Child abuse: do Protestant clergy not do it?

Rebelheart

Amid the latest news from Germany and the United States, I'm wondering why similar stories are not emerging about the Protestant clergy.

Is it that they don't engage in it (to the same extent?), or is it that their respective societies aren't washing their linen in public?

brianthebard

They have wives.

Hagar

Celibacy. Catholic priest may not marry, other religions allow their ministers to marry.

Other than survival, procreation is our most basic instinct, suppress it at your peril.

bonerm

brianthebard wrote: »

They have wives.

weird

baalthor

There was the Kincora Boys Home scandal in the 70s or 80s. Can't remember if clergy were involved, must look it up ...

cafecolour

I'm sure they do engage in it (to some extent) but they are, for the most part, not controlled by a highly centralized bureaucracy that was habitually covering for the perps - that is more the controversy than anything. Most protestant churches are - to some degree - far more standalone.

I remember reading that the hasidic jews in new york are now increasingly going to police about abuse cases when they had previously gone to their leaders, but were increasingly feeling like it was being swept under the rug.

I think the insularness that is a large part of the problem.

cafecolour

I'd also add that the insular nature of the catholic church means this may have - to a degree - been going on for possibly centuries. IE I would not be surprised if offending priests had been molested as altar boys or such themselves, "learning" the behavior and to some degree viewing it as an accepted but unspoken thing within the church.

dcmu

brianthebard wrote: »

They have wives.

Do their wives look like ten year old boys?

owenc

dcmu wrote: »

Do their wives look like ten year old boys?

no they look like normal people

Hank_Jones

The fact is that not letting Catholic priests have sex leads to all this child abuse.


Catholic religion = bad

owenc

Hank_Jones wrote: »

The fact is that not letting Catholic priests have sex leads to all this child abuse.


Catholic religion = bad

i agree are they ever going to change those rules even the most religious people would agree with that like my mothers side are really religious and all that and they would even agree that this should be done..

me_right_one

Yes, child abuse is culturally endemic to the Catholic Clergy

Hank_Jones wrote: »

The fact is that not letting Catholic priests have sex leads to all this child abuse.

Wrong Wrong WRONG!!!

Its nothing to do with supressing your sexual urges, couldn't you just hire a prostitute in some town where you're not known? Anyway, the highest proportion of paedophiles are actually married, and abuse their own children. Its just that paedofiles target positions of trust where they think they can get cover for their actions, hence why some of them targeted the church. There are paedofile teachers, doctors, swimming coaches etc. of all religions out there!

Its just that Catholicism is the biggest religon in the world, hence the (seemingly) higher proportion.

Victor

brianthebard wrote: »

They have wives.

That just makes it harder to expose them. There are many abusers in families also.

eth0_

brianthebard wrote: »

They have wives.

What a stupid response. Do you think paedophiles are cured when they get married?

OP - i'm sure there are instances of abuse within protestant churches but it's rare. The reason we have a paedophile problem that's almost unique to the Irish Catholic church in particular is because for a very long time, if your son was "a bit strange" the automatic response was to send him off to the seminary - sometimes from a very young age, around 14 or so - so the Holy Spirit ( :rolleyes: ) could sort him out. Add to this the fact it was very prestigious to be a priest back in the glory days of Catholic Ireland so a lot of young men entered the priesthood because it was just the path the were expected to follow, and a lack of psychological testing during their training, and you've pretty much got a catch-all for potential paedophiles.

Dancor

brianthebard wrote: »

They have wives.

Im sure alot of peados and rapists are married.

If the urge is there they will most likely act on it regardless if they get reguler sex or not.

Intothesea

Hank_Jones wrote: »

The fact is that not letting Catholic priests have sex leads to all this child abuse.

I think that mandatory celibacy is an excellent beacon for the only people not interested in an average home-life or lifestyle: perverts, twisted power trippers and the terminally emotionally-stunted. The guys closest to the congregation seem to have fit this bill anyway.

Cianos

I'd be almost certain that abuse has been going on for as long as the church has existed. Probably way more than what is happening nowadays. It's only now that society is more liberal and open to talking about sex that the victims even have a chance to go public.

The perception is "Today the Catholic church is corrupt and full of child abusers", because we are only hearing about it now, so it's mistakingly presumed that it was not going on before.

I think a lot of people still have a romantic view of what the church was, and they hope it can be like that again. Their view is blinkered from the fact that it's not that the frequency of abuse has increased nowadays, it's just been given a chance to see the light of day. The church has always been corrupt - just like any system that has human involvement.

Black Swan

"The three companies that insure the majority of Protestant churches in America say they typically receive upward of 260 reports each year of young people under 18 being sexually abused by clergy, church staff, volunteers or congregation members."

Source: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=275x5312

brianthebard wrote: »

They have wives.

"In the United States, about 50% of men arrested for pedophilia are married."

Source: http://www.minddisorders.com/Ob-Ps/Pedophilia.html

Hank_Jones wrote: »

The fact is that not letting Catholic priests have sex leads to all this child abuse.

"The onset of pedophilia usually occurs during adolescence. Occasional pedophiles begin their activities during middle age but this late onset is uncommon."

Adolescent priests? :rolleyes:

Source: http://www.minddisorders.com/Ob-Ps/Pedophilia.html

Dan I Am

It's all about easy access to children. In Ireland, the Catholic Church was an obvious route. Somewhere like the UK, pedophiles where attracted to jobs in state run childrens homes, or if they were posh, as teachers in private schools.

brianthebard

eth0_ wrote: »

What a stupid response.

*checks forum*
Yep, its still Ah, and I'm still entitled to make a stupid response if I like.

mike65

Its not a well balanced life really is it? Packed off to a seminary as a child to spend all hours with other boys some of whom are already "corrupted" and older men who hold all the power.

If the various Protestant churches have far fewer reported incidences (esp in this day and age) its probably because there are far fewer crimes to report.

Its just that Catholicism is the biggest religon in the world, hence the (seemingly) higher proportion.

Estimates Catholicism - 1.2 billion
Protestantism - 670 million

So you'd expect about half the number of claims in Protestant churches if doing a crude per capita translation.

orourkeda

brianthebard wrote: »

They have wives.

They abuse them instead

RMD

1. They have wives.

2. I don't think they had absolute control of the public within the last 60 years or so like the Catholic church had.

Ri_Nollaig

There is of course abuse in other religion and probably any role that allows a pedophilia to exploit their position of power, i.e. club scouts to parents...
I doubt it has anything to do with them been married or not.
But the massive difference is they don't have a huge hierarchy behind them that preferred to ignore the problem and hide it from the public above all else.

Rebelheart

dcmu wrote: »

Do their wives look like ten year old boys?

That is, in fairness, a very good point. I may be wrong but I find it hard to believe that if a heterosexual man cannot have a wife, he suddenly becomes interested in children (as if he's allowed to have them!).

Does anybody have proof for such a change? (clearly many people here do think celibacy is the problem so ...)

mike65

Are paedophiles born or made?

orourkeda

Rebelheart wrote: »

That is, in fairness, a very good point. I may be wrong but I find it hard to believe that if a heterosexual man cannot have a wife, he suddenly becomes interested in children (as if he's allowed to have them!).

Does anybody have proof for such a change? (clearly many people here do think celibacy is the problem so ...)

Then there are a lot of non priests who do not have celibacy forced upon who arent exactly worn out by the amount of sex they're getting. This doesnt necessarily make them child abusers

Rebelheart

Hank_Jones wrote: »

The fact is that not letting Catholic priests have sex leads to all this child abuse.


Catholic religion = bad

While I totally agree with you that it is ridiculous that priests cannot marry and have children, the above thinking is illogical. It is at least just as forbidden for them to abuse children as it is for them to have an affair. So, surely *if* they were the marrying heterosexual type they would choose the affair?

Xluna

brianthebard wrote: »

They have wives.

So you're saying if a man can't shag a woman he'll resort to raping children? If that's true then the entire male population should be forced to have sex changes and the human species should just die out.

Xluna

cafecolour wrote: »

I'd also add that the insular nature of the catholic church means this may have - to a degree - been going on for possibly centuries. IE I would not be surprised if offending priests had been molested as altar boys or such themselves, "learning" the behavior and to some degree viewing it as an accepted but unspoken thing within the church.

Latest evidence suggests that paedophiles were molested as kids is a myth.

getz

Blue_Lagoon wrote: »

"The three companies that insure the majority of Protestant churches in America say they typically receive upward of 260 reports each year of young people under 18 being sexually abused by clergy, church staff, volunteers or congregation members."

Source: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=275x5312


"In the United States, about 50% of men arrested for pedophilia are married."

Source: http://www.minddisorders.com/Ob-Ps/Pedophilia.html


"The onset of pedophilia usually occurs during adolescence. Occasional pedophiles begin their activities during middle age but this late onset is uncommon."

Adolescent priests? :rolleyes:

Source: http://www.minddisorders.com/Ob-Ps/Pedophilia.html

that is one of those misleading quote,its like saying more sober men driving cars have accidents than drunken drivers