Amos

Interesting comment Brighid and it could very well be true that an institution like the Catholic Church became a hide out for purverts (as they once were called) during the days when homosexuality was shunned.

I guess it was not untill they became a seizable minority that homosexuality became acceptable as an alternate lifestyle (but not pedophelia, I understand and agree).

Thor Q. Mada

As a product of 12 years Jezuit college, I protest. How come I have never been approached of molested. I must have bee a seriously repulsive boy judging from the statistics. I will have a word with my mother!!

brighid

Amos
"Interesting comment Brighid and it could very well be true that an institution like the Catholic Church became a hide out for purverts (as they once were called) during the days when homosexuality was shunned"

When did the day pass when it is no longer shunned by the Church or society?

Brighid

Illithid

Well, yes, there's still a lot of negative stigmata (oops, I mean stigma) about being gay, but it is nowhere _near_ as bad as it has been in the past.

In many traditional cultural settings, there was damn little alternative to "marrying some nice Catholic girl and settling down", and anyone who didn't was going to be suspect. Disowned-by-family and driven-out-of-town type suspect. Even today, there is little many presumably straight males fear more than being thought to be gay. I can remember times of stark terror at the thought that I had been found out.

And yet today in America, it's so much better than it was. I was openly gay in college (at Texas A&M no less), and while I was harrassed at times I was not assaulted (well, once at random, but not by anyone hunting me out on purpose). My parents remained loving and supportive. If I had lived a hundred years ago, I might have become a preacher myself. I might even have become one of these molesters, 'cause I'm horny as anything, and many men will take whatever sexual outlet is present. It is the feeling that this part of oneself _must_ remain hidden that drives these men into the priesthood. Heck, "gay liberation", to use an outdated term, may be a bigger blow to the Catholic Church than anything else. Isn't the average age of priests up into the fifties, these days?

brighid

Does anyone know the psychology behind the priest – pedophile connection? How much of it has to do with the repressed sexual urges due to imposed celibacy – which is an oxymoron because obviously they aren’t abstaining? Would these men likely be child molesters if they were allowed to have normal sex lives? I think that Catholicism in particular attracts a larger # of gay men then faiths that allow their clergy to have normal sex lives, marry and have children. I don’t know of too many gay Rabbi’s and front what I have I have witnessed in the Jewish community a young, single Rabbi is quite the hot commodity and women through themselves at these men and make no bones about trying to seduce them.

I think a big part of the priest shortage issue in Catholicism is the inability to marry. Fewer and fewer men are willing to give that up in order to minister in the Catholic Church. I don’t have any data handy – just recalling some things off the top of my head from things I have read a while back.

I don’t think it is a difficult to be gay today as it was 10 or 20 years ago – depending on the community. I think my town has something like an 11% gay contingent and is one of the few towns that they don’t worry too much about being “out”.

Brighid

Seeker196

"the victim may have been 15, and the defendant, 17"

Pfft, I hardly think that is the sort of thing we are really talking about here.

Teens having consensual sex is not at all in the same league as adults. Considering how young I am, I don't even know if I'd consider teens seperated by a mere two years a crime.

Why is it the priests seem to go for the boys? In the media it seems that the 'typical' molester goes for girls...is it a question of access? Priests seem to have more access to boys than girls.

Amos

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[ February 28, 2002: Message edited by: Amos ]</p>

sullster

I have a question here because the issue of priests being gay has come up. Is it not correct that the majority of child molesters are heterosexual? I have always heard that and now considering this exploding priest scandal, I am interested in varifying this. Does anyone know about this?

Amos

Sorry brighid, my grandson wants me to play games and hijacked my previous answer (opinion) to you question.

Homosexuality always was part of human existence and was shunned by the state but not by the Church. In my theory the Church is, and must be, both above and below the state. It is above to guide and instruct (shun homosexuality) and below to console its victims (console homosexuals). See the difference?

The need to condemn homosexuality is to reduce its occurance in the next generation(s) but is really done with the promotion of heterosexuality as being normal and desired. As I see it (not speaking for the Church) homosexuality is a societal problem (homosexuals did not created their own sexuality) and is potentially in every human being. It is well proven that hormone therapy can change our sexuality and if artificial hormones can do this so can natural hormone stimulation. Hence the promotion of maleness in males and femaleness in females of the old opposite sex society (and its equivalent rejection of opposite behavior trends that would lead to homosexual inclinations of both sexes).

If hormone therapy can change our sexuality the net effect of our modern "gender equal society" will soon be much the same because it encourages our psychology to cross our sexual 'barrier' and so stimulate the activity of opposite hormones in both males and females (girls are encouraged to beat their chest and boys are encouraged to cry).

So the Church hasn't really changed much but society has changed to the point that we are now forced to accept homosexuality as an alternate lifestyle and is striving to change our perception of it as natural and equal. I am sure you know where and how (not to my regret because I predicted that homosexuality will increase after one or two generations).

Captain Pedantic

I think that studies have shown that people who abuse children tend not to care so much about gender as what they can get their hands on. If people who are paedophiles come into contact with more boys than girls, then boys are probably more likely to be their victims.

I think the key here is to stop thinking of paedophillia as being "heterosexual" or "homosexual" and start thinking of it in terms of being a different thing altogether.