Roy Moore And Evangelical Churches Have A Catholic Priest Problem

Meet Roy Moore: Pedophile and sexual predator, and quite possibly the next Senator from the great state of Alabama.

-by James Newton

Roy Moore is a pedophile.

I am the father of a young girl, and if Roy Moore did to her what the Washington Post’s reporting said he did-- and I believe what the Post has written and what subsequent reports have added in support-- he might well be a dead man, and if not dead, beaten to within a inch of being so.

It turns out that this isn’t all that uncommon in the white male privileged world, probably all through society, but certainly in some sects of the Evangelical church, where the idea of “early courtship,” is still common. Where girls are molded for something called a “helpmeet,” which sounds a lot like an arranged marriage between minor girls and sick, predatory, older men. Where there are:

Adult men selecting and grooming girls who were too young to have life experience. Another word for that is "predation."

As we know, countless and uncountable Catholic priests were sexual predators and abusers with regard to the young, mostly boys, with impunity, for centuries. It appears that adult males in various evangelical sects have had a similar arrangement, have enjoyed a similar position of power with regard to young girls for a long time as well. And it appears that the Right, whatever that means, has brain-washed enough of its followers where this just doesn’t really matter. What the hell is going on in this country? We’re not perfect, I’m not perfect, but how is this not evil?

Roy Moore is a pedophile.

For the record, here’s how I define a pedophile: someone who is sexually attracted to children. By any definition, a 14-year old is a child, right? What am I missing? Oh, right. I’m not missing anything. So I doing it. I’m calling Roy Moore a sexual predator. I’m calling him a pedophile. I’m calling him evil. If he wants to sue me for libel, fine. But remember, Roy, ol’ boy, the truth is a complete defense.

Say it with me. Or don’t, whatever, but I am saying it:

Roy Moore is a pedophile.

In another sick and sort of unbelievable-- and just plain weird-- twist, some of Mr. Moore’s supporters are saying that what he did was ok because the virgin Mary was a teenager, too. Wow. OK. Let’s break that down for a second, shall we. My understanding from my Presbyterian upbringing is that part of the magic of Christianity and Jesus Christ was that Jesus was born of a virgin. Meaning that Joseph was a good and honorable man and didn’t, y’know, sexually assault, rape or otherwise prey upon or commit evil acts upon Mary? Do I need to go any further, or is the point clear?

People are fighting to put a pedophile, a Mr. Roy Moore of Alabama, a man twice fired from that state’s Supreme Court for ethics violations, into the United States Senate. This is a job where he becomes one of the most powerful men in the country, whose vote on a bill may one day determine, for example, if millions can or can’t have health insurance. This is who we are electing?

It’s no longer “Gob Bless America,” but God save America. Because right now we are lost.

Roy Moore is a pedophile.

UPDATE: Today's Developments Is GOP Pedophile World

Another woman is willing to testify in court that Moore locked her in his car and tried raping her when she was 16. Alabama Senate polls are neck and neck. Senator Cory Gardner R-CO), head of the NRSC, said that if Moore is elected he should be immediately expelled from the Senate "because he does not meet the ethical and moral requirements of the U.S. Senate."

The new accuser, Beverly Young Nelson, told a news conference in New York that Mr. Moore attacked her when she was 16 and he was a prosecutor in Etowah County, Ala. Ms. Nelson was represented at the news conference by Gloria Allred, a lawyer who has championed victims of sexual harassment.

“I tried fighting him off, while yelling at him to stop, but instead of stopping, he began squeezing my neck attempting to force my head onto his crotch,” Ms. Nelson said in a statement she issued at the news conference. She said Mr. Moore warned her that “no one will believe you” if she told anyone about the encounter in his car.

McConnell announced today that he believes the women who have come forward and told their stories about Moore's pedophilia. Can't get any worse? This evening, Charles Bethea reported for the New Yorker that the Moore situation is even sleazier than anyone assumed/feared:

This past weekend, I spoke or messaged with more than a dozen people-- including a major political figure in the state-- who told me that they had heard, over the years, that Moore had been banned from the mall because he repeatedly badgered teen-age girls. Some say that they heard this at the time, others in the years since. These people include five members of the local legal community, two cops who worked in the town, several people who hung out at the mall in the early eighties, and a number of former mall employees. (A request for comment from the Moore campaign was not answered.) Several of them asked that I leave their names out of this piece. The stories that they say they’ve heard for years have been swirling online in the days since the Post published its report. “Sources tell me Moore was actually banned from the Gadsden Mall and the YMCA for his inappropriate behavior of soliciting sex from young girls,” the independent Alabama journalist Glynn Wilson wrote on his Web site on Sunday. (Wilson declined to divulge his sources.) Teresa Jones, a deputy district attorney for Etowah County in the early eighties, told CNN last week that “it was common knowledge that Roy dated high-school girls.” Jones told me that she couldn’t confirm the alleged mall banning, but said, “It’s a rumor I’ve heard for years.”