The dark side of the church.

[bindeweede]

Legaleagle, "The dark side of the church" is the title given in the article to the series of images found in the second link.

[Dubious Dick]

I would certainly like to see a study of the effects of enforced celibacy on sexual behaviour. I find it highly unlikely that this un-natural method of property retention, as opposed to any religious belief, has not had an impact.

Of course, to add to the charge sheet one can lay vast numbers of deaths and huge amount of suffering caused by the opposition to birth control and abortion. Should we mention Saint Mother Theresa here?

If the combination of the these issues is not condemnation enough, I beg to ask what would be?

[Pebble]

Lest anyone mistakenly think the report into Irish Catholic priests refers to early in the 20th century it does not. Though from the 1980s on their control on incare children diminished considerably and the abuse rate subsequently fell, this remained a problem in to the 1990s.

Example

http://news.smh.com.au/world/sexabus...1224-74j9.html

The report found that Magee and his senior advisers in the County Cork diocese of Cloyne fielded a range of complaints from parishioners about two priests from 1995 onward - but told the police nothing until 2003 and little thereafter. The report said Cloyne church authorities appeared to be solely concerned about helping the two priests, not protecting the children of the area.

[Graham Lappin]

.....Of course, to add to the charge sheet one can lay vast numbers of deaths and huge amount of suffering caused by the opposition to birth control and abortion.....

If the combination of the these issues is not condemnation enough, I beg to ask what would be?

I interpreted the initial posts as equating the organised upper echelons of the catholic church with the everyday followers, which I thought was decidedly wrong. Perhaps I misinterpreted this and certainly subsequent posts have been somewhat more analytical and expressive. The priests I have talked to I thought very misguided rather than deliberately evil. I will now withdraw.

[Pebble]

I interpreted the initial posts as equating the organised upper echelons of the catholic church with the everyday followers, which I thought was decidedly wrong. Perhaps I misinterpreted this and certainly subsequent posts have been somewhat more analytical and expressive. The priests I have talked to I thought very misguided rather than deliberately evil. I will now withdraw.

It does get very close to the issue of religious hatred, and on the other thread racism. The question I suppose is how to deal with being highly indignant at aspects of behaviour, without allowing this to spill over or apparently spill over into overt hatred. However, analytical one pretends to be, it is the emotive response that leads to the effort required to gather and analyze the evidence. This is I think true on both sides of the argument, hence the heat.

It is nevertheless odd to see so much righteous indignation on a skeptics site!