Tag Archives: pedophilia

An Exchange on Gay Christians (Part III)

37 Replies

Read Part I of "An Exchange on Gay Christians"
Read Annie's response to Part I.
Read Part II of "An Exchange on Gay Christians"
Read Annie's response to Part II.

Replace "homosexual" with "pedophile"

Why?? Homosexuals are consenting and sometimes loving adults. Pedophiles are predators in a relation that cannot be consensual.

In my view, homosexuality and pedophilia are both psychological disorders of unknown pathologies. The difference between the objects of disordered affections is mostly accidental (in the philosophical sense). Obviously, pedophilia is a much more serious problem because children cannot consent to sex with an adult. Look at it from the sufferer's standpoint, though. If the neurological manifestations and/or causes of pedophilia and homosexuality are similar (an empirically testable hypothesis), shouldn't they be treated similarly? Pedophiles and other sexual deviants are subject to arrest and conviction, but homosexuals are increasingly treated as just another expression of human diversity. I think there's a fundamental failure in logic in that disparity. I'm not advocating decriminalizing child abuse or criminalizing active homosexuality. However, I do not believe that we can just wave our hands and declare that homosexuality is "normal" simply because those affected by it can reciprocate each other's desires.

Continue reading →

Mythical 81%

13 Replies

On November 23, the Catholic League released the following to the press.

"According to news reports, the Vatican document says that while homosexuals must be respected, the Catholic Church 'cannot admit to seminaries and to holy orders those who practice homosexuality, who present deeply rooted homosexual tendencies or who support the so-called gay culture.'"

"There is little doubt that most practicing Catholics will welcome this decision. The Vatican is prudent not to have an absolute ban on admission of homosexuals to the priesthood: there are too many good men with homosexual tendencies who have served the Church with distinction. But there is a monumental difference between someone who is incidentally homosexual and someone for whom the gay subculture is central to his identity. Only those blinded by sexual politics will fail to make this distinction."

With this much I am in agreement.

"As I have said many times before, most homosexual priests are not molesters, but most of the molesters are gay. The John Jay Report made this clear: 81 percent of the victims are male and almost as many are postpubescent. This is not called pedophilia – it is called homosexuality."

OK, I've seen this mythical 81% floating around the net for quite some time now and it's been bugging me. If I understand correctly – please inform me if I'm wrong – most of the victims of sexual abuse at the hands of priests were altar servers. If that's the case, then it only makes sense that most of the victims were male. Though female altar servers have been permitted for a few decades, there are still far fewer of them than male servers. The fact that most of the victims were post-pubescent might be more indicative of a demographic shift in altar servers rather than a preference among perverts.

If I am right about most of the victims being altar servers, then this is clearly a probaballistic fallacy. The probability of a server being male is very high. The probability of a victim being a server is very high. Therefore, the probability that the victim is male is also very high.

I am less sure that most servers these days are post-pubescent, but let's assume they are. By the same logic, the probability that a random victim would be a post-pubescent male would be quite high.

Throwing around this 81% figure is misleading. Remember, "there are lies, damned lies, and statistics".

"The Catholic laity are justifiably angry with molesting priests and their enabling bishops, few in number though they have been. What this document does is to send a signal – those who cannot seriously commit to a celibate lifestyle have no legitimate role to play in the priesthood. This stricture should apply equally to heterosexuals."

If Mr. Donahue is right about what the document says, I totally agree with him. Some folks don't agree with his reading, though.

Poor Florida

Leave a reply

Poor Florida can’t stay out of the spotlight. They have persistent voting troubles, they got slammed by a vicious hurricane, and apparently they have a frightening number of sexual predators.

A new state law prohibits school bus stops from being within 1,000 yards of a pedophile on probation. That means that about 400 stops in Broward County may have to move to avoid the 1,100 registered sexual predators in the county! Move bus stops? I think I’d move my kids to another county. (Thanks, Fark)

Still Learning

Leave a reply

As bloggers go, I’m still basically an infant. I haven’t been doing this very long
and I don’t really associate with the blogging crowd outside of a few sites on my
blogroll. In other words, I’m still learning a lot about this crazy little thing
called blog.

For instance, I’m just now discovering just how important comments are. I don’t
get many, so I suppose it’s understandable that I missed their full worth. Anyhow,
it seems clear that a blog without a comments system is only half a blog.

There is, IMHO, a fascinating discussion going on at GetReligion
about the impact, or lack thereof, of stories about the global priest scandal in
the Dallas Morning News.
There a few folks on my blogroll who I’d love to see weigh in on the issue, including
(but not limited to) Narwen,
Pontificator,
Fr. Mike, and
Jeff Miller,

The
Catholic gun didn’t go off: Silence greets Dallas News series

Once there was a man who lived in a lighthouse on the foggy Atlantic.

That’s the start of a very, very old sermon illustration. I thought of it this past
weekend as I read the first chunks of the sprawling Dallas Morning News reports
on the globalization of the clergy sex-abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church.

Sick in the Head

1 Reply

Innocent by reason of tumor?

Frontal Lobe Tumor causes Pedophilia in a Man
Science raises questions for criminal justice system

Neurolgists at the University of Virginia reported that the removal of a frontal lobe tumor ended a male patient’s sexual behavior toward children. The patient had begun to have poor sexual impulse control several years eariler. The Tumor actually grew back once, with the sexual behaviors returning. The behaviors ceased again when the second tumor was removed.