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sewnsew
Member
| Joined: | Mon Oct 9th, 2006 |
| Location: | Arizona USA |
| Posts: | 849 |
| First Name: | Kim | | Gender: | Female | | Faith History: | cradle Anglican, Episcopal /Catholic-04/07/07 |
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Posted: Wed Feb 7th, 2007 01:47 pm |
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| I know that this has been covered elsewhere but I can't find it: I get hit all the time with " how can you join a church that has had so much sexual abuse" I read somewhere a percentage of priests involved in scandal vs. total priest poulation. Also I have said that there is a lot of sexual abuse going on in protestant churches too but that since in most denominations the church is a separate entity responsible only to it self that A: there aren't the "deep" pockets to go after and B' since each church is a separate entity any abuse may hit local news but doesn't necessarily get national and international attention. Have there been any studies done on abuse in the protestant churches?
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CajunRick
Network Helper
| Joined: | Fri Sep 29th, 2006 |
| Location: | Houma, Louisiana USA |
| Posts: | 5353 |
| First Name: | Rick (& Kermie) | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | Lifetime Catholic, Latin Rite |
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Posted: Wed Feb 7th, 2007 03:08 pm |
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I have searched for an "objective" study but the only one I've been able to find online is published by the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. It attempts to put the issue of Catholic clergy abuse into context with abuse by Protestant and Jewish clergy, as well as public school teachers. It reports the results of other studies not sponsored by the Church, as well as two studies commissioned by the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. It is thoroughly footnoted.
According to the report, less than 1.5% of Catholic priests have been accused of sexual abuse. Of those ordained between 1950 and 2001, the number rises slightly to 1.8%. Of those currently serving as priests, two thirds of 1% have charges pending against them.
Protestant clergy numbers cited do not specify child sexual abuse, but improper sexual behavior in general, and the numbers are as high as 38.6%. The report quotes the Christian Science Monitor as reporting, "Despite headlines focusing on the priest pedophile problem in the Roman Catholic Church, most American churches being hit with child sexual-abuse allegations are Protestant, and most of the alleged abusers are not clergy or staff, but church volunteers.”
Among rabbis, the report cites a Jewish report that states that 30% of rabbis who changed positions in 2000 did so involuntarily, and sexual abuse was a factor in many cases.
Jehovah's Witnesses have a support group called SilentLambs for victims of child sexual abuse. More than 5000 Witnesses have reported the the organization mishandled cases of child sexual abuse, mostly committed by family members.
Two percent of all athletic coaches have a criminal record of child sexual abuse. That does not include the ones that have never been caught.
Between 3 and 12% of psychologists have had sexual contact with their patients. These are the same psychologists who advised the bishops to transfer priests who had been accused of abuse.
A 1991 report showed that 17.7% of boys and 82.2% of girls had been sexually harrased by faculty or staff in public schools, and 13.5% had had intercourse with a teacher before graduation. More than 60% of public school employees accused of abuse are transferred, not fired or disciplined. They call it "passing the trash".
Here is the first paragraph of the report's conclusion:
The issue of child sexual molestation is deserving of serious scholarship. Too often, assumptions have been made that this problem is worse in the Catholic clergy than in other sectors of society. This report does not support this conclusion. Indeed, it shows that family members are the most likely to sexually molest a child. It also shows that the incidence of the sexual abuse of a minor is slightly higher among the Protestant clergy than among the Catholic clergy, and that it is significantly higher among public school teachers than among ministers and priests.
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Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand. - Augustine
Rick Luquette
Luquette Lane
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sewnsew
Member
| Joined: | Mon Oct 9th, 2006 |
| Location: | Arizona USA |
| Posts: | 849 |
| First Name: | Kim | | Gender: | Female | | Faith History: | cradle Anglican, Episcopal /Catholic-04/07/07 |
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Posted: Wed Feb 7th, 2007 05:31 pm |
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| Thank you for this. Actually Thanks for all the moderator's, the resources and prompt answers from everyone aon most issues.
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sewnsew
Member
| Joined: | Mon Oct 9th, 2006 |
| Location: | Arizona USA |
| Posts: | 849 |
| First Name: | Kim | | Gender: | Female | | Faith History: | cradle Anglican, Episcopal /Catholic-04/07/07 |
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Posted: Thu Feb 22nd, 2007 11:04 am |
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| My local newspaper has an article about a problem with sexual abuse of children in the Southern Baptist church- My Father in law now deceased constantly asked me "is your Episcopal priest a pedofile like the rest of them" It used to send me through the roof- I kept saying that it was only a small amount of priests, EVERYONE handled abuse badly during the time frame we are talking and that I personally knew of some evangelical families that dealt with this issue with their children and the youth leaders of their individual churches. One part of me wants to cut the article out and mail it to my SB mother in law, the other says rise above it all....
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Ali
Member
| Joined: | Sat Jan 6th, 2007 |
| Location: | Ohio USA |
| Posts: | 663 |
| First Name: | Ali | | Gender: | Female | | Faith History: | JW, finally fully Catholic |
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Posted: Thu Feb 22nd, 2007 11:16 am |
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Most abuse happens in the home. Period.
We shouldn't stick out heads in the sand, but use common sense. The majority of the time, there are signals our kids are sending us when things aren't "right". Listen to those signals!
IMO, one of the biggest reasons that the priest abuse scandal received so much attention is because of the anti-Catholic-ness of most religions in the US. People aren't looking to comfort the victims, they want to show the Church as the Babylon Whore they teach she is. That's my not-so-humble-opinion, anyway 
Ali
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Ruthie
Member
| Joined: | Mon Nov 13th, 2006 |
| Location: | Houston, Texas USA |
| Posts: | 99 |
| First Name: | Ruthie | | Gender: | Female | | Faith History: | nominal Presbyterian, aetheist, evangelical Christian/Episcopalian, Catholic |
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Posted: Thu Feb 22nd, 2007 01:24 pm |
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It might also be that people expect the Cathoic Church and its representatives to be "perfect." Since people view the Church's teaching as rigid and unchanging, it just goes hand-in-hand that people think all priests and bishops are to conform to these strict standards more than the rest of us sinners.
Also, the Catholic Church is a religious institution that has a clearly organized, stable hierarchy with a visible and known head, the Pope. That makes it an easy target for criticism. If one Baptist of some sort has abused a child, who can be blamed? All of protestantism or even all Baptists? It's just different with the Catholic Church.
Remember the Bakkers of televangelism? That was a scandal too and televangelism in general was given a bad name and was suspect after that.
But people expect so much more of the Catholic Church, I think. I don't think it's just anti-Catholicism. I believe it's also terrible disappointment in a huge religious organization that speaks for most of the Christian world. We (catholics and non-catholics alike) want to count on her as perfect Mother Church who can do no wrong.
But then there are the unreasonable, prejudiced, ignorant haters too.
Just MHO.
Ruthie
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Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it. (NRSV, Luke 18:17)
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