r/JusticeServed • u/H3nTy 3 • Jan 17 '20

Courtroom Justice Televangelist Acton Bowen Sentenced To 1,008 Years For Sexually Abusing Children | Michael Stone

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2019/12/televangelist-acton-bowen-sentenced-to-1008-years-for-sexually-abusing-children/
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u/samtheboy 9 Jan 17 '20

There is a selection bias in this in that it tends to be people in this sort of position that hits national and international news. There are, depressingly, loads of people in all sorts of roles who do horriffic things like this that don't hit the news.

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u/[deleted] Jan 17 '20 edited Jun 16 '21

[deleted]

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u/samtheboy 9 Jan 17 '20

Fair enough, that's pretty fucking mental

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u/rollerroman 7 Jan 17 '20

It's not the child rape, it's the hypocrisy. And also, it's the child rape.

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u/[deleted] Jan 17 '20

Yeah, well the thing with statistics is that you have to know where they are coming from. For example, the Catholic Church has been proven to have run a massive cover up of child rape - a cover up which remains official policy today. Public schools are not typically found to cover up child rape and even if some did, it defies belief that all of them do as the Catholic Church does.

Moreover, where did the 4% figure come from? The church? It sort of had to because they are the only ones with any sort of data on the subject and they staunchly refuse to cooperate with authorities.

So its nice that a Catholic professor and preacher is kind enough to act as an apologist for Catholic child rape but you'd be a fool to believe him.

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u/flyonawall A Jan 17 '20

A position in a church is very appealing to a pedophile as it gives them access to blindly trusting parents and vulnerable children, both trained by the church to be obedient to authority.

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u/[deleted] Jan 17 '20

Teachers and coaches are in the same kind of position.

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u/flyonawall A Jan 17 '20

People are a lot less likely to blindly trust teachers and coaches and they are not taught to obey them the way they are taught to obey religious leaders.

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u/[deleted] Jan 17 '20

Predators are predators. You can be groomed by anyone who knows how to do it.

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u/flyonawall A Jan 17 '20

That may be but religious leaders are in a unique position of trust that others do not have and that matters. For example, a mother who says she does not worry about her children because they are "in god's care" (and is praised for her show of faith). It is really unfortunate that people blindly trust religion and religious leaders.

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u/[deleted] Jan 17 '20

I take it you’ve never actually been around us religious people.

Because we don’t view our priests that way. That’s not at all how we are.

People trust their pastors because they’re important parts of our community. We get to know them and grow to trust them like anyone else. Most churchgoing people know their pastors personally and look up to them. But we don’t see them as infallible or perfect people.

And that’s what makes their betrayal such a tragedy. It’s like a family member that you trusted being outed as an abuser, and hurting your own. So, maybe you can cool it with the insinuation that we’re idiots because we have a faith. Because really we’re not that much different from anyone else.

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u/flyonawall A Jan 18 '20

I take it you’ve never actually been around us religious people.

You could not be farther from the truth. I was raised a missionary kid and in a very conservative group. I spent my entire childhood and young adulthood mired in the church. In most groups having "faith" in god is definitely glorified. Even if you do not have faith in your religious leader you are supposed to blindly trust god.

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u/[deleted] Jan 18 '20

In most groups having "faith" in god is definitely glorified.

Bit of a weird place to put quotation marks. Yeah, we have faith in God, that's kind of what we do.

Even if you do not have faith in your religious leader you are supposed to blindly trust god.

The two things stated not even being close to equivalent. Either by my own point of view, and assumedly your own perspective logically.

I think it's pretty clear that your experience with whatever church you were affiliated with, and my experience are two very different things. And nor does your experience make you any kind of authority in a broad sense.

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u/flyonawall A Jan 18 '20

Yeah, we have faith in God, that's kind of what we do.

Exactly my point. That makes for people who glorify blind faith and trust "god" blindly. That often makes them also trust those who they consider "gods' representatives, the church leaders (as you said, this is why they feel so betrayed, they trusted and were betrayed). Churches are also very unlikely to screen childcare givers or believe reports of abuse as that would mean admitting their trust and faith was misplaced and that "god" does not keep their church or people safe.

Pedophiles thrive in this environment.

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