Oversexed culture to blame for church abuse problem

[Ecoclimber]

http://standardspeaker.com/opinion/...re-to-blame-for-church-abuse-problem-1.729320

…In 2007, the Associated Press published data indicating that from 2001 to 2005 the teaching credentials of more than 2,500 educators nationwide were revoked, denied, surrendered, or sanctioned following allegations of sexual misconduct. More than 80 percent of victims were students…

…In 2009 there were only six credible cases of Catholic clergy abuse reported in the U.S. in a Church of 65 million Catholics. That’s six too many, but it illustrates that abuse has all but vanished in U.S. dioceses even though Roman Catholic priests are not permitted to marry. Can public schools or other faiths make the same claim?

Might have a point in putting everything in perspective. But it is noted that this is for the U.S. only.

 

[Lutheranteach]

http://standardspeaker.com/opinion/...re-to-blame-for-church-abuse-problem-1.729320

…In 2007, the Associated Press published data indicating that from 2001 to 2005 the teaching credentials of more than 2,500 educators nationwide were revoked, denied, surrendered, or sanctioned following allegations of sexual misconduct. More than 80 percent of victims were students…

…In 2009 there were only six credible cases of Catholic clergy abuse reported in the U.S. in a Church of 65 million Catholics. That’s six too many, but it illustrates that abuse has all but vanished in U.S. dioceses even though Roman Catholic priests are not permitted to marry. Can public schools or other faiths make the same claim?

Might have a point in putting everything in perspective. But it is noted that this is for the U.S. only.

Could also be that people are more than willing to turn in a teacher, but they are still hesitant to turn in a priest. Also keep in mind a teacher, in many states, seeing a legal adult (18-19) who was a student less than two year previous is sexual misconduct. In some states me picking up a student I see walking to school in the rain and driving them a block to school is misconduct. A teacher who has a female student talking in class about the six guys she slept with over the weekend and calls her a slut out of anger has committed sexual misconduct. If I tell a girl her top is cut too low she can make a case for sexual misconduct. There is so much that is sexual misconduct for a teacher that isn’t for anyone else. Also keep in mind there are about 6 million teachers in the U.S. Most of these cases are real, but keep in mind the bar is high, the need of evidence is low, and there are parents and students more than willing to use that card against a teacher that isn’t giving Jenny or JOhnny the grade they want.

 

[Carlan]

Could also be that people are more than willing to turn in a teacher, but they are still hesitant to turn in a priest. Also keep in mind a teacher, in many states, seeing a legal adult (18-19) who was a student less than two year previous is sexual misconduct. In some states me picking up a student I see walking to school in the rain and driving them a block to school is misconduct. A teacher who has a female student talking in class about the six guys she slept with over the weekend and calls her a slut out of anger has committed sexual misconduct. If I tell a girl her top is cut too low she can make a case for sexual misconduct. There is so much that is sexual misconduct for a teacher that isn’t for anyone else. Also keep in mind there are about 6 million teachers in the U.S. Most of these cases are real, but keep in mind the bar is high, the need of evidence is low, and there are parents and students more than willing to use that card against a teacher that isn’t giving Jenny or JOhnny the grade they want.

I see that the different segments of society make excuses for themselves in their sin, trying to justify their immoral behavior,Carlan

 

[sidbrown]

I see that the different segments of society make excuses for themselves in their sin, trying to justify their immoral behavior,Carlan

Yeah. Each one of us has a free will and the ability to choose right or wrong. So to say that the oversexed culture made me do it, is to abandon all sense of personal responsibility.

 

[Phemie]

Not to mention that many of the cases date back to the 40s & 50s, not exactly a time of ‘oversexed culture’.

The Church abuse problem is due simply to evil people who chose to do something they knew was a sin. It is not a recent problem, it has been one from the beginning of the Church. What is new is the willingness to report it to legal authorities and speak of it in the media. Had it happened to one of us when I was growing up my parents might have believed us (after all, they did, to my surprise, refuse to allow a retired priest to put his trailer on their property because they had heard rumours and feared for my younger brother) but they would never have reported it since that would have been ‘speaking ill of a priest’ and that they never would have done.

 

[unafraid]

Yeah. Each one of us has a free will and the ability to choose right or wrong. So to say that the oversexed culture made me do it, is to abandon all sense of personal responsibility.

Personal choice is greatly influenced by the state of mind operating at the time the decision to act is made. The individual is resposible for the actions, but those forces which shape the value system out of which said actions are undertaken cannot be minimized. The sexual revolution, and the floodgates of eroticism which opened up because of it, has destroyed millions of lives (through disease, moral decay, obsession, compulsion, abuse, etc.).

Individual responsibility is never to be underemphasized, but if we wish to penetrate to the core of a complex sociological phenomenon, we must try and identify what went wrong, and do our best to correct the root problems. The poor children trapped in the seedy underworld of the sex-slve trade in places like Bangkok, Rio, Capetown, etc., cry out for us to find the answers and make the changes. Sexual abuse is a global sociological epidemic.

A dark soul is made dark by the Devil, we know this, but the tools he uses to color it such can be identified, and must be constantly battled against.

 

[sidbrown]

Personal choice is greatly influenced by the state of mind operating at the time the decision to act is made. The individual is resposible for the actions, but those forces which shape the value system out of which said actions are undertaken cannot be minimized. The sexual revolution, and the floodgates of eroticism which opened up because of it, has destroyed millions of lives (through disease, moral decay, obsession, compulsion, abuse, etc.).

Individual responsibility is never to be underemphasized, but if we wish to penetrate to the core of a complex sociological phenomenon, we must try and identify what went wrong, and do our best to correct the root problems. The poor children trapped in the seedy underworld of the sex-slve trade in places like Bangkok, Rio, Capetown, etc., cry out for us to find the answers and make the changes. Sexual abuse is a global sociological epidemic.

A dark soul is made dark by the Devil, we know this, but the tools he uses to color it such can be identified, and must be constantly battled against.

Well then, why shuffle a known predator from one location to another and let him live in freedom?

 

[Brooklyn]

No one has stated this statistic from the article:

“Research by non-Catholic PSU Professor Philip Jenkins indicates between .2 and 1.7 percent of Catholic priests were involved in sexual abuse of minors while abuse by Protestant clergy ranges from 2 to 3 percent, and Protestant ministers are allowed to marry”

Why is it that even though sexual abuse of minors is higher in Protestant churches, no one is going after them and telling them they need to change everything they believe in? Why is no one demanding resignations or arrests in the Protestant churches? It seems pretty obvious that the secular media and public have a special hatred for the Catholic Church.

That statement aside, it is my firm belief that the moral state of the culture is directly related to the spiritual state of the Church. I believe that God is allowing this persecution, whether deserved or not, of the Church to happen because there are many wrongs that need to be righted. So many Catholics barely know their religion, priests rarely preach about sin and the need for spiritual discipline. The Church has become very spiritually weak, and the culture is suffering as a result. Back in the 40’s and 50’s when 75% of Catholics went to Mass every Sunday and confession once a month or more, the culture was morally strong. But in 1968, when so many Catholics rejected Humanae Vitae, the culture began a moral decline, and it has never recovered.

The “oversexed culture” we live in can be directly traced to the spiritual decline of the church.

 

[mlund]

Why is it that even though sexual abuse of minors is higher in Protestant churches, no one is going after them and telling them they need to change everything they believe in? Why is no one demanding resignations or arrests in the Protestant churches? It seems pretty obvious that the secular media and public have a special hatred for the Catholic Church.

Protestant Churches themselves tend to be local affairs in loose confederations across an area. There is no fame or money to be had in going after them. There’s no prominent international hierarchy to defame from afar. The pictures you put in the newspaper aren’t nearly as eye-catching either.

Those are the brass-tacks answers. They also explain why the rampant Education Molestation Scandal is a non-starter for the media.

There are some ugly, political factors at work as well.

You can’t come down on Education Molestation because it makes Public Schools look bad - and that means making Teacher’s Union employees and supporters look bad. Drawing their ire will ruin you locally or on a state-wide level. On a national level it’ll make you the target of the NEA. These Unions are major players in elections. They have their hooks into numerous State and Federal agencies as they are powerful lobbyists, campaign contributors, and sources of a lot of block votes and volunteer hours for politicians.

You don’t want to jump to the top of their enemies list.

As to the Protestant churches - attacking one of them doesn’t help silence or discredit one of the largest voices opposing Abortion, Suicide, fake “Marriage,” Sexual Immortality, and other issues near and dear to the hearts of those who run the newsrooms and news broadcasts.

• Marty Lund

 

[Brooklyn]

Protestant Churches themselves tend to be local affairs in loose confederations across an area. There is no fame or money to be had in going after them. There’s no prominent international hierarchy to defame from afar. The pictures you put in the newspaper aren’t nearly as eye-catching either.

Those are the brass-tacks answers. They also explain why the rampant Education Molestation Scandal is a non-starter for the media.

There are some ugly, political factors at work as well.

You can’t come down on Education Molestation because it makes Public Schools look bad - and that means making Teacher’s Union employees and supporters look bad. Drawing their ire will ruin you locally or on a state-wide level. On a national level it’ll make you the target of the NEA. These Unions are major players in elections. They have their hooks into numerous State and Federal agencies as they are powerful lobbyists, campaign contributors, and sources of a lot of block votes and volunteer hours for politicians.

You don’t want to jump to the top of their enemies list.

As to the Protestant churches - attacking one of them doesn’t help silence or discredit one of the largest voices opposing Abortion, Suicide, fake “Marriage,” Sexual Immortality, and other issues near and dear to the hearts of those who run the newsrooms and news broadcasts.

• Marty Lund

I think that pretty well covers it!

 

[Inhimthroughher]

The culture isn’t to blame, allowing homosexuals in the seminaries isn’t to blame, bishops moving priests around aren’t to blame.These are all wrong, but are only contributing factors. Those who are to be blamed are those who initiated the individual acts. If they did not choose to act it never would have happened. Remove any of the other issues and it still could and would have happened. Its time we start looking at the facts and putting the responsibility where it lies on the individual. Persopal responsibility trumps all!

 

[Beau_Ouiville]

Its the oversexed culture, its the homosexuals, its the media for reporting it.

Look, the scandal was the Catholic hierarchy hiding crimes and allowing them to continue. Its their fault.

Now the laity has to pay for it.

 

[sidbrown]

Why is it that even though sexual abuse of minors is higher in Protestant churches, no one is going after them and telling them they need to change everything they believe in? .

I am not sure, but it might be because the Catholic Church teaches that a Catholic priest has infinitely greater supernatural powers than a Protestant minister. A Protestant minister does not have any supernatural power other than what an ordinary layperson would have. However, the Catholic Church teaches that a Catholic priest is another Christ, alter Christus. He has the infinite supernatural power to call upon Almighty God to come down to the altar and change the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. And the Catholic priest, being another Christ, has the power to absolve a penitent from his mortal and venial sins. This is the big difference between a Protestant minister and a Catholic priest. You should have learned about this in catechism class.

 

[markeverett49]

Why is it that even though sexual abuse of minors is higher in Protestant churches, no one is going after them and telling them they need to change everything they believe in? Why is no one demanding resignations or arrests in the Protestant churches? It seems pretty obvious that the secular media and public have a special hatred for the Catholic Church…

Protestant clergy do get arrested for child sexual abuse and go to jail for it. For most Protestants, there is no hierarchy to protect them. Protestant churches are less centralized than is the Catholic Church. (There is no Protestant equivalent of the Pope or the Vatican.)

 

[Bobby_Jim]

I just posted something similar in another thread…

But most sexual abuse of children does not happen in institutions, whether the Catholic church, Protestant churches, schools, etc. Most sexual abuse happens at home. Many times other family members know about it and make excuses for it or even enable it, but rarely do they turn the abuser into the police. These things pit one family member against another. Dad feels terrible that his brother molested his daughter, but he doesn’t want to be the one that sends his brother to jail. Stuff like that goes on much more than we care to admit. And it has been going on for much, much longer than just the last 3 or 4 decades where the popular culture and mass media has gotten so hyper-sexualized. Maybe this is the devil’s extra little twist of the dagger with these horrible sins - bind them up with feelings of familial love and respect, which encourages everyone instinctively tries to look the other way, which only allows it to happen again and again.

In a way the same thing may be at work in cases of abuse by priests… people (including the bishops) generally want to love and respect and think well of their priests, and this might encourage them to make excuses for bad behavior, or blame themselves, or whatever - everything except report the abuse so that it can be put to a stop.