Pornography and the Pastorate
N.Y. Baptist group says to defrock pastor facing child-porn charge
Excerpt:
Leaders of First Baptist Church in the Upstate New York town of Oswegatchie demanded and received the resignation of Pastor Merton Parks after local media reported their pastor was part of a federal investigation. Parks, 60, was arraigned Oct. 9 and charged with possessing child pornography, a felony punishable by up to two years in prison.
Craig Golden, state representative for the Empire State Fellowship of Regular Baptist Churches, said his group’s polity means it would be up to the local church that ordained Parks to withdraw its ordination.
Comment: Sad news. Suggest that folk discipline themselves to use an Internet filter to prohibit such site visits. Had his wife viewed his CC statements he could not have done this! Sad for him, for his church, for his community, for the cause of Christ.
Hopefully deacons and members also take stock and see if there were some signs they missed, and maybe someone can be spared this in the future. Maybe the guy was really "opaque" this way, but something in me thinks (as I do with the local Ponzi schemer) that somebody ought to have figured out that something was amiss.
ReplyDelete