Tuesday, April 20, 2010

1.7 Percent Versus 10 Percent

From the Daily Monitor:
"Child sex abuse is a sad social evil not limited to the Catholic Church. Sam Miller gives us some statistics: while 1.7 per cent of Catholic priests have been guilty of paedophile, 10 per cent of Protestant clergy has been found guilty of the same crime. 12 per cent of 300 Protestant clergy surveyed admitted to sexual relations with a parishioner, 38 per cent accepted to have had inappropriate sexual contact, 41.8 per cent of women clergy reported unwanted sexual behaviour, 17 per cent of lay women have been sexually harassed (study by United Methodist Church, USA)"

While all cases of sexual abuse are evil and wrong, why have other Churches with higher percentages of sexual abuse not been targeted by our media? Could it be that other Churches include an agenda of acceptance of homosexuality? Or women priests?  Do these other Churches stand up on the side of moral moral absolutes or on the side of moral relativism? Is it because the Catholic Church shines a light and is a threat to the dark side of this secularist society?

"It is not appropriate to call all Catholic priests names. In the United States, the Catholic Church still educates 2.6 million students daily. It still runs 230 colleges with a total of 700,000 students in the US alone. It runs 637 hospitals and is next only to the federal government in the provision of social services. With 64 million members in the US, plus a two per cent increase in the last two years, the Catholic Church is the largest single church in the United States. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops has mechanisms in place to guard against the sex abuse of minors by any adult working for the church in parishes, schools, hospitals, orphanages and so on. The mechanisms are working because there are no fresh reports of abuse of minors. So, do not be afraid."

I agree!!!

7 comments:

Kid said...

I wonder how many 'Foster Parents' are guilty of pedophilia.

According to what I've heard over the years, an unbelievable number.

And the government pays these people to do it.

Teresa said...

The Kid,
I am pretty sure the numbers are unbelievable. Well, the government and moral aren't exactly synonymous these days.

Ray said...

I second that "agree" T! They're all over the Catholic church like "stink on Obama", unrelenting. Yet somehow all the momosexual child predators get the kid glove "they can be cured" lib treatment too.

Teresa said...

Ray,
I am so sick of all the excuses being made for homosexuals evil acts of abuse. There is no cure.

Ray said...

I am frankly sick of the cancer as well as we can see what the effects of the normalization of this behavior glorified in the media has done. That kid from American Idol is the result of all this indoctrination, where the line between men and women has been so blurred you can't tell anymore. That kiss made me sick.

Rob Pollock said...

Teresa

The Numbers...
Mr. Miller's statement, "10% of the Protestant ministers have been found guilty of pedophilia" has no basis in fact! It was refuted by the named source in 2002 and remains refuted today.

The story...
In his original 2003 speech Mr. Miller cites a July/August 2002 Sojourners article by Rose Marie Berger in which she misinterprets statements from Penn. State Prof. Philip Jenkins regarding sexual abuse by Protestant ministers.

In the original article Berger writes...
"Philip Jenkins concludes in his book "Pedophiles and Priests" that while 1.7 percent of Catholic clergy have been found guilty of pedophilia (specifically of boys), 10 percent of Protestant ministers have been found guilty of pedophilia." (This quote is used in Miller's speech)

To which Philip Jenkins responds (Sept/Oct 2002)...
"I regret to say that the statement is baloney. I never said it, and it's not true!... Every time this ten percent statement appears attributed to me, I try to debunk it, but these things have a life of their own. I have no idea what the actual proportion of pedophile protestant clergy is, but I would be amazed if it was more than a fraction of one percent."

The Details...
Sojourner Article... http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj0207&article=020741d

Sojourners apologized to its readers for passing on erroneous information and revised the article, removing the incorrect and defamatory information. But not before Sam Miller got a hold of it!

Be proud that you are Catholic. But bear not false witness against your neighbors and friends!
Check your facts!

Peace and blessings...
Rev. Rob Pollock
Vancouver, BC
CANADA

Teresa said...

Rev. Rob,
Thank you for passing along this information and informing me of the false representations made by Sam Miller. I will check more into this.

But, I do agree with the main point of this article that the abuse problem is not only a Catholic issue. This type of sexual misconduct happens in all religions.


God Bless!