Church Pastor, Wife Sentenced After Using Homeless for Forced Labor, Stealing Benefits – Christian Marriage Doesn’t Improve Society or Make People More Ethical

Church Pastor, Wife Sentenced After Using Homeless for Forced Labor, Stealing Benefits – Christian Marriage Doesn’t Improve Society or Make People More Ethical

It’s more and more difficult for me to want to stick with the Christian faith at all when I see so few people who claim to be Christians actually consistently live out a Christian lifestyle, or who commit such obviously anti-biblical actions.

Also let this serve as yet another example of how “hyper pro marriage, hyper pro Nuclear Family” views put out by Christians simply is not true: Christian marriage didn’t make this couple more godly, mature, loving, or ethical, nor did this marriage improve society.

Further, Gender Complementarian teaching (which includes “male headship” teaching) is clearly false, since so many self professing Christian men are unethical dirt balls.

(Link): Pastor Who Used Homeless as Forced Labor, Three Others Plead Guilty to Benefits Fraud 

(Link): California pastor gets jail time for using homeless in benefits fraud scheme: ‘Appalling abuse of power’

Victor Gonzalez and wife were part of church labor trafficking scheme, according to prosecutors

by Jon Brown

A California pastor and his wife were sentenced to prison time earlier this month after pleading guilty to a charge related to what federal prosecutors described as a church labor trafficking scheme that victimized the homeless.

Victor Gonzalez, the head pastor of California-based Imperial Valley Ministries (IVM), was sentenced to six months in prison and another six months of house confinement after pleading guilty in a San Diego federal court to conspiracy to commit benefits fraud, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

His wife, Susan Gonzalez, who pleaded guilty to the same charge, received a time-served sentence.

Christian College Accused of Banning Student for Having Premarital Sex After She Reported Rape

Christian College Accused of Banning Student for Having Premarital Sex After She Reported Rape

I do believe that the Bible forbids both rape and pre-marital sex, but rape is obviously not the same thing as “pre-marital sex” in the ‘normal’ sense.

Christian colleges and complementarians need to stop conflating the two – what such Christians do when they conflate both is to victim-blame rape victims, which is disgusting.

(Link): She told her Christian college she was raped. Then she was banned from campus.

A new federal complaint says Visible Music College gave a student a choice: admit to breaking the school’s ban on premarital sex or be expelled.

April 29, 2022
By Tyler Kingkade

When Mara Louk told an administrator at Visible Music College, where she was a senior, that a male classmate had choked and raped her last November, she expected that school officials would help her file a police report and arrange a safety plan.

Instead, she said in a federal complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Education on Wednesday, administrators at Visible, a Christian college in Memphis, Tennessee, accused her of breaking school rules against premarital sex with a different student, an ex-boyfriend.

She denied having sex with him but said the school threatened to expel her unless she signed a confession and finished the school year remotely.

Visible Music College administrators also told her they would not remove the accused student from her classes because police didn’t arrest him, nor would they conduct a Title IX investigation, because the alleged assault happened off campus. And administrators attempted to bar Louk from telling anyone else at the school that she had been raped, she said.

Donald Trump Critical Christianity Today Magazine Editor, Mark Galli, Accused of Sexual Harassment by Multiple Women, CT Magazine Allegedly Did Nothing About It

Donald Trump Critical Christianity Today Magazine Editor, Mark Galli, Accused of Sexual Harassment by Multiple Women, CT Magazine Allegedly Did Nothing About It 

Ah, yes. I’ve mentioned here and there on this blog that many progressives and liberals love to spend a lot of time criticizing evangelicals, Republicans, and Trump voters for not agreeing with or supporting left wing causes, they all hate Trump, so they demonize anyone (especially evangelicals) who voted for Trump, and they like to point at any Christian or conservative who’s been accused of sexual assault.

Here we have a case of an editor of a Christian publication who apparently not only heavily criticized Trump, Trump’s supporters, and criticized feminism (not that I agree with feminism on any and every point myself), but he was allegedly sexually harassing several women co-workers at Christianity Today magazine. Hypocritical!

It is so hypocritical how people on the left sexually harass people while claiming ALL evangelicals or ALL Republicans or ALL conservatives are sexual harassers or sexist (some are, yes, but not all).

The left – progressives, liberals, Democrats – has its OWN failures and problems, including with sexism.

While people on the right side of the political spectrum (of which I am one!) have their problem with drooling, knuckle-dragging sexists and the occasional pervert, SO TOO do the Trump-hating, evangelical-hating liberals, progressives, and Democrats.

Even the VERY SAME conservative- haters and Trump- haters who write impassioned editorials for Christian magazines criticizing behaviors of Trump, Trump voters, and conservatives, are themselves guilty of engaging in sexual assault, and/or some of the very same problems they criticize in others.

It’s more frustrating coming from progressives, Democrats, and liberals, though, since they are always mewling about how “anti sexism” they are. No, they’re not.

The very same guys – the conservative haters or Trump haters – writing these editorials are supposedly sexually harassing multiple women!

So spare me, you “Exvangelicals,” progressives, and conservative haters and Trump haters for your hypocritical sanctimony and outrage against anyone who disagrees with YOUR political stances.

This goes to say – yet again! – that while not every non-Christian man on the planet may be a prize, there’s nothing intrinsic in Christianity that makes a man (or not every man!) a ‘better catch’ for a single Christian woman.

You single Christian ladies that are still hanging on to the “equally yoked” rule in regards to dating and marriage are, in my estimation, wasting your time.

You have a supposed Christian man (working as an editor) at a Christian magazine who was allegedly sexually harassing numerous Christian woman, for pete’s sake!

This guy’s supposed faith in Christ means nothing – his profession of faith in Christ did not make him a better person – but some of you single Christian women who believe in the “equally yoked” rule may have been likely to date this sexist clown if he was single, dating, and matched with you on a dating app – while not realizing that he’s a pervert. Please think that over.

(Link): Two top ex-execs at Christianity Today sexually harassed staffers, magazine says

Excerpts:

Former advertising director and editor who authored anti-Trump editorial named

March 15, 2022
by Mark A. Kellner – The Washington Times – Tuesday, March 15, 2022

Two top executives of evangelical magazine Christianity Today committed “unchecked” sexual harassment of colleagues over the course of a dozen years, the publication said Tuesday.

Mark Galli, who was editor-in-chief of the magazine for seven years before his retirement in January 2020, was accused of multiple incidents of ”demeaning, inappropriate and offensive behavior,” in an online article by CT News Editor Daniel Silliman posted Tuesday.

In December 2019, Mr. Galli — a veteran of several editorial positions in his three decades at the Christian publisher — penned a widely noticed editorial condemning then-President Trump as unworthy of office.

…The editor cited a “stacked deck of gross immorality and ethical incompetence” on the part of Mr. Trump that would “crash down on the reputation of evangelical religion and on the world’s understanding of the gospel.”

…Olatokunbo Olawoye, former advertising director at the publication, was accused of imposing himself on female employees.

Church Sued by Employee who Resigned for Cohabitating with Boyfriend Wins in Court

Church Sued by Employee who Resigned for Cohabitating with Boyfriend Wins in Court

(Link): Court: WI church free to hold employees accountable to its religious beliefs

Excerpts:

Feb 24, 2022
by: Brenda Ordonez

MADISON, Wis. (WFRV) – A Madison church will be able to continue requiring its employees to share and live out its religious beliefs.

The Wisconsin Court of Appeals ruled Thursday in favor of Capitoland Christian Center Church after a former employee filed a lawsuit against the church back in 2015 alleging that officials had committed marital status discrimination.

According to a court filing, the complainant, Sandra Sandoval, was hired as a cook for Capitoland Christian Center Church’s daycare program in 2014.

When she started, Sandoval, like all other Capitoland Christian Center Church employees, reportedly signed a “Statement of Affirmation and Agreement.”

Part of this agreement entailed that all employees refrain from “co-habitation with members of the opposite gender outside of marriage” as a condition of their employment.

Carl Lentz’s Alleged Mistress Speaks Out in Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed Trailer: ‘Toxic’

Carl Lentz’s Alleged Mistress Speaks Out in Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed Trailer: ‘Toxic’

Update Below

(Link): Carl Lentz’s Alleged Mistress Speaks Out in Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed Trailer: ‘Toxic’

February 16, 2022

The Discovery+ docuseries premieres on March 24

Hillsong Church was a star-studded house of worship, but scandal has overshadowed its charismatic brand of Christianity in recent years. Now a Discovery+ docuseries, Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed, delves deep into the headlines — including former pastor Carl Lentz.

Once a spiritual confidant of Justin Bieber, Lentz was ousted from Hillsong in November 2020, ending a 10-year tenure because of what the church described as “moral failures.”

Soon he publicly admitted to being unfaithful to his wife Laura, whom he married in 2003 and with whom he shares three children.

Amid the fallout, Ranin Karim, a New York woman who said she met Lentz at a Brooklyn park in May 2020, alleged she was his mistress.
“It was the most toxic thing I’ve ever had to deal with,” Karim says in the newly released trailer for Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed, which Discovery+ will stream in three parts.

Four in 10 Adults Between the Ages of 25 and 54 are Single, Up From 29% in 1990

Four in 10 Adults Between the Ages of 25 and 54 are Single, Up From 29% in 1990

(Link): Four in 10 Adults Between the Ages of 25 and 54 are Single, Up From 29% in 1990

by Sarah Todd
Nov. 9, 2021

The frustrations that single people encounter in a largely coupled-up world are well established. Less well-known—but just as pervasive—are the challenges faced by single people at the office.

The expectation that single people clock longer hours than their paired-up counterparts is one common complaint. “Lots of people I interviewed complained that their managers presumed they had extra time to stay at the office or take on extra projects because they don’t have family at home,” Eric Klinenberg, author of the 2013 book Going Solo, told The Atlantic last month.

And in some cases, being single can affect a person’s job prospects.

Ravi Updates: Ravi Zacharias Hid Hundreds of Pictures of Women, Abuse During Massages, and a Rape Allegation

Ravi Zacharias Hid Hundreds of Pictures of Women, Abuse During Massages, and a Rape Allegation

I first blogged about the perverted shenanigans of his months ago.

This goes to show (yet again!) that being married and part of a “nuclear family” does not make a person more godly, ethical, mature, or responsible, as so many marriage-promoting Christians like to argue.

The “nuclear family” also doesn’t improve society as so many Christians argue – note I am not opposed to the nuclear family, only I don’t hype it to a degree that is unwarranted as do so many other conservatives.

(Link): Evangelist Ravi Zacharias accused of rape, spiritual abuse by own church

(Link): Law firm details sexual misconduct by global ministry leader

NEW YORK (AP) — Ravi Zacharias, who died in May after a high-profile career leading a global Christian ministry, engaged in sexual misconduct with massage therapists and carried on many amorous extramarital relationships via text message and email, according to a scathing, in-depth report from a law firm hired by the ministry.

Five of the therapists said Zacharias touched them inappropriately, and one said she was raped, according to the report. It said investigators searching Zacharias’ mobile devices found more than 200 photographs of younger women, including nude images of a salon employee in Malaysia.

(Link): ‘Criminal, sociopathic, satanic’: Christian leaders react to Ravi Zacharias sex abuse report

(Link): Famed Evangelist Ravi Zacharias engaged in sexual misconduct, his ministry says

(Link): Ravi Zacharias Hid Hundreds of Pictures of Women, Abuse During Massages, and a Rape Allegation

Excerpts:

His ministry, preparing to downsize in the wake of a new investigation, expresses regret for “misplaced trust” in a leader who used his esteem to conceal his sexual misconduct.

by DANIEL SILLIMAN AND KATE SHELLNUTT|FEBRUARY 11, 2021

A four-month investigation found the late Ravi Zacharias leveraged his reputation as a world-famous Christian apologist to abuse massage therapists in the United States and abroad over more than a decade while the ministry led by his family members and loyal allies failed to hold him accountable.

He used his need for massage and frequent overseas travel to hide his abusive behavior, luring victims by building trust through spiritual conversations and offering funds straight from his ministry.

A (Link): 12-page report released Thursday by Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) confirms abuse by Zacharias at day spas he owned in Atlanta and uncovers five additional victims in the US, as well as evidence of sexual abuse in Thailand, India, and Malaysia.

Standard Christian View About Sex is Actually Creating Controversy: “Major Ministry Will Fire Employees Who Don’t Believe That Sex Is Only For Married Straight Couples”

Standard Christian View About Sex is Actually Creating Controversy: “Major Ministry Will Fire Employees Who Don’t Believe That Sex Is Only For Married Straight Couples”

(I have edited this post a few times to add additional thoughts – there is also a December 2016 update below in regards to the left wing BuzzFeed and ‘Stuff Christian Culture Likes’ witch hunt story about HGTV hosts Chip and Joanna Gaines – which is similar to the 2019 attack on actor Chris Pratt by actress Ellen Page)

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Among some progressive Christians or progressive Christian groups, this news story was quite the controversy about a week ago when it was first published.

I read in another news source that IV (InterVarsity) says that their position on these issues has been misunderstood.

I have some more comments to make under the excerpts here:

(Link): Major Ministry Will Fire Employees Who Don’t Believe That Sex Is Only For Married Straight Couples

Excerpts:

A Christian organization that leads student religious groups on more than 600 college campuses will fire any of its 1,300 employees who say they do not agree with the organization’s theological interpretation on sex: that it is only appropriate within a heterosexual marriage.

That means that any InterVarsity Christian Fellowship employees who believe that churches should perform gay weddings, who endorse sex before marriage, who condone pornography or who hold any number of other beliefs might be included in what the evangelical organization calls “involuntary termination.”

Coming from a major evangelical institution, the policy revives debate about how churches should handle questions of sexuality and who can define themselves as evangelicals.

In an interview with The Washington Post on Friday, the ministry’s vice president Greg Jao said that since InterVarsity employees teach college students about biblical views, it is imperative that they share the same beliefs. Four or five people have been fired so far, and he expects more to follow in the next month.

Married Preacher Raped Two Girls in His Church and Also Had Child Sexual Abuse (Porn) Collection- Some of it obtained by placing hidden cameras in church bathroom

Married Preacher Raped Two Girls in His Church and Also Had Child Sexual Abuse (Porn) Collection- Some of it obtained by placing hidden cameras in church bathroom

I think I’ve long since given up on my parent’s idea that the way to meet a decent, kind, stand-up man to marry is at a church. (It’s a bit of a problem anyhow, since a lot of single men between the ages of 25 and 75 don’t attend churches much.)

I do not blog about every single story that I see come through my Twitter feed about Christian men (some who work as preachers) who are arrested for fondling teens, raping children, soliciting sex from minors, or having child sex abuse (aka child porn) collections.

If all I did was blog about those kind of stories, I would be on this blog 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It would be difficult for me to keep up with them all. (This blog post you see here, of this preacher who raped girls at his church, is the 3rd or 4th such story I’ve seen like this come through Twitter this week alone. And I saw a few similar stories last week and the week before.)

Not only is a guy saying he’s a Christian not a guarantee he is quality material, but this deviant guy is MARRIED.

A lot of Christians promote this untrue idea that being married is necessary to make a person fully mature, godly, and responsible. Obviously, being married does not make everyone mature and godly, because I have numerous stories like this one of married men who are guilty of raping children.

And obviously, a person does not have to reach some level of godliness or perfection – as some Christians teach – before they can land or earn a spouse on their own merit or from God. This guy is as imperfect and twisted as they come, yet he was married! God did not keep this man from getting a spouse and marrying.

So please, Christians out there, please stop advising adult singles – as some of you do – that if they are still single, it’s because God is “working on them,” God is trying to “clean them up to make them marriage material,” or they have to work on themselves to remove flaws or sins from their own life.

I am hard pressed to think of anyone more flawed and sick than a child rapist or an animal abuser, but it’s a fact that some stories you see in the news of child rapists and animal abusers are also married. It’s not a bunch of never-married adults out there raping children or harming animals.

(Link):  Arkansas pastor whose wife discovered his horrendous child porn collection will serve two life sentences over the rape of girls at his church

• By JOSH HANRAHAN FOR MAILONLINE
• PUBLISHED: 06:57 EST, 20 April 2016 | UPDATED: 07:39 EST, 20 April 2016

• A disgraced Arkansas pastor who was charged with the rape of two girls after his wife discovered his shocking collection of child pornography on their laptop, will serve two life sentences in prison.

• Anthony Waller, 39, was given no chance of parole after pleading guilty to two counts of rape on Tuesday, according to the Jonesboro Sun.

• The former children’s pastor committed the offences while an employee at the First Assembly of God Church in Jonesboro, Arkansas, about 70 miles north-west of Memphis, Tennessee.

• The court heard Waller raped the girls in the bathroom of the church and at other locations.

• In addition to the rape charges, Waller still faces 50 counts of video voyeurism and one count of child pornography.

Court Upholds Firing of Spiritual Director by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship Because She Failed to Save Her Marriage – Example of Christians Making Marriage Into An Idol

Court Upholds Firing of Spiritual Director by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship Because She Failed to Save Her Marriage

Talk about Christians making marriage into an idol – so much so, they’ve fired a woman for getting a divorce.

Irony: even if divorce is a sin, God will forgive this woman of being divorced – but apparently not her Christian employer.

Haven’t yet read article. Curious – maybe the woman did not want the divorce, but her husband forced this on her (edit: okay, I read the article, and it says, yes, the husband filed for the divorce).

Or, maybe he was an abusive a-hole, and for her own peace of mind, she had to ditch the loser.

None of that is an excuse for them to fire her, near as I can tell.

Almost any time I see a story like this, the WOMAN gets treated unfairly.

I bet dollars to doughnuts that this same employer has DIVORCED MALE employees working for them, but they only fire WOMEN for divorce. Men always get exceptions or preferential treatment in stories like this. (Edit 2: yep, that is the case. This same organization has two divorced men working for them.)

I will say though that she made a HUGE mistake telling one of her bosses or co-workers about her marriage. The article says she confided in a boss that her marriage was rocky.

You should never, ever discuss personal shit about yourself at your job.

Never, ever… there are so many reasons to not do so, one of which is that the a-holes you work with may use that private info to sabotage you on your job, even on secular jobs.

Your employer – and I care not what their religious views are – is not entitled to you know about your personal life, like, that status of your marriage. It’s none of their damn business.

I am appalled that this company has something called a “requirement of the Separation and Divorcing Staff Policy”.

It’s none of their damn business how your marriage is going or not going, and I do not care if they consider themselves a “Christian” business. This is totally inappropriate and an over-stepping of boundaries.

How is this divorced woman supposed to pay her bills and buy food without an income? (Edit. I re-read it, this was a non-profit, so I guess she got no paycheck from them.)

I do have mixed feelings on some of these situations.

I don’t know if I agree with churches doing things such as giving financial rewards and giving free diapers and so on to fornicating women who get knocked up – to me, that’s a debatable point.

You have churches giving free weddings to couples who are “shacked up.”

Maybe all that wouldn’t bother me so much except for the hypocrisy: that if you are a single adult, living a clean life style (no sex, no drugs, etc), churches are hesitant to help you out, to do favors for you, pay your rent for you, or buy you a  month of free groceries if you’ve fallen on hard time.

However, many Christians and churches JUMP in a heart beat to help knocked-up, single, 14 year olds.

I don’t get it. Christians will snub or neglect single adults (including elderly widows) who are living godly life styles, but fall all over themselves to help drug addicts, etc.

Anyway – I don’t think it’s a Christian employer’s business on how your marriage is going. I don’t in this case think it’s entirely fair or ethical to fire a worker over something in his or her personal life (in particular, divorce).

(Link): Court Upholds Firing of Spiritual Director by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship Because She Failed to Save Her Marriage

• BY LEONARDO BLAIR , CP REPORTER
• February 10, 2015|2:04 pm
• A federal appeals court in Michigan upheld the firing of a former spiritual director at InterVarsity Christian Fellowship last Thursday because she failed to save her marriage.

  InterVarsity Christian fellowship is an evangelical campus mission that establishes and advances witnessing communities of students and faculty at colleges and universities across the U.S., according to the (Link): organization’s website.

  Alyce Conlon began working with InterVarsity in 1986 and served at the organization’s spiritual director in Grand Rapids from 2004 to 2011 until she was fired after her marriage fell apart, according to a (Link): mlive report.

• Conlon had contended in a (Link) 2013 lawsuit against InterVarsity that she was treated unfairly because she was aware of two male employees who had divorced their spouses and were not fired or disciplined by the nonprofit.

  According to the lawsuit, after she informed Marc Papai, her supervisor at InterVarsity, that she was having marital problems in 2011, she was placed on paid leave and encouraged to work on her marriage.

• In May 2011, Papai and Fred Bailey, regional director of InterVarsity’s Great Lakes Region, became “heavily involved in plaintiff’s attempts to reconcile her marriage,” according to Conlon’s attorney, Katherine Smith Kennedy, in the lawsuit.

  “During this leave of absence, plaintiff followed each and every requirement of the Separation and Divorcing Staff Policy, including counseling sessions and continuing communication with her supervisors as to her progress,” she noted.

• During the absence, Bailey and Papai contacted Conlon’s then husband, David Reimer, without her consent to discuss their marriage. Papai reportedly issued Reimer a “staff only confidential policy” then asked him to write a letter about his marriage to Conlon who was later ordered to see a counselor of her husband’s choice.
• “Despite plaintiff meeting all of IVCF’s requirements for her return to work, IVCF refused to allow plaintiff to return to work because she was not successful in reconciling her marriage,” noted Conlon’s lawsuit.
• Records show that whenever employees have marital problems InterVarsity “encourages employees to seek appropriate help to move toward reconciliation. IVCF will consider the impact of separation or divorce on colleagues, students, faculty and donors.”
• …Her husband, David Reimer, filed for divorce in January 2012.
• …Legal teams on both sides accepted that the ministerial exception applied to Conlon’s dismissal but Conlon’s team argued that InterVarsity had waived that exception highlighting on its website that it’s an equal opportunity employer that hires without regard to marital status, gender or other factors. Conlon also pointed to two men who had divorced and kept their jobs.

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Related posts:

(Link): Bias and Discrimination Against Singles and Females – Woman Fired by Christian Employer for Being Divorced but Her Male Divorced Co-Workers Not Fired

(Link):  Single, pregnant mother fired from church for not being married

(Link): Sex is Not the Primary or Only Basis of Marriage – Rape Victims / Asexuals / Bestiality ~ Zoophilia / Sexless Marriages / Park Bans Single Men -AND- Single Women – Rebuttal to Blogger John Morgan 

(Link): Discrimination Against Singles in Spain – and Ageism