Married to a Pedophile: Odd Behavior

If you are new to this blog, I’d suggest you begin by reading at the very beginning. This is not a story about my beliefs on child sexual molestation, but rather my personal story of how I came to be married to a pedophile for almost forty years without knowing.  My story is being shared so that others can be saved.  My story is for the children.

As time moved on, I began to notice some behavior that I thought was a bit odd.  Keep in mind that my twelve-year-old sister was living with us for the summer, so she and I had ample opportunity to talk in the evenings when John wasn’t home.  But, what she said to me often flew right past my head.  She was a kid, and I was the recently married, newly pregnant wife and mother.  What did she know?  Well, come to find out, she had some pretty good insights.  If only I had listened more closely!

Strange Feet - use thisEvery night coming home from work was a new experience.  There were often strangers in the house — people I didn’t know.   And,  these unfamiliar faces were invited for dinner by John .  I was hot, tired, sick from being pregnant and did NOT want to entertain strangers, yet here they were.  My sister would frequently tell me that she just sat back in our bedroom while John brought these people to the house.  Who were they?  “Church friends.”  That’s the only answer I got.  Because there were three or four different church services on a Sunday, I didn’t have a chance of getting to know a lot of different people.  But, here in our tiny apartment, were strange “church people” waiting to be fed and wanting to hang out with John.  To this day I don’t know who these people were — some men in their 20’s, some guys in their teens, and some younger who needed to be driven to and from their homes.  I was told that, “It’s part of my job.  I need to get to know all these people if I’m going to be working with them as their youth minister.”  I fell for it hook, line, and sinker.

Pay attention:  “Know your house guests!  Don’t ever be so accommodating as to back off and be quiet and just do as you’re told!  This is your home, too, and marriage is a partnership.  You have every right to know details about who is sitting at your table, who is occupying your home when you’re not there, and who is spending more time with your husband than you!”  Manipulation in this tiny apartment was well underway!

pool - use thisI can’t tell you how many pool parties for the teens John planned that summer and as God sits above I will tell you this — not once — NEVER ONCE — was I invited to go, nor was my sister invited to go!  Why?  Again, I was told, “This is part of my job.  I have to spend lots of time with these young people and get to know their parents.  The elders are really watching me, and they want me to mingle with the kids every spare minute I have.”

Can you imagine how this was?  All day John was back and forth between the church building and our apartment with different people of all ages.  Pool parties in the evenings, along with basketball, bible studies, youth activity meetings, and on and on it went!  I honestly felt like my husband was avoiding me on purpose!  I cried often, and in a tiny apartment, there’s no hiding anything.  My sister would ask me the next day why I was crying.  “I don’t know.  I just thought it would be different.  We’re married but we never get to spend any time together.”

My sister might have been young, but she was observant.  “John’s like a different person when he’s around those church kids.  He teases and laughs and jokes with them.  He’s so funny.  Then, when he’s with you, he never talks. ”  Those words hit me like a ton of bricks.  She was right, you know.

And, something else was beginning to happen.  The first couple of times I didn’t say anything.  I just looked away.  But, I was sure.  Well, maybe not.  Well, yes, I was sure…….

Puppy - use thisWhile I was laying in bed, I could often see John from the bedroom.  I would be day dreaming about the baby — our baby — wishing so much that he would come lay by my side and dream with me. But he never really wanted to go to bed the same time as I did even though he got up religiously at 4:00 a.m. every day which is far earlier than I got up for work.  My sister slept on a little fold away cot in the room off to the bedroom that was used as the dining room or “whatever” room.  We had a teeny kitchen, so there was an old card table and cot set up in this room which was used as John’s study room and for Ruth’s room while she lived with us. Not an ideal set-up, to say the least!

I thought I saw him quickly tug at her shorts when she walked by to go to the kitchen or bathroom.  Pretending I was asleep, I would watch night after night and sure enough — yes, it was true — he was doing that! Or was he?  Was I just seeing things that weren’t really happening?  Was I imagining everything? 

One Saturday while she and I were walking to the deli a few blocks away I got the nerve to ask her.  “He’s so weird, Clara.  He’s always pulling at my shirt or my shorts.  I try to run past him, but he’s always doing it.”  And, then she burst into tears.

I decided I’d confront him — the first time I really acted like I had a back bone.  That night I was not a happy camper, and I said we needed to talk.  It seems so “not real” as I’m writing these words.   His response?  “Your sister needs to learn how to dress.  She wears shorts that are way too short for her, and she wears those tops that have her belly hanging out.  Why do you think I never have her come to the youth meetings?  Adults have made comments about her.  It’s embarrassing.  She’s a problem child, and the way she dresses doesn’t help.  I’m trying to tell her to dress in a way that won’t make her look like a slut.”

A slut?  Yes, he used that word when describing her.  I’m hanging my head right now because it stings and hurts so bad to remember.  I took to heart what John had said, and believed him.  He was right.  She didn’t dress right.  But those were the only clothes she brought with her.  Maybe she was at fault.  Maybe he was just trying to tell her the length her shorts and shirt should be.  Maybe she flat out did lie to me when she said he was pulling and tugging at her. Maybe I didn’t really see what I thought I saw.  Oh, how much the mind plays tricks on you when you want to believe the one you love and trust! 

He was my husband, and I believed him.  Three weeks later I called my mother and father and said my sister had to go home.  She and I have had many, many conversations since throughout the years about his behavior towards her.  I witnessed on many other times him pulling at her breasts, talking to her about how “your boobs sure did stick out in that shirt.”  And, yes, he often made those comments to her in front of me.  Hearing that is dehumanizing.  Seeing it with your own eyes is worse.  And, being the recipient of those acts is the absolute worst.  That is child molestation!!!

If you were to talk to a pedophile right now, you would be told that the little children make advances to them.  The children aren’t dressed properly.  (We’re talking about children as young as one year old.)  They come onto the pedophile making it impossible for the pedophile to resist.  Pedophiles do NOT see a child as an innocent little one.  They look at them with lust.  They look at them with eyes that are vile.  They look at them with distorted images and messed up minds.  They look at them with one thing in mind — “that child will be mine!”

Let me insert something very important here.  Pedophiles like younger children and John was arrested for molesting young children, the oldest being 8.  He stated in court that he has always had a fascination with the young female body of small girls.  So, why did he also touch, grope, feel, and say crude things to teenage girls? (In the coming weeks, I’ll share stories of how he often pulled down his pants and bared his bottom to friends of my daughters!  It makes me sick to say this!)  I have no answer for that except he was very involved with adult pornography as well as child pornography as came out during his arrest and conviction.  I do believe he also had a fascination with the female body as it was developing in teenage girls, and I believe with everything in me that he committed many more acts of molestation that the ones for which there was evidence.

Why didn’t I do anything, say anything, or put a stop to this behavior when I actually became aware of it with my sister?  Why?  Because I somehow equated church work with goodness.  If John was doing so much work with the elders and church people, then he must be close to being  a saint, and it was my duty as his wife to support him, honor him, and to believe him!  [Ask me if I believe that now, and I’ll tell you something quite different!]  I wanted to badly to believe I had married a good, honest Christian man that he could have done almost anything and I would have stood by him one hundred percent, and he knew it! 

Why didn’t my sister do anything?  She did!  She told me, and I basically called her a liar and then chose to see through tainted eyes.  Listen carefully — when someone is abused, manipulated, lied to, and made to feel like a second class person, they will do anything to receive “crumbs of love.”  And, that is where both my sister and I were in life — we were happy with crumbs.  And, John knew it!  Oh, how well he knew it!  He had the perfect set-up!

I’ll stop here  for now– there was more “odd behavior — odd bathroom behavior” that we can use as a lead-in to next week’s continuation of my story. It was odd behavior, but very telling behavior.  I just didn’t know how to identify it, and that’s why I’m educating you.

I’d like to emphasize over and over again how smart pedophiles are.  Every move they make is very calculated.  Very well thought out.  Very well planned.  The grooming process — getting people (both children and adults)  to love and trust you — is very detailed.  I’ve read in numerous publications where pedophiles were interviewed that they would often write out detailed plans for months on end about how they would win the love and support of the child they chose to molest. It could take years of detailed planning and winning over everyone’s trust.   Then, the big bang — the big moment arrived — when the molesting could be done right in the house in another room with the parents there.  There is no greater thrill for the molester!!!

John is not unique in his planning, prepping, and grooming.  He’s one of millions who have molested children, and this is how they began most of the time.  You will find that most child molesters know the children they molest.  And, unfortunately, adults have been tricked into believing the molester over the child.  Just look what happened with me and my sister.  I even saw with my own eyes and heard with my own ears, and I still chose not to believe my sister.  I believed John — the preacher, the youth pastor, the man of faith.

Warning:  If you see an adult who chooses spending time with another person’s  children over his own OR if he spends more time showing acts of kindness outside of his own home than in his own home, then you need to open up your eyes real wide!  At the very least, this is wrong behavior.  At the very worst, there is an ulterior motive going on — quite possibly with the goal of molesting a child for the thrill of getting away with it right under the parents’ noses!

In the next session together, we’ll talk about how John was a beloved youth pastor.  We’ll talk about one very strange behavior that was part of John from the very beginning of our marriage clear up until the last day we were together.  This one thing makes me cringe now — I find it hard to think about without wanting to vomit.

Red flags were everywhere, but if you don’t know what to look for, you won’t see it!  Thanks for sticking with me through the hard stuff.  It will get us to a place where we’ll be smarter, wiser, more alert.  It will get us to a place where we can pick up on things children tell us and we will know that something is wrong.  It will get us educated, and education is empowerment!

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Let’s get educated!  Let’s learn how to stop these molesters in their tracks!  Let’s learn how to back them in a corner and make it so difficult for them that they cannot get to our precious ones — our children — any more!

Love,

Clara

 

 

19 thoughts on “Married to a Pedophile: Odd Behavior

  1. Clara, you put your finger squarely upon the treason, and it is such that hopefully your post(s) are noted and read by the masses. The power of the predator, his skills and disregard for the innocence of a child must be revealed or the ignorance will continue. I know how difficult this had to be to relive, to write about. Thanks for doing it though, it helps us grieve united and it reaffirms our faith that the shame and guilt we feel is displaced. It’s true owner is the convict that stole our heart and soul.

    • I think that the power predators hold has been taken so lightly in the past. And, not only that, but they’v used their cunning, devisiveness to sway others into believing that they are innocent of wrong (evil) behavior.

      You’re so right — it is draining to relive the past, BUT it is more painful not to do something positive with the past. It remains my hope and prayer to reveal the ways of the predator so that others will become educated and thereby empowered to stop the predators before they strike! Too many have suffered at the hands of these manipulative liars (and that’s just what they are). Thank you so very much for your comment. Together we will form a strong voice and begin to make a difference!

        • Robert, No, I haven’t. I need to spread word of this blog better so that more and more people can read and get educated! Thank you for the suggestion!

  2. Just one thing–you are focused on the child molester OUTSIDE the home. Another red flag is when a family member spends most of their time with one other family member often in intimate ways.

    • Most definitely. That’s a given. There are HUGE red flags we’ll talk about later on that happen within the home to members of the family — and they are often overlooked ( and very sadly, sometimes on purpose).

      • Oh Clara thank you for writing this blog. I am relieved that you have been able to heal enough to share these thoughts with us. My experiences with you and your family were short and long ago but I have held onto hope that you and your children will be OK.
        As a child I found John’s biblical perspective disturbing and some of his sermons from 28 years ago still stick in my craw. But I have never forgotten the story my step father told me all those years ago how you challenged Johns statement that the bible said a women must accept abuse from her husband and stay with him.
        Stay strong. There are many of us rooting for you.

        • Jamie,
          How good to see you here! Healing is coming slowly….but surely. Isn’t it something how we can remember certain things from way back — the things that are now “red flags”? John preached many sermons on the issue of divorce and remarriage and one of the many things that he and I were worlds apart on was his firm stand on abuse. He believed that a woman was to stay in a marriage when being abused and it broke my heart (and angered me) to hear him preach this. Now it makes perfect sense why he believed so stronly this way. That was one of the few times I challenged him (publicly) and he wasn’t happy about it.

          We’re doing good for the most part. Father’s Day was a rough day for most of the kids — one year ago the week of Father’s Day John was convicted and sent to prison. It’s difficult digesting that he will be there for the rest of his life. But, the kids are strong — my inspiration — and we will continue to heal.

          Thanks so much for your comment and your encouragement!

          • Clara, that is one of the things I’ve been struggling with. Where in the bible does it say an abused woman IS free to leave her husband? I have always had a hard time with the fact that the bible is so silent on this matter!

          • Zipporah, I’m probably going to get blasted from a lot of bible scholars on this one, but I can’t quote you book, chapter, and verse. However, would God direct us to stay in a relationship where a woman gets kicked, beaten, and verbally, and emotionally abused all of her life? I’ve seen some women who have clung to the verse stating that “adultery” is the only cause for divorce. That being said, we are told to “separate” and we are given examples of divorce, AND certainly common sense is going to tell a person that abuse is NOT in line with the teaching, “Love your wife as Christ loved the church and even gave His life for her.” “Treat her as a weaker vessel.” And, then we get into the principles laid down in the love chapter.

            At the very end of this blogging on pedophiles (which is going to take several more weeks yet), I hope to open it up to questions such as this. I just know I’ve seen (and lived) with the results of abuse, and that is as far away from God’s foundation for family as I can see. Love doesn’t hurt. Love lifts up. Love is not selfish. Love does not control. Love is scrificial. Love thinks of the other first. Love doesn’t lie.

            And, as far as I’m concerned, every time John molested a child, he committed fornication/adultery in our marriage. I feel secure in divorcing him. When I was married to him, I was nothing more than an enabler (even though I didn’t know it) to his sick actions on children. I know this doesn’t give you the “direct quote from God” you’re looking for, but the Bible has often given us “principles to follow” — which in the case of abuse, think of the comparison of Christ as the bride….what was the love of Christ like for His bride, the church? Definitely not abusive!

          • Oh, I’m certainly not suggesting that you should have stayed with John. Years of unrepentant adultery (especially with innocent children!!) is quite obviously a very good reason to divorce. In my situation, I’ve been searching for years for an answer as to whether I should stay or separate. I’ve begged God a thousand times to just speak to me, even if it’s the only time in my life that He does! Just one word! Nothing. Everywhere I turn I find arguments for either side and I don’t know what to do. I’ve scoured my bible, I’ve read books on marriage and troubled/abusive marriages, I’ve prayed. Nothing. Then I wonder if I’m just overlooking something really obvious. And then…. it gets more complicated. Your blog has thrown up red flags all over the place with the behavior of my in-laws. If I separated from my husband, he would probably move in with them, which means our kids would be around them even more! Which is worse??? I trust God with all my heart, and I am willing to do as He would have me…. I just wish I knew what that was.

          • Zipporah, I get it. I really do. Keep praying. Keep watching for those red flags. Keep educating yourself. And, the answer will come. God is often silent because it isn’t time for Him to speak just yet. I can remember the exact moment when I knew — absolutely knew — that our marriage was over. It was on an October 15th around 8:00 p.m. John said something to me, and it’s what he said, coupled with the look on his face that “clicked” — it was as though God gave me the answer right at that moment. The same thing will happen for you. Maybe your job is to protect children right now by staying with your husband. I don’t know, but I do believe that if you keep praying and searching for an answer it will come. And, the answer will come at just the right time!

          • Zippo rah, though The Lord hates divorce, he clearly hates murder and child abuse worse. The adultery exception only refers to remarriage, NOT divorce. If he is hitting you, get out! When the ex gets with someone else, you are free to remarry. If he molests a child, HE HAS VIOLATED HIS VOWS you are free to remarry. Does that help?

  3. What comes through so strongly in your post is that pedophiles believe they are justified in harming children, and that they fail to take responsibility for their own actions.

    • Ashana, That’s exactly what I want others to understand. Pedophiles will use every excuse in the book as to why they molested a child. They are masterful manipulators and liars. These are not my words only, but the words of pedophiles themselves, as well as the words of those in positions that deal with pedophiles. The book by Anna Salter, “Predators:Pedophiles, Rapsists, Other Offenders” offers keen insight into this total denial and irresponsibility straight from the mouths of the pedophiles. A pedophile will cunningly try to convince others that little children “come on to them” and “make it impossible for them to resist.” Keep in mind, their actions are more about “control” than “sex” although both are involved.

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