For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind…

The whirlwind reaches Six Flags Over Jesus…

A church whose former pastor was president of the Southern Baptist Convention has been rocked by allegations of child abuse, PageOneQ has learned.

Pastor Paul Williams, who directs prayer programs and special projects at the Bellevue Baptist Church outside of Memphis, has been forced to take a leave while a church committee investigates charges that Williams sexually molested a family member 17 years ago. Williams has been at Bellevue for 34 years, reports Agape Press, a news service run by the American Family Association.

In a statement issued by the church and obtained by PageOneQ, the church’s personnel committee says that Williams has taken a paid leave of absence in the wake of "a past, but highly concerning moral failure."

Dr. Steven Gaines (pictured), pastor of the church, has been attacked for not taking action earlier. Gaines acknowledged learning of the allegations in June of this year. While explaining that he thought the issue had been resolved, Gaines said he kept the information private because "the event occurred many years ago."

Understand, that when Bellevue fires someone over allegations of sexually abusing children, it’s a safe bet it wasn’t the gay teenagers being force fed fear and loathing of their sexual nature over at John Smid’s Love In Action, which lives in part on Bellevue’s dime.  That kind of sexual abuse they’ll pay good money for.  Sexually abusing kids isn’t a sin after all, if it’s done in Jesus’ name.

The schadenfreude here is very tempting.  Watching people suffer the kind of witch hunts and sexual panic they’ve brought down on gay people for so many decades can make you believe there is a roughhewn cosmic justice after all.  But you need to pay attention not only to the fact that these are merely accusations, but their source.  I mean that.  The story is making the blog rounds of the witch hunt going on now at Ted Haggard’s former megachurch, going as far as setting up a web site where people can leave anonymous tips about New Life Church staff or its leaders…

To assist in both the process of Rev. Haggard’s restoration and the protection of the Church itself, the Overseers are open to receiving current information relevant to either Rev. Haggard’s recovery process or any concerns about New Life Church staff or its leaders. While they cannot promise confidentiality, the Overseers will handle any such information discretely.

What could possibly go wrong?  Dan Savage ruthlessly mocks it, Here.  But Jerry Maneker over at Christian LGBT Rights has it right …this is nazi-esq witch hunting, pure and simple.

They encouraged friends, family, and neighbors to report anyone who didn’t toe the party line; many parents turned in their children; children turned in their parents; neighbor turned in neighbor; friend turned in friend. This witch hunt, and despite their protestations to the contrary, it is a witch hunt, shows the demented nature of not only the leadership of this "church," but of most of the organized "Church" in its single minded obsession concerning sexual matters, even "indiscretions" not involving minors, that happened well in the past. To say that this is an embarrassment to Christians worthy of the name is an understatement! These limited human beings obsess over sexual matters; indeed, froth at the mouth at the slightest suggestion of what they term to be "sexual impropriety," yet are blind to their own witch hunting, hurting others and their families…

Without question people who sexually abuse kids should be held accountable for it.  But in the current climate of sexual panic, it’s hard not to see how a lot of bogus accusations are going to be made.  I know…I know…they throw tons of bogus accusations at gay people daily.  All the more reason to treat any accusations that come out of the megachurches now with skepticism.  When it comes to sex and fundamentalism, truth is the first casualty.

And yes, ironically now, that fact is coming back to bite them in the ass.  But this reckoning has been building for years.  How many times have we witnessed, well before Haggard went looking for a massage, other fundamentalist church leaders getting caught up in sex sting arrests.  They’re caught with female prostitutes.  They’re caught with male prostitutes.  They’re caught with their own children, or someone else’s.  It’s the so-called bible belt that has the worst statistics on divorce, spousal abuse and child abuse, and surprise surprise, teenage pregnancy.  Who’d have thought…right? 

I’m sorry if people have dug themselves into situations where they feel backed into a corner over biblical literalism verses that complicated messy reality of the flesh, but as a matter of fact, the bible saying it’s so, Doesn’t make it so.  Sex is an instinct older then the fish, let alone the mammals, let alone the primates.  For what should be staringly obvious reasons, it is a powerful urgent drive.  It can trump the survival instinct, as many a backdoor lover who ended up in the hospital after the spouse came home can attest.  You treat the human sexual response like its some kind of blackboard for scribbling bible verses on and it will simply have its way with you. 

They say without the bible, there are no moral standards.  But what kind of a moral standard is it that makes you close your eyes to the reality of your own nature, and then blames you for not taking responsibility for it when it runs out of control?

Lacking an understanding of human nature that you can build wholesome and life affirming moral values upon, there’s probably been quite a lot of sexual immorality going on in America’s fundamentalist churches.  For years they’ve been pointing their fingers for the devils within themselves at liberals, at secularism, at Hollywood, at feminists, and of course, the favorite scapegoat, the homosexuals.  And as you sow, so shall you reap.  Now they’re pointing their fingers at each other.  Anything, but look in a goddamned mirror.  Anything but listen to the guy who once said Let him who is without sin…

No, no.  The stones must keep flying…at everyone else…