Although I am sure I would be too pissed off, especially when people praised god for helping them heal or whatever. But I get a perverse pleasure out of stories of bad players in religion. Each of them only helps us.

It was pretty interesting. We'll keep it in our DVR lineup. I was shocked that the Catholic priest was getting the boys drunk. Considering other clergy appeared to be living in the same building, you'd think they would have noticed the boys with slurred speech or an unsteady gait. And I doubt the boys were able to just sleep it off for hours in the priest's room without their parents wondering where they were. It was very odd. Sounds like some of the adults just turned a blind eye, except for the funeral home director.

The show used the word "rectory" for the priest's quarters. I assumed that's the Catholic equivalent of a Protestant "parsonage" - private quarters where the preacher lives with his family. Though the priest wouldn't have a family, obviously. I figured it was a private apartment or house where the priest lived, maybe attached to the church. I think the show mentioned that because it was such a small town, he was the only priest.

Maybe one of our recovering Catholics in here can help.

You're sure right about the blind eyes, though. You'd think the parents or somebody would notice the obvious side effects of kids getting drunk - puking, hangovers, etc.

The funeral director was brave for finally confronting him. But boy, did do it in exactly the wrong way. That's why I take the advice of the cops I've talked to in my neighborhood: "Don't ever confront anybody by yourself. You never know what can happen. Call us, that's our job."

Especially here in gun-toting texas.

Though since she's 80+ years old, probably too late...

Last week I called her and got the following story:

She was up late one night "watching the ID Channel." Heard a noise in the back yard. Looked out the window and saw a guy rummaging thru her tool shed. He came out carrying one of her small lawn mowers, and a gas can.

She called 911, but since she lives WAY out in the country, that means the call goes to a Deputy Sheriff. They can take a while to respond.

So Mom loaded up her pistol, opened the front door and fired. Not at the guy, at the ground. He dropped her stuff and hauled ass.

When the Deputy showed up, she told him what she'd done. The Deputy advised her not to do that again. But added that if she actually shot the guy, he would help her drag the body in the house so she'd have a better case.

This story is partly funny to me. And partly not.

Everybody has a pretty good idea who the thief is. A local troublemaker/meth head who's well known in the area for his thefts, in and out of jail constantly, etc. His main victim used to be his uncle, a deaf-mute. He would go into his uncle's house at night and steal money/credit cards right out of his pants pocket. The uncle communicated to other people that he was terrified of waking up one night and catching this asshole. He was pretty sure the kid would kill him.

This jerk comes from a "good family," as they say in the South. Raised going to church and all that. My Mom even babysat him when he was younger. He's just always been a sneak thief and generally worthless human being, but nobody can figure out why.

I'd hate to have been in your mom's shoes.

My husband has a cousin like that fellow. He's in town right now, but I won't let him come over because he'd probably rob us blind. Drugs are nothing to mess with.

The same 2-story format as usual...

Story 1. Baltimore preacher's insatiable greed leads to the death of a really innocent and defenseless victim.

Interesting partly because the preacher was pastor of a very old-school conservative African-American church. And he was a very closeted gay man. Some members of his congregation are on the show. Made it clear that he wouldn't have been the pastor if they had known his sexual orientation. Even if some of their best friends are gay. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Story 2: Needs no introduction - Jimmy Swaggert! Interesting background details on how the televangelists were happily cutting each other's throats for a satellite-TV deal back in the 1980s.

Swaggert could have continued forever as a rich and respected TV witch-doctor of the Fundie kind. But his greed for a satellite led him to first go after Jim & Tammy Raccoon-Face Bakker. But Jerry Falwell swooped in and stole their satellite.

So then Swaggert had to kneecap his other competitor in the satellite race, Rev. Marvin Gorman. The story of how he did that - and how it blew right up in his pancaked, tear-stained face - is covered on the show.

They don't mention Swaggert's OTHER bust with a hooker - California in 1991. When the cops asked the hooker, Rosemary Garcia, why she was riding around with one of Jesus' favorite buddies, Ms. Garcia responded like a schoolteacher correcting a rather dim student: "Because he stopped and asked me for sex. I'm a prostitute. That's what I DO." (From Wikipedia.)