What deism has done for the world

[discipulus]

That's a very fine line, though.

However fine the line may be in your opinion, you nontheless rightly conclude that it is a line. And I maintain it is one that cannot be justifiably crossed.

You didn't say they weren't true Christians, you're just saying they didn't do truly Christian things.

Exactly. Since no where in the new testament will you find it written that adults should molest children and then conceal the matter, nor is this anywhere in the new testament even implied, it is not controversial to say that if adults molest children and then conceal the matter that they are not acting in accordance with what Jesus or His disciples taught. They simply are acting contrary to what the new testament teaches. Anyone who has read the new testament will understand what I am saying.

If Christ taught that we should molest children and conceal the matter then those who do such things would be acting in accordance with that teaching and then you would be justified in saying that Christians (followers of Christ) act in accordance with what Christ taught when they do such things.

So if I hear accounts of priests molesting children I say to myself, my goodness, these priests have done very bad things that are CONTRARY to Christ's teachings. They are not doing things followers of Christ should do.

This should not be controversial or hard for you to understand.

Which means that the rest of my comment still applies. It seems that Christian teachings don't really amount to much if they are incapable of keeping so many from committing such terrible acts and so many others from doing nothing to stop it, to the extent of helping the perpetrators continue to commit those crimes.

In the new testament you must remember that Christ said that His followers would receive power once The Holy Spirit came. The Power of God and the teaching of God cannot be seen as independent of one another but rather contingent. If a priest reads that he is to love his neighbor as himself the teaching in and of itself has no power. It is a doctrine or a moral prescription about how one should live. The teaching is a moral prescription not a volitional agent. The priest is the one responsible for denying himself and living a life of self denial and love for he is the moral agent to which the teaching applies. If the priest acts contrary to the teaching we say HE failed, not that the teaching failed. He is the moral agent who chooses to molest.

If both theist and atheist commit the same horrible crimes, then nothing differentiates them.

I have stated no where here that a theist who molests and an atheist that molests are different. I would happily agree that when committing the act they both do so out of an evil lustful desire in their heart.