Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

When Churches Become Scenes of Sexual Abuse: Why Does It Happen?
Townhall ^ | 08/16/2018 | Haley Halverson

Posted on 08/16/2018 9:46:36 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

This week a grand jury reported on documents from six Catholic Church dioceses in Pennsylvania that revealed 300 “predator priests” have been accused of sexually abusing over 1,000 children.

The grand jury report states: “We believe that the real number – of children whose records were lost, or who were afraid ever to come forward – is in the thousands. Most of the victims were boys; but there were girls too. Some were teens; many were prepubescent… But all of them were brushed aside, in every part of the state, by church leaders who preferred to protect the abusers and their institution above all.”

This report has sent shock waves through the world, akin to the 2002 Boston Globe report on a priest accused of molesting more than 80 boys who was shielded by the Catholic Church.

The grand jury rightly stated: “There have been other reports about child sex abuse within the Catholic Church. But never on this scale.”

The Catholic Church is not alone. Many churches and religious institutions have been accused of perpetuating sexual abuse, to various degrees.

In Evangelical Christian church circles, amidst the #MeToo movement, high-profile leaders have been accused of sexual assault. Leaders like Paige Patterson, the president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, was forced to retire after it was reported that he told a rape victim to forgive her attacker instead of calling the police.

Further, in 2017 an assistant pastor at Agape Bible Church in Thornton, Colo., got 13 years in prison for sexually assaulting a young girl repeatedly for 2 years. The police discovered that church leaders and the girl’s father decided to not contact the police and to simply handle the matter “internally.”

In the Mormon church, there have also been scandals, such as the recent case of Joseph L. Bishop, a retired president of the Provo Missionary Training Center, who admitted to molesting at least one female missionary. News reports state that the victim reported the incident to her local bishop, but that the local bishop ignored it because he “wasn’t going to risk sullying the reputation of someone based on that kind of a report.”

In 2017, six Mormon families tried to sue the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for allegedly covering up child sexual abuse by a church member of children as young as 4 and 6 years old. And another suit against the Mormon church claims “Native American children were sexually abused while enrolled in the church’s Indian Student Placement Program.”

There have been accusations of sexual abuse amongst Orthodox Jewish Rabbis, international Buddhist leaders, Muslim pilgrimages, and more.

The list could go on and on.

The hierarchical structures, theology, and policies vary wildly between these different institutions, and so likely will their collective responses and solutions. Each institution will handle allegations of abuse differently – but there can be no doubt that heightened media attention surrounding these issues is socially beneficial for putting churches of all faiths in the hot seat to update and enforce vigorous measures for effective, correct justice in light of abuse.

Many people are asking: why does sexual abuse happen in churches? The heartbreaking reality is wherever there are people – especially when some have greater power or authority than others or where an institution desires self-preservation – there is the possibility of sexual abuse. Sometimes the power differential is in the boardroom at work. Sometimes the institution seeking self-preservation is a Hollywood production company.

And sometimes, the scene of sexual abuse is the church.

If you are a member of a faith community, inquire with your church about the policies and procedures for reporting sexual harassment or abuse. Clarify if leaders are ever left alone with children, at what point after receiving a report the church would call the police, and talk to both fellow members and leadership about ways these policies and more could be improved. Consider asking them to adopt Keeping Children Safe’s international child protection standard, which has been adopted in more than 4,000 organizations worldwide. Ask the church to post this information publicly as well.

Let’s strive for churches to become places of reform, healing, and justice.

-- Haley Halverson (@HaleyCHalverson) is Vice President of Advocacy and Outreach at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.


TOPICS: Current Events; Moral Issues; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: catholicism; church; homosexualrape; priests; ruleonenopoofters; saints; sexabuse
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 141-146 next last

1 posted on 08/16/2018 9:46:36 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Because the Church was an obstacle, so it was targeted and infiltrated?


2 posted on 08/16/2018 9:48:06 AM PDT by Little Ray (Freedom Before Security!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
They let perverts ... homosexuals ... into positions of power. ANY organization that puts homosexuals in positions of power will see the same or similar problems.

Rule One: No Poofters!

3 posted on 08/16/2018 9:48:57 AM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Sex predators have always gravitated to places where they have unfettered access to their chosen prey.


4 posted on 08/16/2018 9:50:09 AM PDT by MrEdd (Caveat Emptor)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Little Ray

The Catholic Church is not alone. Many churches and religious institutions have been accused of perpetuating sexual abuse, to various degrees.


or because the church is worldly and won’t stand up for truth.


5 posted on 08/16/2018 9:51:10 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Uh, because some churches decided to enable homosexuality in the ranks of their leadership. I mean, duh, how hard is this?


6 posted on 08/16/2018 9:54:38 AM PDT by Antoninus ("In Washington, swamp drain you.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Little Ray

Yes, just as during the Cold War, the Church in Eastern Europe was infiltrated.


7 posted on 08/16/2018 9:55:03 AM PDT by miss marmelstein
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: PeterPrinciple
The Catholic Church is not alone. Many churches and religious institutions have been accused of perpetuating sexual abuse, to various degrees.

Show me the church that comes anywhere CLOSE to the catholic church in it's perversions and evil. There is not one.

8 posted on 08/16/2018 9:55:37 AM PDT by pgkdan (The Silent Majority STILL Stands With TRUMP! WWG1WGA)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

I don’t buy that these homosexual preists molest boys ceause they cannot marry a wife.

Maybe if they want to try to make the case that other men might be attracted to the priesthood if they could bring their wife with them, they’d only need to look at protestant churches where it also goes on even without the celibacy requirement.


9 posted on 08/16/2018 9:55:53 AM PDT by a fool in paradise
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PeterPrinciple

The way I see it, we have two things going on.

1. The Church is being deliberately targeted, infiltrated, and subverted by homosexuals and the Left and has been for decades.

2. Pedos go where the kids are and where they can have authority over them - daycare, schools (funny how we get level of publicity when it happens in schools...), and churches.


10 posted on 08/16/2018 9:56:58 AM PDT by Little Ray (Freedom Before Security!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Little Ray

The way I see it, we have two things going on.


And add the church isn’t standing up for truth. It can’t give what it doesn’t have...……………………...


11 posted on 08/16/2018 9:59:08 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Antoninus

The reason this is hard, is because of political correctness.

Few want to say out loud, that there is a problem with homosexual priests.

So this issue is talked of as child abuse or sexual abuse in general terms, without specifically saying who the most likely victims are. Because the media and the church don’t want to draw attention to misbehaving homosexuals.


12 posted on 08/16/2018 9:59:20 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: pgkdan

Show me the church that comes anywhere CLOSE to the catholic church in it’s perversions and evil. There is not one.


Oh come on now. The RC doesn’t have a lock on this stuff. So we have less? That makes it better?


13 posted on 08/16/2018 10:00:43 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Sodomites. The church didn’t read their own Bible when they let them join.


14 posted on 08/16/2018 10:01:06 AM PDT by Telepathic Intruder
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
I believe Pope John Paul II was warned of this during a frightening encounter in St. Peter's Square, after the time of the Mehmet Ali Ağca assassination attempt. I remember the story when it came out, back in the 1980s. I can't find it via Google, perhaps it has been expunged from the internet.

Soon after the incident, the first stories of child abuse by priests began to emerge in Boston and elsewhere.

15 posted on 08/16/2018 10:02:13 AM PDT by Steely Tom ([Seth Rich] == [the Democrat's John Dean])
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Homosexual men do not all want to trick, groom, and abuse young boys. Priests do not all want to trick, groom, and molest young boys, either.

Men who want to have sex with young boys learn (probably from Pedo groups) that priests have great opportunities and so they go in that direction.

All Pedophilia is sick. But using your authority as a Person Closer to Gd on children is far worse than anything except the parental authority. I was molested by a school authority and that was pretty wrong. But from a clergy it is even worse.


16 posted on 08/16/2018 10:03:00 AM PDT by Yaelle
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Why?
Are you KIDDING??
Because SATAN and Homosexuals have taken over the church.

That’s why.
The ‘opposition’ is now in charge.


17 posted on 08/16/2018 10:04:24 AM PDT by Flintlock (The ballot box STOLEN, our soapbox taken away--the BULLET BOX is left to us.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

The Catholic Church (and nearly all Christian Churches) has gone soft on adultery, homosexuality and sexual sin. Raising the topic, even for the Pope, means you are “judgmental,” cold-hearted, or uncharitable. it turns off people in our post-modern, hedonistic age.

Yet without an extremely clear, almost reactionary response against such sin and top-to-bottom Church recognition of it - the sin, in all forms, will automatically seep into the Church, its followers, and its leaders. Put bluntly, the Church needs to stand up boldly and confront society -but it doesn’t have the “balls” to do so.

Thus, this contradiction and dissonance will continue to cripple, enfeeble, and continue to weaken the Church. I confess with what I see today, I am a little worried about Matthew 16:18


18 posted on 08/16/2018 10:05:35 AM PDT by PGR88
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Dilbert San Diego
Few want to say out loud, that there is a problem with homosexual priests.

The problem is not really with the priests but with homosexuals and their enablers in the episcopacy and the chancery offices. Those vermin have to be smoked out first and strong men installed who can weed out the homo priests. The solution is obvious, but I don't believe we have the human leadership in Rome these days to pull it off. Divine intervention is required--and expected, frankly.
19 posted on 08/16/2018 10:11:06 AM PDT by Antoninus ("In Washington, swamp drain you.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Has His Popeness bothered to weigh in on this yet?


20 posted on 08/16/2018 10:11:40 AM PDT by ScottinVA (Liberals, piss off. That is all.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 141-146 next last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson