Leader of Christian voting group charged with vile crimes involving kids (again!)
Jason Yates was charged with possessing all kinds of illicit content involving children
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Jason Yates was, most recently, the CEO of My Faith Votes, a non-profit group “focused on empowering people of faith to vote in every election.” That organization, while non-partisan, pushed a conservative agenda, claiming that “secular progressives have actively sought to implement a counterfeit worldview at every level of government.” It blamed those secular progressives for “devastating moral decay” and “the erosion of traditional family values.” Hell, Mike Huckabee is the group’s “Honorary National Chairman.”
This past July, Yates even wrote an essay for the conservative Washington Times about how children were “being programmed to believe sexually deviant behavior.” He based this on a recent visit to the University of Minnesota for his son’s robotics competition:
We were immediately confronted with posters encouraging children to embrace strange new sexual horizons. They were handing out literature with an agenda to teach him to doubt the link between his mind and body — his self, and his self-image. They offered Levi a rainbow button to wear, encouraging him to declare his gender preferences. Wasn’t this supposed to be a robotics competition?
So… he saw pride merch on a college campus and jumped to the conclusion that The Gays were trying to recruit his son? These guys are never beating the “weird” charges…
Anyway, whenever Christians pretend their religion and morality are linked together and that anyone outside that Venn diagram is inherently immoral, you know how the story turns out.
Yates was just charged with a slew of vile crimes involving children.
According to Ministry Watch,
[Yates] has been charged with eight felony counts of possession of child pornography.
Each of the eight charges, filed in McLeod County, MN, carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of $10,000. They note that Yates has a prior conviction and is a registered predatory offender.
That prior conviction, also related to child sexual abuse material (CSAM), had been expunged for reasons that are not apparent.
Court documents reveal a devastating story regarding how all this was discovered.
A relative was in Yates’ home office looking for a way to store some files. That person came across a portable hard drive in Yates’ dresser and plugged it into their computer… only to realize it contained over 100 “sexually explicit images of children.” After speaking to a trusted friend, that hard drive was turned over to law enforcement. (The document goes in sickening, but legally necessary, depth when describing the images and videos. It also mentions that the victims are allegedly between the ages of 5 and 7.)
Until his next court date, Ministry Watch says, Yates is forbidden from having any contact with anyone under the age of 18. That presumably includes his “daughter’s lacrosse team,” which he coaches.
Religion News Service got a statement from My Faith Votes distancing itself from Yates without noting the obvious hypocrisy:
“In early August 2024, the My Faith Votes board of directors separated Jason Yates from My Faith Votes and board member Chris Sadler assumed the position of Acting CEO. Over the last three months Chris has been working with the dedicated My Faith Votes team to encourage millions of Christians to vote, pray and think biblically about this election in America,” a spokesperson for My Faith Votes told RNS in an email.
What about the idea that the head of a Christian organization treating secular progressives as moral degenerates was himself hoarding illicit content involving children? There was no comment on that.
RNS also notes that Yates’ hearing on Monday occurred shortly before My Faith Votes “held an online pre-election prayer event, urging listeners to vote for candidates who support Christian values.”
The same people who wanted to elevate a lying, racist, sex predator for president were fresh off of being led by an alleged child sex predator.
At what point will any of these Christian organizations reckon with the fact that the biggest threats to children are often in positions of power within religious organizations and not in the crowd of people fighting for civil rights and social justice, or reading books to children in libraries, or flying rainbow flags?
The calls are coming from inside the house but none of these people are willing to pick up the phone.
I would submit that this massively screwed up country and world is primarily the work product of religious people with a strong sense of Christian privilege and entitlement. They act as if secular reasoning is the very definition of evil. However, for the most part, secular reasoning tends to be vastly more moral as it seeks what benefits people, rather than trying to channel magical thinking derived from a magic book into creating social norms. No theocracy was ever a bastion of human rights and intellectual freedom. Finding this preacher is a pedophile is more of an expectation than shocking.
Still no signs of librarians or drag queens. Curious.