May 152012
Click image to access 'The New York Times' article.
Make sure you read paragraph 7. So is this another poor child abandoned by the Church on moral grounds even if the problem lies in clerics not being able to keep their pants up. Amazing. I hope the State goes after this deadbeat dad and makes sure he pumps gas, if need be, to pay sufficient child support.
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Unfortunately, this article is short on facts like the age of Rev. Williams and the age of the child. Bad journalism, unworthy of the Old Grey Lady I’m afraid.
Google didn’t reveal a bio for the naughty Reverend, but plenty of writings by him. Maybe he can write a tell all book and make some dough that way. He’ll need it – see below.
Sigh. The problem is not that the clerics are “not being able to keep their pants up” but that they are part of a system that forbids them to “pull them down”, as it were. Also a system that prohibits contraception; although, for the life of me I don’t understand the attitude that if you commit the sin of both premarital sex and violation of your priestly vows you should still very much care about church’s attitude toward condoms. As Martin Luther said, “Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong”.
But anyway, the child should have been supported. But the legal obligation of the parent should be contingent on their ability to pay such support. The adversarial child support system in this country where fathers are thrown in prison often for inability rather than unwillingness to pay (for example through job loss and courts being slow and/or unwilling to adjust support amount) is sick and unconscionable as would be going after someone who had just lost his job and had undergone a cancer surgery and is evidently not able, at least for the time being, to live and function on his own. Finally, support of one’s child goes well beyond a monthly check. Being adversarial makes it far less likely that he will act as a father to this child, not more. Both the mother and the state need to work with him, not against him.
One more thing: employees pumping gas might still be a common sight in the backwoods of New Hampshire but in most of the country they are an endangered species. So I don’t think that’s a viable backup career path for him.