Another Southern Baptist Pastor charged with child rape

KOMO news is reporting that Dirk Johnson, a Southern Baptist Convention pastor with First Baptist Church in Port Orchard, WA has confessed to raping a 12 year old girl in 2003. She was a student at Manchester Christian Academy in Manchester, Wash. where Dirk Jackson was her teacher. The girl reports that she told her family when it was happening, but they did nothing.

The rape victim, now 21, recently visited a church where Dirk Jackson is now the assistant pastor, First Baptist Church of Port Orchard, and was alarmed to see her rapist had access to children. She then reported the crime to law enforcement officials. (This church is not affiliated with the school and at the present time, there are no allegations that anything untoward took place at this church. Jackson is currently serving as the pastor of discipleship and evangelism for the First Baptist Church)

In spite of the taped confession, Dirk Jackson still has his supporters.  Jackson's father, Donn Jackson said, ""This is not a pattern," said Donn Jackson. "His life has absolutely been a contribution to our community. He won't go nowhere. We'll see to that." 

The pastor of First Baptist in Port Orchard, Jamie Greening, has this to say. 

""We're just shocked, surprised, confused," said Pastor Jamie Greening, who works alongside Jackson. "This does not match. These allegations do not match the man we've known for eight years."

(Greening has been blogging about this arrest, his blog is here: http://jdgreening.wordpress.com/ On thing I personally felt alarmed over was the fact when Pastor Greening announced the fact that his assistant pastor had been arrested, he asked for prayers for the perpetrator's family but did not ask his readers to pray for the rape victim.)

Pastor Jamie Greening, First Baptist Church, Port Orchard, WA

Greening is a graduate of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Beeson Divinity School.

(Additional details may be found at http://www.oregonherald.com/oregon/local.cfm?id=371&Business-News=Port-Orchard-Pastor-Charged-With-Raping-12-Year-Old-Girl.htm)

[See also: Why I am not a Southern Baptist]


Update: Dirk Jackson pleads guilty: http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/kitsap/poi/news/126771258.html

Pig tactics mulled to drive Muslims away from public square/Oslo rape statistics shock

Pig tactics threatened

Norwegian anti-immigration politicians in Bergen have promised to chase off Muslims with pigs feet and squealing noises if Bergen's central square is used for prayers.



The leader of the Demokratene, a populist party formed by outcasts of the populist Progress Party, Vidar Kleppe, said Wednesday that he backed the remarks of city council representative Kenneth Rasmussen.

Rasmussen reacted with threats of porcine tactics after Labour Party politician Jerad Abdelmajid said that the city's Muslims could take their Friday prayers in Torgallmenningen, Bergen's central square, when they will be without a mosque from March 31. Building of a new mosque is behind schedule.

Abdelmajid's announcement provoked heated public debate.
"I completely agree with Kenneth Rasmussen that Muslims having their Friday prayers with their bu**s in the air in the city center is no solution. They can find other places," Kleppe told news agency NTB.

Kenneth Rasmussen told newspaper Dagbladet's web site that Bergen residents should hang up pig's feet and play pig squeals over loudspeakers to scare off Muslims, and claimed these tactics worked when he was a soldier for the United Nations in Somalia and Lebanon in the 1990s.

In other Islamic news

Oslo rape statistics shock

Two out of three charged with rape in Norway's capital are immigrants with a non-western background according to a police study. The number of rape cases is also rising steadily.The study is the first where the crime statistics have been analyzed according to ethnic origin. Of the 111 charged with rape in Oslo last year, 72 were of non-western ethnic origin, 25 are classified as Norwegian or western and 14 are listed as unknown.
Rape charges in the capital are spiraling upwards, 40 percent higher from 1999 to 2000 and up 13 percent so far this year.


Police Inspector Gunnar Larsen of Oslo's Vice, Robbery and Violent crime division says the statistics are surprising - the rising number of rape cases and the link to ethnic background are both clear trends.

While 65 percent of those charged with rape are classed as coming from a non-western background, this segment makes up only 14.3 percent of Oslo's population. Norwegian women were the victims in 80 percent of the cases, with 20 percent being women of foreign background.