- cross-posted to:
- atheism@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- atheism@lemmy.world
Lawyers for Donald Trump’s former faith advisor Robert Morris accused a 12-year-old girl of initiating “inappropriate” sexual conduct with the ex-Dallas megachurch pastor, new documents have revealed.
Morris resigned in June after admitting to the incident. His accuser Cindy Clemishire previously claimed that the pastor had begun abusing her on Christmas Day in 1982.
Clemishire, now 52, said that Morris and his wife had been staying at her family home at the time when he asked her to come into his room, whereafter he told her to lay on his bed and then began touching her inappropriately.
She said the abuse had continued until 1987 when she told her parents.
However, 25 years after the incident, a lawyer for Morris – J Shelby Sharpe – claimed that it was the child who was actually to blame.
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As the adult, it is your job, responsibility, nay DUTY to say “NO!!!” And run for the hills!
Can’t buy alcohol. Can’t buy cigarettes. Can’t be employed in most jobs. Can’t get a drivers license. But can initiate sex with an adult?
They can certainly attempt to, particularly if they’ve previously been abused by a caregiver. It’s totally something you’re trained to deal with if you work with vulnerable children, as it’s a major indicator of this. Teenagers are a bit different as they are exploring their sexuality and may incorporate this into disruptive behaviour if they notice it gets a reaction. Neither of these situations would serve as a legal defence, however, were you to start joining in. A colleague had a fourteen-year-old girl in a hitched-up skirt come and sit on his lap and pout because he told her off in class. He just stared at the wall until she got off, then went and reported it.
Yeah - if you are a teacher you ALWAYS leave the door cracked open, never alone with a kid.
Those kinds of kids almost always have genuinely experienced sexual abuse elsewhere. I’m working with a child who does exhibit that kind of behavior - propositioning adults/other teens and then claiming assault when rejected. The thing with kids and false allegations is that they are usually wildly inconsistent - as long as organizational safeguards are in place, it’s usually easy to verify that the claimed event didn’t happen. It is a STRONG indicator for previous experiences of abuse though.
This case is not at all consistent with what false allegations look like.
Objective Morality everyone!
Or, hear me out, the man is a hypocrit who preaches morality but has no problem using a preteen girl to gratify his sexual desires.
oh man. this is so hilariously close to an onion article from way back. https://www.theonion.com/pope-forgives-molested-children-1819566450
Shows you the everyone in Trumps circle are all terrible. Shit attracts flies
And this neatly illustrates the grotesquely destructive delusion that lies at the heart of religious fundamentalism - it’s ultimately, and I’m tempted to say without exception, an attempt by overtly evil people to place the blame for their evil on others, or on society as a whole.
The underlying issue is not that other people feel lust, for instance, but that they themselves feel lust, and they consider that to be so shameful that their self-images cannot tolerate the idea that it’s a part of their own makeup. It must and can only be, to them, a thing that’s been imposed on them by “evil” people or an “evil” society, so the solution, to them, is to stamp out that “evil.” Solely in the belief, ultimately, that if that “evil” could somehow be made to not exist, it would no longer plague them.
Back to the witch trials we go.
“She used her evil magic to tempt me!” “Her devil powers controlled my groin!” “Oh woes me! Look at these weakened knees of mine! The succubus has drained the life out me!”
“Look what you made me do”
“It was her fault for being dressed like that”
religion strikes again. it’s almost like the world would be a better place without it.
before you come with the ‘shitty people can be anywhere’, ask yourself would this person have been emboldened to act on their sociopathic desires without having religion to hide behind?
This is the best the lawyers could come up with? He very clearly scraped the bottom of the barrel when looking for legal representation
Dude
What the FUCK
Okay
The people who are pointing out that he’s obviously lying have a pretty compelling argument
The people who are pointing out that even if a 12-year-old DOES try to initiate sexual contact with you, you need to tell them no and tell their parents, are correct
But even THAT isn’t the full scope of it
BOTH THIS DUDE AND HIS LAWYER ARE CONVINCED THAT THAT’S A GOOD EXPLANATION THAT WILL HELP HIS CASE
What the FUCK is going on in these megachurches that no one including the guy employed to get this guy a good outcome can just tell him to keep his mouth shut because nothing he says is going to help, let alone THAT. Like they are in a professional capacity standing up in real life reality and with apparently fully functioning adult brains modeling it out and expecting people to say OOOOOHH it was the 12 year old’s fault, I get it, these things happen, carry on.
The lawyer must know his audience
🤢
I know buddy it ain’t getting any better.
Damn, that 12 year old girl must’ve been a commie too, raised on those russian cold war era steroids!
Yikes, it’s a long ways down from that high horse.
Ex-fucking-excuse me? Not just victim blaming, but victim blaming a child? I fucking hate living on this planet. Just launch me into the sun already.
When I see the most depraved defense from lawyers like this it just tells me that the person is so fucking guilty that I now suspect them guilty of even more than we know.
The child rapist has literally no defense, so his lawyer is trying the “she was asking for it” card.
The sad part is that this is not a ceiminal case, as there was a statue of limitations back when he was raping her. There no longer is, but that doesnt help her. All she can do is sue him civally. Still, “the 12 year old in pajamas was asking for it” is not gonna help here.
Lawyers are obligated to defend even obviously guilty people, but seriously? Victim blaming a child?
I get it, it’s hard to come up with a tenable legal defense when someone is starkly guilty, but this is just gross.
How about we just launch maga into the sun and then work on saving humanity and our planet.
Easier to launch them out of the solar system
You seem cool…can we launch THEM into the sun instead?
You know, I’m only five years younger than him, and yet never in my life since I was about 12 years old myself has a 12-year-old so much as flirted with me. This 52-year-old is somehow irresistible to the middle schoolers?
Providing just a small correction here. The child was 12 at the time, now 52.
Robert Morris (the accused sexual predator former pastor of the rapist, racist, sexist, traitor, “Christian”, beloved friend of Jeffrey Epstein, and convicted felon Donald Trump) was 22 at the time and now 62.
A 22 year old preying and praying on a 12 year old. Just so disgusting.
Whoops. Sorry. And yeah, no 12-year-old ever flirted with me when I was 22 either. And if they did, I would be smart enough not to reciprocate even if I was interested, which I wouldn’t have been.
No prob! I just had to internet search this pastor because I wanted to know just how old his gross ass was when he did that. I think most functioning persons in society would have the same mindset as you shared.
I have had a 12 year old flirt with me. It was cute, and I wasn’t tempted to molest her because I’m not insane.
I believe you, but I’m guessing it’s not especially common for a girl as young as 12. They barely understand the concept of flirtation at that age, and these days they probably think they know about sex by seeing internet porn when their parents didn’t know about it.
Anyway, like you said, it’s pretty easy to just not touch the girl.
It’s cute when a kid has a crush like that, but that’s all it is, a crush. From someone who doesn’t understand what romance is beyond what’s in pop culture. It’s cute and wholesome.
An adult seeing that and going “hmm, what if” is the exact fucking opposite of cute and wholesome. They’re a freaky ass fella who needs to be locked up.
How often do adults flirt with you?
Between when I was 12 and now? Enough to be married for almost 24 years.
Before I could drive and had to walk everywhere??? DAILY
So just “megachurch pastor” headline? No other descriptors you’d like to add?
Perfect reason to keep the death penalty.
