The Catholic Church isn't the only denomination that has struggled with the concept of reporting accusations of child sexual abuse to the police, rather than trying to handle as much as possible internally in deference to ancient religious laws and the avoidance of scandal. Hasn't every religious group -- or secular organization that oversees children -- sinned at some level?
But just in case we needed a reminder, with a new press release from Agudath Israel of America, ultra-Orthodox Judaism seems to be jockeying for a close second in the "Seriously?! What about the children?!" department. The key excerpts:
Where there is "raglayim la'davar" (roughly, reason to believe) that a child has been abused or molested, the matter should be reported to the authorities...However, where the circumstances of the case do not rise to the threshold level of raglayim la'davar, the matter should not be reported to the authorities. In the words of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, perhaps the most widely respected senior halachic authority in the world today, "I see no basis to permit" reporting "where there is no raglayim la'davar, but rather only 'eizeh dimyon' (roughly, some mere conjecture); if we were to permit it, not only would that not result in 'tikun ha'olam', it could lead to 'heres haolam' (destruction of the world)." ...
Because the question of reporting has serious implications for all parties, and raises sensitive halachic issues, the individual should not rely exclusively on his own judgment to determine the presence or absence of raglayim la'davar. Rather, he should present the facts of the case to a rabbi who is expert in halacha and who also has experience in the area of abuse and molestation -- someone who is fully sensitive both to the gravity of the halachic considerations and the urgent need to protect children. (In addition, as Rabbi Yehuda Silman states in one of his responsa [Yeshurun, Volume 15, page 589], "of course it is assumed that the rabbi will seek the advice of professionals in the field as may be necessary.") It is not necessary to convene a formal bais din (rabbinic tribunal) for this purpose, and the matter should be resolved as expeditiously as possible to minimize any chance of the suspect continuing his abusive conduct while the matter is being considered.
Two obvious areas of concern, though others have also been noted on the FailedMessiah blog:
1. Who/what determines if an accusation is "reason to believe" vs. "mere conjecture?" (Keep in mind that under some interpretations of Jewish law, a 12-year-old victim can be considered an adult, two witnesses must confirm the crime and women may not count -- standards incompatible with modern-day criminal justice.)
2) In what way is a rabbi trained to investigate an abuse claim that falls under the "mere conjecture" category? Who are these rabbis who are experts in this area?
Sigh. Sounds familiar? Can we not agree that clergy are not CSI experts, and that suspected crimes should be reported promptly to the police for a proper investigation? Religious courts can conduct parallel investigations to handle issues like defrocking and spiritual counseling, but after all that's come to light in the past decade, it's shocking that there's still an argument being made among traditional Jews, Catholics and others that father/rabbi knows best.
This article first ran at Beliefnet's Belief Beat blog.
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The Catholic church is the world's largest pedophile protection program, and they are a reprehensible church which has destroyed a great religion.
At the Episcopal Church, such charges are taken seriously. I am not aware of any instance where a sexual predator has been harbored, or where the Church has failed to take such charges to the police. Priests or other clergy found doing these things are not moved to other places to serve. Again, this is according to what I have been able to find online. Every accusation of sexual misconduct appears to be followed by the resignation of the minister and action by the authorities.
I also not a very high rate of child sexual abuse among Baptist pastors. Perhaps because the Baptist churches are more independent and do not have such a firm denominational hierarchy, the problem among the Baptist churches is overlooked and not viewed as a systemic issue.
In any case, all denominations and individual churches should produce clear statements regarding what will happen on presentation of an accusation of sexual abuse. It should be written into the constitution of each church.
Thoughts? Anyone else?
Different religions have different challenges: one thing I know is that it certainly helps not to raise kids with some notions of shame, stigma, silence, and submission about sex and authority. Those shadows are the abuser's ally, not the victims'.
Teaching kids to have good boundaries and be strong in themselves, as well as trusting the adults around if they should need help or feel sketched-out goes a long way. They're their own first line of defense. Not teaching that sex is a 'taboo' or 'dirty' or 'sinful' subject helps a lot, that way, also having strong community values against *any* kind of abuse, including physical, emotional, and spiritual also helps. I think that when some churches treat sexual abuse as primarily a 'sexual sin' rather than *abuse* it ends up burdening the victims with the whole 'sin' thing, especially if it's claimed that authorities have a perfect right to abuse in other ways.
(Have to split this one up for space reasons)
There's areas we need to watch, as a scattered, oft-defamed minority, (It doesn't help that the media likes to sensationalize any story about criminals who have so much as a Tarot deck, even if their idea of Pagan religion is some garbled, self-serving scheme that'd be like someone claiming Christianity meant sacrificing turkeys on Easter or something) but all the major organizations have signed onto a strong policy of reporting to the authorities: compared to what our self-policing could be like, that's a piece of mercy.
I'm sure they have. But I don't think any of them have done so at a level on par with the Roman Catholic Church. That's probably because only the Catholics have a rigid, obedient hierarchy that extends throughout the globe; nobody else is really capable of operating such a vast criminal conspiracy.