[Bumped] Convicted Child Molester to Lead Retreat in Diocese of Georgia

It looks like Dio Georgia has gone to the dawgs.

Lynn Baumann was dean of the Anglican School of Theology when I studied there in the 80s and taught a couple if my classes. He was also rector of a growing Episcopal parish in a southern suburb of Dallas. The future looked good for him.

While I am sad at the course of events, I am not terribly surprised. He had, 25 yours ago, a fascination with the new and edgy in theology set a path which you can see led him over the cliff. It’s not hard to imagine that same kind of fascination worked it’s magic in other areas of his life.

Islam ain’t my “sister faith.”  More like a bastard brother faith full of Arian BS about Jesus.  No wonder why TEO is so in love with it.

His wacko brother Ward Bauman runs the “Episcopal House of Prayer” in Minnesota which, by the way, is totally devoid of any Christian symbolism.  (I mean, who wants anything icky and “exclusive” like that.)  My most ridiculous memory of this “priest” was at a Minnesota diocesan where he would bong his Buddhist prayer bowls to bring the sessions to order.  I kid you not.

No serious church would allow these nut brothers to be clergy.  But in TEO, they’re par for the course.  I’m surprised they didn’t let Lyn off because he was being true to his authentic self and let him keep his collar.

If the newspaper accounts are correct, one of the victims was 11, victimized at church retreat. 
TEC authorities apparently deem it OK for this guy to lead retreats that do not involve children.  Nevertheless, by placing him in a position of honor as a retreat leader, speaker and honored writer, the Church is burnishing his credentials as a spiritual leader, and thus enhancing his ability to gain a position of trust with others, including children. 
I struggle with the right way to honor God in the treatment of child sex offenders. They are no less deserving of God’s forgiveness. It is cruel and counterproductive to require them to live under a bridge after they get out of prison, with no chance of employment or relationships outside of other offenders.

Pastorally, ww have an obligation to keep him out of harm’s way. To me, that means in no position of authority and AWAY from any possible “temptation” to offend.

On the website, it looks like the order is about 15 retired (60-70 years old) women.

I doubt this group can muster much energy up.  They can undoubtedly create a little commotion by inviting a 60 year old child molester err.. I mean ex priest, who, along with his brother founded something called the “Oriental Orthodox Center In the West”, whatever that is.

Just your garden variety Episcopal nutjobs, and child molesters.  I cannot fathom someone spending $125 American to listen to these wingnuts expound about anything.  I’m sure the sisters will get a tingle out of his convoluted ideas, and the feeling of being “edgy”.  I guess if you were 70, and your dozen or so other 70 year old Sister Nuns wanted a little excitement, this would be about it. 

Order of Saint Helena, I salute you for your mind-blowingly vapid attempt at “Spiritual” Expansion.  Good luck with the retreat, and if any little boys do show up, please keep them away from your invited snake oil salesman.

I go a little nuts when I hear that Christians are putting on spiritual retreats having to do with other religions. It seems unlikely that a Muslim group would have a convicted child molester (or anybody) put on a retreat on the Desert Fathers, or Jewish mysticism.

The Christian spiritual tradition is just as rich as that of any other faith, and of course it’s more productive.

A friend in Georgia says that this is a group of ultra-liberal feminists who have their very own non-BCP liturgies for the Eucharist and the Daily Office. She isn’t sure what oversight they have. It would appear to me that they need a wake-up call.

IF this person constitutes a true threat, and if these charges { I didn’t see them posted anywhere} are true and stuck, THEN why didn’t someone in the know run an add in te local paper? Why wait until the day before? How important is it really? I am asking, not chiding…

I don’t find this at all odd. Why? Pederasty is tolerated in Muslim societies. The Guardian reports thusly:

I recently saw the documentary on the Dancing Boys of Afghanistan. It exposed an ancient custom called “bacha bazi” (boy for play), where rich men buy boys as young as 11 from impoverished families for sexual slavery. The boys are dressed in women’s clothes and made to dance and sing at parties, before being carted away by the men for sex. Owning boys is considered a symbol of status and one former warlord boasted of having up to 3,000 boys over a 20-year period, even though he was married, with two sons.

There you have it. There is a place where faith and child molestation meet. Apparently the DioGa has embraced it.

Behind these retreats is the gnostic idea that spirit is good and that all spirituality must be good also. This bears no resemblance to Christianity. What was the recent reading about claiming to be children of Abraham?

It’s the honor that is given to these people that strikes me.  I remember when my former church, a church that claimed to be Anglo-Catholic, held a seminar on The Christianity of Oscar Wilde.  Now don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love Wilde’s writing, but as a stand-up example of Christianity?  A man who openly frequented boys on the street, as they say?

Another thing that I wonder about is why The Episcopal Church is having relatively no reaction to its presiding bishop’s open embracing of “alternative” sexual expressions, condoning them as ways through which God works (and don’t you fundamentalists come down on them with your archaic ideas of God).

Perusal of the St. Helena website shows nothing about oversight from anyone.

My friend asked her rector, who said that St. Helena is not part of DioGA, although the convent is located within its geographical boundary.

One reads elsewhere that Bp. Neal Alexander of Atlanta is the overseer. If that can be verified, then perhaps DioGA ought not to be blamed for letting this happen.

So much for that Safeguarding God’s People program. I’m sure the same logic that the Bishop of Tennessee has no jurisdiction over who comes to Sewanee. Nevertheless, there is responsibility borne by the Bishop of Geogia and Atlanta jointly.  This is gross negligence on multiple fronts here.

Friday night, Augusta television station Channel 12 had this as their lead story at 11 pm.  Several video shots of the outside of the convent & of the Episcopal church sign.  At the end of the piece, the anchor talked with the reporter who said she asked the convent for a statement and was told to leave the property and never come back.  “All are welcome.”

the anchor talked with the reporter who said she asked the convent for a statement and was told to leave the property and never come back.  “All are welcome.”

Perfect example of “The Episcopal Church Welcomes You!”

And here’s the link to that TV news story.

Not a particularly diligent piece of reporting, in that the convent is not a church, and I don’t they mentioned that he is defrocked. Still, good to be asking for accountability.

In the words of Rumi, “Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation. Be notorious.”

Julia Marks wrote: “I remember when my former church, a church that claimed to be Anglo-Catholic, held a seminar on The Christianity of Oscar Wilde.  Now don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love Wilde’s writing, but as a stand-up example of Christianity?  A man who openly frequented boys on the street, as they say?”

The title of the presentation was The Christian Soul of Oscar Wilde: Insights on Christian Principles in Wilde’s Works: Plays, Short Stories, Essays, Verse. The focus was entirely on Wilde’s literary works, not his lifestyle. The presenter, while still nominally Episcopalian, now usually attends Mass at her local Roman Catholic parish. Like many Anglo-Catholics she is somewhat idiosyncratic in her opinions, but she is no revisionist.