Child Abuse In The Church — Taking The Gloves Off
"Boston Globe", "Life" Issues, "Spotlight" (movie), activism, anger, awareness, betrayal, Challenge, Change, Child Abuse, Christian Church, citizenship, civics, conflict, conservatism, constitution, courage, Criminal Procedure, critical judgment, Episcopacy, Ethics, Evidence, faithfulness, First Amendment, God, Ideology, Incarceration, injustice, justice, law, Religion, resentment, Secularity, self-serving, separation of Church and State, sorrow, Theodicy, Theology, Tragedy, trust, Uncategorized
This is going to sound really strange coming from me, i.e., coming from someone who has been a life-long fairly radical devotee of the First Amendment, in particular, of both the Amendment’s religion clauses: the “establishment” clause and the “free exercise” clause. But the recent publication of the grand jury’s findings regarding six Pennsylvania dioceses in the matter of priest pedophilia has caused me to radically reassess my attitude toward the latter clause, especially given that two of the six dioceses in question attempted to have judges quash the grand jury proceedings. In particular, I now believe that, for the most part and because of an arguably well-intentioned but exaggerated deference toward the “free exercise” clause, the Nation has pretty much allowed the Church to r...
