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"This "little light" shines for the many clergy abuse victims whose voices have been silenced. Silenced by shame. Silenced by the false instruction of religious leaders. Silenced by church shunning and bullying. Silenced by church contracts for secrecy. Silenced by suicide. The mission of StopBaptistPredators.org is to break the silence of Baptist clergy sex abuse."
While I think it's sad when Christian leaders abuse their authority by abusing children, we must remember that many abusers are not affiliated with any religion.
It's not so much the religion that screws people up, but how they themselves, interpret it & other things in a twisted way.
"This "little light" shines for the many clergy abuse victims whose voices have been silenced. Silenced by shame. Silenced by the false instruction of religious leaders. Silenced by church shunning and bullying. Silenced by church contracts for secrecy. Silenced by suicide. The mission of StopBaptistPredators.org is to break the silence of Baptist clergy sex abuse."
Why don't you change the title of your post to read, "Child Molesting Baptist Ministers"? Because the article in question deals with the shortcomings of policy and enforcement within the Southern Baptist Convention.
Not trying to slight your concerns, because it's an outrage even if one child is violated in this way. But most denominations have rather stringent guidelines for qualifying people for the ministry, along with ongoing education, updates, and enforcement. For example, the discernment process for becoming a priest in the Episcopal Church is the equivalent of crawling through mine fields and razor wire, with no less than seven different psychiatric evaluations before you ever become a deacon. What's more, there is ongoing evaluation and education to ensure that such outrages never happens.
Sure, someone occasionally goes off the rails in some way or another. But that's because clergy are human just like the rest of us. What matters then is how a denomination takes precautions against such awful acts happening in the first place and acting swiftly in the rare event that they actually do. Of course, none of this will affect your opinion in the least, because you're more interested in taking the particular and using it to make a general statement.
Sure, someone occasionally goes off the rails in some way or another. But that's because clergy are human just like the rest of us.
Except that almost all of christian clergy I've known actually believe (unlike the rest of us) that they're morally and/or spiritually superior. And I don't like it.
Except that almost all of christian clergy I've known actually believe (unlike the rest of us) that they're morally and/or spiritually superior. And I don't like it.
Let's examine that statement a little. What clergy has actually said such a thing?
Actually, the clergy I've known throughout life think no such thing. In fact, most of the clergy I've ever encountered in life are quite aware of their own fallibility, and go great lengths to discuss that subject.
The self-righteous, pious ones who tried to tell me how to conduct my life.
Oh. So that small group of clergy who you personally interacted with represents the entirety of clergy everywhere, in denominations everywhere? So if you met, say, a couple of Latinos who befriended you and then stole your car, then all Latinos are car thieves, right? Or if you knew a couple of Asian kids in high school who were good at chess and played the violin, then all Asians are good at chess and play the violin, right? Awfully sloppy thinking on your part.
Here are some facts, drawn from personal experience.
When I was a kid, growing up in the Fundy Baptist Church against my will place, our pastor ("the preacher") as he was called, had a teenage daughter who up and ran away one day. Disappeared for little over a year, then came back and was not welcomed back home by her pastoral father. In fact, arrangements were made for her to move far away to a private home/school/convent/whatever....
Well, my best friend had an older sister who was a friend of her's in high school. She left home because her father, the preacher, was molesting her. She told a few people. That is why they sent her away. Somehting else, no one is sure what, happened though because she was seen in town on week, and the next week her daddy, the preacher, came in and abruptly announced his resignation as pastor of the church. He told everyone he had been called by Jesus to become a missionary and that next week would be his last week.
He disappeared after that and no one saw or heard from him again. I wonder to this day where else he was sleeping besides the parsonage.
And I wonder how. He was actually a very negative, hateful person who thought he was better than everyone else and would not give anyone the time of day.
When I was in my first marriage and we were both in grad school, my wife was taking a psych degree and had to Co-moderate a support group for victims of incest. Thes ladies were college aged, but had ben victimized as children.
70% of the women in the group had been incest victims by family members (Uncles, grandfathers, fathers,) who were clergy. 30% were by family members who were NOT Clergy. According to some statistics, that is pretty common. BUT That would mean that 70% of all incest perps are clergymen.?! Could be, as incest is an act against relatives, whereas a pedophilic priest may prey on any young boy at random. Perhaps that holds as one of the "Family Secrets" we hear pastors talking about so often.....
Consider the news accounts of numerous TV Evangelists, MegaChruch pastors and even run of the mill neighborhood preachers who are discovered not only in an affair with someone underage, but with prostitutes, married members of the congregation, even other GUYS ! Now if buying prostitutes and sleeping with men is what you are into, then ok I guess. I am not, but if I were, I don't think I would want to get a paying job with some brand of religion that does not condone such activity.
If anybody does anything nasty to a child, they're not christians because true christians don't do that stuff, catch mah drift?
It's like if I went to an Elvis impersonators contest in my sequinned suit and a sideburns wig pretending to be an Elvis fan, then launched into a Barry Manilow number, i'd soon be slung out on my butt, right Elv?
"Uh-huh"..
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