Calvary Chapel Pastor in Florida Pleads Guilty to Murdering his Mistress

Calvary Chapel Pastor in Florida Pleads Guilty to Murdering his Mistress

I first saw this story via Janey The Small on Twitter. This news story seems familiar – I hope I didn’t already post it to the blog.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep saying it: Christian singles: drop the “Equally Yoked” teaching. You need to judge people by their character if you want to date or marry them. You should not, for your safety, go by a label. Just because someone wears the label of “Christian” does not ensure they are a friendly, loving, ethical person.

I’d also have to say that stories like this go to show the Christian teaching of “hot, regular Christian married sex” is a great big falsehood. If married Christian sex was so great, why do I see these news stories of these men cheating on their wives?

By the way, this story also goes to show that contrary to a lot of Christian teaching, you do NOT have to earn a spouse, or be perfect or godly before God will send you a spouse. If that teaching were true, murdering slime balls like this guy in this story never would have been able to marry.

(Link): Calvary Chapel Pastor in Florida Pleads Guilty to Murdering his Mistress

Excerpt:

James Flanders, the Calvary Chapel Pastor from Florida who was suspected of murdering his mistress who he considered his “second wife” has now plead guilty to manslaughter charges as part of a negotiation for reduced sentencing and a plea deal to lessen his time in prison.
— end excerpts —

That post in turn links to this one:

(Link):  Former pastor pleads in murder case involving missing woman (VIDEOS)

April 2016

FORT WALTON BEACH — Former pastor James Ty Flanders pleaded guilty Thursday to killing Marie Jane Carlson in October, 2011 and has shown authorities where he buried her body.

Today will begin the “very tedious and time consuming” task of unearthing the corpse, according to State Attorney Bill Eddins.

…Flanders, who has been in jail facing the second-degree murder charge since last May 14, finally confessed during plea negotiations to killing Carlson, who he has said he considered his second wife.

Pro-Rape Pastor Defends Church’s Hiring of Child Rapist – Adult Singles: Dump the Equally Yoked Teaching

Pro-Rape Pastor Defends Church’s Hiring of Child Rapist – Adult Singles: Dump the Equally Yoked Teaching

I spotted this link (shared farther down page) when it was shared on WatchKeep’s Twitter today. My blog is not about child sexual abuse per se. I tend to focus, most often, on issues surrounding adult singleness.

If you are an adult Christian single who wants to be married, please reconsider following the “Be equally yoked” teaching. Whether or not the guy in this news story I have in this blog post is a “true” Christian or not is beside the point.

You can date a Christian man who you believe to be a “true” Christian – maybe you met him at church (which is pretty rare because single males do not attend churches), or maybe you met him on a Christian dating site (which some Christian men have used to select rape victims), and he shows all the outward signs of “loving the Lord” and so on and so forth – but then it is revealed he is a child rapist.

Would you really want to discover the guy you married is a child rapist, or views child porn?

I also question the pastor of this church who is defending the child rapist: could you imagine marrying a preacher, who you would assume is a godly man, only to find out he blames child rape victims for having been raped?

Also be aware that pedophiles actively seek wife material at churches. That’s right, single Christian lady: some guy who is a pedophile may start flirting with you at church or in Sunday School, hoping you will date and marry him. I did (Link): a post about this several days ago.

(Link):  Pro-Rape Pastor Defends Church’s Hiring of Child Rapist

Excerpt:

April 15, 2016

A Kentucky pastor is defending the decision to allow a convicted sex offender [Thomas Hopper] to work at his church [Truth Apostolic Church].

… Hopper was convicted of rape and sodomy of a 13-year-old girl in the early 1990s, followed by multiple criminal convictions in the early 2000s.  …

Preacher Stole Five Figures From Church To Pay off Young Mistress

Preacher Stole Five Figures From Church To Pay off Young Mistress

The article says he’s a married guy who was a preacher at a church.

So much for the Christian “be equally yoked” teaching, or the idea that married sex is so rewarding and fulfilling that married people won’t sexually stray.

(Link):  Missouri pastor stole more than $21,000 from church to pay hush money to young mistress: police by T. Gettys

• A Missouri pastor is accused of stealing more than $21,000 from his church to pay off his 20-year-old mistress.
• Ralph Sawyer was charged with a felony count of theft after prosecutors said he ripped off money from Lindsay Lane Missionary Baptist Church in Florissant, where he served as a pastor, (Link): reported KSDK-TV.
• Prosecutors said the church treasurer discovered money missing from the congregation’s savings account and launched an investigation — which revealed Sawyer had used his church-issued ATM card to make 35 withdrawals in June and July totaling $21,727.50.
• The 30-year-old Sawyer resigned Aug. 11 and turned himself in to police Sept. 1.

  Police said Sawyer admitted to beginning an extramarital affair with the woman in March, and he began paying her to keep quiet about the relationship after she began asking for money.

  Sawyer, who goes by “Drew,” remains held on a $25,000 cash-only bond.

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Related Posts:

(Link): Preacher Found Guilty of Murdering His Second Wife, Probably Killed The First One, He Had Affair With Vulnerable, Grieving Woman at His Church

(Link): Married Christian Preacher and Mistress Try to Kill Wife – Married Christians not more stable, mature, or godly than Singles

(Link): (Married) Pastor Busted in Prostitution Sting – If Married Sex So Great Why Do So Many Married Christian Men Have Affairs

(Link): Pastor charged in wife’s murder was headed to Europe to marry boyfriend, prosecutor says – Single Xtian Ladies: Kick that Be Equally Yoked Teaching to the Curb! Also: Marriage and Parenthood do not make people more godly or mature or loving or ethical

Christian Video Asks: Can A Christian Date A Non-Christian

If you are new to this blog, I would encourage you to use this blog’s search box or tags to look up the phrase “do not be unequally yoked” or “be equally yoked” to figure out my position on this issue.

Originally spotted on SCCL Facebook group, under the post, (Link): Ask a douchebro a theological question, get a remedial, two-dimensional, meritocratic answer.

I’d encourage you also to click that link, visit that thread, and read the replies under it.

That SCCL Facebook group post is about this Christian video

(Link): 516. Can A Christian Date A Nonbeliever?

Here were a few comments by some of the visitors of the SCCL group, in case you find yourself too lazy to visit there:

comment by Leah Thomason

• That was special…. I’m a Christian and I’m actually married to an Atheist. I can not stand the constant vilification of ‘unbelievers’ as defined by ‘spiritual leaders’ based on nothing. Is out marriage perfect? Nope, but I’m pretty sure it’s less messed up than a lot of equally yoked marriages out there! My husband and I love SCCL by the way!

by Daniel Jakob Eager

• I was a nonbeliever (even aggressively atheistic) when my wife (a Christian) and I started our relationship, now I am a minister.
• Jesus 1-Douchebro 0

comment by Curt Story

• I once bought into the so-called “equally yoked” trope. So I ended up dating “Christians” who were intellectually uncurious or emotionally unavailable. That was the default, and I admit my own issues played as well.
• The biggest problem I see with this whole idea…the “Christian identity” has very little to do with a person’s compatibility in a relationship.
• A couple that “prays together” or recites Bible verses at each other are engaging in a pre-programmed ritual established by evangelicals as some “cure-all” to real human needs. Good luck finding a real connection when plain emotional honesty is discouraged at a basic level.

by Nathan Kotter

• I wrote a post about the “unequally yoked” thing a long while back and I still refer to it to this day when the discussion comes up. I’m not a biblical scholar nor do I know Greek, and my statements could be way off base and there could be more to it. But this is how I always looked at it:

  What do the verses directly before the “unequally yoked” verse say?

  11 We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians; our heart is wide open. 12 You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. 13 In return (I speak as to children) widen your hearts also.

  So Paul is talking directly to the Corinthians. He says he’s spoken freely and his heart is wide open, but their hearts are restricted, and he’s telling them to be more open towards him.

  Now, Paul says the stuff about being unequally yoked. Okay, maybe he decided he’d said his piece about the Corinthians being shut off from him and switched gears to marriage. But what does he say after that?

  2 Make room in your hearts for us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one. 3 I do not say this to condemn you, for I said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together. 4 I am acting with great boldness toward you; I have great pride in you; I am filled with comfort. In all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy.

  Wait, what? Now he’s once again urging the Corinthians to make room in their hearts for him, and reiterates that they are in his heart.

  So to me, saying the “unequally yoked” verse is about marriage or dating doesn’t make any sense. You’d have to believe Paul was talking to the Corinthians, saying to open their hearts to him, then makes a completely off-topic comment about marriage, then goes back to saying to open their hearts to him? That’s not a logical flow of topics and wouldn’t make any sense in a letter. None of the context of the surrounding verses talks about marriage, the context of the surrounding verses is Paul telling the Corinthians that their hearts are closed to him.

Man Suspected Of Using Bible Study To Molest Children In His Home

Man Suspected Of Using Bible Study To Molest Children In His Home

Yep, another fine example of why I gave up on the “be equally yoked” teaching, because even Bible using, Bible believing Christian men rape little children.

(Link): Man arrested for sex crimes on juveniles

(Link): Bible Study Teacher Arrested On Multiple Counts Of Sexual Molestation

(Link): Man Suspected Of Using Bible Study To Molest Children In His Home

• A man has been arrested in Corona, California, for allegedly teaching Bible study as an excuse to lure children into his private home and molest them.
•  According to CBS Local Los Angeles, 54-year-old Bible study teacher Shawn Edward Shaffer of Corona was taken into custody on Monday on suspicion of sexually molesting juveniles under the age of 16. Police say the man was possibly conducting Bible studies for youths in his home, and using that opportunity to take sexual advantage of minors. The Bible study teacher has not been officially charged, but authorities are investigating the truth behind his peculiar private Bible classes.
• The Bible teacher is being detained at Robert Presley Detention Center in Corona on $3 million bail, according to police officials. He is facing multiple accounts of sexual molestation of minors, which could mean Shaffer was regularly using Bible study as a trick to continually bring victims into his home.
• It’s unclear how many children were victimized by Shaffer’s Bible class ruse, because detectives were only recently made aware of the man’s crimes by fully grown men. Several adult males have come forward with allegations about the Bible teacher, claiming that they were sexually abused as children within the city of Corona. Authorities haven’t confirmed yet if these men are claiming to have attended Shaffer’s Bible study, but the implication seems to be that the man were victims of the Bible teacher.
• According to Inland News Today, Shaffer not only used Bible lessons as a method to lure children into his home. He would also hang around local skate parks, presumably to speak to the juveniles and advertise his Bible class.
• ———–

Related

(Link): Married Preacher With Two Kids of His Own Accused of 37 Sex Acts With Two Kids – According to News Story, He Also Sexually Harassed Female Co-Worker

(Link):  Teen-Raping Texas Pastor Gets life in Prison After using the Bible to Justify Abusing Women – Equally Yoked is BUNK

(Link): Youth Pastor Molests Daughter, Lead Pastor Dedicates Children to Satan

(Link): Married Youth Pastor Father of Four Caught Raping and Molesting Several Little Boys claims the molesting kept the boys sexually pure and cures them of homosexuality

(Link): Married Father Who Worked as Police Officer Raped Wife After Drugging Her and Murdered Her and Their Children

(Link): Father Has Sex With His Own Children, Forces Them to Have Sex with Dog, His Wife and Ex Wife Participate

Christian Man to Pregnant Girlfriend: Convert to My Religion or Have an Abortion

Christian Man to Pregnant Girlfriend: Convert to My Religion or Have an Abortion

I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep saying it: there is no advantage or benefit to Christian single women to keep following the “Be Equally Yoked” teaching in regards to dating and marriage when so many (I did not say ALL but MANY, or a significant portion of) Christian men turn out to be so deviant.

I would hope and assume if a man claims to follow the teachings of Jesus, he would be a person of integrity, compassion, and grace, but more often than not, that does not seem to be true. Here is another example.

(Link): Christian Man to Pregnant Girlfriend: Convert to My Religion or Have an Abortion

• Jan 23, 2015
• A Christian man got his girlfriend pregnant and urged her to have an abortion. He said that he would marry her and let her have the baby only if she would convert to Christianity for him.
• However, she was hesitant, not wanting to embrace a religion for the wrong reasons. Therefore, he continued to pressure her to have an abortion. He was afraid, he said, what his church would think. And even though he was fine having sex with her, he would not marry a woman who was not a Christian.
• [long quote by the woman about the situation]
• Sadly, she had an abortion.

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Related Posts:

(Link): Christian Single Women: Another Example of Why You Should Abandon the “Be Equally Yoked” Teaching: 21-Y-O Christianity Student, Children’s Minister Charged With Murdering Fiancée He Was to Wed in August; Made It Look Like Suicide

(Link): Christian Women Sexually Assaulted by Christian Men At Christian College – College Blames The Victims / Re: Patrick Henry College

(Link):  19-Year-Old Student at Christian College Bleeds to Death After Secretly Delivering Stillborn Baby in Dorm Room

Life in prison for Satanist who dismembered and ate mother-of-three after taking her back to his house for sex – The Flip Side to Be Equally Yoked

Life in prison for Tennessee satanist who dismembered and ate mother-of-three after taking her back to his house for sex

(Link): Life in prison for Tennessee Satanist who dismembered and ate mother-of-three after taking her back to his house for sex

For all my pontificating on this blog about how stupid, unnecessary, possibly dangerous and limiting the “Be Equally Yoked” teaching is for and among single Christians, I do NOT mean to otherwise imply that any and every NON-Christian man is a safe bet for dating, companionship, or marriage.

If you are a single Christian woman, you need to be careful about the men you associate with regardless of that man’s religious beliefs.

There is no “safe bet.”