Pastor Coerced Women To Have Sex To Fight Off Devil

[Thurston Howell IV]

Prosecutor Patrick Espinosa said Romero coerced at least three women in his "congregation" into having sex in exchange for protection from the devil.

"He taught about the Bible and the text in the Bible, so I trusted him," said one of Romero's victims.

That victim testified that she and others met with Romero and his wife in their home twice a week to study the word of God. She said last January, Romero told her she was inhabited by the devil.

"What was your reaction when Mr. Romero told you the devil had attacked you?" Espinosa asked the victim.

"I went into a trauma. I cried a lot because I was scared of that part," the victim said.

She said Romero claimed to be following the orders of Jesus Christ when he offered her protection through sex. Eventually she met him for sex six times in parking lots, his car and at shopping malls.


http://www.thesandiegochannel.com/news/3737976/detail.html?subid=22100481&qs=1;bp=t

[KittyWampus]

1. People Using Spiritual Authority To Validate Their Own Egos....

among other things...

Actually, DU has our own charlatan posting in the Meeting Room. Why do people just accept authority figures?

It's imperative that each of us work on developing our sense of Discrimination.

A part of me wants to laugh at this story... but it really isn't funny. It's tragic.

[olddad56]

10. spiritual authority is an oxymoron...

I think you meant religious authority. For me, there is a definite distinction between spirituality and religion. Religion is for people who don't want to goto hell, spirituality is for people who have been there.

[havocmom]

12. olddad, that is beautiful!

'Religion is for people who don't want to go to hell, spirituality is for peole who have been there.' Yes, indeed.

Welcome to DU! :hi: Looking forward to reading more from you.

[KittyWampus]

13. I Appreciate Your Thought.

IMO,

Spirituality is about taking a map and embarking on a journey for oneself.
Religion is about reading the Sunday Travel section or sitting through some else's slideshow. :)

There are people whom I consider Authorities when it comes to Spiritual Truths... but they have demonstrated their grasp of said Truths to my own personal satisfaction.

That said, such Authorities NEVER preach or tell others what to think... they give others priniciples so that each person can figure things out for THEMSELVES.

Curiously enough, those who I consider the most advanced consider themselves as Brothers and Sisters... not Father or Mother figures.

[drfemoe]

30. good one

:thumbsup: :D that explains a LOT .. welcome to DU too :hi:

[cliss]

18. pssst

who?

[Arianrhod]

33. There is no such thing as "spiritual authority".

People who fall for such charlatans are not spiritual people. That they are abused and taken advantage of is not surprising, because they probably undergo similar experiences in every aspect of their everyday lives. It's a part of their blind acceptance of the chimpanzee dominance hierarchy that is inculcated in them from birth: A total illusion, an animal response that blocks them from the truth and prevents them from being genuine individuals.

Americans are saturated with Church propaganda. It's no wonder they get themselves entangled in every wind of doctrine that blows their way. And their need for self-fulfillment--undermined by their lack of awareness of their true selves--opens them to all manner of scams.

America needs to repent, in the true meaning of the word. That is, each individual needs to face the darkness within him/herself, and deal with it. Until then, stories like this will continue to be par for the course.

[TahitiNut]

34. "What do you do when you meet Buddha on your Path?"

Kill him.

(We are our own Buddha.)

[Arianrhod]

35. The devil has nothing to do with either sin or sex.

The oldest extant book of the Bible is that of Job, in the first chapter of which Satan is introduced as "a son of God". The ancient Hebrew writers never posited a spiritual embodiment of evil--just as they didn't believe in Heaven or Hell. The correlation of Satan with evil was proposed by the Apostle Paul c. 54 CE, with his suggestion that the "serpent of old" described in Genesis 3 was the same being described in Isaiah 14, who had "fallen from heaven", and who was described by Peter as a "roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8). Until Paul, no one had even thought to make such a comparison.

The modern version of the Christian devil was derived from pagan depictions of Cernunnos, the stag-horned Animal Lord worshiped by us Celts. It was a response of the post-Constantine Christians to the worship practices of the people they sought to dominate and conquer. And of course, the true hater of sex and sexuality was Paul himself, not some make-believe scapegoat who was nothing more than the projection of Paul's own guilty conscience.

We pagans have always celebrated sex as the ultimate form of union with Deity--a doctrine Jesus himself taught.

[TheDebbieDee]

2. But unless she's learning disabled............................

why would any woman with commom sense fall for that bullshit.

Unless she's just a whore that's hot for a pastor or feels some sort of emotional charge out of humpin' with a powerful man. Monica Lewinsky could do a better job (pardon the pun) of explaining that concept.


edited: cause jog and job are 2 different things.

[dqueue]

3. along those lines...

why would any woman with commom sense fall for that bullshit.

to which I inquire: how does any citizen with common sense actually support and like the shrub?

Ego. Deceit. Charisma (although, I don't find him charismatic). Fear.

anyhow, off-topic. Sorry for the rant.

This is a crazy story, though!

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. Some people will obey any authority figure

There are a lot of charlatans and con men who are ministers. They get into the profession because of the false sense of power it gives. For those who believe, these people have a lot to answer for when they meet the Master of the Day of Judgement. A real minister takes his/her calling seriously.

[kayell]

7. She answered this herself (although I don't think she has common sense)

"He taught about the Bible and the text in the Bible, so I trusted him,"

This is the same logic used by people who support * because he is a godly man. How do they know that? Well, because he told them so of course. :shrug:

[0007]

11. "why would any woman with commom sense fall for that bullshit"

Maybe they heard this rooster was extra large! The man with the most ya might say.

Hope this turkey gets a STD. Poor chicks!

[w4rma]

15. Feeding off ignorance (nt)

[Voltaire99]

28. Speaking of "commom sense," as you call it...

Unless she's just a whore that's hot for a pastor or feels some sort of emotional charge out of humpin' with a powerful man. Monica Lewinsky could do a better job (pardon the pun) of explaining that concept.

At last check, you still needed a sleazeball liar as the second half of the intern-fucking equation.

[drfemoe]

31. Learning disabled

is believing that anyone outside of oneself has the "answer".
It is a rampant virus on the planet.
Why? Because People do not want to claim their own Power.
Why? Training.
Vaccination contraindicated.

Loneliness 'helps'.

Goddess Bless all the lonely ..

[Shallah Kali]

5. too many people put unquestioning faith in authority figures

There have been sexual abuse of adults as well as children by various religious leaders through the years. They give up their power and do whatever the person tells them to do because it is God's Will whether it is sending them money they can't afford to do without or let some nutjob like david koresh have sex with their wives and rape their daughters. It is scary that some people are so easy to manipulate. Some are easier for scum like this to control if they come from a controling family that teaches them that religious leaders are not to be questioned no matter what.

[Darranar]

6. Disgusting. n/t

[neuvocat]

8. And some people think that God isn't used to promote an agenda.

If a "priest" does this, who's to say a politician wouldn't?

[Just Me]

9. Just another example of how we should be investing in domestic,...

,...problems rather than delivering goods we really don't have abroad.

Seriously.

[joefree1]

14. What's this difference between this guy and a pagan?

Answer: For a pagan there is no devil so why worry about about sin or sex.

We might coerce ya in to hugging a tree though.


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PaganWarrior/

[MrSlayer]

16. Can we please stamp out organized religion now?

Can you imagine anything more absurd than an adult being scared that the "devil" was attacking them? Organized Religion is simply making fools out of people for fun and profit.

[cliss]

17. Just visualize this for a minute....

A priest and a member of the church. The two of them are sitting in his car (I assume) in the parking lot at the local shopping mall.

The guy, with his white collar still on, proceeds to have sex with this church member in the car (it's got to be a little tricky to do it in the back seat, after all. What if somebody were to drive by, or walk by?

That's pretty damn stupid, if you ask me.

[drfemoe]

32. risky behavior

in the name of "religion".. oh yeah.

If it wasn't so sad, it would be ludicrous.

[ropi]

19. Talk about Faith Based Assistance

How sweet it is!

[barb162]

20. I feel sorry for these gullible people and yet I want to

slap them silly for falling for this crap.

[Boomer]

21. I'm torn as well

On the one hand, the man is utter slime for abusing his religious authority for crass sexual exploitation and for his fundamental betrayal of trust. There is no excuse for this behavior.

Nonetheless, a woman must have spam for brains to fall for that load of crap. At some point an adult has to take responsibility for navigating the challenges of life and protecting themselves from avoidable dangers. If you can't figure out that some preacher wants to get in your pants for less than holy reasons, then you're in for a very rough ride through life.

[barb162]

22. these people maybe are mentally challenged or whatever the

current p/c phrase is these days (I don't keep up with the changes)

[GoddessOfGuinness]

23. Almost half of the voting public fell for this crap 4 years ago...

...and they're still letting him fuck them over.... :grr:

[leesa]

24. Stupid women! You deserve it for refusing to engage your brains.

The BIBLE said so! What effin idiots.

[skooooo]

25. Did it work?

[Bonobo]

26. I guess he f****ed the hell out of her, huh?

[struggle4progress]

27. "Put the devil in hell when he swells up with pride" is one of the ...

... oldest lines around; it's even in the Decameron. These women actually fell for this trite sh*t?

[Voltaire99]

29. The rise of evangelical Christianity in America...

...is likely to bring plenty of variations on this exorcism theme.

[Arianrhod]

36. "Rise"?

Fundamentalism is the basis of popular America. The religious lunatics reacted immediately to the ratification of the Constitution, producing the "Great Awakening" less than two years afterward, in which Jonathan Edwards literally had congregants rolling, screaming and crying in the aisles with such militantly hate-filled and superstitious sermons as "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God". In 1789, 80,000 people abandoned the new American State for Canada and Britain, in a fit of pique over Jefferson's and Madison's insistence that religion should play no role in government. Americans are Puritans at heart--uncompassionate, vulgar, xenophobic, racist, self-righteous. How else to explain *'s current poll numbers? We DUers need to realize that, although there are 50,000 of us posting, we are members of a deeply isolated minority.

Fundamentalism is rampant in our country. Indeed, it is now in charge of it.

[kodi]

37. preachers are wolves at lambing

.