If this article is correct, then the Roy Moore scandal regarding under-age girls and child brides is the NORM in evangelical "Christian" circles:
https://boingboing.net/2017/11/12/early-courtship.html
When Alabama GOP Senate nominee Roy Moore was accused of sexually molesting children as young as 14, his fellow hardcore evangelicals shrugged at the scandal -- it was "common knowledge" that Moore had a fondness for young teens.
Moore isn't alone in liking very young girls as sexual partners. The grooming of children to marry adult men is a common practice in American evangelical circles, and infamous child-bride advocates are celebrated on the lecture circuit, especially among home schoolers.
It's a widespread view among the hard right evangelical world, mainstream enough that Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson has publicly advised his fans to marry 15- or 16-year-old girls, because "you wait until they get to be 20 years old, the only picking that's going to take place is your pocket." This view was defended by mainstream Republicans, and Robertson has continued to enjoy success in right-wing media, with a new show on CRTV.
Another article on this issue by someone who grew up in those circles:
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-brightbill-roy-moore-evangelical-culture-20171110-story.html
The allegations against Roy Moore are merely a symptom of a larger problem. It’s not a Southern problem or an Alabama problem. It’s a Christian fundamentalist problem. Billy Graham’s grandson, Boz Tchividjian, who leads the organization GRACE (Godly Response to Abuse in a Christian Environment), believes that the sexual abuse problem in Protestant communities is on par with that in the Catholic Church.
The evangelical world is overdue for a reckoning. Women raised in evangelicalism and fundamentalism have for years discussed the normalization of child sexual abuse. We’ve told our stories on social media and on our blogs and various online platforms, but until the Roy Moore story broke, mainstream American society barely paid attention. Everyone assumed this was an isolated, fringe issue. It isn’t.
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bopper ago
How do you know Roy Moore was a professing Christian and religious at the time he allegedly did these things, i.e. when he was young. Just curious. Too lazy to look it up right now. If he wasn't then this particular case can't be a reflection on evangelicals. I'm not defending evangelicals, too many phony Christians nowadays.
From what has surfaced (and it's gone on for hundreds of years), this is far from correct. RC is a systemic institutionalized culture of secrecy which lends to this sort of, and other, degeneracy.
I was a pioneer in the homeschool movement, in a pioneer county, where the DA was well-know for protecting homeschoolers. Children are homeschooled for the very purpose of protecting them from a sick society. Of course there are exceptions. There is nothing wrong w/ marrying young w/ parent's permission, including mutually agreeable "arranged" marriages. That's Biblical. Hollywood twisted our perceptions and views dating back to Romeo and Juliet, where it was fashionable and cool and romantic to rebel against superiors.
Hollywood and music replete w/ this kind of backlash against authority. Listen to the song Saginaw Michigan, big country hit back in the day, same stuff, rebellion against parents who disapproved of a daughter's boyfriend and making the parents the fools and bad guys.
The bigger the religious organization the less it is to be trusted tho that's for sure.
garouwarrior ago
According to the women from the LA Times article, Roy runs in the same circle that she does:
Besides, aren't evangelicals just "honorary ZIONISTS" lmao!
bopper ago
These evangelicals of today make shipwreck of their ancestor's biblical teaching on the Jews. They err. The reformers of old taught that future Jews as a race (I don't buy the Khazar stuff) would turn en masse to the Messiah they rejected and killed. However, in the interim, "As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father's sake." Martin Luther found them to be incorrigible and deserted them. It's a complex and controversial subject. But yeah, John Hagee is a good example, he preaches the Jews are saved because they are "the chosen people," regardless whether they embrace Christ or not, which is heresy.