Deception and Sex Offenders

A recent piece in the Religious News Service, written by a "religious man" (whatever that means), attributes to religion both sex offenses by religious workers and the strategies they use in court to be given softer sentences.

Without in any way condoning sexual abuse, I would like to suggest that another great deception is to equate a person's chosen career path within a religious organization with the entire social phenomenon of religion, defined broadly as a relationship of love with the transcendent.

This is tantamount to blaming the social phenomenon of science, defined broadly as the search for knowledge, and the institutions we have built around it, for the sex offenses of scientists, researchers, teachers, editors, and the academia in general.

It is as if we blamed the economy, defined broadly as the supply and demand of good and services, and the institutions we have built around it, for the sex offenses of businesses and their owners/workers, or the social phenomenon of politics, defined broadly as management of the res publica, and the institutions we have built around it, for all sex offenses of politicians and public servants.

It is similar to blaming justice and the institutions we have built around it for the sex offenses of attorneys and judges, police and lawmakers, or health and the institutions we have built around it for the sex offensives of health workers. The list could go on and on...

Many of the sex offenders mentioned in the above paragraphs have used the same strategies in court as those mentioned in the essay, which are actually commonly prescribed by good attorneys in almost all trials. but the social phenomena and institutions around which they have built their careers are not being attacked for those deeds.

We need to clear away the discursive cobwebs that have been built around religion as a social phenomenon if we are to have any chance of dealing with the real issues relating to its uses and abuses, both current and historical.