Have There Any Been Cases When

[YEARNING4TRUTH]

A prominent Protestant pastor committed something to the degree of the sex abuse scandal that’s been going around about Catholic Priest? I just wanted to ask because I kind of have a feeling that one day a protestant will use that against me, and I just want to be able to have a good rebuttal that’s along the lines of mentioning a prominent Protestant pastor who committed something like that to prevent that person from discrediting the Church.

 

[Viki63]

Here is an article about abuse in evangelical circles.

I don’t know of any prominent Protestant pastor who has committed sex abuse, and I don’t think mentioning anyone as an example would be a good way to counter the accusations.
You do know that most of the Catholic sex abuse happened back 30 or 40 years ago? And that studies have found that Protestants and the general public have about the same rate of offending, and public school teachers have a higher rate than Catholic priests.

The church is an imperfect institution because it has human beings in it.
It’s hard to argue with someone who is intent on vilifying the church; they generally don’t want to listen to facts.

.

 

[Seachange]

In Australia, there is currently a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse.

Their findings so far have indicated that EVERY institution that dealt with children during the period under investigation abused them and handled that abuse in the same way, all of them, religious and government alike. It was/is not a problem exclusive to Catholics.

They disbelieved the children who were abused even in the face of overwhelming medical evidence, moved the offenders around, and covered it up.

3.4
VICTIMS
All children in an institution, who have an association with an institution or in out-of-home care may be at risk of sexual abuse. We are learning which children are most vulnerable, and what factors increase that vulnerability.

Some children are more vulnerable because of their age, ethnicity, gender, disability or immigration status. Others are vulnerable because of where they are living or being cared for. The risks of abuse can increase with geographical isolation, where there are no trusted adults to approach, or where there is inadequate training and staff supervision.

Links to case study reports for more information:
Findings

Pedophiles gravitate to positions which place them in authority over children, especially vulnerable children. Since the scandal concerning priests and religious came to light, the Catholic Church has been a lot more stringent about vetting applicants. Most of the stories coming out are around 30 years old so hopefully, they are being successful at weeding abusers out.

I would avoid using a tu quoque argument. Just because Protestant pastors or government officials may have abused children and covered it up, it is no excuse for Catholic priests, monks or laymen to have done so, too.

You can point out that we have taken the scandal on board and are doing something about it, no longer hiding it or allowing and enabling abusers but saying that they did it too does not exonerate us.

 

[Dorothy]

The sins of the members of the Church does not eclipse the truth of what the Church teaches. It is still the Church that our Lord Jesus Christ established.

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Lord, help us all to follow You more closely, so that others may recognize Your Light and want to follow also!

 

[Kaliaa]

The Catholic Church is a very large target in these issues. It’s much easier to point fingers at a single large target than many thousands of smaller ones. Hence the publicity that has surrounded this issue. However, since every single person with the exception of Jesus and our Mother Mary is a sinner including the popes, sin is going to be within the Church and the churches. It cannot help but be.

 

[Tarpeian_Rock]

A prominent Protestant pastor committed something to the degree of the sex abuse scandal that’s been going around about Catholic Priest? I just wanted to ask because I kind of have a feeling that one day a protestant will use that against me, and I just want to be able to have a good rebuttal that’s along the lines of mentioning a prominent Protestant pastor who committed something like that to prevent that person from discrediting the Church.

Well, there were Billy James Hargis and Jimmy Swaggart, but on the whole I don’t think pointing fingers the other way is an effective response to what undeniably happened in the Church.

 

[Tantum_ergo]

Well, there were Billy James Hargis and Jimmy Swaggart, but on the whole I don’t think pointing fingers the other way is an effective response to what undeniably happened in the Church.

Yes, it happened.

The problem --and it’s a big one–is that as others have noted, the whole abuse (called pedophilia but encompassing post-pubescent especially male-on-male abuse as well as abuse of girls/women) happened EVERYWHERE. Repeat, EVERYWHERE. EVERY SINGLE INSTITUTION. Every single country. Every single ‘class’ of persons. Families, ‘strangers’, ‘friends’, ‘trusted authority figures’. . . not to mention organized crime, sex trafficking, etc.

Unfortunately, once we Catholics make the perfectly true statement of ‘Yes, this abuse happened, even among priests". . .automatically other Catholics and non-Catholics alike have been conditioned, like Pavlov’s dog, to react in one of two ways: Either to then focus exclusively on the Catholic Church and how, especially since it considers itself a ‘moral authority’, **its abusers were so much ‘worse’ than any other, and how if abuse DID happen elsewhere it was so much less, it wasn’t ‘boys’, the other ‘groups’ reacted so much better and so much quicker’ --and then one is drawn into trying to get the argument back on track while the other person just keeps on hammering, “Your abuse was so much worse because your church is against women blah blah blah blah” and your statements will be twisted into attempts to try to ‘cover up’ or ‘weasel out’ of the so-called FACT that ONLY the ‘RCC’ was ever guilty of abuse ‘to such a terrible degree for so long and you’re still trying to deny it’. **

OR

the other type of argument will often start out more thoughtfully and it might even seem as though you can actually ‘get somewhere’. Typically it will start with people acknowledging the entire state of society and the atmosphere for abuse. THEN it will also usually degenerate into, “Your church STARTED to acknowledge ‘reality’, but instead of going with all the joy and love and peace of Vatican 2, Pope Paul VI arbitrarily with Humanae Vita CLAMPED DOWN and repressed the people. But now your people KNEW there was a better way, and some fought back. But the priests who were REALLY repressed because they couldn’t get women like they were supposed to abused boys. And now your church is still abusing everybody and lying and covering up, because instead of recognizing reality like all other people did, you fought against it. That’s why all the mass murderers and abusers turn out to either be Catholic, or know a Catholic, or have investigated Catholicism at some point, and that’s what turned them bad”. . .

and we’re back on the defense again.

Somewhere, somehow, we need to get proactive and start addressing the REAL cause of the abuse and not let people play the same tired old canards and accusations. Tell them that you have SECRET information about the REAL DEAL (usually that will get them at least interested in hearing, everybody wants to think they have ‘secret information’ that ‘others’ don’t). Then keep on, every time they start with the old “YOUR CHURCH STINKS” stuff, with, "but wait, there’s more secret stuff’ and keep telling the real truth.

Only by OUR constant, unchanging, relentless and loving reiteration of what truth REALLY is can we stop this attempt to demonize Catholics.

 

[schaeffer]

I agree countering this with a tit for tat isn’t a good idea.

One of the big issues with the scandal was that it was institutionally covered up by a HUGE religious institution which refers to itself as having the fullness of Truth, Apostolic tradition, theReal Presence, etc etc.

With great power comes great responsibility.

Very few Protestant faiths are as organized as the Roman Catholic Church, none are as large,world wide and pervasive.

In other churches I know, when sexual scandal and abuse arose it did similar damage (I am referring to such in a particular congregation) caused people to leave, pastors to be dismissed and prosecuted, and sometimes…in independent churches, for the entire church to collapse and fold. So yes, these things happen and yes people do react in a similar fashion. People lose faith over such things when they happen in non Catholic churches as well.

 

[Darryl_Revok]

A prominent Protestant pastor committed something to the degree of the sex abuse scandal that’s been going around about Catholic Priest? I just wanted to ask because I kind of have a feeling that one day a protestant will use that against me, and I just want to be able to have a good rebuttal that’s along the lines of mentioning a prominent Protestant pastor who committed something like that to prevent that person from discrediting the Church.

The problem is that, due to the structural and ideological diversity among protestant churches, any scandals by protestant pastors are seen as a result of *individual *weakness.

The scandals of people associated with the RCC, with its strict hierarchy and firm discipline, are seen as institutional. Since it lacks the cult of personality inherent in the loose protestant faith, it makes it easier to “discredit the Church”.