pattygreen

bjean

Wow! Do you not get it? He didn't DO anything to my son. He attempted to. He might have if my son stayed in the car and was intimidated. How do you arrest someone for something they 'MIGHT' do? In your cases, there was a clear indication of abuse. Crap actually happened. In this case, nothing happened. You can't get arrested for doing 'nothing' to a child. But because we know that he told my son that he wanted to masterbate with him, that's a clear indication that he is not to be trusted. Thus why 6 years ago when he 'attempted' to try something with him we didn't report it.

Name one government program that works right and that we aren't being robbed from? Social security? Medicare? The government needs to get smaller, not bigger.

..............................................................

Health care is a 'right' already. Noone can be turned away from medical treatment because they have no insurance. All ER's take you. I don't agree with you on that, unless everyone pays something towards it. Like a sliding scale according to your income. Alot of people like to take advantage of not working for what they get. If you can get it for free, why not? That's what happened to the welfare system. Foodstamps, energy assistance, WIC, Free first time security deposits, HUD housing, and the list goes on. Why work? Why work more hours than you need to. If you can get by with some assistance, why bother? Where's the incentive? The main thing about gov. medical care is that there will be those who don't pay for it and the rest of us will have to pay their share. I can understand the disabled, or the mentally challenged, but able bodied men and women who just don't want to work when they can get their needs met by the government for free is a big turn off for me.

He got caught with a young boy when he was 17 , and that was years before he tried to do it with my son. He was 24 with my son. I didn't know about that incident with the boy until after his attempt with my son. Since the family outrage over his attempt with my son, he hasn't been caught trying it with anyone else.

I won't report something that he 'attempted' to do 6 years ago. Noone kept this from his mother. My sister was told about it immediately after he tried something. The rest of the family was also told. (What happened was that my 24 year old nephew attempted to get my 14 year old son to masterbate in front of him. He was going to show him how to do it.)

I'm not mad about that. It was just an analogy. I get it.

After reading the long list of child abuse in your life, not just you, but others in your family, I can understand why you started this thread about MJ. I am soooo sorry that you had to grow up dealing with that. Children are supposed to 'enjoy' their childhood - protected, carefree and loved. I can see why anyone accused of molesting young children would turn you off so badly. It turns me off to them, and I was never abused.

We thought and prayed good and hard about that. (Going to the police.) We chose not to in the end. One stipulation we gave him was to stay away from my kids or we would. We mostly didn't report it for my sisters sake. It was her son. I'm not saying we made the right decision, but it's been made. This happened 6 years ago. Alot of it could be construed as hearsay. His word against mine. And since technically, nothing happened, what would they do about it? Of course it would have been on file, and if he got caught molesting anyone else, it would have helped their case, but I can't turn back the clock now. Come to think of it, when he was 17, he got reported for attempting to touch an 11 year old boy. So, my son would have been his second report. It sure does scare me to think that he could hurt a child. What can you do?

It's true that a 'convicted' child molester can't be around kids, but what about someone like my nephew who never went to court about his molesting attempts, yet everyone knows his potential to do it? You can't keep them legally from going anywhere. In my nephews case, he admitted to me and my husband that he did a stupid thing and that he did try something, but later on when we 'disowned' him, he took his admission back and said my son was lying about it. Go figure.

....................................................................

Hitler is like liberals in a sense. Liberals want to make christians seem like the bad guys. (Hitler made it seem like the Jews were the bad guys) Christians get in the way of liberals who want to advance their agenda. (Jews got in Hitlers way of advancing his agenda) When in fact, the christians only want to instill morals and values along with our freedoms and rights.

Right, but now that some of us are 300 lbs., we'd be happy to be 200. I'm not saying that someone who weighs 200 or so shouldn't have surgery,because if they feel they should have it, then they should, I'm just saying that those who feel they shouldn't probably feel that way because they'd be satisfied at 200 now that they are 300.

I can remember when stores were closed on Sundays. Today noone wants laws forbidding them to do anything - except to preach the gospel in public places. When 75 dedicated teens from a baptist church in Albuquerque, NM went to Los Angeles on a mission to witness for Christ and to sing and testify, they met with resistance at every turn. They went to UCLA Medical Center to perform for the dying children there and when they began to sing, the director of the center told them to leave because they had mentioned the name of Jesus. Then they went to the mall to pass out Christian literature and invite people to church. They weren't buttonholing shoppers or forcing their views on anyone, yet a security guard asked them to leave the premises. The way America is treating Christians today is the way Hitler treated the Jews in the 1930's. Remember, before holocaust and genocide and physical persecution always comes slander, scandal, public ridicule, and abuse. You don't have to go far to find people who think, because of the image being portrayed by the media, that fundamentalist evangelicals are not only fanatics but dangerous to society. Liberals always think that Christians are going to spoil all their fun or limit their freedoms. History, however, reveals just the opposite. The fact that Christianity has had a positive effect on America cannot be doubted. Our founding fathers believed that only a nation that trusted in God could survive as a democracy. The ideals of life, liberty and happiness were perceived as resting on the premise that "all men were created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights." Belief in God was the glue that held society together. Today, the liberal elite want to keep 'religion' in its proper place - inside the church. Removing God from the public arena has been detrimental to America. This is why I feel that the decline in morals in this country have fallen sharply.

Who pays for everyone to have this health care? It's talked about as if it were very reasonably priced. Some one said in Canada a family pays only $108. per month. That same family had over a million dollars worth of care for a family member. Who paid for that?

This is true. We do need to support one another. It's just that most of us who have had surgery for weight loss were very heavy, like 280 or over 300 lbs. when we had it. We think about 200 or 220 lbs. and say," If only I could weigh that little." So, we'd be 'happy' at that weight and not even desire or need the surgery. See what I mean?

Forgiveness is a choice that we make. As a christian, I have learned so much about the sinful, wickedness of mankind. I understand that all people do wrong, terrible wrongs, even child molestation and murder. I see humans for what we are. Therefore, I can forgive others rather easily. So, yes, I have forgiven him. I won't forget what he did and I will keep him away from us and our family for the sake of my son, and I will keep my eye on him. As for going to church. My family had been attending that church for over 20 years. He just started to attend. We confronted him about that. Why did he want to start going to the same church as us? If he continued there, we would have had to leave and attend elsewhere, for my son's sake. Uproot our children from their lifetime church and friendships? Not us. Now, who should go elsewhere? He lived 2 towns away. We lived in town. He was upset that we wrote him off our list as far as a relationship goes, and he used to come to our home all the time. After that incident, we also learned that he had 'tried' something with my then 11 year old son after he exited the shower with just a towel around him. My son told him to stay away from him and went downstairs. Thankfully, my kids are very outspoken and not easily intimidated. When a church discovers a potential child abuser, they have every right to tell that person that they know of his attempts and will be following them around. There are many consequences that go along with being a pediphile. Too bad for them. Keep their hands to themselves then!

His being gay is not for me to forgive. His being gay is no offense to me. Trying to molest my child is an offense to me.

Another thing we must do when we know that a person 'likes' children....Keep an eye on his doings, activities and life. When my nephew started to attend our church, my husband and I told the pastor what he tried to do with my son, and they called him into their office to talk with him. They told him that if he chose to make this church his home church, that it was okay, but he needed to be aware that he would be watched. If he got up to go to the men's room, someone would follow him. He wasn't permitted to get involved in any children's ministries because we all knew about him. You play, you pay. Needless to say, he doesn't go to our church anymore. When we found out what church he went to next, we notified the pastor there. Hey, too bad for him! He shouldn't have tried what he did. Even though nothing bad happened, it scarred my son, and ruined the family get togethers. What's the matter with people anyway? Sick.

Just because the person who did it was a long time family friend, he should be forgiven.

Although I don't put myself in the same arena as MJ at all, when my daughter was in middle school and high school, it wasn't uncommon for her and her friends to all pile into my bed to watch movies and fall asleep. I had other peoples kids in my bed almost every weekend, but I sure never thought about molesting any of them. That's JUST SICK! Joan

He ended up getting his due punishment in the end, though, didn't he? He's in prison right now.

I thought you said you were a believer? Therefore, you too will rise up.

Uh....there is some truth to that.