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if he had been Catholic this would be completely different
Posted February 7, 2008 , By Joshua LeBlanc
On January 25, 2008 the Pasadena Star-News reported about a local Seventh Day Adventist Associate Pastor who pled no contest to "annoying a child" to avoid a trial that would have charged him with child molestation.
First, what the heck is "annoying a child?" If that's a punishable offense then I know plenty of people (myself included) who could be tried on this one. This sounds like some rediculous made up charge to get the guy off.
Secondly, if this guy had been a Catholic priest this would have made the national news. Don't believe me - do a google news search for Catholic priest sex abuse and you'll see the same obscure story about the same priest over and over and over. Do a seach for Seventh Day Adventist sex abuse - you have to go through 3 pages before this story even comes up and it looks like this is the only place that carried it.
I'm not making light of the issue of sexual abuse - its a very important issue and one that needs to be dealt with swifty, but we have to ask why are Catholic priests held to a higher standard? Why if a Baptist minister molests someone is it dealt with quietly in one newspaper yet if a priest does the same thing it makes it on CNN that evening.
Topics: News |
February 8th, 2008 at 8:43 am
You ask a good question: Why do molesting Baptist ministers get less press coverage than priests? And for anyone who doubts that Baptists have as big of a problem as Catholics, take a look at all the published cases compiled here. http://www.StopBaptistPredators.org. If Baptists made determinations on “credibly accused” preachers, as Catholics do, that would give reporters still more cases to write about. But of course, Baptists don’t even bother to look at “credible accusations.” A Baptist minister can remain a minister until he’s convicted…and even then, he can sometimes continue.