Child Rape, Penn State and the Catholic Church: Is Religion Especially Bad?

I can't be the only person who heard about the Penn State child rape scandal and thought, "Holy crap -- it's just like the Catholic Church." The abuse of power by a trusted authority figure; the coverup by people in authority; the unwillingness of witnesses to speak out; the grotesque, morally bankrupt defenses of a beloved institution by its followers... all of it is depressingly familiar.

And I can't be the only critic of religion who's been wondering, "Hmm. If Penn State has been acting like the Catholic Church... then did the Catholic Church child rape scandal actually have anything to do with religion?"

I still think it does. But it's a complicated question. Let's take a closer look.

Apologists for the Catholic Church and its role in the extensive child rape scandal often use the "But everyone else does it!" defense. "Priests aren't the only people in positions of trust and power over children who abuse that power," they say. "Parents, relatives, teachers, babysitters, coaches -- they rape children as well. It's all terrible... but it's unfair to single out the Catholic Church as if it were special."

http://www.alternet.org/belief/153181/child_rape%2C_penn_state_and_the_catholic_church%3A_is_religion_especially_bad/

Let some women in the priesthood and in the administration of sports organizations. Not sure if that would fix it, but it's worth a try.

...then even if the problems in the Catholic church aren't particularly any worse than in many other large institutions, at the very least their supposed moral authority must be called into question.

Though I'm something of an atheist for both...

People in thrall to the powers that be, whoever they are -- assuming that nothing bad could happen, with those special people in charge.

Coaches have a tremendous power over their players' lives.

Sexual abuse is a risk in *any* authoritarian organization, especially one that is also a closed society: old-fashioned boarding schools, prisons, authoritarian families, the army - and certain churches and religious institutions.

the Houston Chronicle did a piece on child sex abuse in the public schools. Two pages were filled with passport size photos of perpetrators. They were men and women, mostly coaches and band directors. What was common is that the school districts did the same thing the Catholic church did, they brought in the perp and requested they quietly resign and then gave them a letter of recommendation. They got it out of their district and turned them loose on fresh kids.

The sexual abuse of children is rampant in our society. We need to face up to that fact and not try to limit it to any one institution.

it happens in the church is that children are taught that the leaders in the church are good and can be trusted to take care of them. When they betray a child it is like a parent betraying the child. IMO there is a lot of damage done to a child who is betrayed by someone that he is taught to trust.

And that's a problem. Catholicism has been singled out because it has a worldwide organization, but we have seen enough examples to know that any kind of self-described "holy man" or moral authority is likely to behave as those the morals they claim to uphold do not apply to them. We should all understand this by now.