South African cardinal suggests child abuse is illness not crime

by besty 40 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse

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  Lady Lee

  sulla

  Really, one ought to call the cops in cases of sexual abuse? Who had any idea of such a thing?

  53 years ago I was sexually abused by my father. When a family doctor discovered he had given me an STD he knew exactly what to do - report hoimo the police.

  This doctor wasn't a genius. He had no special awareness about the issues of sexual abuse. No one was even talking about it back then. But he knew enough to know a crime had been committed against my 10-11 yr old body.

  Sulla. designs and many others like myself could care less what brand of religion it is. If nothing else religion should be at the forefront in taking the lead in protecting those that Jesus said "Let them come to me". He also counseled his followers to care for the widows and orphans. He knew children needed speacial attention and their needs should not be ignored. Christ I suspect knew exactly what to do to those who hurt children. In fact the apoostles gave plenty of counsel that those taking the lead needed to be men above reproach.

  Do I really need to go on?
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  sooner7nc

  If nothing else religion should be at the forefront in taking the lead in protecting those that Jesus said "Let them come to me"

  Absolutely right Lady Lee and it shouldn't take them 2000 years to start.
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  unstopableravens

  the trash in the rcc almost makes the wt look half way good!
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  Lady Lee

  The rcc hasn't done anything different than the jws have done. Anyone who knows of abuse and doesn't report it to the authorities either legal or social is complicit in the crime and is even more responsible when another child gets abused or the abuse continues. They all need to be held accountable and put in places where they no longer have any access to children - including their own
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  designs

  LL- There is a 1999 UK study on personality traits of Priests, three personality traits stood out: psychoticism, introversion, neuroticism. The influence and intrusion of religion into peoples personal lives is something we know a fair amount about. I remember the early 70s when the GB made intrusions into couples lives and the marriages that fell apart after that. The RCC has its own unique teachings and beliefs and ideas it has handed down for centuries (The Council of Elvira, 305AD) that affect its people.
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  Lady Lee

  designs Like I said it isn't unique to the RCC or the JWs. I suspect that study could have come to the same conclusions about most groups where there exists a heirarchy, most often based in a male-dominated power structure. Not male-bashing just stating a point. Most religious texts are founded on a male oriented power structure. And those at the bottom of the structure are almost always women and children. This leaves a lot of room for the people with the power, any power, to abuse those at the bottom.

  Quite a few years ago when I was in college and talking about sexual abuse all the time a classmatefrom the Middle East (I forget the specific country but it was Muslim) came up to me and said that in her counrty there was no sexual abuse. So I stood in front of ther for a few seconds and then asked, "So you mena there are no situations where an adult touches a child in a sexual manner, or rapes a child?" Her response was interesting. "Oh yes that happens all the time." I had to talk a few minutes because it turns out that in her language there is no term for the act. I had to explain what the term meant. Then she said almost every girl she knew as a child had it happen to her.

  So its not just Christian religions or any other group. It is the imbalance of power with no accountability.
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  designs

  LL- Good observation and experience.

  Sometimes we look in the face of crazy and for whatever reason don't quite get the import. Regarding power-structures I remember seeing and hearing Fred Franz live twice, once at Dodger Stadium 1969, and then again in Los Angeles 1974, he seemed off his rocker in both settings- didn't get it fully at the time and wasted another 3 decades being mentally abused by that Leadership.

  Maybe with all of these collective experiences we can shorten peoples time trapped in these abusive religions.
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  Band on the Run

  The issue of conforming behavior to societal norms goes to the core of criminal law. The bishops are asking for tolerance for their actions of 20 to 30 years ago when experts believed pedophile was treatable.

  Many years ago I investigated inmates complaints. All were mentally ill..

  Ifeel it is both illness and heinous crime. There are preventive measures available

  f
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  TD

  "From my experience, pedophilia is actually an illness. It's not a criminal condition, it's an illness,"

  He's an Idiot.

  The sexual element does not reduce the criminality of the act. Plenty of paraphilias are crimes when acted out. A few examples include: Erotophonophilia, some forms of Exhibitionism, Kleptophilia, and Piquerism in some contexts. There are many others too bizarre to even explain on this forum.
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  Lady Lee

  Band

  The bishops are asking for tolerance for their actions of 20 to 30 years ago when experts believed pedophile was treatable

  Nope. The research, studies and books about the sexual abuse of children started coming out in the late 70s. By the early 80s they knew these guys couldn't be "cured". Various programs tried a variety of approaches.

  They and I include JWs in this, have had the problem for decades and have been unwilling to deal with it properly. Perhaps if the JWs had dealkt wiuth my 13-yr old aunt's abuse she would not have committed suicide. Perhaps if they had dealt with my abuse properlyI would not have lost my family for 3 years. Perhaps if they had protected both my aunt and I who were living in the same house and being abused by the same person that was never reported to the police, maybe my sister would not have made several attempts on her life until she finally succceeded. And maybe I would have not suffered from depression and suicidal thoughts for decades before I left the JWs and got help.

  I hold the abuser fuly responsible for his abuses. But the WTS and its policies to sweep everything under the carpet so they could pretend this problem didn't happen in their congregation or religion makes them partly responsible for allowing this man to go free again and again and again. What really gets me is that the abuser, my satep-father in this case, wasn't even a baptized JW at the time. He was only studying and going to meetings.

  So here I have a doctor who is not a JW who realizes a kid is being abuesd and something has to be done to protect her.

  And you have the JWs who 3 times had a chance to do the right thing and refused again and again and again.

  If the doctor knew what to do or even common decency knows what to do you can bet the WTS knew but preferred to ignore it as did many other churches.