Sunday, February 28, 2010

EWWWW!!!












WAPT reported a recent arrest involving child porn:

"A Hinds County resident was arrested and charged with possession of child pornography Wednesday, according to Sheriff Malcolm McMillin and Attorney General Jim Hood.... Cameron Travelstead, 20, of 170 Montbrook Drive in Jackson, was charged with two counts of possession of child porn. He was being held Wednesday at the Hinds County Jail awaiting a bond hearing, officials said..." WAPT story

Unfortunately for some in the Jackson area, Mr. Travelstead apparently worked around kids and pre-teens at First Baptist Church Jackson as these flyers show. He also taught the fourth grade class in the AWANA program. Needless to say, these flyers no longer appear on First Baptist's website. Props to Mac and Hood for catching this guy.

The underlining/highlighting of names was made by the search engine, not myself as the pages were still available online cached as the pages were taken down. Any other names mentioned in the flyers are not connected in any way with the WAPT story.


Update:I received this email from Kim Parrish at First Baptist:
"Mr/mrs kingfish. You will immediately remove the names of children . You may post the story and relate it any way you see truthful regarding the church - but you will not harm minors who were not related whatsoever to this incident . If you have diffuculty doing that you will respond to me immediately.
Sent from my iPhone"

I took the bulletin in question down because it did include the names of children in classes. Now allow me to respond to this email. First of all, don't blame me because the Church is the one that posted their names online, not me. Want to know how I even discovered these flyers and bulletins? The PARENTS emailed them to me. Yes, there are a few outraged parents, outraged because the church took all of this off the internet, acted like nothing ever happened, and get the impression the Church is trying to sweep it under the rug when in fact, someone who was active in youth and children's programs for years was busted for child porn. Obviously the children need to be protected and this post was aimed at protecting them, NOT exploiting them or sensationalizing this problem.

I wrestled with this one all weekend long, really did. What tipped it for me was the fact that the Church looked like it was scrubbing everything and the parents I asked for advice all said I should post the info because they would want to know if their kids went to that Church. No one is out to get First Baptist Church or embarrass them but the fact remains, Mr. Travelstead was a teacher of young kids and apparently quite active in the youth ministry.

IF the Church is serious about looking after the kids, what it should do IN MY OPINION is issue a short statement admitting Mr. Travelstead worked with the kids, how saddened the church is it happened, ask people to contact them if they need to do so, and ask for people to pray for him, his family, the kids, and for some healing to take place. In fact, I'll ask you to do it because its the right thing to do.

30 comments:

Anonymous said...

What relation is he to Joel?

Anonymous said...

Exactly what I was wondering.

Anonymous said...

Brother

Anonymous said...

Not brother, nephew.

Anonymous said...

KF

Same Travelstead married to Meredith OBGYN and linked to Wolfe/Steadivest?

Anonymous said...

the address is the same as Joel and Meredith's. I am pretty sure he was either living with them or stayed there a good bit. I believed Joel, mentored him and got him into church. He always seemed like a good kid, I think there was some problems at home, and this was the reason Joel and Meredith took him in.

Anonymous said...

While most of us commenting on this story will most likely never know all of the details, I find it quite disturbing that this website would publish this list of names of these kindergarden aged and elementary school aged children! I would not want to be on the receiving end of what may come from some their parents if they were to learn of these postings. When do you ever see the police releasing names of children, espicailly potential victims themselves, if these allegations turn out to be true! Good luck with all that.

Kingfish said...

In case you forgot, it was the church that posted all of their names online. Maybe this is a good lesson for churches and schools about how much information they should post online. Being serious, not mean-spirited or sarcastic.

KaptKangaroo said...

My children are NOT on the internet. RCSD, in fact, goes so far as to require a permission slip to list your child for any listing each time they want to list a students name. I of course OPT OUT. Perhaps the church should revisit its procedures and amend accordingly.

Anonymous said...

We all need to be praying for everyone at First Baptist. Pray for the children, the parents, and the leadership.

Anonymous said...

I find it quite disturbing that this website would publish this list of names of these kindergarden aged and elementary school aged children!

Are you wigged out that the church posted the names in the first place?

How about the pics from the recent FBC Krave get together that are on the net? Looks like many youngsters under the age of consent in those pics. Is that a problem?

If you want privacy there can be NOTHING put on the internet.

Anonymous said...

Pray for FBC? Don't they pray for themselves? What? I'm praying for way too much stuff these days. I'm praying for warm weather, KF to get selected for the IRBY trial, Donna Ladd to take over JJ during the interim, and of course the ability to engage in a silly discourse with Mrs. Ladd until the Irby trial is over, or I stop reading, or KF returns - any of which is possible.

Anonymous said...

Looks like Kim Parrish is doing some serious spin control. Isn't she the person in charge of that preteen ministry over there?

Hookah said...

Was Cameron ever a priest?

Anonymous said...

"Michael" @ 6:27pm-last time I checked Baptists weren't priests. Very funny.

Anonymous said...

At least not the ones you know about.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Fish, you WILL do as Six Flags Over Jesus directs, or else...

Thank you for your public service.

Anonymous said...

As a member of FBC Jackson, all of these sarcastic comments truly sadden me. For the record, I have children in the church's programs. For those of you who can't figure out the difference, a church posting names of children participating in activities (similar to a school honor roll published in the newspaper)is a far cry from a blogger implying that something sordid happened between the accused and said kids, all under the title "EEEWWWWW!!!" Kingfish was correct to take the screen shots down, and Mrs. Parrish was correct to demand it.

Kingfish said...

blogger implying that something sordid happened between the accused and said kids

You know where you can go.

Anonymous said...

You have got to be kidding 7:14 am. Folks like you are the reason the conservative Christian community is labeled as nutjobs nationally.

Its an unfortunate circumstance but its too common that these megachurches are teaching involvement with no vetting of leaders. There's another big church in Rankin County, in which I know some people in non-ministerial leadership roles that are just horrible people, not just horrible Christians.

Anonymous said...

"As a member of FBC Jackson..."

Are you kidding? Kingfish never implied anything, except FBC yet again, fails to supervise those in charge of young people. Kingfish would never have the "screen shots" , nor been aware of the existance of the relationship of the guy with the church, had this all not been sent by parents of said youth.

You would rather the guy's involvement be swept under the rug? What kind of "church" person are you?

Conservative Belle said...

I fail to see any implication that something sordid happened between any of the children at FBCJ and Mr. Travelstead. Just because the title of the post is Ewww, does not necessarily point to some kind of abuse.

What might alarm parents is that often child predators and/or sex offenders look at child pornography and also try to work around children. Those concerns would be justified. Maybe a better title for the post could have been "COMMUNITY ALERT."

It appears that Kingfish sincerely expressed his concern for the church and those families involved. What would be most appropriate is for the church to at the very least contact all parents of the children involved and notify them of the situation. If they have done this, kudos for their responsible actions.

However, I agree with Kingfish that they should go a step further. To avert any accusations of the church sweeping this under the rug, they could announce that they have notified all those who may have had children in contact with Mr. Travelstead and that they are reviewing the situation prayerfully. They will continue to review their policies involving childrens' activities and adults/chaperones and notify all members of those policies. I think that is a fair suggestion.

Anonymous said...

Why not just pass a bill? No bad people allowed in Mississippi! We can legislate the legality that bad people, potentially bad people, people with a propensity to be bad must and shall be jailed. Tongue in cheek here... stupid comments will hurt you, so don't hurt yourself.

Now as to the issue at hand, I agree with Belle, parents take on your personal responsibility and take action. Don't wait for someone else to do it for you.

Anonymous said...

Conservative Belle has nailed it.

Anonymous said...

As much money as FBC has, one would think that there would be at least one half-way intelligent, rich & powerful,redneck in the group that would demand background checks on all of FBC's staff(volunteers and paid employees)--especially those working with children. It's not a secret that corrupt politicians, corrupt business "leaders", abusive people, and total thugs of society, try to mask their indiscretions by being active members of churches. When I meet someone who touts their involvement in church from the get-go, a siren goes off in my head that says, "This is a BAD person." Using religion in order to boost one's social standing or receipt of admiration and respect from others is NOT condoned by God. I trust a bum on the street more than I do a FBC member.

And FBC, as a non-profit, does not have to pay taxes as commercial businesses do. They have all these great parking areas, which they could make available for City events, yet they do not. Do they contribute ONE F'ing dime to the City for infrastructure improvements? By FBC owning so much prime property in downtown Jackson, without paying full property taxes, they deplete the City of revenue that could be made from commercial properties. The revenue could go towards road improvements and more police enforcement. FBC rapes the City and NEVER offers one bit above the minimum to the City. How many FBC members actually live in Jackson? How much does FBC pay in local taxes? How many non-residents of Jackson, FBC members come to Jackson for the Fair, for St. Pat's Parade, etc, and take all of OUR parking, while their "sanctified parking spaces" are forbidden for community events? FBC is a church that rapes and snubs the community in which it is based. Every member that does not live in the City of Jackson is taking advantage of those of us that do. Then, when we enter their areas, with Hinds County tags, we are constantly stopped and harassed. FBC is a user and abuser of Jackson. No wonder they are blaming KF for their blatantly idiotic posting of childrens' names on the internet. If they go to church everyday, surely God will forgive them for their lack of taking any responsibility whatsoever.

Anonymous said...

What might concern me as a parent is the fact the some of these "parents" would have to look at a list to see if their kids went to that church.

Anonymous said...

My friends moved to Jackson and began their search for a new church home, deciding on FBC for their first visit. After settling into the pew, they were approached by an older couple who informed them that they would have to move.....this was "their" pew. No greeting, just move. There is certainly a sense of entitlement within this congregation. Maybe they think evil can't touch them.

Anonymous said...

Its disturbing that this guy was around kids, if and i say 'IF' he is guilty of this, he is innocent untill proven guilty, this is still America and you get your day in court and you know what it says about casting stones in the Bible right?
Anyway if the charges turn out to be true then we can be thankful that he was caught so innocent kids will be protected from him and he seems to be a young man so maybe with some help facing his demons he can salvage his life and go onto having a good and meaningful existence and put this chapter of his life behind him.

Kingfish said...

I don't think anyone disagrees with what you just wrote.

Kingfish said...

By the way, my response to Ms. Parrish was "How about asking me NICELY. GOT IT?"



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