A Santa Ana pastor has been sentenced to 45 years to life in prison for sexually assaulting three young girls.
Carlos Ramirez Valdez, 61, was convicted of 14 counts related to the child sexual abuse cases that happened while he was the leader of Iglesia De Dios Ebenezer Church between 2012 and 2019. He became a pastor at another Santa Ana church after the assaults.
14 Comments
aeronmelon@lemmy.world · 34 pts · 300d
unadulterated rage
Everyone go watch the Philip Seymour Hoffman & Meryl Streep movie Doubt to see just how systemically fucked organized religion is.
Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 300d
While I agree, it isn't just religion. Seems any organization that gets past a certain size goes the route of protecting its "leadership" over others. But religion is a great example of it.
vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 300d
Also one of the oldest examples I know of, it was one of the many complaints that were part of Martin Luther's thesis. That's just the most concrete one I know about, there are less solid ones going back as early as the 700s.
Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 300d
Though it doesn't say the church knew anything about the assualt. Could be ragebait since we know churches have shuffled people to protect them before.
hperrin@lemmy.ca · 25 pts · 299d
That is disgusting. This kind of presidential behavior should not be tolerated.
blave@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 300d
Wonder if anyone has ever done a study on the correlation between “faith leader,” and “child molester.”
lol_idk@piefed.social · 6 pts · 300d
1
MonkeMischief@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 299d
They often try to position themselves in places of influence and trust.
I imagine faith leader in a smaller community is a role that usually does carry a lot of trust, but might have lower barriers to entry and less scrutiny than say, schoolteachers or other perceived "trustworthy" roles in society.
Roles that parents say kids should respect and listen to, that sorta thing.
blave@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 299d
Pedophilia is, at its core, about the abuse of power dynamics. It manifests sexually because the taboo nature in which our society regards sex provides specific types of vulnerabilities in that power dynamic, particularly in the sexually immature.
Akasazh@feddit.nl · 10 pts · 299d
Again, not a drag queen.
Paula_Tejando@lemmy.eco.br · 6 pts · 299d
It's always the ones you most expect. And it's always projection.
whiwake@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 300d
If a person has their hand on a Bible, the other hand is on a child’s crotch
Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 300d
Why is a 4 year old alone with the pastor? Why was he driving another girl home from church.
It feels more like he was a family friend as well as a pastor. Probably babysitting and such. While I have no love for organized religion, nor believe there is any reason to trust a padtor more than any other person. The pastor thing may not be as relevant as it is being made out to be here. Still relevant, but I don't think it is necessarily what gave him access to these girls.
whiwake@sh.itjust.works · 7 pts · 299d
I don’t know about this one, but lots of predators get to know the family to be trusted and then gain access.