350000 wtf

Maybe because, in fairness, many, maybe even most, youth pastors <> sexual predators.

The issue in my view should be that they should be much better vetted, supervised and monitored because of the potential for great harm from bad actors.

It's very much like why businesses have no incentive to pollute less. Polluting less and predating less, both cost money to make happen, and require that certain unpleasant realities and perhaps fun-spoiling responsibilities be faced and lived up to.

A primary enabler of this problem in the evangelical world is the wrong-headed notion that professing faith in Jesus, particularly to the extent of answering a "call to the ministry", tends to confer some moral virtue upon you. This is called "sanctification", the notion that you are magically made a better and better person by the Holy Spirit. If you buy this to any extent, then it becomes a faithless, doubting and therefore sinful action to question the motives of the professing faithful, particularly those in leadership who are in a position to reflect badly upon the reputation of the church.

"In order to escape accountability for his crimes, the perpetrator does everything in his power to promote forgetting. If secrecy fails, the perpetrator attacks the credibility of his victim. If he cannot silence her absolutely, he tries to make sure no one listens.” - Judith Herman, Trauma and Recovery.

"The legal system is designed to protect men from the superior power of the state but not to protect women or children from the superior power of men. It therefore provides strong guarantees for the rights of the accused but essentially no guarantees for the rights of the victim. If one set out by design to devise a system for provoking intrusive post-traumatic symptoms, one could not do better than a court of law.” - Judith Herman, Trauma and Recovery

The answer? The system is designed to protect men - judges, pastors, Presidents, Congressmen - and ensure that they can abuse children without any accountability. This is humankind's greatest shame.

Hear its been happening for years. Predators find professions so they can have free access to children.

I dunno. I keep thinking that if we just start shooting them dead the moment they're caught, it might act as a deterrent.
Just sayin'.

It's more or less the stereotype. Isn't it? If you met a youth pastor and they seemed to care a whole lot about the kids, especially some in particular, wouldn't that be a bad sign?

Another one bits the dust..and another one's gone..

Because God forgives