Sex abuse scandal. Guess the religion?

[Ming]

Oh come on... he isn't defending child molestation.

He's just defending the institution that covered it up and allowed it to continue. He's claiming that priests are above the law of the land and can't be held accountable in a court of law... He even claimed that priests shouldn't be incarcerated unless they decide they want to be... He's claiming that the Church's punishment is worse than spending "quality" time with a prison's general population... and that hiding what the person did is better than putting them on a national sex offender list... WHAT A MORON.

[Asher]

Oh come on... he isn't defending child molestation.

I don't think you understand. I'm just playing the game Ben likes to play.

[Ming]

I don't think you understand. I'm just playing the game Ben likes to play.

I know... but it was just an opening line for the rest of the post pointing out just a few of the really stupid things he has said in this thread

[MrFun]

Summary of thread.

Asher to BK: I hate you.

BK to Asher: I'm not going to respond to this, and give you the satisfaction. Too busy making **** up.

Asher to BK: I still hate you.

Ming: I hate BK too.

[DaShi]

Oh come on... he isn't defending child molestation.

He's just defending the institution that covered it up and allowed it to continue. He's claiming that priests are above the law of the land and can't be held accountable in a court of law... He even claimed that priests shouldn't be incarcerated unless they decide they want to be... He's claiming that the Church's punishment is worse than spending "quality" time with a prison's general population... and that hiding what the person did is better than putting them on a national sex offender list... WHAT A MORON.

Now if Ben suddenly started saying that he now wants to be a priest, would you think he'd be doing it for the child molestation?

[MikeH]

It's a good career for the wannabe Paedo, offers lifetime job security and they'll help you cover up your crimes. Downside is you have to pretend to believe in god.

[Jon Miller]

In Sweden something like 80% of the clergy don't believe in God.

I am not at all surprised that Christianity/theism doesn't do well here.

JM

[MrFun]

Am I reading that right, JM? 80 percent of CLERGY do not believe in God?

Why are they even clergy then if they did not feeling it's their calling?

[Asher]

Am I reading that right, JM? 80 percent of CLERGY do not believe in God?

Why are they even clergy then if they did not feeling it's their calling?

Paycheque and easy access to children, obviously.

Perhaps this can be Ben's next angle: the priests who molest boys aren't even Catholics...they're gay atheists.

[MrFun]

I'm sorry - I'm going to have to have time to wrap my mind around the idea of atheists becoming clergy, even for ulterior reasons/motives.

[a.kitman]

do you by any chance have a source for that claim jm?

[Ecofarm]

The figure sounds exaggerated to me, but I can think of one underlying factor... Untill recently (a decade perhaps), membership in the Chruch of Sweden was mandatory for all Swedish citizens. When you were born there (and qualifying as a citizen), you became a member. This lead to many people being "involved" who had made no concious decision to do so. They're basically a conscript church, what should one expect? They probably still have a conscript military (they did in 2003). And they are the most successful welfare state in the world. It's amazing what BS can be perpetuated when a country has a ton of great agricultural land and only 8m people.

[Asher]

Charming : http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/am...use/index.html

Brazilian priest allegedly taped having sex with teen

A police investigation continued Thursday into a Catholic abuse scandal in Brazil, which erupted last week when a network aired a video that it said showed a priest having sex with a 19-year-old altar boy.

The report, aired by the SBT television network, identified the priest as 82-year-old Luiz Marques Barbosa.

Police in Alagoas state in northeastern Brazil said Thursday that they were investigating the allegations before the TV report surfaced.

In the video, a man said to be Monsignor Marques Barbosa realizes he's being videotaped and is heard on camera asking, "Who is it? Who's at the window? Who is it? Who's there?"
SBT said the videotape was secretly made by an unidentified 21-year-old man who alleges that he was abused by the same priest, who serves in Arapiraca in northeastern Brazil.
Marques Barbosa's bishop, Valerio Breda, has ordered the priest's removal, according to Brazilian media reports.

Brazil is home to the world's largest Catholic population, with about three-fourths of the nation's 140 million citizens calling themselves Catholic.

The investigation comes amid recent allegations of child abuse against priests in Ireland, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands.

In Chile, a man who used to teach at a Roman Catholic religious order's schools in Spain has been arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing children, police said Tuesday.
Jose Angel Arregui Erana was arrested in August in Chile, where he was teaching. He was held on suspicion of filming the abuse of boys and possessing images of sexually abused boys, a Chilean cybercrime unit police commander, Jaime Jara, told CNN partner network CNN+.
Jara said Tuesday that the suspected crime of possessing the illegal images occurred in Chile but that the alleged sexual abuse of the students and the filming or videotaping apparently occurred earlier in Spain.

Arregui, who is in his early 50s, was a physical education teacher in Spain and is accused of placing hidden cameras in gyms and bathrooms to film sexual abuse of the students, Jara told CNN+.

The suspect in the Spanish case does not appear to have been a priest but a layman teaching in schools run by a Catholic order.

[Jon Miller]

Something that I found as interesting when I was looking for the % number.

http://centauro.cmq.edu.mx/dav/libela/paginas/infoEspecial/pdfArticulosLaicidad/100101166.pdf

I probably should have looked at adherents.

JM

[a.kitman]

The figure sounds exaggerated to me, but I can think of one underlying factor... Untill recently (a decade perhaps), membership in the Chruch of Sweden was mandatory for all Swedish citizens. When you were born there (and qualifying as a citizen), you became a member. This lead to many people being "involved" who had made no concious decision to do so. They're basically a conscript church, what should one expect? They probably still have a conscript military (they did in 2003). And they are the most successful welfare state in the world. It's amazing what BS can be perpetuated when a country has a ton of great agricultural land and only 8m people.

membership in the church wasnt mandatory. if your parents where part of the church you became a member automatic. they changed it awhile ago so now you only become a member if you are baptized.

it can only explain why so many members dont belive in god. and i think thats where the 80% might come from.

and fyi we are over 9mil now