A couple of days ago I wrote a post concerning a recent Vatican response to criticism over the sexual abuse scandals. Dan Collins, from Piece of Work in Progress (POWIP), a blog I like and read, came by and provided a couple of links pointing out that sexual abuse of children is also a problem with rabbis, and in the public school system. Today on POWIP there is a post called, "Those Damn Catholics and Their Pedophile Priests!" which makes essentially the same point -- that sexual abuse of children isn't exactly confined to the Catholic Church.
as it turns out, at least statistically-speaking, the numbers of abuse cases reported among the Protestant churches in the US are — wait for it — actually higherThe basic argument is that the Catholic Church is being unfairly singled out. I find this type of defense extremely weak and based on false analogies.
Protestant churches, Jewish rabbis, and the public school system are not comparable organizations to the Catholic Church. There are numerous Protestant churches, most of which are independent entities, as are synagogues. The U.S. public school system is divided among 50 states, each with their own separate authorities. In contrast, the Catholic Church is a hierarchical organization. The Pope and the rest of the Vatican leadership claim authority over the entire priesthood. The Pope rules on doctrine, and on the fundamental practices of the church. He's the Vicar of Christ on Earth, the ultimate authority. The church may be a huge organization, with many local branches throughout the world, but it is still one Catholic Church, and there is only one pope, one Vatican, and one center of authority.
There is no one who can set procedures for how Protestant churches respond to sexual abuse. It depends on what church you are talking about. There is no one who decides how individual rabbis are disciplined for abuse. The state authorities here in New Jersey have no control over measures taken against public school sex abuse problems in neighboring Pennsylvania. The reason the Catholic Church can be singled out for criticism, is precisely because it is a single organization with a clear chain of command. And the evidence suggests that the Catholic chain of command has failed miserably on this issue.
Suppose there was a giant multinational corporation called X Industries. Despite its size it is family-owned, and the CEO has near dictatorial powers over company operations. His word is law for X Industries. X Industries is involved in a huge scandal in which company managers are embezzling funds from customers. Not only does X not fire the offenders, it conceals their actions from legal authorities and simply transfers them to new positions, where some re-offend. This goes on for decades. When the scandal finally breaks, X Industries defenders claim that criticism of the company and its CEO are based on smears, and bias against X Industries. After all, they point out, other people embezzle money all the time. Rates of embezzlement are even higher in some economic areas. Is anyone buying this argument? I'm not.
ACORN may decentralize itself into a hundred organizations. If they perform similar abuses, that's not a plus.
ReplyDeleteAll I am saying is, if you really seek to end sexual abuse of children, you need to do so globally, rather than to concentrate on a convenient scapegoat and to punish it. That is the idea, right?
Look. Here's a group that oversees certification for public school teachers nationwide: http://www.nea.org/ Even going beyond the idea that the principal qualification for a teacher ought to be a degree in "Education", rather than demonstrable expertise in a subject, don't you think that, since they represent teaching as a profession, they ought to hold themselves to the standards of a profession?
ReplyDeleteHow does focusing on the particular issues involving the Catholic Church imply a lack of interest in other sex abuse scandals?
ReplyDeleteUsing the analogy I employed in the post, if a particular large corporation had an extensive abuse scandal -- and was defensive in its responses -- don't you think the press would be all over it?
The Catholic Church is a well-defined, coherent entity. That obviously makes it an easier target than groups where responsibility is harder to establish. But that doesn't mean criticism of the church is somehow unfair.
Look how the line your are taking would affect other types of criticsm. If I write about the repressive Iranian regime, does that mean I need to also mention every other repressive state on Earth? By focusing an article on Iran, does that mean I'm biased against the country and treating it as a scapegoat?
Neither Dan nor I have suggested in any way or manner that the priests who are guilty ought to pay with their careers. likewise, they ought to go to jail, depending on the statute of limitations in the jurisdiction of the violation. The title of your piece is why single out the Catholic Church. And you have failed to provide a reason for doing so. To Dan's point, ALL should be held to the same standard. So, we would expect to see a similar volume of articles and blogs and celebs going on about Protestant abuses, Public School Teacher cases of abuse (by far and away more numerous) and so on and so forth. But we do not. Again, it is no vindication or excuse for the scumbags in the Church who have victimized those souls in their care - however, it does beg some questions. Beginning with, why don't you cover abuses in other institutions? Or are you solely interested, for some reason, in the Church? Axe to grind much? I'm just askin'.
ReplyDelete"The title of your piece is why single out the Catholic Church. And you have failed to provide a reason for doing so."
ReplyDeleteReally? Did you read the post? I thought I made it pretty clear why I thought the church has been singled out.
"To Dan's point, ALL should be held to the same standard. So, we would expect to see a similar volume of articles and blogs and celebs going on about Protestant abuses, Public School Teacher cases of abuse (by far and away more numerous) and so on and so forth"
I also addressed that in the post.
"Beginning with, why don't you cover abuses in other institutions?"
Again, this is a pointless and illogical line of argument. I can't write about the church without covering every single other institution that might have similar problems? As I wrote above in response to Dan
"If I write about the repressive Iranian regime, does that mean I need to also mention every other repressive state on Earth? By focusing an article on Iran, does that mean I'm biased against the country and treating it as a scapegoat?"
" Or are you solely interested, for some reason, in the Church? Axe to grind much? I'm just askin'."
The reason I wrote about the church in the previous post -- the one on the Vatican response -- was because of the way the Vatican chose to demonize critics. This post was about why the church has been singled out on this issue.
so your point is that because there is no one to pin the tail on in other denominations, the Church is worthy of special treatment?
ReplyDeleteI re-read your piece and must be too daft to understand what you are arguing - other than the Church is especially worthy of attention because it is universal and hierarchical.
No one is attempting to deflect blame. At least not that I have seen. You seem to insist this is the case - when it is not. My question remains - why single out the Catholic Church. You may have answered the question to your own satisfaction - but to this reader you have offered no such explanation whatever.
Well first you are confounding two issues: The prevalence of sexual abuse, and the institutional response to it.
ReplyDeleteIn the former case your argument is weak; in the latter case, your argument holds but less than you think. As a practical matter the Catholic Church is some what less formally organized than you think, the Protestant detonations more so, and the teaching profession is in fact broadly regulated by law, society and professions codes of conduct, and at the national, regions, state, county and municipal. Besides that, society at large is broadly governed by both laws and convention. To maintain otherwise is to assert that sexual abuse is condoned out side of the church, which is of course absurd.
What you seem to be missing here is that this assault on the Church is an orchestrated attack byt the establishment Left at one of their primary enemies. Often these attackers promulgate in wholly other forums promulgate the worst sort of libertinism and self-indulgent immorality.
That these complains are orchestrated on Easter, and the nature of the attackers should tell you all you need to know.
So the response does in fact stand: Why the Church? The answer is that is this is an Alanski type attack by the left.
Were the attackers concerned with the fate of the young rather than smearing the church, they would of course acknowledge that indeed, statically a child would sat a greater chance of encounter abuse in the Public school system, and ask why are these fact being glossed over as well.
Yet they do not. Why? That is just the point.
You anti-religious bigotry shines through your hypocrisy n the matter. It is clearly underlined by this sort of sophistic parsing of the matter.
You say you are on the right, but you aid your enemy. You claim incredulity as a virtue, yet you seem to use it as a vice and and a rationale for prejudice.
"so your point is that because there is no one to pin the tail on in other denominations, the Church is worthy of special treatment"
ReplyDeleteSort of. The church is a single institution with a clear line of responsibility. I reject the comparison to other denominations because there is no valid comparison. Where is the Protestant organization with similar problems, and a clear leadership that can be held responsible? A valid comparison in my view would be the Russian Orthodox Church, another hierarchical organization. I'm not aware that they have a simliar sexual abuse problem -- although they might.
"No one is attempting to deflect blame. At least not that I have seen. You seem to insist this is the case - when it is not."
I'm not accusing you of deflecting blame.
"but to this reader you have offered no such explanation whatever."
I have, but I guess you don't understand what I'm saying. I'm not sure why it is difficult to understand that the Catholic church is a specific organization that is not comparable to a nebulous collections of Protestant churches, synagogues, or public school systems.
Anonymous,
ReplyDelete"Well first you are confounding two issues: The prevalence of sexual abuse, and the institutional response to it."
No, I am not. Not even a little bit.
"in the latter case, your argument holds but less than you think"
That's an argument of degree, which, although it has some merit, does not invalidate the main point that I made, which is that the Catholic Church is a specific organization, similar to a multinational corporation.
"What you seem to be missing here is that this assault on the Church is an orchestrated attack byt the establishment Left at one of their primary enemies."
Nonsense. I have little time for conspiracy theories. The attack on the church comes because of the church's own actions: its ineffective, defensive response, and its counterattack on critics. The ludicrous comparison of valid criticism to anti-Semitism is what provoked the latest round of attacks.
"Were the attackers concerned with the fate of the young rather than smearing the church"
Oh please. Now you claim to know the thoughts of everyone who criticizes the church. You are assuming bad motives, a typical reaction of those who can't acknowledge an honest difference of opinion.
"You anti-religious bigotry shines through your hypocrisy n the matter"
I'm not fond of religion, but I'm not an anti-religious bigot either. And there is not the slightest hypocrisy in anything I wrote. Do you even know what the word means? If all you have are conspiracy theories and ad hominem attacks, take them elsewhere.
"You say you are on the right, but you aid your enemy"
I'm on the right because of many of my political positions, particularly with regard to foreign policy, military affairs, and economic policy. If you had read this blog for any amount of time, you'd already know that.
People criticizing a religious institution for real abuses are in no way my enemy.
"You claim incredulity as a virtue, yet you seem to use it as a vice and and a rationale for prejudice."
I'm sorry, but this is complete gibberish that has nothing to do with anything I wrote.
The scandal is only the beginning. What will the catholics around the world do about it? Nothing. The pope lieutenants will defend him because they are all involved. What will the rest of the world do about it. Nothing! Back to square zero!
ReplyDelete