Posted on 11/09/2007 7:22:10 AM PST by Alex Murphy
Guess you missed this one.
It is commonly believed that clergy sexual abuse is an exclusively Catholic problem that does not happen in other churches. In a 1983 doctoral thesis by Richard Blackmon, 12% of the 300 Protestant clergy surveyed admitted to sexual intercourse with a parishioner and 38% admitted to other sexualized contact with a parishioner.1 In separate denominational surveys, 48% of United Church of Christ female ministers and 77% of United Methodist female ministers reported having been sexually harassed in church.2 Although the actual extent of the problem is unknown, the significance of clergy sexual abuse is acknowledged by the denominational leaders of all Christian churches.3
And where's your outrage at the US Department of Education for allowing sexual predators to teach in our public schools. According to a fairly recent report, sex abuse among educators is 100 times greater than in the Catholic Church. Perhaps I missed your threads on those news stories.
Well, I sure missed yours!
I did not say that accusation is proof of guilt. I said that even many of those who were guilty, were gullty only of temporary lapses,not incorrigible, so they were sufficiently punished by being reassigned. We expect priests to be holy, but some are not. The greater point is that gays are applauded for their free spirits, when daily some kid in San Francisco is being bugged by a member of the gay community, with little protest from his “community.”
Because there is a difference between secular teachers, many of them atheists, breaking the moral rules of Godliness and decency, and one of the principals that represent the face of a populous Christian faith, claiming the be THE Christian faith, doing so.
Unlike other Christian faiths, the highest principal of that populous Christian faith has the power to formally excommunicate from the its fold all together, and does not use it.
What percentage of the parishioners were children? I'm not saying it is morally correct for Protestant clergy to be having sexual contact with members of their churches, cuz it is immoral. The junior pastor "running away" with a member of our church is among the reasons I quit going to church for many years. While he was removed, it was all handled in hushed whispers, when the church should have used it as a teaching opportunity.
Ministers having sexual relations with members of the church are not a legal infraction, while having sexual contact with children is illegal and immoral. Got any numbers on Catholic priests having sex with adult parishioners?
In separate denominational surveys, 48% of United Church of Christ female ministers and 77% of United Methodist female ministers reported having been sexually harassed in church.
By members of the clergy or members of the laity? Did any of the reported "sexual harassment" involve challenges to females being ministers, because that would also be considered "sexual harrassment"?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.