..."Would he?"
Absolutely, he would.
He (the pastor, clergy, minister, church worker) did, he does, and he will continue to do so ...
The numbers are astonishing and alarming (see story here).
Yes, even in Missouri.
Witness the case of Rev. Paul Brooks (a former Trustee during the time of Marie's double pesticide poisoning, see here), and his son, Mark Lewis Brooks, who fathered an out-of-wedlock child (while married) and serving on the church staff of First Baptist Church of Raytown, MO.
From the Ethics Daily:
... [A twenty-year old intern] alleged the younger Brooks, employed at the time as a singles minister at the church, sexually assaulted her on numerous occasions over a five-month span between September 2003 and January 2004. She gave birth to a daughter in October 2004, and DNA tests proved Brooks was the father. ...
According to the original lawsuit, Mark Brooks forced himself on the young woman several times, telling her it was God's will. When Paul Brooks phoned to ask about the nature of her relationship with his son, she said Mark Brooks would not leave her alone.
Paul Brooks said it was her fault and told her not to answer his calls. When she became pregnant, both a counselor arranged by the church and Mark Brooks advised her to have an abortion. (In September First Baptist Raytown was host church for a rally opposed to stem-cell research featuring speakers including Rick Scarborough and Alan Keyes.)
From there, the story rips through broken lives and violated families.
(See the full story here).
You will notice that the list of the former Trustees of Southwest Baptist University is riddled with the names of Missouri Baptists and Southern Baptists, who style themselves as "leaders," (see here).
Yet, all of these men and (some few) women have allowed flagrantly unethical and immoral (and even potentially criminal) conduct to continue over years and years and decades at Southwest Baptist University -- with no care for the victims or their families.
A Pattern and Practice of Deception
In fact, it seems the pattern and practice of abuse is particularly virulent in Missouri. See this article:
And there are more and more and more stories within Southern Baptist Convention churches and organizations (see here).
The Southern Baptist Slavery Ethic
Within the Southern Baptist Convention churches, organizations and universities, the abuse against women, children and minorities is epidemic.
This abuse flourishes, in part, because the undergirding ethic upon which the Southern Baptist Convention was founded -- the Southern Baptist "slavery ethic" -- is still alive and prospering in Missouri and elsewhere.
The "slavery ethic" is the lifestyle, belief, and teaching that other humans beings, particularly women, children and social, ethnic or racial minorities (who are not of economic, social or personal benefit to the Southern Baptist Individual):
- may be bought and sold at a price,
- can be used, abused and disposed of without consequences or guilt,
- and can and should be denied the rights, privileges and benefits of a free society, if those rights, privileges or benefits conflict with those of the Southern Baptist individual, organization or institution -- because other individuals are of intrinsically less worth than the Southern Baptist individual in the eyes of both God and society.
Until June 20, 1995 when the Southern Baptist Convention issued a formal "Resolution on Racial Reconciliation, the Southern Baptist Convention had not officially discredited the practice of using the Bible as a justification for slavery and white supremacy. (If you like, see references here and here)
Although, in 2008, that resolution looks wonderful on paper and was a long-awaited and laudable step, it remains to be seen how much longer it will take some Southern Baptists to rescind the Southern Baptist "slavery ethic" and lifestyle from their hardened hearts ... and re-join the rest of us in the human race.
