It's not just Catholics.

[Archae]

The fundys are raping kids too.

A Looming Crisis for the Religious Right

Fri Sep 27, 2013 at 02:36:38 PM EST

The child sex abuse crisis in evangelical Christianity, although less reported, is at least as bad as it is in the Catholic Church. Taken together, this suggests that there is a crisis of a different kind looming for the leaders of the Religious Right, whose concern for the victims of abuse has been too muted, and too often belated when it is evident at all. There is also too often an obvious and alarming tendency to sympathize and side with the abuser over the victims. The proud defenders of what they call "family values" become bizarre self-parodies, at best, under such circumstances.
I have written about this before and will do so again, but today I am reminded of the seriousness of the matter by a Religion News Service story about a prominent evangelical child abuse investigator addressing "a room of journalists" on the subject.

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2013/9/27/143638/519/Front_Page/A_Looming_Crisis_for_the_Religious_Right

[Peacetrain]

1. Yep there was an article in Sojourners

today about this.. a wake up call for sure

[Thinkingabout]

2. Although sexual abuse is terrible, it is nit restricted to Catholics. I was just watching a program

About Warren Jeffs and the sexual abuse happening in his group. This happens many other places also, the spotlight should be placed on all abusers, this needs to stop.

[Dawson Leery]

3. k/r

[xfundy]

4. Of course there is.

In any situation where someone claims to have the hotline to God, the potential for abuse is there. Molesters and other psychopaths/sociopaths are drawn to positions of "power" like moths to a flame.

"You do what I tell you and shut up about it or I'll tell your parents and GOD that you were bad and you and your whole family will burn in HELL forever and ever!"

Giving over authority to someone who claims to have it "from god" is a recipe for disaster, child abuse, theft, crime, murder, etc., and history is rife with examples.

This type of abuse is NOT new, it's always been a subject of common knowledge, especially among children in the Catholic church, to the point it became a cliché that priests molest children.

I wasn't raised Catholic, but even I heard it as a kid. As well as stories about Deacons, youth pastors, etc., who molested children as a cliché. And it's been happening for as long as the concept of "masters" or "preachers" being "closer to God" and therefore "holy."

It's all bullshit, and those who still elect to send their children into the "care" of these sociopathic molesters still seem to wonder, "wha happened?" when the inevitable occurs.

[longship]

5. Where one sees an authority figure, you're going to see this.

I think nefarious people will generally use a position of authority to their own selfish desires. I think that's a given.

I mean. Look at Congress!

[Cerridwen]

6. In any relationship in which there an imbalance of power;

perceived or real; the one(s) with power over the other(s) has historically been of the belief that that power over entitles them to anything the "other" has without permission from the "other." That applies to property, land, sex, physical labor, mental labor, and damned near anything else you can think of.

Add in "God's Authority," or the "State's Authority," or the "Monarch's Authority," or the "CEO's Authority" and you have the recipe for those with power over the less powerful to help themselves to what they may. The rules of society or humanity, do not apply to them. Sometimes we even go so far as to codify it in law.

[Nye Bevan]

7. Not to mention Orthodox Jews.

Ultra-Orthodox Shun Their Own for Reporting Child Sexual Abuse

The first shock came when Mordechai Jungreis learned that his mentally disabled teenage son was being molested in a Jewish ritual bathhouse in Brooklyn. The second came after Mr. Jungreis complained, and the man accused of the abuse was arrested.

Old friends started walking stonily past him and his family on the streets of Williamsburg. Their landlord kicked them out of their apartment. Anonymous messages filled their answering machine, cursing Mr. Jungreis for turning in a fellow Jew. And, he said, the mother of a child in a wheelchair confronted Mr. Jungreis’s mother-in-law, saying the same man had molested her son, and she “did not report this crime, so why did your son-in-law have to?”

By cooperating with the police, and speaking out about his son’s abuse, Mr. Jungreis, 38, found himself at the painful forefront of an issue roiling his insular Hasidic community. There have been glimmers of change as a small number of ultra-Orthodox Jews, taking on longstanding religious and cultural norms, have begun to report child sexual abuse accusations against members of their own communities. But those who come forward often encounter intense intimidation from their neighbors and from rabbinical authorities, aimed at pressuring them to drop their cases.

Abuse victims and their families have been expelled from religious schools and synagogues, shunned by fellow ultra-Orthodox Jews and targeted for harassment intended to destroy their businesses. Some victims’ families have been offered money, ostensibly to help pay for therapy for the victims, but also to stop pursuing charges, victims and victims’ advocates said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/10/nyregion/ultra-orthodox-jews-shun-their-own-for-reporting-child-sexual-abuse.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

And Muslims.

Muslims unite to condemn 'extreme depravity' of child grooming in first UK-wide single sermon

Imams across Britain will today deliver a sermon denouncing the practice of grooming following a series of sexual abuse cases involving Muslims.

The religious speech, which will be read out in 500 mosques, opens with a reading from the Koran that prohibits “sexual indecency, wickedness and oppression of others” and continues to urge congregations to report suspected cases of child abuse.

It is reportedly the first time a single sermon will be delivered in unison across the UK and is organised by campaign group Together Against Grooming with the support of the Muslim Council and Islamic Society of Britain.

The effort comes after the convictions of Muslim men in a string of cases including those in Rochdale, Derby and Oxford, where five men were yesterday sentenced to life in prison for their involvement in a sex abuse gang.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/muslims-unite-to-condemn-extreme-depravity-of-child-grooming-in-first-ukwide-single-sermon-8678412.html

[xfundy]

8. Exactly. And, one would think, since this is spelled out as "sin" in all their books,

there sure seems to be a lot of it going on even as they rail against anything, including gay marriage, that challenges their "beliefs."

It seems that abusing children, molesting them, is inherent among these "religious" people, and calling them out on it is a new thing. WTF?

[TheMastersNemesis]

9. The Social Depravity Handwriting Trait Is Found Most In Religious Institution Leadership.

I used to practice as a handwriting analyst and expert as a master analyst. Even though many people do not believe it works it really does. I have been studying since 1964 but am not active any more.

During my training with other experts the social depravity trait occurs in about one in 250,000 writings. It is most commonly found in clergy, priests, pastors and church leaders. It really is astounding in that that trait is more common in leaders of faith than it is even among the prison element.

[1000words]

10. At least The Vatican understands they must evolve or die.

Thus, Pope Francis.

PR Team has done a nice job, that regard.

[fadedrose]

11. Thank you for sharing

I often think it happens everywhere in any faith, but no one seems to have the courage to talk about it. It's usually Catholics who have been abused who will admit it. And that is a good thing.

What's the answer? Jail, therapy? Way too far over my head to think of a way to solve it, but punishing the abuser is only part of the problem. The kids involved have to know they are NOT at fault, that it is a sickness, and they should find a way to forgive for their own peace. Parents have a harder time...