At a study last Saturday, one of the topics discussed was knowing your weakness and taking steps to prevent it from bearing fruit. I asked our pastor, who is about 60, if he would consider counseling a beautiful 25 year old woman alone in his office, or an 18 year old, or a 15 year old. He was a bit startled, but his response was “Absolutely not!”
The point was that doing so opened him up to false accusations, and worse, opened him up to temptations that still exist.
He mentioned a guy he knew who had been very promiscuous when young, who converted, but still found it tempting to watch porn while on business trips. He had asked some of the men to call him every night he was on the road, because he was less likely to give in to temptation if he knew a friend would call him.
I posted on this thread because the guy was making excuses rather than facing the problem. It’s “Ephebophilia”, not pedophilia or homosexuality. But that doesn’t face the problem head on. Saying the boy was 14 so it is ephebophilia is hiding from the obvious. And when a Catholic does that, it hurts Baptists as well - all sexual and financial wrongdoing is a huge stain on the name of Jesus.
The non-christians I’ve met don’t distinguish between Catholic priests and baptists - they just say Christians are hypocrites and use that as an excuse to reject Christ. They probably would reject him anyway, but I would prefer they had less ammo...
Wonderful response, and again, my thanks.
Actually, there is a definite difference between ephebephilia and pedophilia, and certainly both are illegal. Homosexuals who are attracted to sexually mature or maturing teens are rarely the same as pedophiles, who are attracted to the immature. Further, even though no one would dispute that a 13-15 year old is a child, they are more aware of sexual interaction than a pre-pubescent, and less vulnerable to exploitation. The young males in my family certainly were, as was my husband growing up.
Thanks for discussing the measures your church is taking to protect parishioners. I doubt those measures are ubiquitous in the denomination, though — as is required in the Catholic Church.
Your last paragraph is outstanding, and one of the reasons I appreciate your posts:
“The non-christians I’ve met don’t distinguish between Catholic priests and baptists - they just say Christians are hypocrites and use that as an excuse to reject Christ. They probably would reject him anyway, but I would prefer they had less ammo...”
May God bless you in all you do, and thank you for today’s conversation.