Pastor accused of trying to have sex with girls

From ABC News


A grand jury has indicted a Kentucky pastor accused of trying to organize a threesome with minors.

The Courier Journal reports Bobby J. Blackburn was indicted Wednesday on charges of prohibited use of an electronic communication system to procure a minor to commit a sex offense.

His lawyer, Stephen Owens, says news coverage is making the case seem worse than it is. He says Blackburn is accused of trying to solicit 17-year-olds, but "media coverage is making it out to be like they are 9- or 10-year-olds."

COMMENT:-

TU Curmudgeon said:

From ABC News

Pastor accused of trying to have sex with girls
​

A grand jury has indicted a Kentucky pastor accused of trying to organize a threesome with minors.

The Courier Journal reports Bobby J. Blackburn was indicted Wednesday on charges of prohibited use of an electronic communication system to procure a minor to commit a sex offense.

His lawyer, Stephen Owens, says news coverage is making the case seem worse than it is. He says Blackburn is accused of trying to solicit 17-year-olds, but "media coverage is making it out to be like they are 9- or 10-year-olds."

COMMENT:-

What surprised me about this item is that the lawyer didn't say "Well, at least it wasn't homosexual behaviour." or something like that.

Of course, it will not surprise me in the least to see the "Since no one has been convicted, that means that it never happened" crowd chiming in on behalf of this "poor, persecuted, Christian" either.
​

Click to expand...

Why is this even a news story?

Bucky said:

Why is this even a news story?

Click to expand...

Why not ask ABC News?

I was just amused by the "Well, they weren't all THAT much underage." line of defence being proffered.

You can consider the article "balance" to all of the "anti-Catholic" ones involving Catholic priests and children if you want to, I just thought that the lawyer probably has an even higher "Giggle Suppression Factor" than I do (and that's DAMN hard to do).

PS - If you don't know what a "Giggle Suppression Factor" is (in the legal world) feel free to ask your lawyer the next time you see them.

TU Curmudgeon said:

From ABC News

Pastor accused of trying to have sex with girls
​

A grand jury has indicted a Kentucky pastor accused of trying to organize a threesome with minors.

The Courier Journal reports Bobby J. Blackburn was indicted Wednesday on charges of prohibited use of an electronic communication system to procure a minor to commit a sex offense.

His lawyer, Stephen Owens, says news coverage is making the case seem worse than it is. He says Blackburn is accused of trying to solicit 17-year-olds, but "media coverage is making it out to be like they are 9- or 10-year-olds."

COMMENT:-

What surprised me about this item is that the lawyer didn't say "Well, at least it wasn't homosexual behaviour." or something like that.

Of course, it will not surprise me in the least to see the "Since no one has been convicted, that means that it never happened" crowd chiming in on behalf of this "poor, persecuted, Christian" either.
​

Click to expand...

Do you have a link?

Rich2018 said:

Do you have a link?

Click to expand...

*ahem*

Look at the top left of the quote box in your post...

This story makes no sense.

If the girls were 17, why was there an indictment?

Rich2018 said:

Do you have a link?

Click to expand...

Do you mean other than the fully functional one already in the OP? Nope, I didn't bother.

3leftsdoo said:

This story makes no sense.

If the girls were 17, why was there an indictment?

Click to expand...

If you follow th Kentucky law, the age of consent for sexual activity is 16. However..."The age of consent is raised to 18 if the offender is in a position of trust or authority over the victim."

That probably explains why there are charges.

3leftsdoo said:

This story makes no sense.

If the girls were 17, why was there an indictment?

Click to expand...

Possibly because the "legal age" was 18 and the "Man of God" didn't fall within the "three years age difference" exemption which would have gotten around the fact that the young ladies were "Jail Bait"?

Or possibly because he was a Democrat in a Republican riding and someone needed something to deflect attention?

Or possibly because he was a Republican in a Democrat riding and someone needed something to deflect attention?

Or possibly because he was about to "come clean" and, if he had done that, he would also have been implicating some of the town's "movers and shakers"?

VanceMack said:

If you follow th Kentucky law, the age of consent for sexual activity is 16. However..."The age of consent is raised to 18 if the offender is in a position of trust or authority over the victim."

That probably explains why there are charges.

Click to expand...

Ah!

Thank you!

Bucky said:

Why is this even a news story?

Click to expand...

What makes these stories compelling is that religious people, in general, and specifically the Kentucky brand of christian, consider their faith to be moral credentials that non-believers lack.

Many of us who have lived around fundamentalists already know that they are, in actuality, powerless against their sexuality and the notion that faith can quell the strongest animal drive a person has is but another point of failure in faith and a lie that the religious love to tell themselves.

It has long been clear to me that when humans are denied healthy sexual outlets, their natural desires manifest as unhealthy sexuality. The religious are also known to lie about what they've done to protect their faith from embarrassment. For instance, when a pastor pretends he didn't have meth-fueled gay sex with a male prostitute because his congregation would judge him harshly for having even a normal gay relationship.

Incredibly, some people are more embarrassed to be gay than to claim that an invisible, cloud man from thousands of years ago forbade it. That's the sort of behavior that has earned religious fanatics a reputation for being dumb and or crazy. That religious nuts tend to be conservative too is not too surprising because both groups depend heavily on a magical world view to reconcile their actions against empiracle reality.

That's why this is a story.