On a post that started out talking about human sacrifice in Uganda
http://voxday.blogspot.com/2010/04/who-needs-christianity.html
a guy named Travis had this to say,
“No, I'm simply appealing to the obvious. For instance, the Catholic Church's molester priest scandal that everyone got so worked up about was actually the gay molester priest scandal. Yet hardly anybody brought that fact up. It was just silently understood that there couldn't be any connection, despite appearances, and that you weren't supposed to talk about it. In a complete failure to recognize irony, the people shrieking the loudest about the abuse were largely the same liberals who condemn the church for not allowing openly gay priests to be ordained.”
I’ve purposely tried to stay clear of this subject on my blog but, what do you think?
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Sometimes people equate the homosexuality and priests not being able to marry. Yet, pastors and reverends of other faiths who are married also molest children. So to sports coaches and summer camp administrators, and that one janitor at Disney Land...
ReplyDeleteFrankly, it's still quite rare. I don't think there is any kind of connection between priests, celibacy, Christianity, or the molestation itself. It can happen in any scenario. This is just an easy scarecrow for atheists to erect. It's offensive to Christians, priests, and homosexuals to draw the conclusion that child molestation is more prevelant among them.
Ya, I think so. Predators go where their targets are.
ReplyDeleteI still think they should make clowns illegal. Creepy...
ReplyDeleteAlso, I find it interesting that there is a two-front assault on the Catholics when it comes to the molestation. On one side you have the atheists, who will jump at the opportunity to associate religion with anything bad. But on the other, you have non-Catholic Christians who are happy to do the very same thing atheists are doing to the Great Whore.
ReplyDeleteInteresting note: most sexual abuse is perpetrated by relatives. Is anyone out there opposed to families? Anyone? Thought not...
It's not just the abuse, it's the systematic cover-up.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to know which is worse, the abuse or the cover-up. Both are damaging to the victims.
ReplyDeleteAll I know is, if you aren't sexually attracted to children, be very thankful. Like homosexuals, paedophiles have never known anything else. They've always been that way.
I've worked with paedophiles and while not the case with all, the self-loathing in most of them is extreme.
Of course some atheists will make the case that, again, like homosexuals the self-loathing is only present because society won't accept them. And that of course is the fault of religion. It's so narrow minded. And, like homosexuals, if it's genetic, or if that's how God made them, then who are we to say what they're doing is wrong?
Like Hugo says, right and wrong is up to each individual to decide.
Oh, well, acceptance of these people and what they do is an issue that won't become mainstream for twenty or thirty years. My grandchildren will have to live with that nonsense.
It's interesting that you mention my name here because right after reading "Like homosexuals, paedophiles have never known anything else. They've always been that way." I thought to myself that this was a great opportunity to give an example of people whose actions cannot be tolerated even if it feels natural and right for them.
ReplyDeleteObviously, you do not see it that way because you went on saying that "like homosexuals, if it's genetic, or if that's how God made them, then who are we to say what they're doing is wrong?"
Ok, so we agree that both homosexuality and paedophilia are naturally occurring conditions. Both sexual preferences appear to have always existed and emerge for no apparent reason in some individuals. This means that we should not blame someone for feeling one or the other.
However, does it mean that we should, as individuals, or as a society, consider any actions done because of those sexual impulses to be moral? The obvious answer is no.
But why do we agree that paedophilia is morally wrong; while disagreeing on homosexuality?
We already know your answer; you said:
I trust my Creator's opinion that ANY sex outside of the protective bounds of a male / female marital relationship should be prohibited.
So what about the rest of us who prefer to think and try to rationalize morality questions? Again, I insist that it's up to each individual to make up his/her own mind, but there are many common values that we share, and they are very handy with such examples.
Making someone suffer is immoral. That's one of the principle I adhere to, and it's quite hard to find someone that disagree.
Each individual has the last word to everything that concerns his/her own body. That's another principle I adhere to, and again, it's quite hard to find someone that disagree.
Both principles can have exceptions though, as nothing is all black or all white in life; a child should not be allowed to decide which medical treatment to get for example, we set an age threshold for that. Anyway, that's just an example, no details needed here...
So, let's go back to the homosexuality vs paedophilia problem and try to apply the 2 principles. Actually, no, I won't even do it, because any rational being already knows the conclusion...
Why don't you agree with it Rod? Because of your god?
Or perhaps you don't agree with the 2 principles I mentioned?
Actually you cannot agree with them if you keep a fundamentalist religious stance... too bad.
Well, the coverups meant the offenders continued to offend.
ReplyDelete"Well, the coverups meant the offenders continued to offend."
ReplyDeleteYa, I know. It's dirty all the way through.
FYI - I found this at another site.
ReplyDeleteWell, the official report for the US states:
US clerics (priests, deacons, bishops, etc.) accused of abuse from 1950-2002: 4,392.
About 4% of the 109,694 serving during those 52 years.
Individuals making accusations: 10,667.
Victims' ages: 5.8% under 7; 16% ages 8-10; 50.9% ages 11-14; 27.3% ages 15-17.
Victims' gender: 81% male, 19% female
Duration of abuse: Among victims, 38.4% said all incidents occurred within one year; 21.8% said one to two years; 28%, two to four years; 11.8% longer.
Victims per priest: 55.7% with one alleged
victim; 26.9% with two or three; 13.9% with four to nine; 3.5% with 10 or more (these 149 priests caused 27% of allegations).
Abuse locations: 40.9% at priest's residence; 16.3% in church; 42.8% elsewhere.
Known cost to dioceses and religious orders: $572,507,094 (does not include the $85 million Boston settlement and other expenses after research was concluded).