Well, I've had a lot of conversations with close friends who are pastors & their wives. And since they're not pastors of churches I've attended, they have no reason to hold back, but every reason to vent to friendly, discreet ears regarding their problems.
So I guess you would feel that these other pastors have also only ever "seen the tip of the iceberg" as you put it.
Either that, or else maybe what you refer to as your clergy experiences were in some remote corner of the world in a culture that I and American pastor friends have no familiarity with.
If you're still referring to human sacrifice and cannibalism, then I can only take a wild guess ... maybe the upper Amazon, central Africa, inland New Guinea .... I know some remote areas have combined Christian practices with ancient pagan beliefs. There was a Natl Geographic article a few decades back, about a culture like this in northern Mexico.
But anyway, it sounded like we were reaching common ground there for awhile, but now it's back to worlds apart.
OK, please drop and let go of the “human sacrifice and cannibalism,” thing. I was referring to the not so innocent dark ages of Christianity. And of course not current times. Same with all of the cultures that practiced this. What gave you the idea I was referring to now, current times? I am a historian and anthropologist. The tip of the iceberg I speak of are the things your friends cannot share about deviance in current society that finds it’s way into everything and everywhere. Must be nice to be so insulated from the real world as you are.