Pastors Too?
The church is supposed to be a safe haven where people can worship the god they choose, release all of their life problems, and leave feeling revived and new. But when the molestation cases of the Boston priests got out, people began to feel uneasy about how the church operates, as highlighted in the 2015 Academy Award-winning film Spotlight. Unfortunately, the unrest continues as two Upstate pastors have been recently arrested for sexually assaulting minors.
Lorenzo Renard Washington was just recently arrested for “forcing himself onto a teenager.”
Washington attended a local high school’s basketball game, where he was a booster club member. There, he forcibly touched and kissed a young girl by the concession stand. On Friday, February 8, Washington was arrested on charges of third-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor and second-degree attempted criminal sexual conduct with a minor. When interviewed, Washington denied all allegations.
If this isn’t tragic enough, Washington was not the only pastor arrested this week.
32-year old pastor, Phillip Jerard Buckson, was arrested for abusing and impregnating a minor-twice. After receiving a tip from National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in January, the victim was found and provided a statement claiming that Buckson began having sex with her when she was just 13 years old and continued until she was in the 9th grade. On both occasions that she was impregnated, the victim had an abortion. After confessing to his crimes, Buckson was arrested and charged with four counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor on February 7, 2019.
As more stories like these are released, bittersweet tastes are being left in our mouths. On the one hand, justice is being served, but on the other, young girls have to face severe trauma and endure this perversion of men. For centuries, women have been the target for men to release themselves whenever they see fit. But when will it be enough!? It’s gotten so bad that the security of the church is now being tainted. We cannot continue to hear stories like Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, R. Kelly, and these pastors before we begin to care about the safety of our young girls because we’re starting to run out of safe spaces.
The excuse of “it’s just men being men” has LONG run its course. It’s time to start holding men accountable for their actions. Men should not be glorified for how many women they can run through. They should not have exceptions when it comes to certain sexual acts. Letting men have some leeway causes incidents like these, and I, for one, am tired of seeing people suffer because of selfish acts of pleasure. Thankfully, these men are facing the consequences for the crimes they have committed, which is a start. But it will never be enough until we no longer have to hear, “me, too.”