Religious Institutions as Havens for Pedophiles (Book Notes: God vs. the Gavel)

The single biggest issue facing the Catholic Church in recent years has been the revelations of decades of priestly sexual abuse of children - and the subsequent cover-ups by bishops as well as some secular authorities. Other churches and religious organizations have had to contend with this as well, so is there anything inherent in religious institutions that makes them susceptible?

In God vs. the Gavel: Religion and the Rule of Law, Marci A. Hamilton writes:

Religious institutions have been havens for pedophiles for three reasons.

First, up until now, society has so trusted clergy that no one questioned the priest or pastor or elder who volunteered to spend extra time with Bobby.

Second, religion is an authoritative structure in a person’s life, so that demands by clergy are oftentimes equated with commands from God and therefore are treated as imperatives.

Third, religious institutions, especially those that form tight-knit communities, often succumb to the temptation to shield their public moral position by keeping internal sexual abuse secret, which ensures the authorities will not be contacted and permits the pedophile to continue to operate.

The circumstances are tailor-made for the child molester. In the words of a former elder of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the religious organization can be a “pedophile paradise,” especially where it features a “closed society, elder authority, (and a) masculine dominated society.”

Obviously these sorts of problems can occur in a secular organization as well. It doesn't take a religion for group leaders to be trusted with children, for group leaders to have a great deal of authority, and for groups leaders to be more concerned with public image than justice. In religious institutions, however, all of these problems can become magnified very easily.

Authority, for example, can become much more significant and much more imposing when it is believed that this authority either comes directly from God or is at least sanctified by God and God's representatives. Even when it's difficult to question a secular leader, it's still much easier to question such a leader than it is to question a priest or minister who speaks on behalf of God in some fashion.

The desire to protect the community from bad publicity may also be stronger in religious communities, I think, because the stakes are so much higher. After all, a loss of public confidence and trust in religious leaders may lead to a decline in religious membership and belief; this, in turn, may imperil people's souls. Thus, for the good of people's eternal fates, it may be deemed necessary to lie and cover up crimes which are thus accorded a much lower status in the grand scheme of things.

As is so often the case, the problems in religion are only ever problems in ourselves. As human institutions, there is nothing about religion which is not already inherent in ourselves. What makes religion especially problematic is the manner in which it magnifies our faults far beyond what may occur in other contexts. In the end, then, it is arguable that religion can make us much worse than we are.

 

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