Are religious people more likely to engage in sexual abuse of children?

Question

What effect does being religious have on how the religious treat other people?

Answer 1

and may God have mercy on your soul.

Answer 2

No, they aren't.

Unfortunately, pedeophilia is a disease or a dysfunction that is spread across the populace as a whole.

Many religious leaders just have better access to their victims than say John the Sewer dude.

While I would love to be able to, we can't blame a single religion or even religion in general for the bad behavior of a relatively small group.

Christians comprise roughly 1 billion people, of that, Catholics are the largest group. Even if we are talking about 200 men, that is so statistically insignificant, it is like a pebble in the ocean.

Answer 3

The abuses carried out by priests are statistically lower than the national average. Yet the national average probably includes religious people. So it is quite difficult to get an accurate reading. Even defining religious is no simple task.

Answer 4

I work in a residential program for children who are suffering from the extreme trauma of of sexual abuse. This is not hard data, but it appears we have a significant percentage of children raised in conservative religious environments. I am not talking just about priest's victims. I am talking about xtian fundamentalist. Certainly the not-so-holy-roman-catholic-church has also had a enormous amount of sexual abuse of children protected by its leaders and kept safe and secret for years.

Personally, I do not believe the religious belief make it more likely for them to engage in sexual abuse. Rather, I believe people that are likely to offend often gravitate to the strict, defined rules of conservative religion. They feel comfortable with the black and white rules of these world views. Rather than deal with their sexual issues they find it easier to just believe sex is bad. When the unchecked demon of their own broken selves arises, they are in place were they can hide. These religions teach that authority figures like priest, pastors, and family fathers are not to be questioned. The "bible" teaches children and wives to "obey" men, the catholic church teaches that the priesthood is not to be questioned. This gives the men a lot of power. Abusers us these beliefs to commit horrible crimes and hide them in the structure of the family or church. We are seeing the same thing in congress, were a powerful conservative man's own demons of abuse caught up with him. Then the powerful conservative Republican leadership did not stop it. They used their power to hide it. It is very similar to what happens in conservative religious homes and churches. Xtian's, conservatives, catholics, and even political republicans should think long and hard about how their belief and power structures do not cause sexual abuse, but create an environments were the abuser hides.

Answer 5

as sad as this may sound, a majority of convicted sexual predators have been christians. and ill tell why i think this is. the christian, well jewish and islam as well, repress most natural human urges. were very sexual creature, most of us think about it constantly in one form or another. however religion looks at that as wrong and unnatural, so religious people push the thoughts down and down and down, causing them to grow and fester and mutate. some people can handle it, however some people have weak or unstable minds and they lose control.

a good analogy would stuffing to much grain into a sack, eventually that sack is going to rupture and the grain will spill out everywhere.

Answer 6

I am going to say Yes. Perverts come in all shapes, sizes, genders, and beliefs. If you look at it statically it is likely that the perpetrator will be religious simply because the world has more religious than not.

Answer 7

No!..... Only pretenters to be religious people posing as a religious person are more likely to engage in sexual abuse of children and everthing else perverted!......simple as that!...

Answer 8

They are no more likely to abuse children than any other member of society. It's sad that because of the news accounts of some sick members of the clergy it is assumed that religious people are pedophiles.

Answer 9

Even interior the regulation of guys, each and every physique is harmless till shown responsible. The Bible theory pronounced interior the e book of Matthew concerning bringing a witness (in any rely or situation) does not unavoidably advise having the sufferer relive the incident. Even in court docket, a sufferer is asks to testify. apart from, the elders of the congregation has the accountability to maintain the congregation clean and that is contributors secure... and can persist with Bibile concepts to impressive concerns. If government might desire to be recommended, so be it! in accordance to the Watchtower magazine of August 1st 2005: ..."The sufferer has each and every top to record the situation to the police. in this form the right government can punish the criminal. And if the sufferer is a minor, the mothers and fathers might desire to commence up those strikes." and a few effectual innovations from the wakeful magazine, ninety 3 3/8 9-10 while you're Raped ? seek for scientific interest. ? in case you choose, ask that a rape-sufferer counselor accompany you thru scientific and criminal techniques if one is attainable. ? call the police as quickly as you will possibly be able to. Counselors propose reporting on your secure practices and for the secure practices of different women human beings. Reporting isn't comparable to prosecuting, yet once you choose to prosecute later, your case would be weakened via a in the back of schedule record. ? guard data. do no longer bathe, exchange clothing, wash or comb hair, or smash fingerprints or footprints. ? scientific workers will assemble data and could try for sexually transmitted illnesses and being pregnant. in the event that they grant being pregnant prevention drugs, in any different case common as a morning-after pill, Christians might desire to be conscious that such drugs might reason the physique to abort a fertilized egg. ? Do what you will possibly desire to with the intention to sense secure—exchange locks, stay with a pal, block your door—whether it variety of feels which you’re overreacting or no longer. ? notably, look to the Scriptures for convenience, praying to Jehovah, even calling aloud his call, throughout the time of and after the attack. Lean on the elders and different close acquaintances interior the congregation for help. Attend conferences if in any respect a threat, and seek for companionship with fellow Christians interior the ministry.

Answer 10

If it in instructed that "sex is bad, sex is sin, blah blah blah," it could have such a negative effect. Sexual desire is part of the human design; constraining it (like the Catholics do) is a tragedy, for when sexuality is constrained, it is not stopped; it merely finds another venue with which to act. It is a sin to deny one's human nature, because it is always there!

Answer 11

Sadly, yes, since all religious texts say that children are your property, to do with as you please. And its not mostly Catholic priests, its more the southern Baptist, Pentecostals, Mormons, Jehova's Witnesses and Muslims. they all just jump on the priests since the children getting abused don't 'belong ' to the abuser.