Pastor and Christian Education Professor Arrested for Child Porn and Guns

By David Badash
New Civil Rights Movement
March 3, 2012

http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/married-southern-baptist-pastor-arrested-on-child-porn-and-guns-charges/legal-issues/2012/03/03/35662


A married man and father of three children was arrested Thursday on charges of child pornography and illegal gun possession after Internet task force police raided his home and computers. Donald Ratcliff, 60, a Professor of Christian Education at Wheaton College in Illinois, and a Southern Baptist pastor, had bail set at $750,000, and was instructed to have no contact with anyone under 18, and not to use any computer.

"The Wheaton College professor charged with two counts of aggravated child pornography also faces charges for possession of two handguns and ammunition without a firearm owners identification card, prosecutors said Friday in DuPage County court," The Daily Herald reports:

Assistant State's Attorney Anne Therieau said investigators found two guns and 1,600 rounds of ammunition in Ratcliff's home.

Dan Collins, the attorney representing Ratcliff, said the guns are "family heirlooms," but wouldn't comment further.

Investigators also found pornographic images of children younger than 13 on six or seven computers as a result of a months-long effort, Therieau said. She said she couldn't comment on the number of images or whether Ratcliff had produced any of the images because the investigation is ongoing.

Several Wheaton College students Friday said the allegations came as a surprise and they called the charges "sobering" and "saddening."

Ratcliff has been a professor of Christian education at Wheaton College since 2006 and has focused his academic research on children.

On his personal website viewed Thursday before its content was taken down, Ratcliff wrote on the subject of children and spirituality: "I appreciate children in all of their richness and complexity. They can be baffling, frustrating, delightful, and overwhelming. While I have studied child development in depth … I am particularly interested in the spirituality of children."

Committed to the principle that truth is revealed by God through Christ "in Whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," Wheaton College seeks to relate Christian liberal arts education to the needs of contemporary society. The curricular approach is designed to combine faith and learning in order to produce a biblical perspective needed to relate Christian experience to the demands of those needs.

Yes, what about the children, isn't that what they always say about law-abiding gay folks who want to adopt kids, for instance? The accused child porn devotee and "lay leader" at Aldersgate United Methodist Church in Wheaton sadly fits the perv template like a T:

A graduate of Moody Bible Institute and the University of Georgia, he received a masters in educational psychology at Michigan State. Married with three children, he has served as the pastor of a Southern Baptist Church and worked for a missionary Christian radio station for several years.

What we won't see is coverage on professional anti-LGBT sites making blanket assumptions about Christians as perverts — nor should they or anyone else — but they will be silent about cases like this, while demonizing the entire LGBT community day in and day out, often charging them with wanting to destroy marriage, children, society, and bombastically, even civilization.

Perhaps they need to look into the mirror. What about the children?