Denied Three Times

Well, here's a novelty: a Christian youth pastor has been arrested on suspicion of child molesting, and it has only taken a decade and a half for the matter to come to light. Churches such as those of England and Rome, where it is considered gentlemanly to wait until the suspect is dead and his protectors either ga-ga or sufficiently close to retirement that stepping down means little more than the chance to make a funny in the House of Lords, will be shocked at the unseemly haste of the proceedings. Among other heavenly games, the suspect allegedly persuaded his teenaged charges to accept kisses on the mouth because that was how the Saviour did it; although whether he could qute chapter and verse on the methods and techniques of messianic osculation remains as yet unclear. Guilty or not, it seems he is melanin-challenged enough to merit due process and a presumption of innocence, and the statements of his fellow Christians have provided a fine object-lesson in brotherly faith: they had dumped him months before he was arrested, they last heard of him fifteen years ago, and he was never really one of them anyway. Their thoughts and prayers, for all the good those will do, are with the victims; it would hardly be Christian to waste any on the accused, especially in a church community where abuse has had almost no place at all since the last time somebody was caught at it.