Saturday, May 17, 2008 | Reason : In the News | print version

Texas Megachurch Minister Busted in Internet Sex Sting

by Fox News

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,356467,00.html

Texas Megachurch Minister Busted in Internet Sex Sting

BRYAN, Texas — A minister from a Dallas-area Baptist megachurch was caught in an Internet sex sting and charged with online solicitation of a minor, police said Friday.

Undercover officers posing as a 13-year-old girl communicated with Joe Barron, 52, of Plano for about two weeks. The online conversations were sexual in nature, police said.

On May 6, Barron suggested meeting the girl in person. He eventually made the nearly 200-mile drive to Bryan on Thursday, when he was arrested. Police said they found a web-cam and condoms in his car.

Barron remained in Brazos County Jail on Friday on $7,000 bail. Police did not know if he had an attorney.

Barron is one of 40 ministers at Prestonwood Baptist Church, one of the largest churches in the country with 26,000 members. He ministers to married adults.

Mike Buster, executive pastor, said in a statement that the church had no record or knowledge of previous improprieties or saw any inappropriate behavior in the 18 months Barron was on the church staff.

Buster said church officials are fully cooperating with police.

"We are disturbed and saddened by the reports we have heard and we are praying for the Barron family," he said.

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1. Comment #181481 by Sally Luxmoore on May 17, 2008 at 9:29 am

Surprise. . .

He's human.
and (allegedly) -he's a hypocrite.

As Christopher Hitchens says,
It so often turns out that people of this caste fulminate against the very sins/ temptations that they are a prey to.

Other Comments by Sally Luxmoore

2. Comment #181482 by dudenextdoor on May 17, 2008 at 9:30 am

*starts playing "Another One Bites The Dust"*

I'd actually be interested to see how this type of thing actually plays out; do they send an alternate pastor now, close the church, or what? Guess we'll have to wait and see.

Other Comments by dudenextdoor

3. Comment #181483 by mordacious1 on May 17, 2008 at 9:31 am

I'm shocked, shocked to find that there's gambling at this establishment.

Here are your winnings sir.

Other Comments by mordacious1

4. Comment #181487 by Barbara on May 17, 2008 at 9:39 am

On May 6, Barron suggested meeting the girl in person. He eventually made the nearly 200-mile drive to Bryan on Thursday, when he was arrested. Police said they found a web-cam and condoms in his car.

There is no mistaking what this man was determined to do. Two hundred miles is a long way to drive to 'just talk' as is the claim made by so many of these predators.

Lock him away and never let him out!

Other Comments by Barbara

5. Comment #181488 by kkelly on May 17, 2008 at 9:39 am

Sometimes I'm happy that such a thing as pedophilia exists because of the joy I feel when self-righteous hypocrites like this fall hard. Does this make me a bad person? As if I care.

Other Comments by kkelly

6. Comment #181489 by moneybags on May 17, 2008 at 9:40 am

I remember Hitchens once said on Bill Maher's show "you find some preacher thundering on about fagotry and he'll be found down on his lousy knees".

while this case doesn't involve homosexual hypocrisy, the same sentiment applies.

Other Comments by moneybags

7. Comment #181490 by Geoff on May 17, 2008 at 9:42 am

Nothing in the ten commandments that suggests he did anything wrong.

Good job we get our morals from the bible really, otherwise people might think what he did was immoral.

Other Comments by Geoff

8. Comment #181492 by louzer on May 17, 2008 at 9:50 am

It so often turns out that people of this caste fulminate against the very sins/ temptations that they are a prey to.

Perhaps this is a widespread phenomena when it comes to human sexuality. There must be some underlying reason as to why the most sexually active among us wants to pretend that they are not so. For example, I come from a country where kissing on movie screens is considered vulgar, sex related talk is not at all tolerated, contraception is evil, teachers skip over biology lessons that teach sex, and everyone pretends they are not interested in sex. BUT we are the second most populated place on the planet. Somebody is having a lot of sex.

Other Comments by louzer

9. Comment #181502 by HourglassMemory on May 17, 2008 at 10:18 am

Surprise!!!!
....these men always think THEY won't get caught.
Why not NOT do this sort of thing if they preach against it?
It's so sad seeing people saying something and then doing what they condemn. And then they're caught.
...Not to mention that god is watching everything.
Not only do they believe there's an omnipowerful voyeur, but they would also have some strange sort of exhibitionism.

Other Comments by HourglassMemory

10. Comment #181504 by emmet on May 17, 2008 at 10:21 am

I read recently (admittedly second-hand) that the second-best predictor of child sexual abuse by a parent is parental membership of a conservative religious group with strong emphasis on traditional gender roles.

The best predictor is alcoholism or drug addiction of the father.

The source was "Sexual Abuse in Christian Homes and Churches" by Carolyn Holderread Heggen.

Other Comments by emmet

11. Comment #181509 by mejdrich on May 17, 2008 at 10:25 am

Oh, this is beautiful.

I drive past this church every day on my way to work.

We've been calling it "Six-Flags over Jesus" or "The Baptidome".

What're we going to call it now?

Other Comments by mejdrich

12. Comment #181513 by DamnDirtyApe on May 17, 2008 at 10:35 am

How about the baddiedome?

Other Comments by DamnDirtyApe

13. Comment #181515 by Duff on May 17, 2008 at 10:38 am

Dudenextdoor,
Are you serious? Close the church!! Nothing will close the church. This isn't religion and ethics, this is the Godbusiness! They will apologize and get back to business as usual.

Other Comments by Duff

14. Comment #181519 by Granton on May 17, 2008 at 10:43 am

What really interests me about stories like this is that he CANNOT really believe in an all-seeing, all-powerful god.

Other Comments by Granton

15. Comment #181520 by mordacious1 on May 17, 2008 at 10:44 am

No, they won't close the money-maker. In fact, they will probably do a collection for the perv. and then send him to a jesus rehab camp after he is out. Then he will minister using his "fall from grace" and redemption. The money will really role in then. It is a great business plan.

Other Comments by mordacious1

16. Comment #181521 by Stephen Maxwell on May 17, 2008 at 10:48 am

A prime example of 'The Craig Factor' established by Hitchens on Real Time.

Other Comments by Stephen Maxwell

17. Comment #181523 by emmet on May 17, 2008 at 10:52 am

What're we going to call it now?

Sex flags under Jesus?

Other Comments by emmet

18. Comment #181526 by MaxD on May 17, 2008 at 10:55 am

It is good to see the way church based morality helped keep this Christian on the straignt and narrow. I mean with out religion, God and the bible what could possible influence someone to behave lawfully and morally?
Its obvious isn't it?

Other Comments by MaxD

19. Comment #181528 by zosky on May 17, 2008 at 11:02 am

the greatest fallacy that is religion is once again exposed. What was that you said about religion as the source of morals again? Only a handful of humans are actually adults. The majority of the world population is still struggling in infancy where crimes/whims are not judged by the harm to the recieving individual but by how god will view it. Hence the sin and later repent mentality. It takes a big baby to believe in a sky daddy

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20. Comment #181530 by Mango on May 17, 2008 at 11:07 am

If you join the Freedom from Religion Foundation (www.ffrf.org) you'll receive their newspaper in which there is a section called "Black Collar Crime Blotter." It lists all of the most recent crimes by religious leaders, such as the one this story reports. This one is typical of the many they report.

Other Comments by Mango

21. Comment #181549 by exquisitetruth on May 17, 2008 at 12:20 pm

This just goes to show that Christian morality is the foundation of the Nazi regime . . . or something like that.
Can we do a documentary where we talk about these guys while standing in front of the ovens at Auschwitz?
How do they keep gaining traction with the argument that atheists are amoral sociopaths, when these stories crop up every month or two?

Other Comments by exquisitetruth

22. Comment #181552 by dudenextdoor on May 17, 2008 at 12:27 pm

I mentioned closing the church because I've seen an instance of a church closing before because of a scandal. It just wasn't nearly as large a church, is all. I do want to see how it plays out in a megachurch...

Other Comments by dudenextdoor

23. Comment #181555 by exquisitetruth on May 17, 2008 at 12:36 pm

Oh, they'd never close the church over something like this. Christians have the perfect protection from these scandals. They simply say that the actions of their followers do not reflect the faith.

Now, how you can say that, given that all we have to go on are the followers, is beyond me, but it's a pretty good racket if you can get people to fall for it.

It's the classic, "That's not the Jesus I know." argument.

Other Comments by exquisitetruth

24. Comment #181557 by Adam Morrison on May 17, 2008 at 12:39 pm

MaxD,

Now, now, you know that this was clearly Satan tempting the man
-or-
that priest never truly believed the absolutely 100% crystal clear, never misinterpreted words of Jebus
-or-
he was secretly an atheist undercover and it's all part of the atheist majority in the US's conspiracy to make Christianity suffer.

Other Comments by Adam Morrison

25. Comment #181558 by Layla Nasreddin on May 17, 2008 at 12:48 pm

This is so not-surprising; it has an air of inevitibility about it, as if one expected somebody like this to get busted for something like that. Interesting what that says about megachurch ministers, isn't it?

As for closing down the church--iffy. New Life Church, Ted Haggard's old stomping grounds, is still around and, by the looks of it, doing good business, even if attendance dropped a bit after the scandal broke.

http://www.newlifechurch.org/

Other Comments by Layla Nasreddin

26. Comment #181578 by TAG on May 17, 2008 at 2:43 pm

But was Chris Hansen involved?

(If you don't know him:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Catch_a_Predator

(If you do, my spoof:
http://thatatheistguysblog.blogspot.com/2007/07/to-catch-atheist.html

Other Comments by TAG

27. Comment #181584 by cicely on May 17, 2008 at 3:11 pm

But you see, it's only wrong if someone else does it....

He'll have to lay low a couple of months, get some high-profile counselling, and be right back in business selling that same Old Time Religion (though possibly out of a different kiosk). After all, God will have forgiven him (so you can know, Brothers and Sisters, that'll he'll also forgive you your indiscretions). Much rhetoric about Divine Mercy (but precious little about Justice).

Besides, the church won't close; after all, they've got another 39 who haven't done anything (that they've got caught at, anyway).

Other Comments by cicely

28. Comment #181594 by Zaphod on May 17, 2008 at 3:35 pm

Not surprised.

Other Comments by Zaphod

29. Comment #181620 by Grantaire of JC on May 17, 2008 at 5:18 pm

$7,000.00 bail? Wow if that happened in Jersey City it would be at least 50K! Talk about compassion. And let's not forget the condoms and webcam. What, is it okay because there actually wasn't a minor on the other end of the computer? The whole article makes me sick. This could have been a real thirteen year old girl!!

Other Comments by Grantaire of JC

30. Comment #181623 by robotaholic on May 17, 2008 at 5:23 pm

He was simply following the direction from the holy prophet mohammad -

Other Comments by robotaholic

31. Comment #181633 by Aegisofreason on May 17, 2008 at 6:33 pm

HOLY CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!
!!!!!

I LIVE IN BRYAN TEXAS!!!!!!!!!!1

Other Comments by Aegisofreason

32. Comment #181637 by mordacious1 on May 17, 2008 at 6:40 pm

This guy could star in the new Spielberg movie:

"Close Encounters in the 3rd Grade"

Other Comments by mordacious1

33. Comment #181639 by mordacious1 on May 17, 2008 at 6:44 pm

Aegisofreason

Might be kind of fun to protest outside of their church...meantime keep an eye on any youngsters at home.

Other Comments by mordacious1

34. Comment #181641 by huzonfurst on May 17, 2008 at 6:49 pm

Interesting how the church is praying for this creep's family instead of for his victims.

Other Comments by huzonfurst

35. Comment #181644 by twilleyj on May 17, 2008 at 6:52 pm

Where's Anonymous when you need them?

Arrest Photos/Video here: http://a11news.com/124/joe-barron-prestonwood/

I like how they took a closeup photo of the Trojan MAGNUM LARGE condoms. Yeah, right.

I'll bet he will wish he had those while being "initiated" by a few guys in prison.

Sick freak.

P.S. I hope your god sends fireballs from heaven onto Prestonwood Baptist Church.

Other Comments by twilleyj

36. Comment #181653 by scooternyc on May 17, 2008 at 7:47 pm

So, let me be clear so I understand this:

You can be a pedophile - and get married...

You can get caught in a sex scandal - and get married...

You can have a wide stance - and get married...

You can be Hitler, kill millions - and get married...

You can be a serial killer - and get married...

You can be racist - and get married...

You can be a thief - and get married...

You can be a rapist - and get married...

You can be on death row, have conjugal visits - and get married...

You can betray your Jesus - and get married

But the gays can't.

I think I get it now.

Other Comments by scooternyc

37. Comment #181655 by MaxD on May 17, 2008 at 7:57 pm

ScooterNYC,
I think you get it now. Go forth and preach your understandings....
on second thought...

Other Comments by MaxD

38. Comment #181659 by dragonfirematrix on May 17, 2008 at 8:45 pm

According to the article, "He ministers to married adults" speaking of Joe Barron.

The article seems to indicate that Barron was prepared to ad"minister" something else, but in which port was Barron going to try to interface.

Barron probably voted (like other religious fascists) for "one man plus one woman" laws. Still, 13 years old does not quite constitute a woman. Maybe investigators should also check for other preferences of this man of the cloth (a bed sheet).

Once again, biology 0000000000000000000001 enters (play on words) the equation.

I wonder which mega-fanatic church is next? I cannot wait to hear.

Other Comments by dragonfirematrix

39. Comment #181660 by mordacious1 on May 17, 2008 at 9:24 pm

ScooterNYC
Hey, you can be Rudy Guilani and get married several times, each time to a younger woman, after cheating with her on your current wife...and you can still be a good catholic, and run for president. Then you can take a stance (wide?) against the immorality of gay marriage. Praise jesus.

Other Comments by mordacious1

40. Comment #181661 by chuckgoecke on May 17, 2008 at 9:28 pm

Another one who doesn't really believe, he just believes in believing. His probable thinking: Christianity is good for society, and individuals, but I don't really believe that crap in my heart of hearts. If I'm wrong on the big wager, God and Jesus will forgive me, because I can always pull the ultimate get out of jail free card, that I'm a fallible human, and I have sin in me(since Adam), and Jesus died to save me from my sins. I've accepted Jesus, so I'm secure, and going to be taken care of, in any case. Why not get a little nasty sugar.

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41. Comment #181675 by Roy_H on May 17, 2008 at 10:31 pm

"Police said they found a web-cam and condoms in his car."

Well he is obviously not a Roman Catholic then.....

Other Comments by Roy_H

42. Comment #181687 by utelme on May 17, 2008 at 11:48 pm

On the subject of the condoms in his car. Did you see the said items on TV...magnums. lol, what an arrogant prick.

Other Comments by utelme

43. Comment #181691 by keith on May 18, 2008 at 12:42 am

Closing down the church because one of its ministers got caught doing something illegal would be like closing down the post office because one of its postmen stashed all the mail in his wardrobe instead of delivering it.

[Edit] We will need better reasons than that to close down churches, unless, of course, so many 'postmen' get caught hording letters in wardrobes that the public finally loses confidence and takes its business elsewhere.

Other Comments by keith

44. Comment #181706 by Colwyn Abernathy on May 18, 2008 at 2:58 am

Oh..another one...I am Jack's Complete Lack of Surprise. It's like our paparazzi culture. We build our celebrities up just to cut them down.

AAAAAANNNNNNND...I'm spent. ;)

Other Comments by Colwyn Abernathy

45. Comment #181785 by Rawhard Dickins on May 18, 2008 at 9:02 am

The problem is that the religious don't have any standard by which to guide their lives.

For example - if it's OK to take your daughters up to a cave for a good rogering - anything goes!

Probably best to think for yourself and follow the moral zeitgeist.

*Edit* yes I'm beginning to hate "zeitgeist" too

Other Comments by Rawhard Dickins

46. Comment #181790 by Prankster on May 18, 2008 at 9:15 am

What can I say....?

Another devout religous pervert on the prowl, caught before he managed to corrupt or molest another young person.

If it wasn't so sordid and tacky it would be funny-no doubt he'll do a Swaggert and go blubbing on the television asking for forgiveness saying he's only human and "Ah have sinned Lord" etc, etc, etc, blah,blah, blah.

Fuck him he's an idiot he got caught-good! I hope he rots in jail-bastard!

Other Comments by Prankster

47. Comment #181824 by Border Collie on May 18, 2008 at 10:19 am

He'll probably be teaching at a middle school in some other state in a few years.

Other Comments by Border Collie

48. Comment #181837 by stephensmith on May 18, 2008 at 11:00 am

Undercover officers posing as a 13-year-old girl communicated with Joe Barron, 52, of Plano for about two weeks.

Aside from having a chortle at religious hypocrisy, I'm disturbed over sting operations such as this. Yes, yes, courts have ruled otherwise, but to me this is still entrapment. Most importantly, there was no victim -- that 13-year-old girl did not exist except in Joe Barron's mind and in the script that the (presumably adult) police were using.

Lock him away and never let him out!

Whom did he hurt? What actual child did he molest or attempt to molest?

Interesting how the church is praying for this creep's family instead of for his victims.

What victims?

Seems like the worst he was guilty of was ignorance of the law of online identity: "The Internet ... where men are men, women are men, and little girls are FBI agents."

Other Comments by stephensmith

49. Comment #181845 by mordacious1 on May 18, 2008 at 11:34 am

StephenSmith

I see your point, but I suppose it's like selling heroin to an undercover cop. The cop wasn't going to use the heroin (I hope) but a crime was committed. Conspiracy to commit a crime is against the law too, even if you don't commit the crime. I don't see any Constitutional arguments for this guy if he decides to defend himself, which he won't, I assure you.

Other Comments by mordacious1

50. Comment #181849 by Marc Weeks on May 18, 2008 at 11:54 am

I'm with Hitchens on this one. There's a radio talk show host in San Francisco, Bernie Ward, who pled guilty to having child pornography. He made his name as a talk show host by going after the Catholic hierarchy for ignoring or covering up child abuse committed by the priesthood. One wonders if Ward--and others like him--speak out about so fervently against these acts just to have some sort of defense when they're caught.

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