In Case You Missed Church On Sunday

If you skipped church in Kansas, here's what you may have missed! In honor of Hugh Cranford's performance in Topeka as a Lutheran vicar and youth pastor, I thought I should run his picture one more time. These people never change.

Vicar Hugh Cranford Should Pick On Someone His Own Size

A few months ago, I posted about a Lutheran vicar, by the name of Hugh Cranford, who was charged with indecent liberties with a minor. Today, he had his preliminary hearing. The information that was shared at that time was rather disturbing, and should have been shared immediately when the kindly vicar was charged. His crime was not one of simply dating a young woman one or two months shy of her eighteenth birthday.....he is actually charged with molesting two brothers, one ten years old, the other, thirteen years old, while he was staying in their parents' home. Not only was I shocked at the number of comments I got from various parts of Northeast Kansas, some of them unprintable, defending this man, I am very disappointed that none of the publications reporting on this matter felt that any Christian parents in the area deserved to be warned about this minister. Coverage was cursory at best; very little information about the nature of the charges was available. Cranford's church and the  media in Kansas went out of their way to cover for him. This man is free on 250,000 bail; that means he is free to re-offend until the judge throws down the gavel in a verdict at some future date. Christians, don't get your pastors at Kmart.

Update: The reverend is expected in court on May 6, 2013.
 

Hugh Cranford Roaming Free

Kansas went ahead and let Hugh Cranford, the friendly Lutheran vicar in Topeka, Kansas, go free on $250,000 bond after charging him with sexual assualt of a minor. His court date is January 3 of 2013. He lives in Texas. Will he even show up for court? Kansas, don't get your clergy at Kmart!

Kansas, Don't Get Your Clergy At Kmart

As a bit of an update to to this post, and in answer to a question someone had, here is more information about the charming Hugh Cranford, the lovely Lutheran youth paster in Topeka who likes liturgical positions that give him access to children. His former place of "vicarage" was Concordia, in Saint Louis, Missouri. The final outcome of pending matters against Cranford there is unclear; but the whole disgusting matter is still quite recent, and the wheels of our justice system have a reputation for turning slowly at times. He was ousted from their church and school in the summer of 2011.

Something that should concern the Luthern community in Topeka Kansas is this, according to the Capitol Journal, "Dale Meyer, president of the seminary, said Monday after hearing about the allegations in early June the seminary immediately suspended the vicarage and prevented Cranford from enrolling in any other classes.
Meyer also said the alleged incidents didn’t take place at Faith Lutheran Church or Topeka Lutheran School. He said they also had no word that the alleged incidents took place on the seminary’s campus." Now; who cares WHERE his alleged assaults on children took place? The deal is this: parents were told by the church that they could trust this man with their children. As it happened, they could not. The information was readily available through a criminal background check AND through a reference check. This, apparently, was not performed. Now the church wants to distance itself from any responsibility in the matter at all. Someone at the church may have even given Hugh Cranford the information that charges were being filed, and assisted him in leaving town before law enforcement could find him. It's entirely possible. Hugh Cranford is still at large, and Dale Meyer is more concerned with damage control than with child safety. This is why I do not allow my children at attend Christian churches in Kansas. It's dangerous.

 

Hugh Cranford, without his Neo-Nazi beard.

 

Just Say No

This is truly amazing. Bishop Robert Finn, thanks, I'm sure, to his four lawyers paid for by his parishoners, (does the Catholic church have a special fund for when it's leadership gets caught with pants down?) has worked out a deal with the prosecuting attorney in Kansas City, Missouri that allows him to avoid jail time, future court dates, and having his picture grace the sex offender registry as long as he checks in with the prosecuting attorney once a month for five years and reports any inapproriate or illegal conduct he sees between children and priests in his diocese! Why....of course! Here it is, curtesy of Reuters:

"Finn agreed to report monthly directly to Clay County Prosecuting Attorney Daniel White, and to "apprise him of any and all reported suspicious or alleged abuse activities involving minors" throughout the diocese's Clay County facilities, the prosecutor's office said."

Bishop Finn (along with the rest of us) is required to report things like crimes against children, internet kiddie porn, aquisition, sale, and creation of internet kiddie porn, along with human trafficking and the occasional molestation that apparently goes on here and there in church, to the police anyway. The court should not have to extend him an engraved invitation to do so. In the past, Finn actually gave a computer containing kiddie porn away in order to conceal it from law enforcement. In anyone else's world, this is called "tampering with evidence" or "obstruction of justice", but apparently, not in church. How can sheeple seriously remain brainwashed concerning this? Hasn't research shown that sexual predators never change?

But let me avoid picking exclusively on Catholics. Just a few miles away, in Lawrence Kansas, we have what appears to be a Lutheran problem. Christopher McCormack, a Lutheran youth pastor, just got thirty days behind bars for sexual misconduct with someone who was not old enough to consent. It would seem that Christian pastors in the Midwest are able to hide all kinds of things behind their frocks and computer screens. Luckily, I have already taught my children to say "no" to Jesus.