do u believe in god?

[RedRose]

Whilst I completely agree that it wrong to suggest that child abuse is somehow exclusive to the Catholic church, I wonder if there is any scope for speculating whether there is a higher incidence of paedophilia among clergy than in other organisations of adult males, and why that might be?

Eta - sorry missed out a paragraph when I posted yesterday !

The reason I ask is because my local diocese has recently been involved in a child abuse scandal

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9510916/Never-be-alone-with-children-clergy-told.html

And as a result, round here, mention of the clergy seems to be almost synonymous with child abuse. I think the reason for this has more to do with the motif being used in humor and comedy (thats a whole other debate!), as opposed to a higher incidence of abuse than other organisations. But it has been quite sad to see the effect of the scandal on the local community, which is very Christian.

 

[Irish Eyes]

yes, I 100% believe in God I paid about £500 to get married at my church which I think it fair to cover costs (had choir, organ, flowers etc). I didn't have to pay at all to get my son christened.

My husband doesn't believe in God, I don't feel that his life is in anyway pointless! He has a fantastic life, lovely baby & of course a lovely wife!!

 

[robinator]

Whilst I completely agree that it wrong to suggest that child abuse is somehow exclusive to the Catholic church, I wonder if there is any scope for speculating whether there is a higher incidence of paedophilia among clergy than in other organisations of adult males, and why that might be?

Isn't it true (or was true) that Catholic priests aren't allowed to marry? Maybe it's one of those cases where if something is forbidden it consumes you until the temptation becomes too great.

Not an excuse, but perhaps an explanation.

 

[Sarahkka]

Celibacy has been a requirement for centuries, hasn't it?
Okay, just looked it up:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clerical_celibacy
It is complicated!

As for incidence of pedophilia being higher in the Catholic Church, I don't know. I don't think the priesthood itself would in any way promote it, but I could see pedophiles being attracted to a system that gave them a lot of access, power and trust with families in their congregations. And having such a large, powerful body like the Vatican working to "clean up" any public scandals would be another favourable point for someone looking to victimize, I suppose?
Makes me feel rather ill just thinking about it.
I think there can be an argument made that the old school Catholicism supported a system that protected abusers, so perhaps we could extrapolate and say that it could attract such people. However, I think that is as far as I would take that generalization. While I have no idea of the statistics, I would still bet that most men of the cloth are very good people.

 

[tasha41]

I think in any positions of authority/trust you will find the same type of sick abusers- sports coaches, teachers, doctors, parents, caregivers, etc. I'm sure I hear an equal amount of horrible stories about priests as I do the others

ETA I'm not saying that I agree with how pedophile priests are treated within the church- they should go to jail like everyone else IMO, not get transferred or whatever else goes on. I just don't think it's fair to insinuate that more priests do these things than non-priests.

 

[Dragonfly]

I dont think any one insinuated priests where pedos more than non priests? just that there was paedophiles in the church.

 

[meli1981]

yep

 

[jessicaR4bbit]

I used to be a devout Christian until I was 18 years old. I had been researching into religion, history and evolution etc when it finally just 'clicked' that I had believed for so long because it was what I was raised with. I'd never thought to question my beliefs before and when I did decide to question it, it wasn't out of a need to strengthen my faith but to actually hold it up to scrutiny. I am an atheist now. My family are a mixture of Christian, Catholic and deist. My partner is also an atheist but is more open about it than I am.

 

[Kimmer]

I was raised as a Christian, I went to a school that made me sing Christian songs every day. From as far back as I can remember, I always thought it was a story, just a fairytale. I questioned beliefs when I was very young, probably less than 10 years old.

I'm now 100% science and reason loving atheist/anti theist and I'm so much happier.

So obviously, no I do not believe in any higher power or higher being

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

I spent all night randomly googling the answers to questions about christianity that I wanted to know and got no where!