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The following is a summary of Christianity in the news…

• Minister Accused Of Wanting To ‘Play Doctor’ With 15-Year-Old Girl Fired: Investigators said music minister Jack Aldrich from First United Methodist Church in Winter Park made contact with an undercover officer posing as an underage girl.
• The Frederick News-Post Online: An ordained minister has been arrested on charges of sex offense and child abuse of a female church choir member in Gaithersburg who was 14 at the time.
• Pastor jailed for using evil spirits to force unprotected sex on woman: pastor who impregnated a woman he terrorized into a sexual relationship by threatening curses was sentenced yesterday to four years in prison.
• Pastor gets 4 years for sex assault on woman: Toronto pastor sexually assaulted and deliberately impregnated a parishioner, threatening her with evil spirits unless she yielded to his demands.
• NWAnews.com: Minister Keith Daniel Kiger, 31, of 94 U. S. 71 South in Winslow, faces a felony charge of first-degree sexual assault.
• The Longmont Times-Call: Minister Peter Kim, 40, pleaded guilty to violating bail bond conditions, sexual exploitation of a child and attempted sexual assault of a child by a person in a position of trust.
• Priest pleads guilty to charges from sex sting: Father Michael Royce Penland, 46, pleaded guilty to soliciting crimes against nature and was ordered to pay court costs and stay away from Haywood County recreation property.
• They sought help, but got exorcism and the Bible: A secretive ministry has been deceiving troubled young women into signing over months of their lives to a program that offers Bible studies and exorcisms to treat mental illness.
• 50 people looking for solar image of Mary lose sight: At least 50 people in Kottayam district have reportedly lost their vision after gazing at the sun looking for an image of Virgin Mary.
• Ex-foster father guilty of molesting 2 boys: A jury found [Minister] Jaysen W. Bell of Union Township guilty of sexual battery and three charges of sexual imposition.
• Internet sex sting snares Conneautville minister: The Rev. Steven Richard McGuigan, 39, of 905 Washington St., Conneautville.
• Pastor accused of child rape ruled with an iron hand: Pastor Harper was charged with multiple counts of child rape stretching back at least to 1994.

All of these articles were gathered by one person in his spare time over a single month using only English-language news sources. It is not unreasonable to suggest that there are many more articles to be found. The abusive clergy listed here are mostly Protestant and appear to have acted in isolation. It is the Roman Catholic Church that has systematically protected abusive clergy from legal action under the guise of diplomatic immunity for decades. My means to lessen the number of those abused is to tear away the veil the abusers most successfully hide behind – religion. My means to lessen the number of those who make self-destructive choices based on fearful superstitions is to reason against and ridicule the root superstition – religion.