Massimo Introvigne , an Italian sociologist of religion, has a fairly good column at Moral panic flares again on the clergy sexual abuse scandal.
I large agree with MOST of what he is saying. Before where I get into the disagreement I have let me talk more about my full interest in it.
Over the years I have some close interactions with sex offenders (those that abuse children and those that have relations with teenagers) Some of these were clergy (all protestant) but again most were married or single men.
I largely agree with the Priest that was the Judge in the now famous Wisconsin case .
As a volunteer prison chaplain in Alaska, I have found a corollary between those who have been incarcerated for child sexual abuse and the priests who have committed such grievous actions. They tend to be very smart and manipulative. They tend to be well liked and charming. They tend to have one aim in life — to satisfy their hunger. Most are highly narcissistic and do not see the harm that they have caused. They view the children they have abused not as people but as objects. They rarely show remorse and moreover, sometimes portray themselves as the victims. They are, in short, dangerous people and should never be trusted again. Most will recommit their crimes if given a chance.
He also touches on a point I have seen time and time again and why yes I do have some pity for some of these criminals at times.
Between 1996 and August, 1998, I interviewed, with the help of a qualified interpreter, about a dozen victims of Father Murphy. These were gut-wrenching interviews. In one instance the victim had become a perpetrator himself and had served time in prison for his crimes. I realized that this disease is virulent and was easily transmitted to others. I heard stories of distorted lives, sexualities diminished or expunged. These were the darkest days of my own priesthood, having been ordained less than 10 years at the time. Grace-filled spiritual direction has been a Godsend.
This is one reason we have discovered that counseling must begin pronto as to any victim.
He then touches on something that sort is my jumping off point into why as to clergy sexual relations with teenagers we need to further divide this into two groups.
Before proceeding, it is important to point out the scourge that child sexual abuse has been — not only for the church but for society as well. Few actions can distort a child’s life more than sexual abuse. It is a form of emotional and spiritual homicide and it starts a trajectory toward a skewed sense of sexuality. When committed by a person in authority, it creates a distrust of almost anyone, anywhere.
Now I get very unpopular with some people on some of my viewpoints on this. I have expressed concern that in some cases the laws are creating a massive problems by treating every convicted defendant of a sexual offense as a sexual predator. I have seen some absurd applications of this in the past.
Now it is true that we do need to separate the cases of Paedophiles and those cases that have involved minors who had advanced beyond puberty. That is not to to try to deflect attention from the problem but is needed to try to recognize the problem and how to deal with it.
In a sense I think most of us realize this if we think about it. One just has to think of how age of consent laws for sex have largely risen to the present levels just in the last 60 years.
If this little ole planet of ours had a Black Death on steroids or a limited nuclear engagement that wiped out a good part of the earth and set us back a couple hundred of years what would happen? You could bet dollars to donuts society would be alright with adult men marrying 14, 15, and 16 year old girls. That is how the species would survive and again sexual attractions kicks in.
My Many Greats grandfather that founded the Baptist Church in Mississippi at a very old age married a 16 year old girl on her birthday. You can bet that "courtship" was being had even perhaps starting in her 14th year. He was no pervert from what we can tell.
However does this mean that all these cases of sexual relations with teenagers is not a big deal in the whole scheme of things. Well no. That is where I differ some from the Italian sociologist.
He says:
So, does the John Jay College study tells us then, as one often reads, that 4 percent of American priests are paedophiles? Not at all. According to the research, 78.2 percent of the accusations involved minors who had advanced beyond puberty. Having sexual relations with a 17-year-old is certainly not a beautiful thing, and much less so for a priest, but it is not paedophilia. Therefore, only 958 American priests were accused of true paedophilia over 52 years, 18 per year. There were only 54 convictions, a little less than one per year.
Now again life is complex and as much as we want too we cannot always put things into easily defined black and white categories. I do agree that we must divide this problem into two groups. That being true child molesters and other hand those that have sexual relations with teenagers. We need to this in both the Church and in society as a whole to correct the problem.
As those matters relating to teenagers though we MUST BE AWARE in many cases (not all) a terrible dynamic is taking place.
That is a evil that is not always just based on sexual attraction that according to our biology would be normal or consensual that though for changing societal norms we have decided to now put off limits recently.
That is a real spiritual rape that occurs that can just be as devastating as if the abuse was occurring to a 9 year old. It is based in a abuse of power and a "spiritual manipulation" to achieve that aim.
This is what has appeared to have happened in the tragic case of the woman that is leading the charge against this problem in the Baptist Church. Which , if I am reconstructing her past correctly, this abuse occurred while she was a teenager. What happened to her was horrific.
In her justifiable rage and anger she sees no difference between the abuse of children and the sexual relations with teenagers by clergy and other lay folks associated with the Church.
I part company with her to some degree based on my past experience . There have been for instances in my following of cases in the Catholic Church where it looked very consensual to me though still wrong on different levels of course. I have also seen this in the non clergy world. For instance 20 or 21 years year guys that have had a sexual encouter with a 16 year old. In a few of these cases it was apparent to me that this person was not truly a sexual predator as we like to think of the term.
Still as her case points out there is real damage that can be done when spiritual manipulation or what is often referred to grooming. So there is at times some overlap in the conduct of both group of offenders in some cases.
There is a curious law in the state of Texas that address this and in fact makes the victim class adults. I have some qualms about this law partly because in the everyday world I am not sure how this is being applied so not to be abused. Still I think it gets to the heart of the problem we see as to this second calls of offenders I am talking about.
In Arkansas we see
Arkansas State Legislation. 5-14-126
5-14-126. Sexual assault in the third degree.
(a) A person commits sexual assault in the third degree if the person [is]:
(B) A professional under Ark. Code Ann. 12-12-507(b) or a member of the clergy and is in a position of trust or authority over the victim and uses the position of trust or authority to engage in sexual intercourse or deviate sexual activity…
and
Texas. Penal Code Chapter 5. (22.011)
Title 5. Offenses against the person.
Chapter 22. Assaultive Offenses.
Sec. 22.011. Sexual assault.
(b) A sexual assault under Subsection
(a)(1) is without the consent of the other person if:
10) the actor is a clergyman who causes the other person to submit or participate by exploiting the other person's emotional dependency on the clergyman in the clergyman's professional character as spiritual adviser
Now again I mixed feeling about some of these laws. It would appear to me that looking at this page this could lead to absurd consequences. I am not sure that in some of these cases I want to criminalize all this conduct as to adults. For instance if a pastor was trying to help a grieving widow over a period of time is it legal for them to fall in love? What if sex happens? How do you prove this "exploitation"?
Should we have Grand Juries looking at cases of Campus Ministers having sex with a LSU student? Shall we send to Prison a Seminary Prof that has sex with a seminarian he or she is in contact with. I am generally in the no column on that.
However these laws do tend to show the abuse of power problem. A problem of course that we see with teenagers that are prone to it more.
So while we need to to divide these cases into two groups and perhaps an additional subgroup we need to recognize that there are real harms done even when it is not true pedophilia
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