Pressler Accused of 35 years of Sodomy

[Sandy]

It is in RNS as well.

http://religionnews.com/2017/12/11/infl ... buse-suit/

[Rvaughn]

[Sandy]

The story was picked up by the Baptist Standard.

https://www.baptiststandard.com/news/ba ... buse-suit/

[Stephen Fox]

Baylor's WJ Wimpee now deceased were pursuing these rumors in the 80s. At one point when Pressler was nominated by Bush 41 to head the US Govt Ethics Office, The Nation Magazine reported the rumors surrounding Pressler grew quite "randy".

Foy's ex son in law Lee Berg, in the 80s a Harris County (Houston) pastor. I think Berg did his doctorate at Baylor on the religious right.

Pressler was hard wired to Jesse Helms politically and the Bircher Albert Lee Smith and some say as far back as Marney's days at FBC Austin Texas was hard core against Civil Rights progress and everything on the right side of history of LBJ, Jimmy Carter, etc.

In the last few years in Harris county he has been joined at the hip with Steven Hotze, I think a doctor; Hotze who came to Huntsville Alabama a few weeks ago to pick up the microphone as a religious leader in support of Roy Moore.

To Paraphrase that great man of the pulpit, the REv Jeremiah Wright: "The Chickens are coming Home to Roost."

And then of course there is what Harold Bloom said about the SBC Fundy takeover artists and the "Know Nothings" Lincoln faced in the 1850s, Molly Worthen on Inerrancy......Thornton knows the litany by now!

[Stephen Fox]

[Stephen Fox]

https://baptistnews.com/article/sbc-lea ... jRNl4-cEdV


Will be interesting to see how Dave Miller, Jerry Vines, FBC Spartanburg and Gardendale and Bellevue in Memphis and other strongholds of Baptist fundamentalism navigate this story in the coming months.

Pressler's stained glass window at SWBTS may not hold for long.

[William Thornton]

They'll navigate it like you navigate it, wait and see what happens.

[Stephen Fox]

What are the Concerned Women of America thinking about their fallen Patriot?

https://www.npr.org/2017/12/19/57191156 ... n-politics

[Rvaughn]

Baptist News Global reports that Pressler's lawyers have . This is probably good legal strategy, but that kind of strategy doesn't usually gather up the confidence of the rank and file.

[Tim Bonney]

[Rvaughn]

According to , there are statutes of limitation on civil cases in Texas.

[Jon Estes]

Guilty? --- No one on this forum knows.

Accused? --- All on this forum are aware of this.

Some things need to be discussed and debated. I am not sure if a debate among believers which condemn and convict the accused of this type of crime, is spiritually right.

If in the end of this P Pressler is found innocent, some will still believe he is guilty, just because he is of a different theological stripe than they. Others will resign their former guilty position and say, "oh well", silently and move on. What is left are the words of condemnation and bitterness we spewed previously.

Maybe that doesn't matter to some.

If in the end P Pressler is found guilty, the believer's role is not to celebrate (which I fear might happen among his haters).

Nough said -

[Sandy]

[Dave Roberts]

In typical Pressler fashion, he is just going to dodge behind "statute of limitations" arguments, so it will never be clearly resolved.

[Tim Bonney]

[Sandy]

I'm not excusing or justifying the conservative resurgence based on how the SBC was operated by those in leadership positions prior to 1979. Pressler was part of the leadership of a group that figured out how to use the SBC's distribution of appointment power to their advantage. Issues in the denomination that came to the surface during the previous couple of decades pointed them to a means of uncovering a significantly large supportive constituency that was willing and able to sustain the messenger majority they needed to permanently alter the direction of the denomination. It was a political movement, using political tactics from within, and Pressler, the lawyer and judge, was a key figure in the mechanics of locating the weak points in the apparatus itself, and exploiting them. In the process of doing so, he made enemies, though he and his supporters were entitled to have as much of a say in who ran the SBC as those they replaced.

This is a separate accusation, not proven at this point, and unrelated to his activities involving the SBC. Whether you consider him an enemy or not, it would be wrong for that to generate an attitude of reveling in his guilt.

[Tim Bonney]

Sandy, I don’t give a flying whatever as it if Pressler did or didn’t do what he is accused of doing. I’ve not been a Southern Baptist in 25 years. None of it matters any more.

I’m just always amazed at the mental gymnastics people will use to excuse bad behavior in response to what they see as bad behavior. The old “two wrongs don’t make a right” rings pretty true in the SBC. Right now, even if the old order of Baptist leadership were restored in all its moderate glory, I’d not become a Baptist again. So, other than noticing that people who are often high and mighty are the ones to take a big fall, I have no dog in this fight.

[Sandy]

[Tim Bonney]

[Sandy]