Minister arrested for child porn says it was research

From the Houston Chronicle:

A minister who was arrested on child pornography charges told authorities he was doing research to get some Web sites shut down, police said.

Henry Edgington, 63, of Chalk Bluff, was charged with seven counts of child pornography possession. He was released from the McLennan County Jail on $70,000 bond Thursday after he surrendered to police.

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Apparently, this minister is using the Pete Townshend defense, claiming he was doing "research." Unlike Townshend, however, who never actually downloaded any child pornography, and really was doing research, Edgington was found with shitloads of the stuff. He's probably going to prison for a long time.

As longtime Real Art readers know, I do a lot of thinking about Christianity and its meaning in contemporary American life. The fact that these "family values" leaders are falling like rain, coupled with the idea that most American Christians are religious more for social reasons than anything else, is steadily leading me to conclude that Christianity is now irrelevant as an actual moral force in our country. I mean, sure, it plays a role in politics, but that's more about power than doing what's good and right. And yeah, I'll be the first to admit that there are many individuals who do take Christian morality very seriously, my mother for instance. But the popular notion that this is a Christian nation? Well, that's just a sick and twisted joke.

In America today, Christianity is tribalism, plain and simple, good for nothing but keeping Americans at odds with each other. As the great President Lincoln once said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand."

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