33
submitted 1 month ago by King@blackneon.net to c/news@lemmy.world
  • Protecting an Abuser: Leaders of a Minnesota church didn’t report a parishioner to police though they knew he’d sexually abused girls for years and had been told reporting it was their duty.
  • Forgive and Forget: Church leaders held meetings where children were told to forgive the man who sexually abused them and forget the abuse. If they spoke of it, the sin would be theirs.
  • Missed Opportunities: Prosecutors had at least one opportunity to intervene but hoped educating church leaders about their duties would encourage them to cooperate with authorities.
top 23 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 10 points 1 month ago

In front of the girl, her father and Bruckelmyer, Massie asked her for forgiveness. Looming over her, the three men wept. Then the girl’s dad and preacher allowed the man who had been sexually abusing her since kindergarten to hug her.

In accordance with one of the core tenets of their church, the matter was resolved. It was forgiven. It should now be forgotten. If she spoke of it again, she would be guilty of having an unforgiving heart and the sins would become hers.

What is this shit?

[-] village604@adultswim.fan 5 points 1 month ago

That's organized religion.

[-] AlexLost@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Gaslighting. It's gaslighting the poor girl into obedience. Never be afraid to name names of anyone who threatens, tries, or does abuse you. The "sin" is theirs and will always be theirs, and if you remain silent they are free to sin again and ask forgiveness.

[-] Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 month ago

I'll preface this with that I'm not a believing Christian, I don't even believe in God. But I grew up with religious grand-parents and also had religious education since childhood from talking to our town priest at various summer camps that were organized and supervised by the church. I was that weird kid that always asked too many questions.

It's one of those attempts at bible-thumping that is just abhorrent and completely wrong.

In Christian belief (more strongly held to by catholic branches of Christianity), Jesus endured torture, insults and death and in return, he only wished for salvation for everyone (including the people insulting, torturing and killing him). Jesus did this because he knew that the only entity that is allowed to judge you is God and God will judge you when you die and by enduring the atrocities committed against him, he showed faith in God's fair judgement.

Technically, that means that seeking revenge or justice for a crime committed against you is equal to not trusting in God to judge your perpetrator(s) fairly in afterlife and as such is not living the example that Jesus gave. Instead, you should forgive and pray and hope that your abuser will understand and repent his wrongdoings.

It does however not transfer their sin onto you, you are committing a different sin in doing so, so they keep their sin of being a childfucker, so what these kooks are saying is baloney. It's also entirely unchristian to demand absolution from anyone but God and it's a sin doing so. As a victim, it's also allowed to think about and voice your anger and frustration of crimes committed against you, you should just not act upon your anger irrationally. Suing somebody for damages is not irrational, telling them to fuck off and never come near you ever again is not irrational, so they are plainly wrong.

[-] Dorkyd68@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Uber Christian bull shit

[-] monis@ttrpg.network 1 points 4 weeks ago

Religion is for grifters and morons.

If they're not making money off of it, you know which one they are.

[-] reddig33@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

Once again, not a drag queen.

[-] Broadfern@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Never is.

They don’t like drag queens because the drag queens might teach their kids to be literate.

[-] frongt@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 month ago

I wouldn't say never, after all Rudy Giuliani has done drag, and there was that time he got caught in a hotel room with someone he thought was 15 and his hand down his pants.

[-] DaMummy@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Don't forget when members of IDF cross-dressed, and went into a hospital to kill some people.

[-] sturmblast@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago
[-] ruekk@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

All religions are death cults

[-] PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago

One of the priests at the Catholic school/church I went to was a family friend.

Years later it came out that he had been abusing an altar boy who was just 1 grade behind me. I’d see this kid all the time.

When my mom told me he had been arrested and why, she said “But don’t tell anyone” - because he was “a friend”.

I said bullshit - I’m telling everybody I see.

He’s in prison forever now but that poor kid…and that’s just the one I know about.

[-] gramie@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 weeks ago

There was a pedophile priest who had the parents of a boy he molested complain to the bishop. The bishop, in his wisdom, moved him to be a teacher in my school. An all-boys boarding school. A few years after I was there, he was convicted of molesting a boy at the school, as well as the original case. His sentence was 2 years of probation. He died in his 90s just a couple of years ago, and his obituary was full of praise and warm memories.

Meanwhile, one of the boys in my class who I now can see was being groomed by this priest, took his own life before he was 50, after what was described as a very difficult life. I think it's pretty obvious why.

In the 40+ years since I left that high school, no one from the school or the diocese has ever contacted me or my family to see if we saw or experienced any abuse.

[-] SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

If I learn a "friend" abused a kid... They're not my friend anymore, and likely never will be again

A friend isn't a sacred thing, if someone turns out to be a piece of shit, I drop them like a stone. They're dead to me. I will never excuse someone's abhorrent behaviour like that. To still stay friends with them and maybe even excuse or hide what they did.. is unthinkable to me

[-] PetteriPano@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

The Laestadian sect from my neck of the woods are big on forgiveness. If I had a quarter for every time this story has surfaced, I'd have a nice mixed bag of beers for the weekend. I might get alcohol poisoning if I had a quarter for all the stories that never surfaced.

[-] aceshigh@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Are church leaders mandated reporters in Minnesota?

[-] Trigger2_2000@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago

According to this site MN mandated reporting they might be:

People who must report

Anyone who is a professional or a professional's delegate engaged in the practice of the healing arts, social services, hospital administration, psychological or psychiatric treatment, child care, education, law enforcement, or employed as a member of the clergy.

I say might be because it states "employed as a member of the clergy". I'm betting they would claim "everyone who knew" was a volunteer (i.e. not "employed").

I'm a member of a Christian organized religion. I don't think Christianity itself is to blame; PERVERSION OF CHRISTIANITY IS, but not Christinaty itself.

Any true Christian would report this (doesn't matter if they are legally required to or not). I'm not willing to stand in front of St Peter & God on judgement day and try to defend that kind of inaction.

They should have many years in prison to work to atone for that.

[-] arin@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago
[-] 93maddie94@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 month ago

Mandated reporters are people that are legally required to report abuse or suspected abuse. Teachers, social workers, physicians, etc.

[-] CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 month ago

Happens all the time. Especially the more fundamentalist you get.

[-] krooklochurm@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 weeks ago

Look, they have faith in god, and god is totally real, but we have to separate the religious people from those who are delusional, naive, hateful, or are using religion for their own gain.

The best way to do this is to let god, who is definitely, totally real, to choose who he favours.

So instead of a baptism we just have anyone who is following the lord leap off a cliff. God will save the ones that are actually religious, and we won't have to worry about the rest of the bad ones.

The great thing is that this works for every belief system that maintains the existence of any kind of remotely sapient higher power.

[-] ameancow@lemmy.world 1 points 4 weeks ago

I feel like the rotten brains out there who only know scrolling can no longer detect even a hint of sarcasm unless ChatGTP tells them that it's a joke.

this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2025
33 points (100.0% liked)

News

33677 readers
650 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS