Ronald Brown, 57, was arrested in Largo, FL. He is accused of some really gruesome stuff, including plots to cook and eat a boy in his Sunday school class.

I recognized him immediately from flipping through the channels, pausing to gawk at shows like his – Joy Junction – on the Christian Television Network. Here’s a rather creepy clip from his show making the rounds:

Tampa Bay Times has an incredible account on this developing story. Excerpt:

Brown had ties to a wide array of children’s programs in the Tampa Bay area. In addition to the Gulf Coast Church, officials for the Tampa Bay Rays, the Pinellas County School District, the Christian Television Network, the city of Largo and Gulf Coast Jewish Family & Community Services, among others, all said he had been hired or volunteered as a performer, instructor or mentor. He has no criminal record in Florida, which helps explain his frictionless association with these groups, many of which routinely perform background checks. “We’re incredibly shocked and saddened by the news,” Gulf Coast Church pastor Randy Morris said in an interview Tuesday from Orlando, where he was attending a conference. “It’s a very sobering thought that he’s been around our congregation for years. The charges against him are mind-boggling.” The affidavit describing Brown’s extensive Internet chats about eating children is grotesque, even by the jaded standards of child abuse investigators. Brown and Arnett were discovered during an international child pornography crackdown that has led to 40 arrests in six countries. The pair’s exchanges stood out to investigators. “In my time here at this agency,” Feinstein said, “I’ve never seen anything this gruesome.” Using online monikers that investigators traced to their computers, Brown and Arnett discussed killing — what they called “snuffing” — children as young as 2. Arnett described what different human body parts tasted like, roasted or cooked in a skillet, according to the complaint. In one chat cited in the complaint, Arnett described drowning a little girl, and in another, he and Brown excitedly talked about a photo, shared by Arnett, of a 3-year-old girl being strangled. “That’s how I would enjoy doing” the unidentified boy from Gulf Coast Church, Brown said. Morris, the church pastor, said the parents of the boy are “shocked and perplexed” by what federal authorities say Brown wanted to do to their son. “They’re just reeling. It’s very difficult for them to hear,” Morris said. He would not identify the boy or disclose his age, and said he is not sure if the boy himself has yet been made aware of the charges against Brown. Federal authorities have presented no evidence that Brown actually harmed children. But the criminal complaint against him refers to two previous run-ins with local police that did not lead to charges. In 1998, a Pinellas County sheriff’s deputy stopped Brown for a traffic violation and observed boy’s underwear between his front seats. Brown said he used the underwear to dress his puppets. In 2010, Largo police were called to Brown’s house by a neighbor who had suspicions about his habit of driving boys around. No arrest resulted. Brown worked for years for the Christian Television Network in Largo, the state’s oldest Christian broadcasting station. He performed with puppets on a Captain Kangaroo-style show called Joy Junction. In one episode, a video excerpt of which is available online, he operates a puppet that talks disdainfully about how some bad kids tried to show him pornography.

Sadly, I noticed that the Tampa Bay story has received 32 “LOL’s” from their social plugin. This is disgusting. Please don’t do that shit here.

Also – this man is clearly a creeper. In no way do I think his alleged crimes are motivated by his religion. The agents recovered child pornography. Every career field that involves being around children attracts sexual predators. The religious organizations who employed Brown obviously need to cooperate fully. If they were shown to have covered up any previous allegations, then litigation and public outrage are quite called for. Otherwise, please don’t use this as a straw-man, “look they caught another Christian leader being an evil bastard!”

Statistically speaking, he was likely arrested by Christians, and likely prosecuted by Christians for threatening the lives of young Christians. This is a bad human who happened to be a Christian. Remember the atheist who took hostages at the Discovery channel? Was that “just another evil atheist bastard?” No.

UPDATE

It looks like Christian Television Network has really dropped the ball here. Ronald Brown’s children show is still on the air!

UPDATE #2

Ronald Brown has a revolting public facebook page. I’m asking all of you to help me remove a photograph of young boy he oozed over.