The wheels of justice do not always turn. Sometimes, they get stuck in the mud, and there’s no getting out of it. In Wisconsin, a pastor by the name of Tom Chantry had been sexually abusing his constituents for nearly a decade before prosecutors finally attempted to bring this man down. His first trial ended in a hung jury (although the only holdout was found guilty of perjury). In the second trial, he was found guilty and sentenced to 25 years, only to later have the case thrown out on a technicality. His victims, already exhausted from both trials, declined to go through the experience again, and so the case was dismissed without prejudice (which means that they may try again at a later date).

I should stress that the church, Christ Reformed Baptist Church, had been established by his father, did everything it its power to cover up these crimes. You can read all about it more in detail on a blog called “Thou Art The Man“, which goes into detail about how much of a coverup there was:

Little did I know when I began covering this story that I was dealing with a corrupt inner corp of ARBCA men who tightly controlled the reigns of power within the Association. I had gathered enough information to believe the charges against Chantry were credible and I naively believed that Reformed Baptist pastors would all be godly, upright men who cherished the truth.

As a result, this organization has essentially collapsed, as members have left the church in droves, especially when it came to light that church elders had known that Chantry had been abusing kids for years before it all came out. Naturally, like all sinister and secretive organizations, they believed that abuse is an internal affair, and subsequently should be dealt by church authority. The public, it seems, disagrees.

What I find unsurprising and frankly disturbing is how much effort these kinds of churches put in protecting pedophiles rather than their own congregants. Sure, their membership is decimated, but there are still believers out there that support these kinds of institution. What would it take for people to stop giving money to these people? Obviously raping kids is not enough. Do they need to shoot a bunch of puppies in the face on a daily basis before people finally realize just how evil they are?