The Protestant Clergy Sex Abuse Pattern by Valerie Tarico
One of the most striking aspects of the Protestant clergy sex abuse pattern is that most people don’t realize it is a pattern. The Catholic Church has taken a well deserved beating in the courts and in the court of public opinion as former altar boys, orphans and ordinary parishioners have come forward with appalling stories of sex abuse. Yet equally egregious violations by Protestant clergy have failed to generate the same level of outrage. Why?
10 comments:
I think most people still don't see protestant churches as a collective entity. I understand why, there are huge differences between different churches, but if there is a statistical correlation between a type of organization and child abuse, I think we can take the leap of considering that a "group." I mean, if hardware store owners were hundreds of times more likely than other business owners to molest children, we might have a problem with all hardware stores.
~Rhaco
I remember reading a couple years ago that there is just as much sexual abuse in protestant Churches as the RC Church. The difference is that by and large the perpetrators are in secondary positions but still having access to children, i.e., Sunday School teachers, club leaders etc.
It is a good question as to why the focus has been so singularly on the RC Chuch. Perhap because the perpetrator have also been "leaders."
Since hardware store owners don't typically have unusually great access to children (the is what paedophiles look for you know), that's probably a poor example to use. Move into the area of minor sports, scouting etc. and I think you will begin to see similarities to what is taking place in Church.
Still lower I'm guessing since Churches have tended to lag behind in security checks etc. Our congregation still has proposals laying on the table from years ago regarding required police checks" with the feeling (unwarranted) being, "But we know all these people. They're our friends."
Of course if no one as been caught and convicted a background check doesn't do any good, but it's a start.
From the things I observed Christians just molest there own daughters, and sisters... Most of them do not get caught until it's to late..
http://stopbaptistpredators.org/index.htm
Note how preachers are hired by local communities without doing any background checks, and how predators hopscotch between churches and move to other states as soon as the question of abuse pops up. While the denominational authorities are still blaming the victims and protesting their own lack of responsibility, the creeps are long gone.
You mistook my concept. What I was pointing out was that regardless of the goal of the organization, be it hammers or God, if there is a group tendency to molest children then they should be looked upon as a group. The lack of similarity was actually a large part of my point.
The only "group" that has a tendency to molest children is one made up of paedophiles.
Just as alcoholics seek out places where they might take part in their addiction (bars, parties, etc) paedophiles seek out places where they might be with and gain the trust of children.
Church is one of the agencies through which paedophiles do their thing. Neither Church nor Christianity are the cause of child molestation.
I can hardly believe this needs to be said.
@thesauros
Sorry pal, but the accounts I know of all took place in the Church by people that have gone to church there whole lives. Brothers with little sisters, and fathers with daughters.
You people are sick.
Ya, well, my abuser was not - pal.
@thesadauros
So you were sexually abuse? I am sorry about that.
Just imagine if it was your father that was an elder in the church....
Just imagine if it was your father that was an elder in the church....
If it was any representative of something "good," someone in a position of trust it would make it 100, 1000, 100000000000 times more destructive, but it would have NO bearing on the existence of God.
Unfortunately there are a lot of people who had very strong beliefs about God - eg. "If I believe in God then He will protect me from harm." When harm comes they don't conclude that perhaps their beliefs were wrong. They conclude that God doesn't exist.
Sad but true.
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