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It kind of bothers me when folks try to present moral equivalencies between a man having paid sex with a adult female prostitute, with the #na#l r#pe of a minor boy by a male adult in the confessional...

There is NO comparison. Perhaps they feel their religion is under attack.

They may be thinking "Any thing to 'defend the faith!'" and end up 'defending the indefensible..."

Even it means equating the homosexual r#pe of innocent little boys, with having sex with a prostitute.

Judah, according to Genesis, had sex with his daughter in law, tamar, while she was posing as a prostitute... that person was in the line of Christ.
God TOLD Amos to marry a hooker, named gomer. Men having sex with women outside of marriage is NOT the moral equivalent of homosexal-pedophilia.

NONE of the patriarchs had homosexual pedophilic tendencies or practiced any behaviors like them, at least they are not listed in scripture. Homosexuals were not tolerated in the old testament, under the ten commandments.

Seeing a prostitute... was.

I always thought swaggart was a phoney.
But I don't think he was a perverted sex criminal. I speculate that he was just a lonely guy, whose wife was not interested in him, for any number of reasons... and who could not resist the NORMAL temptation to interact, sexually with females. Just speculation of course.

There is no reason to believe that Swaggart sought out contact with underage males who were in his "counsel" or under the "confessional" as is the case with the current crop of folks...

These pederasts are both PHONEYS, for rejecting the faithfulness to God's commandments and rejecting the professed morality of their church, AND perverted sex CRIMINALS who hurt children.

The ones who hid them?
MY gut feelings are that they hide and protect the criminals NOT for the good of the Church, but because they too, are very likely guilty of the very same acts... and fear exposure. Perhaps some of them are even worse... one freeper pointed on this thread to me that even governor keating is afraid of them, saying they are all part of a deadly mafiosa, on an even keel with la cosa nostra... serous statement from a guy who is no stranger to death threats.

AND he is quitting over it...

I am not surprised, even broaching the subject, gets some very nasty freepermail going.

One thing's for sure, there are a lot of dissappointed Christians doubting their leadership, not Christ, per se or his Church... but the folks who are leading. Just like Christ said they would be one day... there appear to be very many "ravenous wolves" in sheep's clothing indeed.

No excuse for Swaggart though. If you cannot keep it zipped, or resist going after "strange" women, you don't really belong in Christian ministry...
However, Swaggarts sexual frustration and pursuit of sexual interaction with women is just not the moral or legal equivalent of sexually assaulting minor children of the same sex...

All of us at times, complain about the morally similarity of San Francisco cp. Sodom and Gomorrah... perhaps we need to all look a little closer to home... at the folks who PRETEND to represent Jesus... just around the corner.

I often wonder how many of the men who were r#ped by priests in the past, have turned into the Jeffrey Dahmers and Hanibal Lecters of our criminal justice system?

I got sick for three days, over my first "football physical" by a female doctor, involving a plastic glove, ky jelly, and a lot of coughing over the edge of a table... I cannot imagine what it would be, if someone had abused me as a child, in the name of God almighty...

I hardly think Swaggarts adultery with a willing female, compares to that kind of trauma on a kid's conscience for his entire life...

What you said. Excellent post - and absolutely dead-on right.

No excuse for Swaggart though. If you cannot keep it zipped, or resist going after "strange" women, you don't really belong in Christian ministry...

Agreed.

One thing I have to respect Swaggart with, is that he faced the music, and publicly asked for forgiveness for his sin(s). Something many of us Catholics wished our church leaders would do, when they've done wrong.