Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Prejoist podcast. I wanted to record this as sort of a companion

piece to an article that I released today titled, Sure, Sexual Abuse is Bad, but his policies are so good.

And the article was talking about how we as a society are so quick to let sexual predators lead

organizations, both locally and on national stages or positions in government,

as long as those people are impressive enough in other areas. And I anchored the story with

a experience I had growing up in an independent fundamental Baptist church. It says at the church

I grew up in, a self-admitted

predator got behind our pulpit every week leading music and singing specials. I'm not joking

when I say that the song he sang most often was a rendition of, he touched me. The irony was

enough to make you vomit. Despite having very recently confessed to sexually abusing a teenage girl at a prior church,

there he was each Sunday leading worship. I remember asking a few people, is there no one else

that can sing? Was he talented enough to overshadow his horrific crimes? Was this man completely

irreplaceable? I find myself now asking the same questions, albeit about men

on much larger stages than that 300-seat auditorium. I angered the story in that, not because I just

want to beat the dead horse about my childhood and the things that I saw, but also, those experiences

were kind of like a major event for me. It was a time where I got to see

what the church valued. And, you know, it came down to a spot of, we like how this guy sings

and leads music. No one else will do it. And so we'll take this guy and put him up there.

And I just remember asking that question over and over again,

like, can nobody else sing in this church? And even if this person was the most talented

singer in the entire world, does he need to be the one representing the church on stage and leading

us in worship? And the answer I got time and time again was that this man's, you know, through action, this man's

...