Lawyers for megachurch pastor blame 12-year-old for ‘initiating’ sexual contact
Lawyers for megachurch pastor blame 12-year-old for ‘initiating’ sexual contact
Morris resigned in June after admitting to the incident which allegedly occurred on Christmas Day 1982
Lawyers for Donald Trump’s former faith advisor Robert Morris accused a 12-year-old girl of initiating “inappropriate” sexual conduct with the ex-Dallas megachurch pastor, new documents have revealed.
Morris resigned in June after admitting to the incident. His accuser Cindy Clemishire previously claimed that the pastor had begun abusing her on Christmas Day in 1982.
Clemishire, now 52, said that Morris and his wife had been staying at her family home at the time when he asked her to come into his room, whereafter he told her to lay on his bed and then began touching her inappropriately.
She said the abuse had continued until 1987 when she told her parents.
However, 25 years after the incident, a lawyer for Morris – J Shelby Sharpe – claimed that it was the child who was actually to blame.
"and so what was he to do, Your Honour? Say no to a twelve year old? Report their conduct to their parents?"
And this neatly illustrates the grotesquely destructive delusion that lies at the heart of religious fundamentalism - it's ultimately, and I'm tempted to say without exception, an attempt by overtly evil people to place the blame for their evil on others, or on society as a whole.
The underlying issue is not that other people feel lust, for instance, but that they themselves feel lust, and they consider that to be so shameful that their self-images cannot tolerate the idea that it's a part of their own makeup. It must and can only be, to them, a thing that's been imposed on them by "evil" people or an "evil" society, so the solution, to them, is to stamp out that "evil." Solely in the belief, ultimately, that if that "evil" could somehow be made to not exist, it would no longer plague them.
Buddy of mine's 12-yo stepdaughter was flirting with him when they watched movies. He was horrified and confused.
"Dude, she's just testing her feminine wiles on you since she sees you as safe, kinda testing her attractiveness. Doesn't even have a clue she's doing it. Just ignore it or gently push back if she goes too far."
And of course all was well. Thought it was a cute and funny story.
And we have lawyers trying to slide this defense?! Not to mention the guy who took it seriously and raped a child! I swear to god they used to threaten disbarment over stupid shit like this.
tl;dr Kids do stupid shit when they start puberty. It's on the adult to see what's happening.
interesting-- and where was their all-powerful, all-seeing sky-wizard during all of this? why was it powerless to stop this from happening? where was their "superior morality" to stop them? why it is, with an all-powerful sky-wizard, a superior morality, and an adult - a pastor - present, is it the fault of a 12 year-old?
In case anyone is not sure, this behavior is completely normal in the Christian circles. The number of times I heard people, preachers, or whoever blame the victim for causing the man of god to stumble is far more than you would want to know, and was every time.
One thing to understand about many Christian groups is that they elevate their preachers to a very high standing and believe that they are "so close to the Lord" that they just don't do bad things. So, in order to preserve this cognitive dissonance, it's the child that tempted them to sin.
Even assuming this isn't a fucking lie,
It is still just as much of a crime to sex assault a child even if the child initiates the inappropriate contact. Stop them and get them some mental help.
Is that at all a controversial opinion? I guess among Trumpanzees there are plenty who condone sex assaulting children (or adults) as long as the perpetrator is part of the in-group.
As the adult, it is your job, responsibility, nay DUTY to say “NO!!!” And run for the hills!
Straight from the abusers handbook: DARVO: Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender.
Dude
What the FUCK
Okay
The people who are pointing out that he's obviously lying have a pretty compelling argument
The people who are pointing out that even if a 12-year-old DOES try to initiate sexual contact with you, you need to tell them no and tell their parents, are correct
But even THAT isn't the full scope of it
BOTH THIS DUDE AND HIS LAWYER ARE CONVINCED THAT THAT'S A GOOD EXPLANATION THAT WILL HELP HIS CASE
What the FUCK is going on in these megachurches that no one including the guy employed to get this guy a good outcome can just tell him to keep his mouth shut because nothing he says is going to help, let alone THAT. Like they are in a professional capacity standing up in real life reality and with apparently fully functioning adult brains modeling it out and expecting people to say OOOOOHH it was the 12 year old's fault, I get it, these things happen, carry on.
This is the best the lawyers could come up with? He very clearly scraped the bottom of the barrel when looking for legal representation
So just "megachurch pastor" headline? No other descriptors you'd like to add?
Objective Morality everyone!
“That bank money was begging me to take it, your honor. Sittin’ there, with those tight little bands on; it was askin’ for it!”
Or, hear me out, the man is a hypocrite who preaches morality but has no problem using a preteen girl to gratify his sexual desires.
religion strikes again. it's almost like the world would be a better place without it.
before you come with the 'shitty people can be anywhere', ask yourself would this person have been emboldened to act on their sociopathic desires without having religion to hide behind?
the fact they didnt claim he was raped means he was likely awake therefore cannot claim any innocence from the situation.
basically the only way out of a situation like this is provably without reasonable doubt, that you were raped in a state where you werent conscious. and since they didnt argue it means you cannot justify it.
Shows you the everyone in Trumps circle are all terrible. Shit attracts flies
That might be one of the most demented defenses they could have come up with.
Damn, that 12 year old girl must've been a commie too, raised on those russian cold war era steroids!
The old switcharoo
Yikes, it's a long ways down from that high horse.
Reminds me of that story of a father that murdered his daughters rapist in a small town and the whole town was like "I DIDN'T SEE NUFFIN" and I believe the father did not end up going to prison for it. Is a BIG, fuck around find out situation for pieces of human garbage like this. Don't think these boomer pedos/other idiots realize what quantum computing and all of the data centers across the world storing citizens data for decades means for THEM... Just requires some inspired algorithms and a police force that is willing to uh, NOT protect the baddies and do their jobs as detectives vs arresting brown people for drugz :|
Perfect reason to keep the death penalty.
oh man. this is so hilariously close to an onion article from way back. https://www.theonion.com/pope-forgives-molested-children-1819566450
The number one cause of pedophilia?
Sexy kids.