Is sexual abuse among clergy unique to Catholics?

Question

My commentary on this question is found at:

http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-S6YMuFYyaa9ESBoW5DFwEjL_HhqA?p=95

Answer 1

Sexual abuse is certainly not unique to Catholic clergy, but as the largest Christian organization in the United States, the Church has been a tempting target for lawsuits, many of which rely on false memories of events decades ago.

The Catholic League reports:
According to a survey by the Washington Post, over the last four decades, less than 1.5 percent of the estimated 60,000 or more men who have served in the Catholic clergy have been accused of child sexual abuse.[iv] According to a survey by the New York Times, 1.8 percent of all priests ordained from 1950 to 2001 have been accused of child sexual abuse.[v] Thomas Kane, author of Priests are People Too, estimates that between 1 and 1.5 percent of priests have had charges made against them.[vi] Of contemporary priests, the Associated Press found that approximately two-thirds of 1 percent of priests have charges pending against them.[vii]

Almost all the priests who abuse children are homosexuals. Dr. Thomas Plante, a psychologist at Santa Clara University, found that “80 to 90% of all priests who in fact abuse minors have sexually engaged with adolescent boys, not prepubescent children. Thus, the teenager is more at risk than the young altar boy or girls of any age.”[viii]
http://www.catholicleague.org/research/abuse_in_social_context.htm

Protestant churches have at least as great a problem. Christian Science Monitor: “Despite headlines focusing on the priest pedophile problem in the Roman Catholic Church, most American churches being hit with child sexual-abuse allegations are Protestant, and most of the alleged abusers are not clergy or staff, but church volunteers.”[xxi]

In the authoritative work by Penn State professor Philip Jenkins, Pedophiles and Priests, it was determined that between .2 and 1.7 percent of priests are pedophiles. The figure among the Protestant clergy ranges between 2 and 3 percent.[xxii]

Nor are rabbis exempt: Rabbi Joel Meyers, executive vice president of the Conservative Rabbinical Assembly, reports that 30 percent of rabbis who changed positions in 2000 did so involuntarily, and that sexual abuse was a factor in many instances.[xxiv] The Awareness Center devotes an entire website to “Clergy Abuse: Rabbis, Cantors & Other Trusted Officials.” It is a detailed and frank look at the problem of sexual abuse by rabbis.[xxv]

The most serious case of sexual abuse outside the home appear in youth sports and in schools:

The American Medical Association found in 1986 that one in four girls, and one in eight boys, are sexually abused in or out of school before the age of 18. Two years later, a study included in The Handbook on Sexual Abuse of Children, reported that one in four girls, and one in six boys, is sexually abused by age 18.[xxix] It was reported in 1991 that 17.7 percent of males who graduated from high school, and 82.2 percent of females, reported sexual harassment by faculty or staff during their years in school. Fully 13.5 percent said they had sexual intercourse with their teacher.[xxx]

Conclusion: Family members are the most likely to sexually molest a child. It also shows that the incidence of the sexual abuse of a minor is slightly higher among the Protestant clergy than among the Catholic clergy, and that it is significantly higher among public school teachers than among ministers and priests.
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My view: Power corrupts, and it requires a very strong conscience to reject the temptations of power. A priest, a minister, a rabbi, a coach, or a school teacher has great authority and also opportunity for sexual abuse. This means we must be very careful in screening out candidates for these positions with any history of sexual abuse, and we must remove anyone at the first instance of abuse. We probably need not tie millstones around their necks and drown them in the depths of the sea, but we should recognize that sexually harming children is about as vicious as sin can get.

Cheers,
Bruce

Answer 2

No
Itis at least as common among clergy of other churches and rabbis(and mullahs too, i'd bet)

It is more common within families,especially by "live in boyfriends".

It seems to be most common in the States within the secular public state school system.

Answer 3

of corse not Father, but because it (the catholic chruch) is Jesus's chruch it get noted because Jesus said His church will be persecuted, even tho it happens in other demoninations everyone sits up and takes notice that is a priest. they hated him first they will also hate us. they dont realize we also hate the sin, but dont leave, why? Because scandal will not make us leave, at least not me, tho scandal has made some leave, where else is there to go, only Jesus has the words of eternal life, and Jesus's church is where Jesus is, I will never leave, not ever!!

Answer 4

no, attempted by babtist. Luckally I was stong enough to refuse.