Why are paedophile acts by priests emphasised and others ignored?

It's a double standard, it seems to me.
A person could read ATS (especially the Religion areas) for hours on end and wind up believing that only priests are ever guilty of paedophilia.
A friend of mine (an Italian Catholic, but that's by the way) just sent me this article. It upset him, and it upsets me.
Paedophilia is often, if not always, a crime of opportunity.
In New Zealand, a paedophile ring of, of all things, Ambulance officers, was uncovered a few years back. They were men who worked training teenage boys in Emergency Response.
I have tried to actually find some statistics on occupational groups, but as far as I can tell, teachers (sadly, as I am one) and sports coaches lead the paedophile field.
School principal
And here follows a quote from the article:

What my parents did not know, or chose to ignore, was that Mr Barbour-Simpson was a paedophile, who was extremely skilful at hiding his proclivities from other grown-ups. Nor did they know that his wife was a sadist, whose waking hours were devoted to torturing the little boys on whom her sad husband had formed his attachments.

reply to post by Vicky32


just shows that people in positions of trust esp. with our children need to be held to a higher standard and watched

reply to post by Vicky32

S&F Vicky,I've always wondered what percentage of paedophiles are atheists ,If a paedophile is caught and they regularly attend church,this is usually mentioned in any news reports,but not if they are an atheist ,

reply to post by Vicky32


I don't think it's so much a double standard...the reason people are more shocked when a priest does something like this is because when a priest does it, then it's both a horrific act of sexual abuse, AND an act of incredible religious hypocrisy. Considering that the Catholic Church is so sexually repressed that they still will not even give their OK of condom use, it's amazingly shocking when a priest commits an act that is perhaps the most reprehensible sexual crime one can imagine. When some guy who works at a 7-11 rapes a child, it's horrifying but not exactly shocking...but when a priest from a Church that publicly condemns modern society as being sinfully sexual does it, the hypocrisy of the act is astounding.

I think it's due to religious influence in MSM, there have been religious wars for ages, nut it seems to me that there is a larger group that has it out for the Catholic church. When news breaks of a Catholic priest it's front page in bold letters, when it's another denomination it's hidden in the newspaper and only a snippet. Sad because I know it runs rampant in all areas and not exclusive to Catholic priests, like it has been pointed out, it's usually people in positions of power that are the usual offenders.

There are bad seeds everywhere, it is unfortunate that only the Catholic priests get grilled in the media in such a way. Unless, the world is just holding Catholic priests to higher standards, but that is silly because they then send the message that as long as it's not a priest it's not so big of an offense, obviously it's a great offense no matter who is doing it.

you should check out injusticeeverywhere.com and read how many police officers are getting charged for child porn and the like it is effing pitiful and people wonder why i have lost all faith in police and the Injustice system.

The title of your thread imo is wrong. Others aren't ignored. Many other paedophile crimes are reported.

Why are paedophiles by priets considered even more shocking? Surely that must be obvious.

They are supposed to be 'moral' guides, and they have access to lots of innocent children and the widespread sexual abuse within the church is known.

The continual attempts by the Vatican to cover up these crimes also attracts a lot of criticism, as it damn well should.

reply to post by Vicky32


Pedophile priests are emphasized because they are shockingly, pedophiles that are priests; Someone sexually exploiting children in an important position of the world's largest religion. Even worse, there are multiple cases. Each case should be emphasized so we can highlight the hypocrisy that is Christianity.

It's because people hate being told that certain acts are morally wrong. So when people catch a hypocrite who makes such a claim, they grill them especially hard, because in a way it satisfies their need to believe such morality is nonsense. It's resentment over being told certain lifestyles and actions are wrong.

That's why when a universalist like Sai Baba is caught doing the same, people don't grill his followers about it. He doesn't tell people that there is a higher morality to follow.

For the Priesthood isn't it party because of the respect held by many people for that sacrificial 'role' he uniquely carries out. Also its the betrayal of the confessional.

We have had terrific publicity concerning a paedophile ring working in nurseries recently. .

I do feel that discounting terrible crimes such as premeditated murder, etc paedophilia really does show to us the darker side of humanity. We don't psychiologically like to face the reality some of 'us', have the ability to sexually prey on our youngest and most vulnerable. Ask yourself, would you kill someone who you caught sexually preying on a/your child were you to walk in on them, yet you would not automatically do that if you witnessed someother heinous crime?

The media also tends to focus on the Catholic Church as the main breeding ground for pedophiles, often citing celibacy as the main reason for the abuse.

This website shows that it is a problem in every religion, regardless of whether they have a celibacy rule.

Molestation by Protestants


I think it is the media's bias against religion and the Catholic Church in particular that leads them to ignore sex abuse when it occurs outside the Church, especially when its teachers involved or some other group not affiliated with religion.

Originally posted by bhornbuckle75
reply to post by Vicky32

 

I don't think it's so much a double standard...the reason people are more shocked when a priest does something like this is because when a priest does it, then it's both a horrific act of sexual abuse, AND an act of incredible religious hypocrisy. Considering that the Catholic Church is so sexually repressed that they still will not even give their OK of condom use, it's amazingly shocking when a priest commits an act that is perhaps the most reprehensible sexual crime one can imagine. When some guy who works at a 7-11 rapes a child, it's horrifying but not exactly shocking...but when a priest from a Church that publicly condemns modern society as being sinfully sexual does it, the hypocrisy of the act is astounding.

edit on 12-6-2011 by bhornbuckle75 because: added a few word to make a sentence read slightly better

And yet you know that despite the screamer headlines, proven there are fewer than 2% of all priests worldwide who have even been accused, right?
Last time I looked, other than in American cop shows on TV, and when it involves Muslims, and priests - accusation is not proof! Right?
An interesting site
Some statistics and facts

Originally posted by indigo21
Each case should be emphasized so we can highlight the hypocrisy that is Christianity.

You seem to have issues!
However, as I said in my OP, there are multiple instances with say, ambulance officers!
V

Originally posted by Lynda101
Ask yourself, would you kill someone who you caught sexually preying on a/your child were you to walk in on them, yet you would not automatically do that if you witnessed someother heinous crime?

Kill, no,(seriously hurt, maybe..) but I know what you mean....
(I am just reading a news item about the nursery case.)
V

Its a sick crime no matter who does it, the whole argument is that the catholic church covers up for the priests who are known to have done it, where as in any other institution the guilty would be imprisoned. The double standard comes from the religion itself, a 'sainted' organisation that commits evil.

Because they are held to a higher standard than other people.

if you see a kid smoking pot, you may say "don't do that, its bad for you". the next day, he gets busted by the police, you see it go down. a few hours later, you see the cop who busted the kid lighting up.

hypocrisy.

(DISCLAIMER: the above is merely an analogy, and not meant to spark anti-police sentiment)

Originally posted by Vicky32
It's a double standard, it seems to me.
A person could read ATS (especially the Religion areas) for hours on end and wind up believing that only priests are ever guilty of paedophilia.

Not sure i totally agree ..
My take on it is ...

Its the fact, that so many priests (esp in Ireland), were allowed to continue the sexual brutality ... even after it was highlighted, many times .. all the way up to the Vatican ...

And i think the police took a back seat .. due to the nature of who was doing it ...

The scale of what has happened / is happening ...
The irony that it's supposedly Gods representetives ...
The fact that the Vatican tried (and still tries), to brush it under the carpet ... rather than confront it head on ...
And the fact that soo many cases had accumulated over time .. to be brought to the publics eye simultaneously, which had a higher impact in MSM ...

Although every single sexual abuse case is very serious ... i think this 'revelation' within our 'christian' establishment, has not been publicly pursued enough ... and the new pope and his army of Templar Knights / Illuminaiti or whatever .. should not be allowed to continue their reign of Evil ... and the Vatican, and the rest of the establishment worldwide should be flushed of these people who are not worthy of being Gods representatives ...


Have any priests actually been led away in Cuffs yet .. never mind imprisoned ...
I don't recall seeing justice being carried out yet on priests .. maybe one or two here or there is all so far ...
so this issue must remain in public focus, until the criminals have been tried in court .. or at the very very least .. removed from the church ... and constraints set up by the Vatican to ensure this can never happen again un-noticed ..

Originally posted by Vicky32
Paedophilia is often, if not always, a crime of opportunity..

I think that's likely why the priest issue is so huge ...
The children they were abusing .. lived under a strict regime of sexual abuse .. with their carers / priests etc ..
The opportunity was practically there .. 24/7 ... for years ... same children .. same priests ..
Nowhere to run .. No one to tell .. What a horrid nightmare these innocent children faced at the hands of Gods supposed representatives ...

And i bet many many christians in the world still don't have a clue about this ...
I say .. Bring down the pope and his regime ...

What happens when say a teacher is caught? They go to jail. What happened to priests that were caught? It was kept in-house, kept secret, and the priest was just moved to another parish to do it to someone else. That is one of the big reasons, they were covering it up, and allowing them to continue on somewhere else.

reply to post by Vicky32

And yet you know that despite the screamer headlines, proven there are fewer than 2% of all priests worldwide who have even been accused, right? Last time I looked, other than in American cop shows on TV, and when it involves Muslims, and priests - accusation is not proof! Right? An interesting site

Accusation may or may not be proof...but I would venture to say that 50 % of real abuse cases never even get to the accusation stage. ...and this is true in the catholic church.

Most victims of sexual abuse are far too ashamed to ever speak out about it, or in some cases too afraid.

The FACT that the church tries to cover it up,and instead of removing the collar from these pedophiles,they move them to another location to begin the horrible cycle again, is another main reason why the church is attacked so much on this issue Vicky.

The fact that you continue to defend them,and turn a blind eye to the evils they have inflicted on children, shows that you are not aware of how big a problem it is, or you choose to deny it. This in no way helps the victims feel secure in being able to tell of their experiences, so that others may not be lead into it.

This is a horrible crime,that is happening in upper levels of government, and in other professions. All of it is wrong..but when a fireman gets accused,and prosecuted, he cannot buy his way out, and be moved to another fire station. He also is not preaching the word of God.

Originally posted by indigo21
Each case should be emphasized so we can highlight the hypocrisy that is Christianity.

This same old arguement .. just goes round in circles ...

There is nothing wrong with Christianity .. Christianity does not teach to sexually abuse .. it does not teach to kill or hate ...

A rubbish analogy would be ... If i swear by Red coloured Volvos ... and then one day i crash mine ... does that mean that there must be a problem with Red coloured Volvos ?? ... Maybe the volvo is fine, and the driver was at fault ... bad anaolgy i know .. but hopefully gets my point over ...

So can it not make sense to people ... anyone claiming to be christian, doing ungodly acts .. does not mean christianity is wrong .. there are many more christians you dont hear of, 'cos they are not sexually abusing and killing, but are trying to lead a life of God, and so go pretty much un-noticed ...