Buddhist Monks Walk Away From Sex-Abuse Cases

The Chicago Tribune ^ | 7/24/11 | Megan Twohey

[marshmallow]

Across the U.S., temples frustrate investigators by insisting they have no control over monks' actions, whereabouts

The meeting took place at Wat Dhammaram, a cavernous Theravada Buddhist temple on the southwest edge of Chicago. A tearful 12-year-old told three monks how another monk had turned off the lights during a tutoring session, lifted her shirt and kissed and fondled her breasts while pressing against her, according to a lawsuit.

Shortly after that meeting, one of the monks sent a letter to the girl's family, saying the temple's monastic community had resolved the matter, the lawsuit says.

The "wrong doer had accepted what he had done," wrote P. Boonshoo Sriburin, and within days would "leave the temple permanently" by flying back to Thailand.

"We have done our best to restore the order," the letter said.

But 11 years later, the monk, Camnong Boa-Ubol, serves at a temple in California, where he says he interacts with children even as he faces a second claim, supported by DNA, that he impregnated a girl in the Chicago area.

Sriburin acknowledges that restoring order did not involve stopping Boa-Ubol from making the move to California. And it did not involve issuing a warning to the temple there. Wat Dhammaram didn't even tell its own board of directors what happened with the monk, he said.

"We have no authority to do anything. … He has his own choice to live anywhere," Sriburin said.

A Tribune review of sexual abuse cases involving several Theravada Buddhist temples found minimal accountability and lax oversight of monks accused of preying on vulnerable targets.

Because they answer to no outside ecclesiastical authority, the temples respond to allegations as they see fit. And because the monks are viewed as free agents, temples claim to have no way of controlling what they do next.

[marshmallow]

As always with this issue, there appears to be a most curious relationship between the degree of outrage and indignation evinced by those who pretend to "protect the children" and the creed/identity of the sex abuser.

Or is it simply my imagination?

[Travis McGee]

Must be an error. Everybody knows only Catholic priests behave like this.
/sarc

[92nina]

Ah hah, it's Theravada Buddhism at-work, had it been Mahayana Buddhism this never would've happened right?

Actually probably not, sexual abusers groom their victims and their enablers too. This is why religious authorities need to be grim, distant, and authoritative. The charismatic personalities' types like to bend the rules...to their advantage.

[golux]

This has gone too far. Religious people are preying on our children. Do you ever see a story about abuse in the state schools? No. It's time to get rid of these fanatics once and for all. There's a reason there's a separation of Church and State, and that is to remove the Church from the State. The time has come to send all of our kids to public schoo-

...oh wait. Did you say they weren't Christians or Jews? Never mind. Move along now, nothing to see here.

[Campion]

I demand the Pope do something about this immediately! /s

[Bigg Red]

Ain’t diversity grand?

[marshmallow]

Let's sue the Dalai Lama! Isn't he kinda like the Buddhist Pope?

What's Jeff Anderson's number?

[SeanG200]

Thank you very much for this link, I utilized it in a post: http://religiopoliticaltalk.com/2011/07/buddhist-monks-and-sex-abuse-you-will-only-hear-about-catholic-abuses/