Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Progressive Christian
Evil liberal media continues to persecute righteous white Christians by nitpicking about the sexual abuse of children

Evil liberal media continues to persecute righteous white Christians by nitpicking about the sexual abuse of children

Last updated on: June 12, 2015 at 6:44 pm by Fred Clark

Evil liberal media continues to persecute righteous white Christians by nitpicking about the sexual abuse of children 2015-06-12T18:44:34-04:00 Fred Clark

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

John Perry is an impressively prolific writer. I can’t say that any of his books seem like anything I’d want to read, but I do have to admire the sheer volume of his literary output.

Well, “literary” may not be quite the right word to describe Perry’s body of work. He’s more of a hired gun — the ghostwriter or, more euphemistically, “co-author” of soft-focus political and “inspirational” memoirs, pop-histories, and slender, hagiographic biographies.

Many of Perry’s prominent clients — the non-writers he writes “with,” or for, or as — come from the Southern Gothic Fundie fringes of the religious right. He’s written for/with/as Alabama theocrat Roy Moore, Southern Baptist race-hustler and plagiarist Richard Land, and Randian/Calvinist crackpot Marvin Olasky of World magazine. All of whom were, unsurprisingly, very happy to work with a writer whose fan-boy biography of Gen. Robert E. Lee was subtitled both “A Life of Virtue” and “Goodness in Action.”

For white fundamentalists like Moore, Land and Olasky, “virtue” and “goodness” are synonymous with treason in defense of slavery, rape, torture, and trafficking in children. “Christian heritage” and all that.

John Perry has also written two books for former Fox News host and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, one titled Character Makes a Difference and the other Do the Right Thing: Inside the Movement That’s Bringing Common Sense Back to America. Both are campaign books, written with an eye to establishing and reinforcing Huckabee’s political brand as an avuncular moral scold who’s condescending and sanctimonious … but in a charming, folksy way.

Huckabee is currently stumbling in his second attempt to win the Republican nomination for president. In a very crowded field of candidates with mostly indistinguishable policy ideas, Huckabee so far stands out mainly for being the only candidate to defend the Duggars and their attempts to cover-up and excuse the sexual abuse eventually confessed by their oldest son. Huckabee has long supported the reality-TV-famous family, and vice versa, as John Seavey puts it: Huckabee “has hitched his wagon pretty hard to the creepy cult/family, holding them up as a shining example of American family values to contrast with the neglectful, even abusive decision on the part of the Obamas to let their kids listen to Beyonce.”

Seavey was sure that this link — compounded by Huckabee’s doubling-down on his defense of the family and their defiant non-response to Josh Duggar’s creepy criminality — would doom Huckabee’s presidential aspirations. “As political strategies go,” Seavey writes, “standing in solidarity with the child molester and the people who helped cover up his crimes” should mean that “Huckabee is never going to be taken seriously as a politician in this country ever again. He might not even be able to get his Fox News job back.”

That seems reasonable. It seems like it ought to be true. But I don’t think it is. Mike Huckabee’s viability as a conservative politician and Fox News host (I repeat myself) is based on his appeal to a considerable niche of the Southern white Christian voting bloc. As long as that niche continues to support him, he will continue “to be taken seriously as a politician.” And the Southern white Christians of that niche are, apparently, pleased that Huckabee is “standing in solidarity with the child molester and the people who helped cover up his crimes.”

If anything, the Duggar scandal has reinforced their support for Huckabee in that it reinforces his/their self-aggrandizing narrative of “persecution” from the nasty liberal media conspiracy.

Spinning Josh Duggar’s confessed crimes into evidence of this “persecution” — and thereby further evidence of his and their own Christian virtue — was quite a trick. Now we’ll have to see if Mike Huckabee can perform that same trick a second time.

“Co-Author of Mike Huckabee Books Was Accused of Child Molestation in Two Legal Cases” Andrew Kaczynski and Ilan Ben-Meir report for Buzzfeed News:

John Perry, a prolific author who co-wrote two books with former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and co-wrote one with Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore, was accused of child molestation in two separate lawsuits, BuzzFeed News has found.

A 2012 police investigation of Perry’s alleged offenses found that “the allegations of sexual battery were sustained” but that the statute of limitations had expired.

… In a sworn affidavit submitted during divorce proceedings, Perry’s ex-wife attests that she “filed for divorce as a result of Mr. Perry’s inappropriate marital conduct, to which he admitted to in his Response to Interrogatories numbers 1 and 2.” Throughout the court documents, “inappropriate marital conduct” appears to be a euphemism for the alleged molestation.

… Another filing, submitted by Perry’s ex-wife’s attorney earlier in the same proceedings, refers to Perry’s “admitted sexual abuse” of a minor child. Perry’s response to that filing — also submitted prior to his ex-wife’s affidavit — does not deny the abuse, or that Perry admitted it.

… a police investigation launched in 2012 found the allegations against Perry “were sustained,” according to a police department spokesperson, but that statute of limitations had passed.

“The alleged sexual battery was reported to have occurred when the victim was between the ages of 11 and 14,” said Nashville police department spokesperson Don Aaron in a statement to BuzzFeed News.

“As a result of the investigation, the allegations of sexual battery were sustained, but it was determined that the statute of limitations had tolled, barring prosecution. The victim was age 18 when she first disclosed the allegations to non-law enforcement and said at that time she did not want the matter reported to the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services or the police.”

The same “alleged sexual battery” of a young victim apparently also forced Perry to resign as a deacon at his PCA (conservative uber-Calvinist Presbyterian) church, from which he was later excommunicated because he “confessed to committing heinous and repetitive sin […] and has not shown evidence of repentance.”

You won’t find any “evidence of repentance” in the statement John Perry offered in response to Buzzfeed News’ report, either. His non-denial denial states only that “the person behind it has been pursuing a vendetta against his former church for years and this story is one of the means he has used.”

(For a very detailed background on this alleged “vendetta” and that church’s attempts to gaslight dissenters against an apparent cover-up of Perry’s abuse, see this 2014 post by Wayne Burleson.)

Perry, apparently, is hoping to pull off the same trick the Duggars have used — characterizing reports of his own criminal deeds as an attack on the church and a form of anti-Christian persecution.

How will that go over with the right-wing white Christians who support Mike Huckabee, Roy Moore, Richard Land, Marvin Olasky and Robert E. Lee? It just might work. Perry’s offering them a double-shot of the intoxicating narrative of self-righteous indignation over imaginary persecution. And as we’ve already seen countless times, when they’re drunk on that stuff, these folks will swallow anything.

Previous Post

June 12, 2015

Left Behind Classic Fridays, No. 37: 'Unmotivated close-up'

Next Post

June 13, 2015 Should the dragons on 'Game of Thrones' have feathers?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category class warfare evangelicals Iraq Left Behind Mammon music Uncategorized

Select a Month November 2026 October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What theme is common in both Psalms and Proverbs?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Genealogies The fear of the Lord Temple rituals Battle victories