(June 16, 2014 at 11:28 am)ShaMan Wrote: I know many good and decent Christians. The men pictured here are despicable predators who prey on the weak. "Christian" or not - some people are just sick.

Is there a picture of all of the non-Christians who got busted for the same crimes that month? I bet there would be many more photos.

Why would you bet that? Would it not occur to you that abuse of children and the disabled is disproportinately committed by those who have access to them? Would it not occur to you that 70% of Americans are Christians, so odds are that most perpetrators of any crime in the USA will be Christians, particularly since their representation in prison is about the same as their representation in the general public?

(June 16, 2014 at 11:28 am)ShaMan Wrote: Or what about atheists who got caught that month? I understand that these "Christian" men are supposed to be held to a higher moral standard than we "heathens", but let's be honest. This behavior is not limited to Christian pastors.

Held to different standards? Yet atheists are represented in prison at a tenth of their percentage in the general population. Maybe it helps to reason out why it's wrong to hurt people instead of just taking it on faith.

(June 16, 2014 at 11:28 am)ShaMan Wrote: Hypocrisy was my impetus for leaving the Christian church, so I understand the anger/frustration with those who put themselves on a pedestal and then fall off. But I think it's irresponsible to look at the despicable actions of any individual and blame it on the group they're associated with.

I think you still have some bias in favor of Christians. You think they can't be as bad as all that, that they're being picked on because it's bigger news if pastors or priests do it. You have a point there...but it's not news at all if Christians who aren't pastors or priests do it. Believing Christianity is true does not seem to be sufficient for people with strong antisocial impulses to control them.

Caveat: I do not believe atheists are under-represented in prison because they are atheists. I believe they are under-represented in prison because qualities statistically associated with being an atheist in America are also associated with lower likelihood of winding up in prison: affluence and education. Though I personally am an exception to the stereotype of the atheist who has never known real poverty.

(June 16, 2014 at 11:13 am)LostLocke Wrote: That's unfair. After all, it's obvious they're not true Christians. Right?

Maybe that is what true Xtoans really are!

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(June 16, 2014 at 11:28 am)ShaMan Wrote: I know many good and decent Christians. The men pictured here are despicable predators who prey on the weak. "Christian" or not - some people are just sick.

Is there a picture of all of the non-Christians who got busted for the same crimes that month? I bet there would be many more photos.

Or what about atheists who got caught that month? I understand that these "Christian" men are supposed to be held to a higher moral standard than we "heathens", but let's be honest. This behavior is not limited to Christian pastors.

Hypocrisy was my impetus for leaving the Christian church, so I understand the anger/frustration with those who put themselves on a pedestal and then fall off. But I think it's irresponsible to look at the despicable actions of any individual and blame it on the group they're associated with.

Then why do theists blame non-believers for things - just because they are non=believers

I know a great many decent Non-believers as well and there is NO evidence that believers are any more ethical - or moral than non-believers.

However - these people CLAIM to represent an all powerful - all knowing god - everywhere god.

If the god is everywhere and all knowing - it not only knows what they did - it knew what they would do -= LONG BEFORE they did it. AND - if the god is all powerful - it has the power to PREVENT this behavior - or stop it.

And that this behavior continues to happen only points to a god that ALLOWS this to happen - and abets those who do it by not doing anything against it. Certainly not the thing I would worship for eternity

OR - and more likely - No god exists to do anything - and so nothing prevents this behavior.

(June 16, 2014 at 11:28 am)ShaMan Wrote: I know many good and decent Christians. The men pictured here are despicable predators who prey on the weak. "Christian" or not - some people are just sick.

Is there a picture of all of the non-Christians who got busted for the same crimes that month? I bet there would be many more photos.

Or what about atheists who got caught that month? I understand that these "Christian" men are supposed to be held to a higher moral standard than we "heathens", but let's be honest. This behavior is not limited to Christian pastors.

Hypocrisy was my impetus for leaving the Christian church, so I understand the anger/frustration with those who put themselves on a pedestal and then fall off. But I think it's irresponsible to look at the despicable actions of any individual and blame it on the group they're associated with.

I don't want to be responsible for what other atheists do. It's a null question.

But, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The problem is not so much religion as the power conferred on the clergy by religion. Add celibacy, and the sexual temptation to use power gets worse.

(June 16, 2014 at 12:38 pm)vorlon13 Wrote: One might suspect that in 1500 years of child molesting priests the church might have developed some pretty potent means for dealing with the problem.

Anticipating the problem.

Putting things back to right if the problem does occur.


What do we find? A church hiding assets to shield them from lawsuits, a church that sues victims, and a church that seems beyond embarrassment or shame, despite the heart rending accounts of the victims.

You have to remember that the act of child molestation just became a crime in America about 100 years ago. The age of consent was 7 in Delaware in 1895. So it was "perfectly acceptable" to have sex with children in that it wasn't a crime. Our outrage is very recent.

What does the 'moral' bastion of the roman catholic church care about the age of consent in Delaware ??

Any record of the church (hypocritically) criticizing Delaware back then ??

I guess it's a wonder of the ages the catholic church hasn't made kiddy diddling a sacrament . . .

The point is that the whole world engaged in such behavior until about a century ago. England was the first to establish a minimum age. The Babylonian Talmud says that it's OK to bang babies.

(June 16, 2014 at 9:31 am)Creed of Heresy Wrote:

Pastor cock goes into children and the disabled, no excuse for being a catholic priest comes out.

You can't explain that.

Seems the problem is much more widespread than christian pastors.

http://www.victimsofcrime.org/media/repo...statistics

Quote:Seems the problem is much more widespread than christian pastors.

Again, for the umpteenth time, when a school district finds a teacher who has fucked a kid they call the cops. They do NOT transfer the teacher to a new school so new kids can be fucked over. Your holier-than-thou bullshit churches do that.

Do you understand the difference?

(June 17, 2014 at 12:30 pm)Minimalist Wrote:

Quote:Seems the problem is much more widespread than christian pastors.

Again, for the umpteenth time, when a school district finds a teacher who has fucked a kid they call the cops. They do NOT transfer the teacher to a new school so new kids can be fucked over. Your holier-than-thou bullshit churches do that.

Do you understand the difference?

Here's a situation that's repeated time after time in the public school system:
Former substitute teacher Jorge Hernandez was investigated for suspected crimes at three schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District. After a third case in 2007, he was compelled to leave.

However, this was not reported to the Credentialing Commission, and Hernandez found work with the Inglewood school district.

The commission is empowered to suspend or revoke the credentials of teachers once they are suspected of a crime or other serious misconduct, and removed from the classroom.

Whether notification was made within the required 30 days of change in employment status has come into question in two of the high profile cases coming to light in the glare of the Miramonte uproar.

While teaching third grade at Inglewood's Beulah Payne Elementary School in 2008, Hernandez allegedly molested an 8-year-old girl, according to Sanford Jossen, the attorney who has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the girl and her mother.

"How many times does one have to hear someone yell, 'fire,’'' Jossen said.

So..in your mind...a bureaucratic breakdown ( no where in your write up does it say the person in question was convicted or even charged criminally) with a reporting system is the same as a bishop taking a known pedo-priest and transferring him to another parish to prey on fresh meat?

There is NO DIFFERENCE at all to your way of thinking?