The Truth is in, Church Care is More Dangerous for Children Than Government Care


The beautiful country of New Zealand has had for a long time a very dark side. It is facilities which care for children. For various reasons, many children of native people end up being cared for in institutions. Some of the institutions are government but many are run by Christian denominations. The truth is now out there always has been a lot of child abuse in these facilities, more in the ones run by Christians than in government run ones.

The reason for pointing this out is the old saw, especially from the deep Catholics who used to argue here, that pedophiles show up everywhere in society and we are singling out Catholics unfairly. The child abuse in New Zealand occurred in all denominations but was more prevalent in religious facilities than in government-run facilities. The Catholics stood out as most evil because they had a centralized system of assigning priests and quietly moved them around to continue their crimes. 

Also sad in all of this is to see otherwise intelligent people believing in the faith and defending it when parts are absolutely harmful. We've seen it on this site and around the world.

It's instinctive to wonder why this occurs more frequently in religious-run organizations. Do people with sexual attraction toward children enter the industry call religion because they think it presents an opportunity to act out their impulses? Certainly we cannot conclude this from the information we have. Probably we will never know. 

There is a solution. That is to end unsupervised access to children. Christianity wants numbers to finance its ship and sees children as potential income streams. Those in responsible positions need to assume the worst about adults working with children.

Residence facilities are the ones sighted in the link. One reads about so many other circumstances that give pause. Regularly there are retreats, camps, field trips, etc. sponsored by denominations. Christian sites are full of articles admonishing the faithful to expand their outreach to children and teens. I hope the safety of children is part of the efforts to recruit children into the faith.  

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