Conservative Babylon

Backstory: “EEOC Sues Tulsa Lighting Supplier for Religious Discrimination,” June 22, 2012

Voss Lighting to Pay $82,500 to Settle EEOC Religious Discrimination Lawsuit

Qualified Applicant Denied Job Because His Religious Beliefs Differed From the Company’s, Federal Agency Charged

TULSA, Okla. — Voss Electric Co., doing business as Voss Lighting, will pay $82,500 and furnish company-wide injunctive relief to settle a religious discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today. The EEOC had charged that the Lincoln, Neb.-based supplier of replacement lighting products violated federal law by refusing to hire a qualified applicant at its Tulsa location because of his religious beliefs. (more…)

Backstory:

• “Sacked, Sort Of: Cardinal Roger Mahony,” February 1, 2013

• “Cardinal Mahony Says He’s A ‘Scapegoat,’ Compares Himself to Jesus & Mary,” February 25, 2013

• “Black Collar Crime Round-Up” (Michael Stephen Baker), March 14, 2013

(more…)

Church Accused of Trafficking in Abuse
By Iulia Filip, Courthouse News Service
LOS ANGELES (CN) — Catholic bishops “facilitated the sexual molestation of children by engaging in the international trafficking of known child molesting priests,” alleged victims of clerical abuse claim in court. (more…)

On March 5th, we wrote about William Steven “Bill” Albaugh (left), the Maryland Roman Catholic deacon allegedly stupid enough to store child porn on his Verizon cloud account. Now ABC2 reports discovering that Albaugh’s son-in-law, 31-year-old Daniel William Garrett (right) — “who angrily defended” Albaugh — is himself a convicted sex offender. Sheesh!

Courtesy of the Wisconsin Gazette:

March 14, 2013 — The former pastor of a northwest Indiana megachurch is scheduled for sentencing today for persuading a 16-year-old girl to engage in a sexual affair with him by telling her that Jesus desired it.

(more…)

It’s been a while since we looked under Larry Craig‘s stall, and it’s still full of exactly what you’d expect to find in an airport toilet. Only there’s even more of it, and it really stinks.

As you may recall, the FEC sued ol’ Water-Closet-Case last year, claiming he “converted more than $200,000 of campaign contributions to his (more…)

Claims to fame: 65-year-old founder and former pastor, Living Word Fellowship of Santa Clara, St. George, Utah; right-wing extremist; one-time Republican candidate for Utah’s 2nd District; repeat GOP delegate; ex-U.S. Marine; Vietnam veteran; husband; father of five; grandfather of 18; convicted child molester

Moral apex: Sexually molested at least four young girls as young as ten years old, all relatives, under the guise of having them to his home to give them a “Godly upbringing.” (Family members (more…)

Guilty pleas: Wesley Joseph “Joe” Wingo and his wife, Linda Wingo, founders, now-defunct Angel Food Ministries, and pastors, Emmanuel Praise Church (a.k.a. Emmanuel Praise Global Ministries), Good Hope, Georgia; and their son, Andy Wingo, the church’s associate pastor and chief operating officer and AFM’s Director of Pastoral Relations; to 40 out (more…)

Backstory:

• “Trial’s On for Amish-Mennonite Pastor Accused of Aiding International Child Abduction of Isabella Miller-Jenkins,” August 8, 2012

• “Justice! Amish-Mennonite Pastor Kenneth L. Miller Convicted of Abetting International Kidnapping of Isabella Miller-Jenkins,” August 15, 2012 (more…)

“Projection is the psychological phenomenon where someone denies some aspect of their behavior or attitudes and assumes instead that everyone else is doing or thinking so instead. It is usually seen as the externalisation of a person’s negative traits, placing blame on an outside force such as the environment, a government, a society or other people. …”

Backstory: “Anti-Gay Cardinal Keith O’Brien Quits Following Allegations He Tried to Fool Around with Other Priests,” February 25, 2013

Boy, if only things moved so quickly in the Catholic church in the U.S. as they do in Scotland, we might not have so many pervy priests running around loose — or pedo-protecting cardinals running off to Rome to elect a new Pope: (more…)

BOY SCOUTS
OF BABYLON

Backstory:

• “Tim Bothell: Utah Mormon Stake Leader, LDS & BYU Employee & Boy Scout Leader Charged With Sexually Abusing Two Young Girls (‘Accidentally’… Eight Times),” August 18, 2012

(more…)

Charles Agbu • Mary Ann Aten • Caesar Belchez • Edward Belczak • Julius C. Blackwelder
Isaac Brooks • Romey Coles, Jr. • Archie Larue Evans • Peter Hesketh • Rose Hinson
Paul Haskell Lane / Katherine Hope Lane • Peter Nitschke • Demario Thomas
Sonya “Cheri” Tucker • Pam West • Paul Wolfe

Guilty plea: Charles Agbu, 58, pastor, Pilgrim Congregational Church, Carson, California, “to conspiring with doctors, the operators of fraudulent medical clinics, street-level patient recruiters, and others to defraud Medicare of more than $11 million,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Copping to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and one count of money laundering, Agbu “faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine” at his scheduled sentencing on May 16, 2013. Co-conspirator Dr. Juan Tomas Van Putten is scheduled for (more…)

“Winans took advantage of ‘good, decent, church-going people,’ said [Judge Sean Cox] in U.S. District Court before sentencing him. ‘That is very, very troubling to me… You used … churches to perpetuate this fraud.’

“Assistant U.S. Attorney Abed Hammoud said of Winans: ‘He used religion. He used the church, the good reputation of the family,’ to rob victims. … (more…)

A guy from Minnesota named Gerard Cellette is facing a whopping 116 counts of fraud, money laundering and other highly illegal shenanigans related to what the Orange County, California, D.A. calls “the largest Ponzi scheme to be prosecuted in Orange County history.” Cellette is accused of defrauding 55 victims in California — “without ever entering the State of California,” notes the D.A. — out of $21 million. There’s a nice, long explanation below that details exactly what Cellette is accused of doing (and why, until he was extradited to California a couple of weeks ago, he’d been twiddling his thumbs in a Minnesota prison) — but first, let’s hit the convoluted backstory. (more…)

“Truthfulness is the first pillar of good character in the Character Counts program of which I have been part of establishing in New Mexico. Many of you in this chamber have joined me in declaring the annual ‘Character Counts Weeks.’ This program teaches grade school youngsters throughout America about six pillars of good character. Public and private schools in every corner of my state teach children that character counts; character makes a difference; indeed, character makes all the difference. (more…)

Two videos after the jump.

When the news broke on the 18th that Christine Shreeve Hubbs — the Livermore, California, Mormon mom who plied two young boys with gifts and then had sex with each (the first reportedly her daughter’s boyfriend, and the second reportedly a patsy used to make the first boy jealous when he started pulling away from the shameless old cougar) — had been released from prison and was busted again less than a week later on a parole violation, we had no idea what sort of violation it was. Now, we know — but the parole violation is nothing compared to the rest of the story that’s just now emerging. If this is accurate, it’s almost as sick as anything that’s come before in the Hubbs saga, and highly disturbing. (more…)

Ironically, a post we made in 2011 ended with this: “Unless something bizarre happens while she serves her sentence, this is the probably the last you’ll hear of Chrissy Hubbs until 2016 — or maybe 2013, if she’s a good girl… for a change.”

Well, she made it to 2013 without warranting a mention from us — but it looks like she just can’t stop being a very bad girl… (more…)

Many news articles cover Ratzinger’s final Mass with a variation on this headline, but we’ll give the link to Raw Story, because the folks at RS are not jerks:

[Pope Benedict XVI] condemned “religious hypocrisy” and urged an end to “individualism and rivalry”. (more…)

By Jack Bouboushian, Courthouse News Service

(CN) – Pope Benedict’s retirement plans may open him up to prosecution by the International Criminal Court for sheltering child abusers, an advocacy group said Monday.

Citing his frail health on Monday, Pope Benedict XVI announced that he will step down as pope after less than eight years in office. He is the first pope to retire in the last 600 years. (more…)