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‘Shame on You’: Judge Calls Out Family Members Who Abandoned Survivors as Megachurch Leader Is Sentenced for Child Sexual Assault
Law and Crime ^ | June 8, 2022 | Colin Kalmbacher

Posted on 06/08/2022 10:20:47 PM PDT by Morgana

The leader of a prominent Christian megachurch was sentenced to 16 years and eight months in prison Wednesday after pleading guilty to multiple counts of child sexual assault late last week.

During the hearing, the defendant — and many others — were sharply upbraided by the judge.

“I never cease to be amazed at what people do in the name of religion,” Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ronald S. Coen angrily mused. “And how people’s lives are ruined in the guise of serving a supreme being.”

After years of proclaiming his innocence and pledging to fight the charges against him, Naasón Joaquín García, 53 — known to his flock as the “apostle” of the Church of the Living God, Pillar and Ground of the Truth, The Light of the World, which claims over 5 million members worldwide — admitted last week to being legally culpable for two counts of forcible oral copulation involving minors and one count of a lewd act upon a child who was 15 at the time.

“As to the defendant, I say, you are a sexual predator,” Coen told García as several pronounced sobs could be heard in the background during the sentencing hearing.

Prosecutors have alleged that García and several other co-defendants used religion and the church’s traditional power hierarchy in order to groom at least five children into a web and cycle of sexual abuse – at times forcing the children to abuse one another.

Before the sentencing occurred, the court had heard victim impact statements from survivors of the pastor’s apparent reign of religious and sexual terror.

(Excerpt) Read more at lawandcrime.com ...


TOPICS: Evangelical Christian; General Discusssion; Moral Issues
KEYWORDS: cult; laluzdelmundo; lightoftheworld
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1 posted on 06/08/2022 10:20:47 PM PDT by Morgana
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To: Gamecock

megachurch ping, although I’ve never heard of this one.


2 posted on 06/08/2022 10:21:22 PM PDT by Morgana ( Always a bit of truth in dark humor. )
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To: Morgana

“ Prosecutors have alleged that García and several other co-defendants used religion and the church’s traditional power hierarchy in order to groom at least five children into a web and cycle of sexual abuse – at times forcing the children to abuse one another.”

So what is different from the transgender and drag queen story hours?
Looks like not okay to use Christian beliefs to groom children, but okay to groom them with pagan methods. Sick shat!


3 posted on 06/08/2022 10:29:14 PM PDT by antceecee
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To: Morgana

Imagine all that weight used to hold you down. A Mexican prison should turn him into a skinny kick toy.

4 posted on 06/08/2022 10:40:08 PM PDT by jonrick46 (Leftnicks chase illusions of motherships at the end of the pier.)
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To: Morgana

I read a little about this group. It has a lot of the markings of a cult.


5 posted on 06/08/2022 10:46:23 PM PDT by Southside_Chicago_Republican (The more I learn about people, the more I like my dog. )
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To: Morgana
"The Light of the World"

John 8:12 I am the light of the world.

I wonder which one is the real Jesus?
6 posted on 06/08/2022 10:58:45 PM PDT by Telepathic Intruder
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To: Morgana

I only know of one church like this. Father in law’s church. The pastor got drunk and went out to call on a female member of the church. He tried to rape her. He was immediately fired and prosecuted, and found guilty, and went to prison. I have not had experience with people who just put up with this crap...


7 posted on 06/08/2022 11:04:18 PM PDT by NEBO (We are swimming in a cesspool of lies so fetid it’s impossible to know what’s true. Clyde Lewis)
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To: Morgana

Yeop! Another one! The “megachurch” that I attended where the Pastor’s sexual deviance was finally exposed was Overland Christian Church in Kirkland, Washington. Pastor Bob Moorehead (no joke). 1998. What is it with some of these Christian “Leaders”? It just happens waaay to often. The 2002 Catholic Archdiocese of Boston sex abuse scandal involved over 90 priests and 250 criminal charges. No doubt its a diagnosable psychological condition. The affect it has on kids is irreversible and tragic. rant/off


8 posted on 06/08/2022 11:10:57 PM PDT by know.your.why (If you dont watch the MSM you are uninformed. If you do watch the MSM you are misinformed.)
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To: Morgana

The judge is correct. Those types of phony Christians are disgusting in what they do using the cover of the gospel of Christ. Shoulda given him 22 years...
Then again, the abuse people heap on others under the guise of “love” and “empowerment” or “opportunity” is disgusting also.


9 posted on 06/08/2022 11:26:30 PM PDT by Getready (Wisdom is more valuable than gold and diamonds, and harder to find.)
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naason

Naasón Joaquín García, leader of La Luz del Mundo church

10 posted on 06/08/2022 11:36:35 PM PDT by deks
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To: Morgana

Mega church, mega egos.


11 posted on 06/09/2022 1:21:36 AM PDT by fwdude (Every time I see someone voluntarily masked in public, I know I'm looking at a vaccinated person.)
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To: Morgana

It is easy for people to judge other cultures, and for the non-religious to judge the religious. I suspect that Coen is missing a letter—an “h” dropped out of the middle, which likely makes the judge a secularized Jew.

If one reads the opening chapters of the I Samuel and pays attention to the verses about Eli’s sons, one will discover that the problem runs very deep indeed, and that culturally the apple never falls far from the tree. Problems regarding sexuality and power run deep.

While I am a believing Catholic, I can understand the great appeal and functionality of the rural Baptist way of running things—that is a tradition that I respect that runs deep among my ancestors. There were a number of Congregationalists, who have close to the same hierarchy, but apply the same principles to doctrine, which seems more flawed dogmatically.


12 posted on 06/09/2022 2:46:09 AM PDT by Hieronymus
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To: fwdude

Call it what it is - a cult. Blasphemers, all of them.


13 posted on 06/09/2022 2:46:16 AM PDT by Apparatchik (If you find yourself in a confusing situation, simply laugh knowingly and walk away - Jim Ignatowski)
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To: antceecee

Good points about the transgender and drag queens.

This children in this story were not as young as the grooming candidates I’m seeing in recent stories.

Why are they allowed to do that? Oh, because they’re not a “church.”


14 posted on 06/09/2022 2:54:42 AM PDT by Loud Mime ("The Real Constitution and its Real Enemies" now available on Amazon. Check it out!)
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To: Morgana

I think the defendant has grounds to appeal because of the judge’s anti religious speech.


15 posted on 06/09/2022 6:02:23 AM PDT by heartwood (Someone has to play devil's advocate.)
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To: Morgana

Kill him..
kiddie diddlers have no redeeming qualities.
Given a chance they will do it again..
Kill them


16 posted on 06/09/2022 6:38:58 AM PDT by joe fonebone (And the people said NO! The End)
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To: Southside_Chicago_Republican

Markings of a cult? Really? Do you think so?

/s


17 posted on 06/09/2022 7:05:56 AM PDT by Sequoyah101 (Politicians are only marginally good at one thing, being politicians. Otherwise they are fools.)
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To: Morgana

This is a cult pretending to be a Christian church.


18 posted on 06/09/2022 7:43:32 AM PDT by EastTexasTraveler
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To: deks

Ew, that photo is disgusting — the women in blue mantillas in the background sobbing over him like the women in North Korea do over Big Boy Kim.


19 posted on 06/09/2022 9:39:05 AM PDT by Albion Wilde (“Government is the problem.” --Milton Friedman)
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To: heartwood
I think the defendant has grounds to appeal because of the judge’s anti religious speech.

I'm not sure he meant it as anti-religion, but as disgust at false preachers who use religious imagery to prey upon others.

20 posted on 06/09/2022 9:57:23 AM PDT by Albion Wilde (“Government is the problem.” --Milton Friedman)
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