∞ Pastor from Baptist Megachurch Arrested in Sex Sting -- The Dallas Morning News
Joe Barron, a 52-year-old minister at the Prestonwood Baptist Megachurch in Plano, TX is in some trouble. He allegedly drove to Bryan TX to get busy with a 13-year-old kid. The 13-year-old — inevitably — was an undercover cop.
Police say Barron had a webcam, headset and condoms in his car. Investigators have searched Barron’s home in Plano and confiscated several computers and related equipment.
Barron was one of 40 — yes, 40 — ministers at Prestonwood, a church with more than 20,000 members. He was listed on the church staff page as a minster of Single Adults.
At least he wasn’t involved in the childrens’ ministry. At Prestonwood, that is.
I grew up in a city where Southern Baptists dominated the religious landscape, so hypocrisy like this never surprises me. But I’ve long since gotten past the schadenfreude I used to feel whenever an “upstanding” Christian like Barron was accused of criminal or immoral behavior. Maybe it’s because I’ve attended churches filled with truly decent people that I now tend to think more of them and the shock they surely feel when a story like this hits the news. If Barron is guilty, it’s just a tragedy, and I’m not so cynical that I find anything funny about such things, anymore.