Probation officer gives office BJ to boot-camp teen
What Wouldn't Jesus Do?: Pastor Russel Schaller Charged With Molesting Underage Boy
Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 9:00 am
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In honor of the incredible diversity we're about to drop on y'all this week, we decided to start off our list with a story clouded in moral and religious ambiguity -- something that both the Christians and non-Christians will appreciate, depending on how you look at it.
Last week, Melissa Hussain, an eighth-grade science teacher at the West Lake Middle School in Apex, North Carolina, was suspended from her job for comments she made on her Facebook page.
Before we go any further, we'd like to say that it should be painfully obvious by now that Facebook isn't the kind of place to air your grievances about co-workers or students, among other things. Anyone who doesn't understand that by now, probably deserves to get fired on the grounds of sheer stupidity. We're just saying.
Still, for all Hussain's transgressions, we think a suspension might have been a bit extreme for the innocuous comments she did post. After all, she didn't sleep with a student. Or serve them booze. She didn't even post scandalous photos of herself doing body shots while on spring break. Or use any curse words.
What she did do was complain that she was being harassed by some of her students who apparently took issue with the fact that she isn't a Christian. Turns out, students in her class refused to do their coursework and instead sported Jesus t-shirts while loudly singing "Jesus Loves Me."
When that didn't seem to convert Hussain (whose religious affiliation is unknown), one student left a post card of Jesus on her desk while another left a brand new bible with a card that read "Merry Christmas. Love Christ!"
Hussain didn't appreciate her students' evangelical gestures. In fact, she regarded them as "hate crimes," citing the FBI's definition as her proof. She commented on her Facebook page that she had spoken to her students about how hurtful their actions were and felt that she had even earned their respect by being so honest.
While Hussain was surely overreacting to the taunting of a bunch of eighth graders, the school's administration should have backed Hussain up by stepping in and punishing those students who were acting out, whether in Jesus's name or not.
Instead, the school punished Hussain for writing about the incident on her Facebook page, which you can see here.
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| Joseph Reyes |
4. Rebecca Reyes
While it's Rebecca's Reyes's husband who is facing jail time, it's Rebecca whom we've deemed worthy of a spot on this week's list, seeing as she's managed to turn what was merely a nasty custody battle into an all new low of religious intolerance.
In 2008, Rebecca and Joseph Reyes were separated. Before that, Joseph says that, while he was born and raised Catholic, he had converted to Judaism to please his wife. After they filed for divorce, Joseph, an Afghanistan war veteran, decided to return to the Catholic Church.
But differences in faith aren't the only part of the Chicago couple's irreconcilable differences. So is the fact of how they are going to raise their three-year-old daughter, of whom Rebecca has primary custody.
Rebecca was clear that she wanted their daughter to be raised Jewish. But since returning to the Church, Joseph hoped to introduce their daughter to his religion, too. Which all seems fair enough, right?
Wrong -- at least in Rebecca's eyes. After finding out that Joseph had their daughter baptized, she became furious, deeming the act "malicious" and "harmful" to their child. She even went so far as to file a restraining order against her ex, barring him from exposing their child to any other faith but the Jewish religion. Apparently, Rebecca has never heard of a thing called separation of church and state -- and neither has the judge that signed off on her ludicrous order.
Joseph, however, disregarded the court order and took his daughter to church again, anyway.
For taking his three-year-old to Catholic Mass, Joseph now faces contempt of court charges. He is even looking at possible jail time and a $500 fine.
Joseph and his attorney are fighting the charges and asking that the judge who filed the restraining order be removed from the case.
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3. James Shimsky
While we are open to busting balls all over the religious map, what would this list be without at least a naughty priest or two? Enter James Shimsky.
Anyone who has ever been to an AA meeting knows that men of God are equally prone to addiction -- an ugly disease for which we refuse to chastise any man.
However, Father Shimsky's story has a few major kinks that make him a target for What Wouldn't Jesus Do? style scrutiny.
On January 30, Shimsky, a 50-year-old Catholic priest assigned to the St. John Vianny parish, was busted for buying cocaine in Philadelphia. Cops found him trying to score from his car when he was arrested and charged with possession.
Shimsky, a recovering alcoholic, never hid his history of addiction. Before his arrest, he made weekly trips to Clearbrook Manor, an adult rehab facility, where he counseled inpatients and frequently spoke to groups about his own experience.
In fact, Shimsky had made recovery one of the cornerstones of his religious duty. The only problem was that, well, he wasn't really recovering, but active in his drug use -- a part of his story he conveniently left out when counseling other men and women trying to stay clean.
Upon receiving news of his arrest, the folks at Clearbrook said they had no knowledge that Father Shimsky had relapsed.
We'd like to be clear that Shimsky isn't on this list because he relapsed -- a fate that awaits most addicts. He's here for violating one of the greatest principles of both the Church as well as drug and alcohol recovery. Honesty.
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2. Milton Balkanny
In honor of being the first Rabbi to make it onto our list, we probably should have given Milton Balkanny the number one spot this week. That would have been the least that we could do. However, this list is still called What Would Jesus Do?, and though Jesus was a Jew, we still think he would be more disapproving of a child molesting preacher.
Not to say that Rabbi Balkanny's crimes aren't serious. In fact, their worth more than $3 million.
Last Thursday, Balkanny was charged with extortion, blackmail, and making false statements. Apparently, the 63-year-old was trying to shake down a Connecticut hedge fund manager.
Balkanny, who is based in Brooklyn, New York, told the manager that he knew a prison inmate who had information about some insider trading deals the manager had made. Balkanny said that he'd keep the guy quiet if the manager agreed to pay him off. If not, he'd have his source spill the beans.
The hedge fund manager (who has not been named in court records) quickly contacted his lawyer, who contacted the Feds. Apparently, there was no insider trading, as Balkanny claimed. Still, the manager played along with Balkanny's plan.
His lawyer arranged to meet with Balkanny and hand over the cash. One check was for $1.2 million, to be deposited into the account of Bais Yaakov, a school where Balkanny is the dean. The other was for $2 million, made out to Torah Vodaath, another school with which Balkanny had connections.
As the lawyer handed Balkanny the two checks, the FBI tape recorded everything.
After Balkanny's arrest, he quickly posted his $250,000 before giving a press conference in front of the Manhattan Federal Court, claiming that he was an "innocent man constantly being dragged through the mud."
This wasn't the first time Balkanny appeared in court for his financial indiscretions. In 2004, Balkanny was forced to pay back $700,000 he'd scored in federal grants that had been earmarked for disabled preschoolers. By returning the funds, he managed to avoid any criminal prosecution.
Known as the "Brooklyn Bundler" for his prowess at campaign fund-raising for Republican, Balkanny was also implicated in a scheme where prison officials were being bribed in order to have specific inmates transferred from rough prisons to "Club Fed" style institutions. In order not to be charged in that case, Balkanny agreed never to lobby the Bureau of Federal Prisons again.
As he left the court house on Thursday night, Balkanny claimed he'd have the same luck in this case, too.
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1. Russel Schaller
Until we get news of a Rabbi rapping his daughter or an Imam molesting Koran School students, it looks like Christians will be dominating this here list for the time being. Hey -- we didn't make the rules on what religion commits which atrocities. We just write about 'em.
At the number one spot this week, we bring you the case of Detroit preacher Russel Schaller.
On February 8, the 35-year-old was arraigned on charges of sexually assaulting an underage boy. He faces six counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct.
As senior pastor of the Greater St. John Missionary Baptist Church, Schaller made it his job to help at-risk teens, often allowing them to stay at his house when they had no where else to go.
But it turns out his good deeds were little more than a cover-up for his deviant sexual tendencies. While there had been other allegations of sexual abuse in the past, it wasn't until recently that Schaller was arrested. He would not confirm or deny the child's story, but only said, "age ain't nothing but a number to me."
While Schaller remains in jail on a $100,000 bond, the police are asking parents of teenagers connected to Schaller to talk with their kids about any inappropriate interactions they might have had with the pastor. Apparently, Schaller often hosted get-togethers for teens at his home and had an open door policy with most of the troubled young people who attended his church.
The authorities are convinced he had more victims.
Want to read more? See last week's What Wouldn't Jesus Do?: Father Don Carlo D'Antoni Arrested For Importing Underage Muslim Prostitutes.
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