Life sentence for Stanley Gerald Champ

[TruthSeeker]

Following is a blurb from the same news article Ken just referenced https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local ... vhfMJu1TrM

"Prosecutors said there may be victims besides those in Kaufman County because the church sent Champ to work in other states."


Still another article https://www.inforney.com/crime/kaufman- ... eb5.html Contained the following blurbs:

"Prosecutors say 51-year-old Stanley Gerald Champ of Scurry, Texas, led the Grays Prairie Mennonite Church in the 12000 block of Farm-to-Market (FM) 148 where he met his latest victim — a four-year-old girl."

" 'No one is above the law,' stated Kaufman County District Attorney Erleigh Wiley following sentencing. Wiley thanked the Kaufman County Sheriff's Office and the New Holland Pennsylvania Police Department for their investigative work and, most importantly she says, the 'victims who so bravely told their story.' "


Sounds like Champ got around, whatever his official role was or was not.

[Ernie]

Some observations...

It seems that plain Anabaptists pack the court rooms whether their member is/was the victim, the perpetrator, or the persecuted.

If it is the victim, it makes sense that they would want to be there to support the friends and relatives of the victim. However since they do not press charges, this rarely happens.

If it is the perpetrator, they go hoping the member will get a lighter sentence. I think this is because they believe that the perpetrator has repented, and prison is not a helpful or redemptive way of dealing with repentant sin. (I don't necessarily agree with this but I think it explains why they pack the courtrooms.)

And then in the case of someone being persecuted for righteousness sake, they are going to really pack the courtroom because they want to show solidarity with the persecuted. (As usual, there will be people who think the defendent is not being persecuted, but that is the nature of such things. If the society does not generally believe a "crime" was committed, the state would have a hard time making a case.)

[ken_sylvania]

Is he any relation to the deacon at Hegins Valley?

Son of

[ken_sylvania]

Following is a blurb from the same news article Ken just referenced https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local ... vhfMJu1TrM

"Prosecutors said there may be victims besides those in Kaufman County because the church sent Champ to work in other states."


Still another article https://www.inforney.com/crime/kaufman- ... eb5.html Contained the following blurbs:

"Prosecutors say 51-year-old Stanley Gerald Champ of Scurry, Texas, led the Grays Prairie Mennonite Church in the 12000 block of Farm-to-Market (FM) 148 where he met his latest victim — a four-year-old girl."

" 'No one is above the law,' stated Kaufman County District Attorney Erleigh Wiley following sentencing. Wiley thanked the Kaufman County Sheriff's Office and the New Holland Pennsylvania Police Department for their investigative work and, most importantly she says, the 'victims who so bravely told their story.' "


Sounds like Champ got around, whatever his official role was or was not.

It is quite likely he would have been asked by other congregations to come and give a topic, teach adult Sunday School class, or teach a youth or adult Bible School class. He was not ordained.

[ken_sylvania]

What was Champ's actual position in the church at Grays Prairie?

I’m not sure about that. Would love to know the answer. I think his dad is a pastor there.

He was not ordained. He's not closely related to any of the ordained leaders at Grays Prairie. His father is deacon at a church in PA that's part of the same district.

[ken_sylvania]

Some observations...

It seems that plain Anabaptists pack the court rooms whether their member is/was the victim, the perpetrator, or the persecuted.

If it is the victim, it makes sense that they would want to be there to support the friends and relatives of the victim. However since they do not press charges, this rarely happens.

If it is the perpetrator, they go hoping the member will get a lighter sentence. I think this is because they believe that the perpetrator has repented, and prison is not a helpful or redemptive way of dealing with repentant sin. (I don't necessarily agree with this but I think it explains why they pack the courtrooms.)

And then in the case of someone being persecuted for righteousness sake, they are going to really pack the courtroom because they want to show solidarity with the persecuted. (As usual, there will be people who think the defendent is not being persecuted, but that is the nature of such things. If the society does not generally believe a "crime" was committed, the state would have a hard time making a case.)

In cases here the perpetrator is/was a church member, don't you think sometimes the other church people are attending the court sessions so that they can see for themselves what is happening as well as get accurate information directly?
I think if someone I knew was going to be in court for something like this I would likely attend - not in hopes of influencing anything one way or the other, but just to find out the facts truly are. So that I wouldn't be at the mercy of people saying "he never did this" when in fact the person had, for instance, confessed to the facts in court.

Does attendance at the trial necessarily denote support for one party or the other?

In the instant case, suppose the church people believed that Gerald was guilty and deserved punishment (I have no information whether they did or didn't). How should they indicate this by their court attendance practices so as not to be mistaken for "supporting him" or "hoping he gets a lighter sentence"?

[Judas Maccabeus]

What was Champ's actual position in the church at Grays Prairie?

I’m not sure about that. Would love to know the answer. I think his dad is a pastor there.

He was not ordained. He's not closely related to any of the ordained leaders at Grays Prairie. His father is deacon at a church in PA that's part of the same district.

Do you know what the affiliation of this church is? Optics lead me to think Nationwide.

[ken_sylvania]

I’m not sure about that. Would love to know the answer. I think his dad is a pastor there.

He was not ordained. He's not closely related to any of the ordained leaders at Grays Prairie. His father is deacon at a church in PA that's part of the same district.

Do you know what the affiliation of this church is? Optics lead me to think Nationwide.

EPMC Lebanon District

[Josh]

Then in that case, the news media is being misleading to call him a "church leader".

Cases like this happen all the time, and the person's religious affiliation is usually left out of it. We don't hear specific details about what parish or mosque someone attended, nor is there some expectation that their priests or jammah or whomever is somehow accountable for them.

Mennonites have a tendency of making these cases about religion which more or less forces the media to report it that way. Here is a screen shot from the trial video on the original news web site



I don't know if those women were there in support of the victim or perpetrator. But I have seen news photos of other trials of Menno or Amish sex offenders in which the courtroom was packed to standing room only with folks in Menno or Amish plain clothes in solidarity or support of the accused. I don't know if that was actually the case here. But any reporter walking into such a courtroom is going to immediately conclude that the trial has something to do with religion.

What are you saying?

Are you saying Mennonites shouldn’t sit and observe open courtrooms?

Or are you saying they should wear worldly clothes when they do?

[Josh]

It is quite likely he would have been asked by other congregations to come and give a topic, teach adult Sunday School class, or teach a youth or adult Bible School class. He was not ordained.

I’ve been asked to do the same things. It would be extremely inaccurate to paint me as a “church leader”. Virtually all of the brethren in my church end up Sunday school teacher at some point.