Dr. Ted Tripp, the senior pastor of Grace Fellowship Church, Hazleton, Pennsylvania, came to Seattle recently preaching the importance of corporeal punishment beginning with infants. According to Tripp, he is commanded by God to preach to parents to spank their young children on bare skin and then tell them you love them in order to teach them respect for authority.

On a Sunday in late July, Jim David Adkisson entered the Tennesse Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville and opened fire. He said he hated gays and liberals and “all liberals should be killed.” He murdered two people and seriously injured 6 others before being subdued by other church members.

Let’s begin with the bottom line: lack of modesty in dress doesn’t cause rape. But this doesn’t stop Father Sergio Roman from condemning miniskirts.

“One sexual predator in our midst is one too many,” said Morris Chapman, president of the Southern Baptist Convention executive committee. “Sexual predators must be stopped. They must be on notice that Southern Baptists are not a harvest field for their devious deeds.” Good so far.

The state of Georgia is trying to protect its children from sex offenders.  To that end it passed legislation in 2006 (updated in 2008) that is viewed as the toughest in the U.S. There is only one problem: the law criminalizes all volunteer activities by registered sex offenders in religious organizations.

Bruce Ware, professor of Christian theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., actually does know why husbands abuse their wives.

Four teenage girls were molested by their youth pastor. When one teen finally disclosed, the senior pastor fired the youth pastor and reported him to the police. He was charged and prosecuted for sex with a minor. So far, so good.

A woman recently shared with me her experience of being assaulted and stabbed by her abusive husband. As she recovered from her injuries, she turned to her church, expecting pastoral care and support.

I think it is safe to say that everyone was surprised that Pope Benedict XVI talked about the pedophile priest crisis everyday he was in the US on his recent trip. In fact, he began the conversation with reporters on his plane enroute.