by P. David Gardner
Not a week goes by any more without us all having to read about something totally despicable done under color of religion.
This time, it's a Port St. Lucie, FL couple who take the prize for “Most Hated Humans Acting Criminally in the Name of The Lord.”
Seven years ago, Rob and Marie Johnson took in a then 13-year-old girl who had recently lost her mother. Nice move, huh? Altruistic, helping a poor girl whose mother had died.
But it didn't take long for them to decide to turn the little lass into a sex slave, in a horrid ordeal that would last for five long years.
Citing Biblical passages cherry picked from the Old Testament and contorted to serve his and his wife's twisted desires, Johnson told the girl that she could only be a part of the family if she agreed to have sex with him and his wife. He forced the girl to call him “Master,” while his wife slammed the girl up against a wall and grasped her firmly by the throat until she agreed to meet the despicable couple's outrageous demands. Unable to fend them off, the girl agreed to their whims.
The girl, who has not been publicly identified, was beaten whenever she failed to follow the couple's commands during the following five years. She was not allowed to use the phone, and was rehearsed in what to tell inquisitive doctors that might ask about her sexual activity.
Police say that Johnson presided over in-home Sunday school classes, and used certain Old Testament passages to justify what he and his wife were doing to the girl.
Now 21 years old, the girl was able to leave the home only when her grandmother bought her a plane ticket to come live with her in Ohio.
The couple is now out on bond, awaiting trial.
Simply outrageous. What humans do to each other in the name of God is both frightening and horrific.
The next time a Christian tells you that you cannot be a moral person without having their God in your life, you can tell them this story. God was supposedly in the Johnson family's life. So no thank you, proselytizers, I can live quite well and ethically without your God.
