Hi Pundits!!!! I realize that I have been dormant for quite some time, but there have been a lot of recent events in the world that have awakened my writing impulse. For example, you may have heard about the little ‘ole Zimmerman trial. No, I’m not writing about that today because I am still too angry and disgusted about the outcome. Nope, I won’t go there today with you. Instead, I want to talk about a news story that came across my screen yesterday. It’s one that has me scratching my temple and side eyeing so hard it makes my crows feet ache. 
Here it goes….
Christ Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church in Jacksonville, FL has banned children from attending Sunday services because their new pastor, Darrell Gilyard, is a registered sex offender and cannot have contact with children. I’m sure you probably had to pause and reread that sentence…cuz it sounds CRAZY AS ALL OUTDOORS. The good pastor plead guilty in 2009 to lewd conduct and lewd molestation of two underage girls. He was the pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church when he molested a 15-year-old girl, and sent a lewd text message to another. Under the conditions of his plea agreement, the pedophile pastor cannot have “unsupervised contact with children under 18 years old.” However, even any supervised contact must be OK’d by a therapist.
It gets better…
There are even more reports of behavior unbecoming of a human pastor. According to the Guardian’s report, in 2004, Gilyard also admitted that he had fathered a child with a woman who had accused him of raping her during a counseling session. It should be noted that he was never charged with that crime.
Wait for it….
The church’s attendance has spiked since he joined the church family. It has grown from 10 to 200 members. Sigh
My Humble Thoughts….
Maybe something is wrong with me. Maybe I have lost my mind. Maybe I’ve slipped into psychosis and my sense of reality is off. Or just maybe the members of Christ Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church are crazy. I choose the latter explanation.
What exactly do they say to their children as they head out to Sunday services, “Sorry sweetie you can’t come because Pastor Gilyard might be tempted to rape you.” Wh wh what???? Come on people of Jacksonville! Surely your children’s spiritual formation is more important to you than supporting a pastor (I cringe every time I am forced to type that word before his name) with a lengthy abusive past. I say give him the boot, and open up the door to children so they can worship as part of the larger group.
Here’s my question to my fellow pundits. What’s worse…knowing that your pastor is a pedophile and banning children from church, OR Not knowing that the pastor is a pedophile and allowing him around your children.
It’s not secret that the Catholic church has been rocked with bad press following countless allegations and convictions related to sexual abuse by priests. But did you know that there is a place where these men of the cloth sickos go for rehabilitation. The Servants of the Paraclete is a Catholic order founded at Jemez Springs, New Mexico, in 1947 which offers this type of counseling. The priests are then returned to their Parish or sent to other ones without the public knowing.
Please understand that I do believe in repentance, and in a forgiving God. But uh rum ma…I can neither stomach nor trust a pedophile…Whether or not they stand at a street corner… or the pulpit. So, in my loudest Spike Lee voice “WAAAAAAAAAAAKKKKEEE UP” Christ Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church. Your pastor is a pedophile.
The Parenting Pundit 