[MarkBsnr]

Not to point the finger at anyone else to divert attention from our own problem, but the amount of molesting by Catholic Priests appears to be substantially less frequent than that of non-hierarchical religions. Again, this is not intended to be a slam at anyone, just a compare and contrast.

http://www.leaderu.com/theology/southernbapt.html says that::

Thus, the "messengers" to the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention acknowledged that America's largest non-Catholic flock has been hit by waves of clergy sexual abuse affecting untold numbers of women, men, teen-agers and children. The resolution, which passed with little opposition, called for "ministers of the gospel -- whether they are pastors, counselors, educators, missionaries, chaplains or others -- to be above reproach morally, both within the body of Christ and in the larger community."

The intent of it is clear. Yet this statement also demonstrates why it will be hard for freewheeling and autonomous Protestant congregations to attack clergy sexual abuse.

While news media have repeatedly focused on abuse among Catholics, Protestant insiders have also long known that many of their own clergy -- especially youth workers and pastors who do counseling -- were breaking the laws of God and man.

"The incidence of sexual abuse by clergy has reached 'horrific proportions,' " according to a 2000 report to the Baptist General Convention of Texas. It noted that studies conducted in the 1980s found that about 12 percent of ministers had "engaged in sexual intercourse with members" and nearly 40 percent had "acknowledged sexually inappropriate behavior."

12 percent of ministers had sex with members and 40 percent had engaged in inappropriate sexual behaviour. I think that the celibacy thing is a red herring. I think it really is a societal thing and we have not dealt with it sufficiently yet. But we are doing so.

[Running On Empty]

I am in debt to you for this post and for being faithful to truth in reporting and truth in presenting facts. Truth has been sadly absent or sadly abused on these forums.

Thanks many times.

[Alex Murphy]

Not to point the finger at anyone else to divert attention from our own problem, but >b>the amount of molesting by Catholic Priests appears to be substantially less frequent than that of non-hierarchical religions. Again, this is not intended to be a slam at anyone, just a compare and contrast.

Actually Mark, that's factually incorrect, if you compare apples to apples. From the figures and statistics I've studied, any given Catholic priest (historically) is four times more likely to molest an underage child (either sex) than any given "non-hierarchical" pastor. That number IIRC increases by a factor of (at least) 8 if the comparison is made between a Catholic priest and a "mainline Protestant" pastor. If you've got something that shows otherwise, I'd love to see how it stacks up against the other study data that I've read.

[Iscool]

12 percent of ministers had sex with members

The members were probably their own wives...That's allowed in the Protestant religion...