Talking about the "things that matter most" on May 25
4:00 – Religion, Reason, and Same-Sex Marriage
In the contemporary debate on the future of marriage, there appears to be, amid many uncertainties, one sure thing. Those who publicly defend traditional marriage can count on being denounced as haters, bigots, or irrational theocrats—and perhaps all of these at once. Matthew Franck is here to discuss the faulty reasoning behind the claim that opposition to gay marriage is an irrational prejudice.
4:20 – The Divorce Survival Kit
Catholic author Rose Sweet has written and produced a powerful series featuring divorced Catholic men and women who share their inspiring stories. Unlike any other program, the CDSG includes the counsel of some of the brightest and best in Catholic media. Too many people stay stuck in their pain and don’t know how to find their way “home”. The CDSG was created to move the divorce or separated Catholic past the pain of divorce so they can find the Love that truly satisfies in the Sacraments. Rose joins us.
4:40 – The John Jay Report: An Analysis
A $2 million study commissioned by the U.S. bishops is not likely to put to rest questions about the causes of the sexual abuse crisis in the priesthood. The study by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York cites the sexual permissiveness of the 1960s and poor seminary training as the root causes of the crisis. Despite the report showing that nearly 80 percent of victims were post-pubescent and adolescent males, the study concludes that clinical data “do not support the hypothesis that priests with a homosexual identity ... are significantly more likely to sexually abuse.” Dr. Richard Fitzgibbons, a top psychiatrist and authority on treating sexually abusive priests said that he is “very critical” of the findings because they avoid discussing important causal factors in clerical sex abuse cases, namely homosexuality. Dr. Fitzgibbons is here to make his case.
5:00 – Harold Camping and the “Rapture Trap”
May 21 has come and gone and born-again Christians are still here. When his prophecy did not come true, and after hiding out in a motel over the weekend, Harold Camping now says that a “spiritual judgment” did take place over the weekend. He says the rest of his prophecy of the Rapture will come true on October 21, as scheduled. Paul Thigpen, author of The Rapture Trap: A Catholic Response to "End Times" Fever, is here to draw from Tradition, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Church history, and contemporary experience to reveal the shortcomings of the rapture doctrine and the larger tangle of twisted religious teachings to which it is tied.
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The latest physiological studies place the current age of ONSET of puberty for american males at 12; this onset decreased from 50 years ago when it was 14. Puberty is a physical and physiological change which takes place over two to four years, not just a couple of months.
ReplyDeleteThe distinguishing characteristic of pedophilia is sexual attraction to individuals who exhibit few or no secondary sexual characteristics (pubic hair, axillary hair, enlarged genitals, etc.). Specific age limits such as “older than 10” simply do not apply, since it's very common for 11 and 12 year olds to not exhibit secondary sexual characteristics.
This Is The Crucial Point: You can only claim that there was only a tiny minority of true pedophiles in the population of molesters if, and only if, you define anyone over the age of 10 as being post-pubescent and thus the victim of homosexual predation and not pedophilia. Since the study conflates both pre-pubescent and adolescents together, it can make the false claim that these were not victims of pedophiles.
That being said, heterosexual men, even immensely aroused heterosexual men, simply do not perform sexual favors on teenaged boys. Ever. Not even when they're really, really drunk. Regardless of the JJC's ridiculous inaccuracies regarding puberty, a significant portion of victims were males exhibiting at least some secondary sexual characteristics. However, the John Jay claim that this isn't true homosexuality but simply the case of “any port in a storm” is asinine in it’s ignorance of human behavior.
The first scandal is the willingness on the part of a very small minority of priests to sexually abuse both children and adolescents for the purposes of sexual and ego gratification.
The second and IMO larger and more impactful scandal, is the fact that a significant majority of Bishops in the US who have been confronted with this situation, have chosen to cover it up. Practiced as they were in making sacrifices, they willingly and repeatedly chose to sacrifice “someone else’s” children, rather than let any priest look bad.
The third and most disseminated scandal to me is threefold: One, the ongoing willingness of American Bishops to continue lying and distorting the truth about what happened; Two, the willingness of so-called “orthodox” celebu-catholics and clerical apologists (not to mention uncritical, unthinking and ever unprepared catholic "journalists" ) to assist in disseminating these propagandistic lies; and thirdly, the utter, willing gullibility of some catholics in believing these lies when the lies confirm their biases.
The question remains as to why so many Bishops overwhelmingly chose to lie over and over; and why so many of them are still working to propagate those lies. Another question for me, is why do so many of my fellow orthodox Catholics find this both completely acceptable, and in many cases, worthy of emulation?
Remember when we only saw or heard of the Bishops around confirmation time? Marriages stayed together with little conjecture or marriage classes. God just told people what to do and they did it. Few people had extra $$$ to attend anything except the drive end, Family events, Church, Picnics . The whole Family traveled in cars or the bus if you had no car.
ReplyDeleteEveryone said hello to a long distance caller. Work and School were main topics not travel. Dinner was the main event of the day after work,cleaning and school.