A fundamentalist Christian man who is the self-proclaimed founder of the “Biblical Flat Earth Society” was arrested this week and charged with 56 counts of child sexual exploitation.
Local news station WTVD reports that Durham, North Carolina resident Phillip Stephen Stallings is facing dozens of charges of sexually exploiting minors after he allegedly “downloaded media that involved minors engaging in sexual activities.”
In addition to facing 28 counts of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor and 28 counts of third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, Stallings this week was also served with a warrant related to financial card theft and cyberstalking.
Stallings’s personal website promotes his belief that the Earth is flat and cites biblical justifications for this provably false belief. Stallings believes that there is a conspiracy among the so-called Illuminati to “cover up the flat Earth” that is “certainly connected to sun worship which goes all the way back to Nimrod and the tower of Babel.”
In addition to floating “flat […]
The raging of the dying beast – patriarchy. Power over instead of power with that’s rotted in atavistic fear. And as a woman, I sense that centuries of repressed anger coming from men who were afraid of women and women who, at some point, either suspected or awakened to the anger over having accepted the false concept that women were weaker than men. That women were less intelligent and thus incapable of honesty and more inclined to what Fundamentalists call base acts of depravity. The child is easily manipulated. The effects of early childhood abuse can go on for years, but there is another side to that – the potential for deep profound empathy and intuition.
We’re living thru an era where a terrible, tangled mess of emotions, lies, deceptions and betrayals are being exposed with extraordinary speed. In truth, each day reveals how difficult it is for the perpetrators to hide. I sense that what need is a daily withdrawal from the chaos, the fears, the lies, and the perversions into a more powerful, creative space.
I think of Tich Nhat Hanh, his activism that began in Vietnam. The fierce side of compassion he manifested that was rooted in love. Going further back, my Quaker ancestors who were spiritual activists. Then springing forward, to women rising, a great awakening that is spiritual instead of religious.