Conservative Babylon

Video after the jump. (more…)

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…)

Bob Buss • Lisa Franklin • Epifanio “Pete” Nevarez • Matthew David O’Meara
Aaron Springer • Barry Thomas • Artelino Vallada

Charged: Robert A. “Bob” Buss, 49, catechist (religion teacher), St. Anthony’s Catholic Parish, Dubuque, Iowa; member, (typically homophobic) St. Anthony Knights of Columbus Council 8384; and missionary to Haiti; with misdemeanor dissemination of obscene material to a minor; i.e., sending nude pictures of himself to a 16-year-old Haitian boy he met on one of his youth mission trips. The Telegraph-Herald reports: “Police said they were provided email records, Facebook messages and photos that had been sent between Buss and the male, who is now 18 years old, but was (more…)

Video after the jump.

We swear we did not go looking for War-On-Drugs hypocrites today — they’re just popping up right and… well, actually, only on the Right. As soon as we finished telling you about Lake Forest city council member Peter Herzog, a real hard-ass on medical marijuana, who was busted on a DUI charge, up popped Steve Katz. (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!

Michael Baker • Angela Calcagno • Eusebio Martinez • Julio Guarin-Sosa
Vincent Mercer • George Spencer • Greg Sweeney

Settled: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles for $9.99 million to resolve four sex-abuse cases, including that of former priest Michael Stephen Baker, who was convicted of molestation in 2007, reports NBC Los Angeles, which notes that in 1986 Baker met with Cardinal Roger Mahony — who was “particularly hounded by the case” in the days leading up to his resignation — “and confessed to molesting two brothers for nearly seven years. … Mahony sent Baker for psychological treatment but eventually put him back in ministry, where he molested again. (more…)

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…)

Wendel Palmer • Jason Ray • Robert Ruark • Bruno Tucci • Eddie Velez • Patrick Williams • Piotr Zaloba

Charged: Wendel Palmer, 44, 22-year Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police officer and youth choir director, Bethuel Temple Churches of Christ Apostolic, Inc., founded by his father and now led by his brother, “Bishop” and “Presider” Winston R. Palmer, and “First Lady” Sonya Palmer, (which believes “sinner [sic] are driven by the MIND OF THE DEVIL, which in scripture is known as ‘THE CARNAL MIND’”), with first-degree child sexual abuse. Palmer is accused of molesting an 11-year-old girl repeatedly over the course of two years, beginning in 2004, inside the pastor’s (more…)

Video after the jump.

Because you haven’t heard Pat Robertson say anything really stupid since… well, since this, which happened a mere three days before the story you’re about to read: “Pat Robertson: Out! Out, You Demons of Goodwill!.”

Is it just us, or is Pat getting weirder, faster…? (more…)

Well, at least we can’t call the Catholic cardinals a bunch of hypocrites today — the guy they picked as the new Pope is just as misogynistic and vilely homophobic as the last one.

Actually, we may be wrong about that — this guy might even be worse. While Ratzinger said gays were mental cases (“intrinsically disordered”), we don’t recall him ever saying marriage equality was the domain of Neanderthals. No matter; essentially branding gays children of the devil puts Ratso and this new guy on equal footing. In any case… (more…)

Ricky, Ricky, Ricky… Either you think you’re too clever by half (you’re not), or you really are so dumb, you think American Atheists is (yes, “is,” not “are”; it’s the name of an organization) was silly enough to pay for a platform to express your impotent dreams of a ca.-14th-century Catholic theocracy.

Either way, Ricky, you are too dumb to realize that every American in his right mind will be scared to death at the idea of a nation under your god. And that includes Catholics. Well, at least those whose names aren’t Bill Donohue. (more…)

Joel Hodges • Paul Johnson • M. Kapyola • Jaison Kollannur • Charles Laub • Jack Lawlor • Samuel Lyte

Charged: Joel Kent Hodges, 31, former “contemporary worship leader,” Gardendale-Mount Vernon United Methodist Church, Gardendale, Alabama, with felony solicitation of a child by computer and traveling to meet a child for sex, also a felony. Story: North Jefferson News, January 2, 2013; WBRC, January 17, 2013. Just a few weeks after Hodges’s arrest, Gardendale-Mount Vernon’s pastor, Terry Greer, was arrested and charged with the shooting death of his wife. See backstory here and here. (more…)

Matt Abid • Louis Bristol • Haden Conrad • Tim Dampier • Michael Elder • Alex Gillespie • Jim Hadinger

Sentenced: Matthew “Matt” Abid, 30, former youth ministry leader, Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Alpine Township, Michigan, to just six months in jail, less 34 days served, plus five years’ probation and sex-offender registration, after pleading guilty in January to second-degree criminal sexual conduct (amended from third-degree criminal sexual conduct, which is defined as “penetration”), committed against a 15-year-old girl who belonged to Abid’s “Credo” youth group. WOOD adds: “Investigators say Abid admitted to touching the teenage girl and that there were several (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…)

Glenn Douglas Barton • Richard Bellingham • Joseph Finnigan • Thomas Allen Houle
Nathan Leuthold • Ted Simpson • Carole Lynn Spivey

Charged: Glenn Douglas Barton, 62, senior pastor, Calvary Way MInistries, a Pentecostal church which also operates Calvary Way Academy, a pre-K-12th school, as well as a daycare program, Kilgore, Texas, with aggravated sexual assault of a child. Barton is accused of sexually assaulting the alleged victim over a period of four years, beginning when the child was younger than 14 years old. KLTV reports that the “investigation included recorded audio conversations between the victim and Barton. The [arrest] affidavit states that Barton is recorded as saying,’I expect you to do what (more…)

Chad Audi • David Blizard, Thomas Kane and Robert Shauris • Earl Randolph “Randy” Fraser
Terry Greer • Eusebio Martinez • Kevin Sutherland • Highlands School (Steve Virgadamo)

Sued: Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries (“a non-profit organization committed to sharing the gospel of the love of Jesus Christ by providing hope to the hopeless, abused, disadvantaged and homeless … help[ing] them to become faithful Christians discipled into a local church”; member, Association of Gospel Rescue Ministries [AGRM]) and its CEO, Chad Audi, by one Charlotte Davies, who claims Audi raped her “‘countless’ times and threatened her and her son,” according to Courthouse News Service, which reports: (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…)

Bill Albaugh • David Keith Benson • Emilson Soares Corrâa • Crystal Dycus
Marukudiyil C. Velan • Michael Wilkerson • Unnamed pastor, Judah African Revival Mission Church

Charged: William Steven “Bill” Albaugh, 67, Roman Catholic deacon, St. Joseph Church, Fullerton, Nottingham (Baltimore County), Maryland, with one count of possession of child pornography, according to the Baltimore County Police Department, which reports: “Detectives began the investigation last month when Verizon Online notified the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that one of its subscribers had stored images of child pornography on the online ‘cloud’ storage system. … The investigation shows that Albaugh saved images of child (more…)