Texas Minister Busted in Internet Sex Sting

by Stacy L. Harp on May 19, 2008

Anyone who has read my blog for any length of time knows I am PASSIONATE about keeping kids safe online and also educating people about the dangers of the internet, especially from sex predators. And I don’t care if the predator is a Christian, a minister, a homosexual or Satanist because there is NEVER EVER a reason to pursue sexual relations with a child PERIOD. But what makes this situation even more egregious is that this man is a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ at one of the largest Christian churches in the country.

© 2008 WorldNetDaily

A minister at one of Texas’ largest megachurches was arrested this week after driving his wife’s car 200 miles for a planned liaison with a 13-year-old girl he met on the Internet.

Greeting Rev. Joe Barron, minister to married adults at the 26,000-member Prestonwood Baptist Church, near Dallas, when he arrived Thursday, with a package of condoms on the car seat, were members of the Bryan, Texas, police force.

Bryan police said Barron had been chatting online for about two weeks with an officer who he thought was a 13-year-old girl, participating in sexually explicit conversations.

On Tuesday, Barron asked the girl to skip school and meet him, police told the Dallas Morning News.

“Of course, our officers replied that they would,” Officer Lesley Malinak, spokeswoman for the Bryan Police Department, said. “He had been on a business trip and was coming to see her after he was done with this business trip.”

On Thursday, he drove three hours to meet the girl at a parking lot and chatted with “her” by telephone along the way. He was arrested without incident.

Police found a box of 10 condoms inside the car, a Web camera and a headset police believe he was planning to give the girl.

“It is common for people that are engaged in this type of activity” to give gifts to the minors that “they are grooming,” said Malinak.

Read the whole article at WorldNetDaily here.

blog comments powered by Disqus

Previous post:

Next post: