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Nr 13 - The non-Catholic Church
abusers
INTRODUCTION- Mark Owen In recent years the Catholic Church has been in the news for all the wrong reasons - chiefly - but not solely - because of the widespread sexual, emotional and physical abuse of children. It would, however, be a grave mistake to believe that the Church of Rome is alone in this regard. We are often unwilling to admit just how widespread and pervasive - often in subtle forms - is child abuse. And, as we have seen in many news reports, all manner of people get found out as abusers - not only clergy but politicians, police, teachers and just about anyone, especially those who have close contact with young people. As I write this a new major case has erupted in the world press, embracing alleged pedophiles in several countries. In another paper I have dealt with some of the abuses linked to the Catholic Church. In this paper I draw attention to abuses perpetrated in religions ranging all the way from staid Anglicans (Episcopalians in the USA) to hot gospeller Baptists and Pentecostalists. And let us not leave out the various quasi-Christian sects, e.g. the Jehovah's Witnesses. Anyone who thinks that the Christian religion is sexless needs to think again. Indeed, there are often strange links manifested between human sexuality and religion. The Austrian sexologist Wilhelm Stekel, who wrote extensively in the first half of the 20th century, certainly believed strongly in such links and, indeed, discovered in a large proportion of his patients a personal history that indicated a close connection between religion and sex. Since then many studies have dealt with this topic. A psychologist, Theodore Schroeder, in the early part of this century claimed: All religion in its beginning is
a mere misinterpretation of sex-ecstasy, and the religion of today is,
only the, essentially unchanged, evolutionary product, of psychological
perversion . . . Thus literally may we say 'God is love' - sex-love,
sometimes in disguise and indistinctly recognized as such, by the lover
whose lovesick longings even now create a god to take the place of the
undiscovered and much-craved human lover.
Thus it is that beneath the veneer of highly moral behaviour espoused by the Church there is often hidden a strong element of sexuality which may manifest itself in a way that disguises its true wellspring. How else explain the fact that dedicated Christians, who claim to believe in the sanctity of marriage are probably, according to some accounts, just as likely to end up divorced as their non-believer counterparts? Clearly sexual attraction has played a major role in destroying many marriages. SADISM EVIDENT But the sex instinct is not always so obvious. Thus the notorious activities of those Anglican clergy of the 18th century who ran little boarding schools. Few reports of actual sexual abuse have emerged from those far-off times but it was common for these martinets to inflict cruel punishments on their small charges, and it is well known fact that sadism is a distorted manifestation of sexuality. Doubtless these men of GOD might well enjoy forcing their victim to strip naked before the castigation or at the very least would belabour their naked buttocks. And, as any tyro sexologist knows, naked buttocks are a strong sexual turn-on to many. In more recent times many of their counterparts in the multiplied sects also enjoyed punishing small children. David Koresh who headed the Branch Davidians, a cult involved in a shoot-out with the FBI in Waco, Texas, was well known for the cruel punishments he meted out to children in the cult. One report claimed he had beaten an 8-months-old girl for 40 minutes after she refused to sit on his lap. She ended up with bruised and bleeding buttocks. This was perhaps the worst of many beatings Koresh administered to members' children but he was not alone. Jim Jones, the leader of the People's Temple cult that perished drinking poisoned soft-drinks, was also a child abuser. Among other punishments including beatings (which were often also administered to adults!) he would consign a child to the bottom of a well for a night. But moving away from the more extreme offshoots of the Church we find the physical punishment of children a frequent theme in teachings of fundamentalist churches. Biblical verses, e.g. 'Withhold not correction from the child. For if thou beat him with the rod, he shall not die.' (Proverbs 23: 13) are invoked to support corporal punishment and many Christian schools with a fundamentalist background employ the strap and paddle on their pupils. But woe betide the poor child who gets consigned to some institutions. At Rebekah Home for Girls, a facility for delinquents run in Texas by a preacher, Lester Roloff, 65, punishments were notorious and hit world headlines in the 1970s. Girls were not only beaten with a paddle on their bare buttocks so viciously that extensive bruising resulted but any who attempted to escape were recaptured and tied up for long periods or put into solitary confinement cells for days. Another punishment reported by inmates was to tie a girl seated on a toilet and leave her there for long periods. And as for the Christian schools there are manifold reports of excessive corporal punishment. Michael Johnson, aged 6, received seventeen blows with a paddle and showed severe bruising, resulting in James Woodring, principal of the Fellowship Christian School in the USA being charged with child abuse. He was acquitted. Evidently beating a 6-year-old viciously is not considered a crime in Christian America. But not all abusers get away with it. 16-year-old Michelle Dwyer was bruised from a beating at Cookson Hill Christian School, resulting in Kansas authorities refusing to licence the school. FUNDAMENTALIST BEATINGS Timothy Fischer, aged 5, was beaten with an 45 cm long redwood paddle at Northpoint Baptist Church. The boy tried to conceal his livid bruises and his mother found out he'd been threatened with more punishment if he told. His mother was shocked when she saw his black-and-blue bottom. It transpired that the small boy had first been spanked twice by a female teacher then the job was finished off by the minister, the Rev. Wayne Dillabaugh. The little boy broke down in court and had to be removed; as a result the pastor was not convicted. 'GOD wins again!' was the jubilant cry of this hypocrite. Justice American-style! Another representative of the Christ-god, the Rev. Dwight Wymer developed a special electric punishment chair. Unlike in the matter of the use of the rod, there can be no possible Biblical support for Mr Wymer's activities as the Bible knows nothing of electricity! Mr Wymer, an American Baptist minister, from Grand Rapids, lovingly built the little chair himself, a sort of stool with a metal screen covering and a hole cut in the seat, the screen being connected to a battery via a switch. Children as young as six, boys and girls, had been getting the shock treatment for some years, when the matter hit newspapers across America. A photo was shown of 8-year-old Brian Tenhopen receiving his shock with a look of terror and pain on his face. A Christian day-care centre called Love-N-Care was refused a licence renewal by authorities when a teacher was convicted of paddling an eighteen-months-old baby. And when a divorced father of a 9-year-old boy was charged with child abuse in Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1981, the local fundamentalists turned on a march to protest against 'interference by the state' in parental rights. But the man had beaten his son severely on his bottom with a ruler that the boy had been removed from his custody. The stories go on and on but we must also turn out attention to direct sexual abuse. An Australian ABC-TV program quoted an estimate that as many as 20 percent of church members of all denominations had experienced varying degrees of sexual abuse. The history of English boarding schools, cathedrals and suchlike places has evidence a-plenty of goings on with the choirboys. It certainly happens among the Pentecostalists; it happens among the sects - Pastor Russell, founder of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, played around with female members of his flock. The goings-on among the early Mormons, especially involving their founder, Joseph Smith, are well documented. While many of these activities involved adults children were also involved. CHILD SEX ABUSE It is not so easy to document the many cases of child sex abuse in the non-Catholic churches and groups as they are widespread, often involving just a small church or limited area. But a few typical cases will demonstrate that Catholics do not have the whole field to themselves. Here are a few samples. Gallie Isaac Sr., 78, Pastor of Isaac Park Free Baptist Church in Kentucky, who was convicted of the sodomy and sexual abuse of four boys aged 11 to 14 at the time (from 1984-94). 'He was saying stuff like "God's watching you, and you're doing good" and "All the boys do this," reported one of the abused boys. In 1995 Steve Lamberson, a former minister of the Liberty Heights Free Will Baptist Church in Tulsa, was sentenced to five years' jail for molesting a girl when she was 13 and 14. In 1996 a Methodist pastor, John A. Weller, on Pickneyville, Illinois, was sentenced to three years in jail for sexually molesting two teenage boys. It was claimed that he had had sexual relations with up to 10 boys. In 1996 Pastor Barry Katzer, 33, a Seventh Day Adventist minister, pleaded guilty to having sexual relations with a minor. He was sentenced to 11 months in prison. He met the boy, aged 13, through an Internet chat room. It was justice delayed in the case of a Deacon and Child Psychologist [sic!] at Parkdale Baptist Church in Houston, James Plaisted. He was accused of the sexual abuse in 1985 of a 6-year-old boy patient. But in court he managed to convince a jury that the child was 'a habitual liar and pyromaniac' and he was acquitted. But eventually his evil activities caught up with him and in 1995 he was sentenced to 2 years in prison for the federal offence of transporting a minor across state lines to engage in sexual activity. Later he pleaded guilty to five counts of aggravated sexual assault against 4 girls and was sentenced to 40 years in state prison. Plaisted, incidentally, had four children of his own. There are thousands of stories out there. A whole book could be devoted to the various offshoots of the Mormon faith - the self-appointed 'prophets' many of whom seem to take an unhealthy interest in young girls, in some cases forcing them into arranged marriages. A few searches on Google will reveal a wealth of damning information about Christian clergy malfeasance. Of course it is perfectly true as I have already noted that abusers come from all walks of life but there is a difference. In the case of the Christian Church this institution continually parades itself as the moral guardian of the world so the hypocrisy evident in the two-faced approach to morality is appalling. HYPOCRISY AND DECEIT Many of the aspects of Christian abuse will be seen in the following story. Late in June 1997 a court case was being considered in which eight children had charged the Cornerstone Baptist Church of Colorado Springs, Colorado, with battery in the form of ‘offensive touching’. The Church had, it was alleged, baptized the children against their will. In addition an 11-year-old boy alleged he had been sexually abused during a baptism ritual. The children said they had suffered mentally and physically as a result of their experience and the parents claim their parental rights have been violated. A sum of $US 600,000 was being sought in damages. The Colorado church is well known for its aggressive evangelistic efforts, especially among the young. For many years the church has conducted carnivals designed to entice children into their fold. In former years written permission was sought from parents but from the early 1990s the church dispensed with this because, they said, ‘it slows us down’. The church reportedly has a fleet of 16 buses which are sent out to scour the area looking for children to snare. Children, aged from 7 years of age and upwards, were invited to a carnival, in which they would, it was said, participate in ‘the world’s greatest water fight’. Food, drinks and confectionary were promised as enticements, and the children would be provided with squirt-pistols, involved in games and generally have a great time. Parents had readily given permission, including a Jewish woman, Mrs Audrey Ausgotharp, whose 7-year-old son Wayne was, claimed the church, ‘accidentally’ baptized during Sunday school. However, the promises were false, and once at the church the children were, in the words of the indictment, ‘herded, led, directed, enticed, tricked, and inveigled into a room . . . where they were directed to remove their clothes.’ They were left standing naked in front of a group of strangers while baptismal robes were handed to each. According to the children - this claim debated by church officials - instead of having fun they were then subjected to a 30-minute ranting sermon, warning of eternity in hell for anyone not accepting Jesus as saviour. They were then, again in the words of the indictment, ‘harassed, threatened, intimidated, frightened, and shocked with threats of the devil, the sting of bees, and other such intimidating imagery.’ They were then baptized by full immersion in a dunk tank. All of this took place without the knowledge or permission of the children’s parents, who had allowed them to attend the carnival under a misapprehension as to its true nature. When a parent later contacted the church to inquire about the practice she was told by a staff member that the church ‘had a duty to all those, regardless of age, who accepted Jesus Christ as their saviour and wished to confirm this through baptism.’ There was a 1993 legal suit against the same church also alleging children had been coerced into being baptized [All cases mentioned are subject to later appeal. Sometimes convictions are overturned.[ © Mark Owen, 2011 - http://www.piperpost.net |
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