Alabama "religion," someday this corrupt woman is going to kill a baby.

[Archae]

Yeah, call your day-care warehouse a "church" and they can get away with almost anything.

This Alabama Woman Got Away With Running Several Horrendous Day Cares by Calling Them “Churches”

April 15, 2016 by Hemant Mehta 124 Comments

We rightly cringe at the idea of religious exemptions from the law when we’re talking about requiring children to get vaccinations or prosecuting Christian Scientists who kill their sick kids because they wouldn’t take them to the doctor.

But if none of those stories convince you that these exemptions are often abused, just wait till you hear about Deborah Stokes.

Amy Julia Harris, writing for The Center for Investigative Reporting, has a jaw-dropping article about how Stokes ran awful day care after awful day care… and got away with it because she ran them as “churches.”

Needless to say, no religious services ever took place in her buildings.

Each of her day cares has been dogged by complaints of abuse and neglect. Workers said she hit children with flyswatters, locked them in closets or rapped them with rulers. She’s failed to pay so many employees that one reportedly slapped her in the face and another threatened to hurl a pickle jar at her, according to police reports.

She has been arrested multiple times, for crimes ranging from theft to child endangerment.

In total, Deborah Stokes has operated at least a dozen Christian day cares across southern Alabama. Every time she is chased out of town by furious parents, workers or landlords, she reopens in the next town over. In the process, she has collected at least $86,000 in taxpayer funding to run her day cares with almost no oversight.

She doesn’t need a license. She doesn’t need a curriculum or qualified workers. All she needs is a building with a roof, desperate parents and a piece of paper saying she runs a church.

That piece of paper means she’s not subject to all the regulations designed to keep kids safe. And while church leaders might call her an anomaly, she’s the direct result of what happens when unqualified people are allowed to do a job that really needs some damn regulating.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2016/04/15/this-alabama-woman-got-away-with-running-several-horrendous-day-cares-by-calling-them-churches/?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=friendlyatheist_041616UTC050421_daily&utm_content=&spMailingID=51166830&spUserID=MTE4MTY1MzAzMTE5S0&spJobID=902051191&spReportId=OTAyMDUxMTkxS0

[Scuba]

1. Hey, it's all OK because she says she loves Christ.

[Politicalboi]

2. Cracking down on her

But letting pedophiles from the Catholic Church get away with their crimes for decades. I'm glad she got caught, but their priorities suck.

[awoke_in_2003]

7. It is easier to charge a thief who steals $200

than one that steals $200 million. In this country, if you're rich (and the CC is) then you golden. Unless you are rich and stealing from other rich people (Bernie Madoff)

[Initech]

3. We really need to start holding religious organizations accountable for their actions.

Otherwise they'll just "pray for forgiveness" and somehow that will make it all better.

[2naSalit]

4. +1

[gratuitous]

5. Our congregation ran a child care center

It had to follow to the letter each and every regulation promulgated by the state, including (but not limited to) staffing ratios, Department of Agriculture nutrition rules, food handling, cleanliness and so forth. This sounds like a breakdown in the state regulatory and enforcement protocols. If someone's running a child care center, there shouldn't be any exceptions to the rules just because you're hiding behind a cross.

[world wide wally]

6. So now it's the "religious liberty" to abuse children?

I guess it was only a matter of time