That is interesting. Appears Pelosi is not the only evil around. This Archbishop could have destroyed a number of people while he was in his DUI position. Perhaps he deserves to go w/o communion as well. I have this thing -- about the holier than thou -- especially when it comes from Church. That said ( I did not see it ) but growing up I heard for yrs. about a deacon from the church I went too showing up early on a Sunday morning at the back door of the tavern to get what he needed for the week while everyone else was either sleeping in or getting ready for Church.

This man perpetuates the evils of drink -- and we all know that can get you into some real troubles. I'm not against religion -- in fact in most ways I'm all for it. It is fulfilling to a lot of people and if they feel whole I think that is great. But we are all here doing the same darn thing. Trying to grow our souls -- some do it in Church and some don't. Only people like the Loon don't do it at all. Lastly, this man is making judgements about evil, and scandal and danger and this is likely what is accruing to him as much or more than Pelosi. She is smart enough to know what she is doing and doesn't need a possibly confused archbishop making judgements on her that may or may not come to pass and lastly certainly not ones that seem to be being heavily weighed by politics.

If a church is supposed to represent Jesus on Earth, they better go back and actually read what he said and how he lived. He said that only those without sin (ie no one) should cast the first stone, associated with the outcasts, and was despised by the organized-religion crowd.

I see that the Southern Baptists are now in trouble because of decades of covering up sexual abuse by the clergy. No wonder church memberships are going down/down/down.

Solutions are definitely not what they are looking for:

Re: the SF Archbishop

". . . that's why we Lutherans use red Kool-aid for the blood of Christ. . . ." - Drop Dead Gorgeous

Is anyone surprised to see yet ANOTHER large religious denomination guilty of covering up crimes against sex abuse victims? The latest scandal with the Southern Baptist church is the patriarchy rearing its hideously ugly head once again! I’m just appalled.

I’m posting an AP story on the report. The article is long, so only part of it is here with a link at the end if you want to read the entire thing.

A few days ago before the news came out, I happened upon this quote by Jimmy Carter which somewhat ties into the story: "The truth is that male religious leaders have had – and still have – an option to interpret holy teachings either to exalt or subjugate women. They have, for their own selfish ends, overwhelmingly chosen the latter. Their continuing choice provides the foundation or justification for much of the pervasive persecution and abuse of women throughout the world."

Report: Top Southern Baptists stonewalled sex abuse victims

The Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee — and thousands of its rank-and-file members — now have opportunities to address a scathing investigative report that says top SBC leaders stonewalled and denigrated survivors of clergy sex abuse over two decades while seeking to protect their own reputations.

The report, issued Sunday, says these survivors, and other concerned Southern Baptists, repeatedly shared allegations with the Executive Committee, "only to be met, time and time again, with resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility from some within the EC."

The seven-month investigation was conducted by Guidepost Solutions, an independent firm contracted by the Executive Committee after delegates to last year's national meeting pressed for a probe by outsiders.

Since then, several top Executive Committee leaders have resigned, and the body — under interim leadership — will meet Tuesday to discuss the report. Three weeks later, the SBC will convene its 2022 national meeting in Anaheim, California, and the report will be discussed there as well.

"Our investigation revealed that, for many years, a few senior EC leaders, along with outside counsel, largely controlled the EC's response to these reports of abuse ... and were singularly focused on avoiding liability for the SBC," the report said.

"In service of this goal, survivors and others who reported abuse were ignored, disbelieved, or met with the constant refrain that the SBC could take no action due to its polity regarding church autonomy – even if it meant that convicted molesters continued in ministry with no notice or warning to their current church or congregation," the report added.

The report asserts that an Executive Committee staffer maintained a list of Baptist ministers accused of abuse, but there is no indication anyone "took any action to ensure that the accused ministers were no longer in positions of power at SBC churches."

The most recent list includes the names of hundreds of abusers thought to be affiliated at some point with the SBC. Survivors and advocates have long called for a public database of abusers.

SBC President Ed Litton, in a statement Sunday, said he is "grieved to my core" for the victims and thanked God for their work propelling the SBC to this moment. He called on Southern Baptists to lament and prepare to change the denomination's culture and implement reforms.

"I pray Southern Baptists will begin preparing today to take deliberate action to address these failures and chart a new course when we meet together in Anaheim," Litton said.

Among the report's key recommendations:

— Form an independent commission and later establish a permanent administrative entity to oversee comprehensive long-term reforms concerning sexual abuse and related misconduct within the SBC.

—Create and maintain an Offender Information System to alert the community to known offenders.

— Provide a comprehensive Resource Toolbox including protocols, training, education, and practical information.

—Restrict the use of nondisclosure agreements and civil settlements which bind survivors to confidentiality in sexual abuse matters, unless requested by the survivor.

The interim leaders of the Executive Committee, Willie McLaurin and Rolland Slade, welcomed the recommendations, and pledged an all-out effort to eliminate sex abuse within the SBC.

"We recognize there are no shortcuts," they said. "We must all meet this challenge through prudent and prayerful application, and we must do so with Christ-like compassion."

https://apnews.com/article/baptist-religion-sexual-abuse-by-clergy-southern-convention-bfdbe64389790630488f854c3dae3fd5

You know, you have to wonder about the religious denominations we haven't heard from like for instance, Methodist, Presbyterian, Seventh Day Adventists. I would think most may have some of the same issues. Just a part of the " we all fall short " but so many are hiding their sins. I'm sure they don't want to be seen as lacking ( might scare some people away ) as well as have to pay out funds to others for abuses. It is hard to envision, to a degree, that reasonable ( it is hoped ) adults in charge are choosing to violate people by covering up/lying about these incidents. Maybe it is just me thinking that ALL must know that DECEPTION usually catches up with you -- and you look all the worse/dirtier when it does. It is just sort of mind boggling to me. I guess because they get away with it at all -- they think/hope/pray they always will. As they are supposed to be VERY religious people, they are or should be the first ones to know GOD doesn't work that way. I've always heard -- in his time, not ours -- so who knows how long these people may be able to cover up .Suddenly it is next week and your in the news.

I'll have you in my thoughts Ruth.

In other things, here is a take ( which I like and agree with on the Conway book. For some reason I was thinking her book was from some time back, but this one is a new one.

Kellyanne Conway's final round of bullshit

Robert Harrington | 9:00 pm EDT May 23, 2022

Palmer Report » Analysis

68SHARES

| 9:00 pm EDT May 23, 2022

Palmer Report » Analysis

| 9:00 pm EDT May 23, 2022

Palmer Report »

| 9:00 pm EDT May 23, 2022

Palmer Report »

I'm waiting for the Trump-era White House janitor's memoir. In the meantime, Kellyanne Conway's book of the same genre, "Here's the Deal," is due out in July. With advance copies going out to reviewers, masochists who didn't get lied to enough are now clamouring for pre-orders.

There are generally 3 kinds of Trump-era books. Exposés written by good guys, like Mary Trump or Michael Wolff, exposés written by former allies like Michael Cohen, and putrid hagiographies written by the likes of Sean Spicer. I suspect Kellyanne's is mostly of the latter category. But it's just like Kellyanne Conway to want it a little bit both ways, and one dubious anecdote has emerged from her book that makes it seem a little too much like that.

During the infamous revelation of the Access Hollywood tape, where Trump admitted to Billy Bush that, among other things, he likes to sexually assault women, Kellyanne paints herself as the tough hero who stood up to an uncertain Trump. According to Kellyanne, Trump believed that the tape was going to sink his candidacy.

"Should I get out?" Conway recalled Trump asking her on October 8, 2016, a day after the decade-old tape was released. Kellyanne squared her shoulders (and her narrative hyperbole) and stood up to the quaking candidate. She blithely informed him that if he backed out now he'd throw the whole thing to Hillary. Besides, with the election less than a month away early voting had already begun.

In the midst of this alleged conversation she also managed to excoriate Trump for the 10 year old conversation, claiming she called his comments "disgusting" and "reprehensible" to his face, despite vigorously defending them on television at the time. In other words, in eerily Trumpian fashion, Kellyanne Conway paints herself as the MAGA hero who saved Trump's candidacy, despite her hypocritical public statements at the time.

But here's the actual deal: I don't believe a word of it. The idea that anyone, let alone Kellyanne Conway, would appeal to Donald Trump's patriotism and concern for the voters when he possesses neither is laughable. And the idea that Trump cared about winning the presidency was equally laughable.

Donald Trump didn't want to win the presidency, he wanted to lose and claim the election was stolen from him. He was using the whole thing as a publicity stunt. When he did finally win it was as much a shock to him as to the rest of us. At his victory speech he looked more like a man attending a funeral. So when it comes to alternative facts, clearly Kellyanne Conway isn't finished with us. That surprises me not at all.

There are eight million self-serving memoirs emerging from the Trump years in the naked city of alternative facts, this has been another one. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.

I think the Methodist Church is busy with the split, with the conservatives taking their anti-LGBTQ brand of religion with them. It’s messy, involving money and which church goes where. I’m sure they’re glad the focus is elsewhere. The SBC should be ashamed but there’s probably lots of denial still going on as is often the case with misogynist behavior (IMHO). Look how long it took the Catholic Church to admit guilt for their abuse.

I hope Kellyanne’s book was cathartic for her. I hope her time off has given her time to focus on her family and figure out how she wants to be perceived by the public. Sounds like the lies continue.

Love that meme above cardplayer. I do recall much Trump surprise the night he was declared winner of the 2016 election. He looked like a lost man and I became convinced then, as the writer of the Palmer piece is, that it was a huge publicity stunt for Trump. He was often flamboyant and I'm sure what he did at the time for publicity didn't bother him in the least. His name was fading out of the limelight which for someone like him would call for extraordinary measures.

He did seem to love being out and about and I think did get a lot of ego feeding out of it. But he did seem amazed and I recall at one point -- thinking someone has just told this man he HAS to do this thing -- be president so someone hastily put together something for him to read and he stood with his family around, including his youngest son who looked like he'd be far happier sleeping, which he may have been doing, so Trump could congratulate one and all.

Shocked and horrified, I HOPED that some terrible mistake had been made, even though I knew how un-likely. He had already gotten Hilary's call. Well we all know the end -- that metal defect is still racking in the dough. When the house of cards finally falls I wonder how much regret there might be because the people Trump grifted will never get anything back -- not only losing their grand dreams of being ruled by someone they thought was for them, but their money gone too. Pretty sad way to go -- they don't trust the Democrats and the Loon twice as bad for stealing their dreams and their money.

Jackie, my objection to using the term "the Loon" was so tongue-in-cheek I needed a suture-removal kit to be able to speak freely again,

Breathe - breathe - breathe

I just sent a report to the Direct Investigation team of the CO Dept of Labor and Employment regarding unpaid wages at my studio. As therapists, we are expected to come in 15-20 minutes early to set up our rooms, and we are mandated a 15-minute period after each session to sanitize and reset the room, but we are not paid for our time and labor "for our employers' benefit" during these times. We are only paid for booked session hours. And if our shift is not entirely booked, we are not paid for the time we spend waiting for our next client. But we are expected to be either on-call or in the studio and available to see walk-in clients, so our down time is not our own. We are allowed to clock-in to get paid for larger studio tasks, meetings, training, etc. But our franchise owner will not let us clock-in when we arrive, clock-out when we leave, and get paid for our full day.

On top of a two-page email explaining the situation fully, I included a spreadsheet showing over $69,000 in lost wages over the past 2 years - and that's just our existing therapist team. I don't have access to the appointment history of therapists who worked for us but left the studio, so I couldn't include them in my tabulations. I also submitted a document showing screen captures of training videos from our corporate level, showing that labor outside the therapy sessions is expected and is part of the industry culture. (I included this mainly to try to offer a level of protection to our franchise owner, whether he deserves it or not. Colorado recognizes "joint employment", so multiple entities can be held responsible for labor law infractions.) My grand hope is that not only will our studio be investigated, but that all chain massage studios will be looked into and brought in line with pay laws. If the Colorado investigations are a success, it might help other states as well.

Businesses will get away with all kinds of illegal bullshit, until someone notices and tries to stop them. Now we just have to see how big this gets.

Love the meme cardplayer. It's long past time for Carlson to disappear from the non-news and mainly propaganda channel where he works. Somehow, I do not think of what they do on that channel as work -- or maybe I should say -- I find it strange to get a paycheck to mis-represent anything that badly or lie that much. Then again after you've had a "job" like that one for a few yrs., you likely convince yourself pretty easy that it is mainly true.

Sandy, too funny about your suture removal.

jkl2017Yes, yes, yes. All those wonderful heartfelt thoughts and prayers from Reps.. while the death toll has risen to 18 children and three adults. I was in the midst of thinking I should turn off my tv. and escape some of the feelings I was having when the latest news came on. Now I'm afraid to turn it off -- all the more hurtful if more souls are taken.