Friday, June 15, 2007

Protestants and Sexual Abuse

The Associated Press has a story with the details they obtained from the threee major insurance carriers for Protestant churches in America. The statistics give the amount of claims filed against churches on charges of sexual abuse. While sexual abuse is never anything to make light of, the statistics show that Roman Catholic clergy have not been the only clergy with sinful (and criminal) members.

There have been those who have said that the sexual abuse crisis within the Roman Catholic Church in the U.S. would not have taken place if the Church changed it's discipline of priestly celibacy (I suppose because somehow if these men had someone to consent to sex with, they wouldn't have been looking for someone to coerce into doing it). Check the stats and see if ecclesial communites that allow for a married (or single, but sexually active) clergy really have any immunity from sins against the 6th and/or 9th Commandments.

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