You may remember Ralph Shortey, the conservative Christian lawmaker from Oklahoma who agreed to plead guilty to child sex trafficking charges after authorities found out he had sex with a 17-year-old boy.
It turns out that, when police found him at a motel with the child, he was wearing a sexist shirt inspired by the Bible.
Police released the bodycam footage showing the encounter with Shortey, who constantly promoted “Christian” and “family” values as an Oklahoma State Senator before resigning in disgrace in March in the wake of a child prostitution charge. The officers arrived at his Super 8 room after receiving reports he was with a juvenile.
It’s not easy to see from the still shot, but Shortey is wearing a shirt with a picture of a sandwich and the Bible verse Ephesians 5:22: “Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.”
This is a verse frequently used to justify male dominance over women by Christians.
This means Shortey isn’t just a hypocrite and a pedophile; he’s also a chauvinistic sexist. He thinks women are only good for making sandwiches and generally obeying men.
Shortey tried to play innocent during his arrest, so the full video is worth watching. He tried to claim he was just helping the kid as a mentor. Here’s part of the transcript:
OFFICER: Come out before you get me worried. Show me your hands.
SHORTEY: I’m sorry guys. You’re kinda freaking me out a little bit.
OFFICER: Yeah. That’s what we do. He’s 17.
SHORTEY: Just hanging out, talking about life. He couldn’t graduate high school, and (I’m) trying to help him get his life on track.
Shortey also admitted that there were drugs in the motel room, despite the fact that he spoke openly as a state senator about how adults shouldn’t do drugs in front of minors.
The video is a lot like an episode of To Catch a Predator, with Shortey claiming it’s an innocent encounter despite the fact that evidence points clearly to a sexual liaison. He admitted, for instance, to driving the teen to the motel and talking to him online using a pseudonym.
Shortey wasn’t arrested that day, but that was the beginning of an investigation that ended with his guilty plea announced last month. He has consistently promoted “family values” and Christian ethics, but he has been shown to be the antithesis of everything he claimed, and now he’ll pay the price in prison.
(via Christian Nightmares)
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