The sad thing is a religious office is seen as tool of power in our society instead of a position of service to humanity. I used to be a Nazarene and the official Church doctrine does not support Pentecostalism. They are however extreme fundamentalists, believing in literal interpretation of the Bible and a long list of DON’TS. It is a mind set that is impossible to live up to.
25Yes, maryelle, from all we know child molesters can’t be rehabilitated. They just need to be locked away in a deep dark place for all eternity.
But they don’t need to be raped.
26Sorry, I should have addressed my comments to Rick.
27Mark — Okay, all right, already. Somebody pushed your “Rape is Wrong” button but good. But you’re preaching to the choir. None of JJ’s clients condoned rape, not even for rapists.
28Point taken, Rubymay.
Sorry.
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