The Child Molestation Scandal
I want to make this very clear. In no way do I condone the actions of any priests who molested boys; neither do I condone any bishop who was involved in any cover-up. What these priests did was a terrible crime and a mortal sin. But what I object to is the way the media and others are willing to condemn all priests, or the Catholic Church as a whole, for this terrible crime. Jesus Christ warned us that there will be “wolves in sheep’s clothing” among us. I once heard a saying that seems appropriate – we should not blame Peter for the sins of Judas.
And excellent article has been written by Michael Medved concerning this scandal. It can be found at http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=26955 . Medved is not a Catholic, or even a Christian. He is Jewish. So he is not in any way shilling for the Catholic Church. He is as objective as one could be on this issue. And here are some of his observations:
- The rate of pedophilia among priests is no higher than the rate of pedophilia among ministers and rabbis.
- The general population has a higher rate of pedophile tendencies then the rate among priests.
- Critics of the Catholic Church argue that that if the priests were allowed to marry then these priests would not have resorted to molesting children. But these priests had overwhelming molested boys, which means that these priests had a homosexual tendency. It is difficult to see how marrying a woman would have taken away a man’s proclivity toward boys.
Medved being the exception, the media elite displays its anti-Catholic bias by emphasizing this scandal in the Catholic Church and ignoring it in other places. A child is far more likely to be molested from a public school teacher than a priest (http://www.religioustolerance.org/clergy_sex8.htm), and yet many incidences of child molestations is ignored by the media . I am not saying that they should not report on this scandal in the Church. Without this exposure, the Church hierarchy would not have been aware of the problem and cleaned house. So I appreciate the coverage by the news media. However, by the media ONLY covering stories of molestation among priests, this is hiding from the people the reality that child molestation is not just a Catholic Church problem, but a problem in our culture in general.
Our culture is fast becoming a hedonistic culture. History
has shown that a civilization that falls to hedonism soon falls into extinction. You can see this hedonism in our movies, television, books,
magazines, music, and even in our billboards. We have become a sex-crazed society. All
forms of sex are gradually being permissible. The priests who fell into this
scandal are guilty of conforming to this age instead of be transformed by the
Word of God. If this has happened to our priests, who are called to be separate
from the world, imagine how prevalent this must be within our society as a
whole! This scandal is not just a Church
problem. It is a problem within our whole society.
An example of this is the wildly popular play called The Vagina Monologues, a politically-correct play about women’s liberation from men. This play has a scene of a 25-year-old woman seducing a 13-year-old girl to have sex with her by plying her with alcohol. This all accounts this is rape! And if it is disgusting (and it is disgusting!) for a priest to have sex with a 13-year-old boy, then it is also disgusting for a play to depict how wonderful it is for an adult woman to have sex with a 13-year-old girl. Originally, this play ended the scene by saying "... if it was rape, it was a good rape." This phrase was taken out of the play since the priestly molestation scandal (See http://www.canadiancrc.com/Newspaper_Articles/Vagina_Monologues_Rape_Scene_Fox_12FEB02.aspx.
This play was considered avant garde among the liberal elite, even among Catholic liberals. The Catholic Church has some bishops, priests, and nuns who listen more to the latest fashion of our society than the eternal truth in scripture, tradition, and the magisterium. For instance, the Catholic but very liberal Notre Dame has shown this play.
No wonder we have priests have that molested boys! They were following the morality of our modern culture. The problem was not that these priests were following the teachings of the Catholic Church. The problem these priests had was that they were sucked into the mentality of our modern age about “free love”.
Another example is Kevin Jennings, the Assistant Deputy Secretary of Drug-Free Schools in the Obama administration. In 1983, he said "[I]f the parents and friends of gays are truly friends of gays, they would know from their gay kids that the relationship with an older man is precisely what thirteen-, fourteen-, and fifteen-year-old kids need more than anything else in the world." (http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Obama-appointee-lauded-NAMBLA-figure-63115112.html). This was before the outbreak of the scandal. Back then, it was very liberal-minded to think this way. No one cared that he said it. It did not prevent him from moving up the ladder of politics and prestige. But now, with the scandal, our society sees a statement such as this as the disgusting statement that it is.
The Bible warns us not to be conformed to this world. This world is against God. The world will call good evil and evil good. The world will change its values from one era to another. The world will condemn you for embracing the values that the world had in a previous time. The priestly scandal is about worldly priests who took their eyes off of the unchanging God who is Truth and looked at the modernistic fashions of the world.
