Child abuse: Difference between revisions
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* "'Church' to offer 'miracle cure' despite FDA warnings against drinking bleach" <ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/apr/19/church-group-to-hold-washington-event-despite-fda-warnings-against-miracle-cure]</ref> | |||
===Circumcision/genital mutilation=== | ===Circumcision/genital mutilation=== |
Revision as of 13:13, 20 April 2019
There are many cases of child abuse been committed by religious authority figures. It is also sometimes committed by parents while being religiously justified or inspired. Collectively this is known as religious child maltreatment. The phenomena was documented and analysed by Janet Heimlich in her book Breaking Their Will, which aimed to "expose child abuse and neglect enabled by certain kinds of religious belief". [1]
Sexual abuse by clergy
Since around 2000, the world media has been reporting on widespread child sexual abuse committed by priests. The abuse mostly occurred between 1950 and 1980. At the time of abuse, the age of the victims was typically between 11 and 14 [2] but was as young as 3 years old. The Catholic church, being the largest denomination in Christianity, is the church of a significant proportion of abusers.
It is difficult to estimate the scale of abuse due to victims not coming forward and the secrecy with which religious institutions handle disciplinary matters. In the US, the John Jay Report estimated that 4% of 109,694 Catholic priests were accused of child abuse, with 10,667 people making accusations of child abuse. [2] According to Channel 4 research of public records England and Wales, 37 priests had been convicted of child abuse in this geographic area. [3] Pope Francis estimated that 2% of Catholic priests are paedophiles. [4] However, the true level of abuse is almost certainly much higher.
Cover up
The Catholic church's response to abusive priests was often to cover up the abuse, using a "code of silence" and transferring the priests into new areas where they sometimes continued to abuse children. Information concerning criminal acts was not passed to the police. The motivation for the cover up is often to protect the religious institution. [5] The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child said: [6]
- "[The Vatican] has not acknowledged the extent of the crimes committed, has not taken the necessary measures to address cases of child sexual abuse and to protect children, and has adopted policies and practices which have led to the continuation of the abuse by, and the impunity of, the perpetrators"
The U.N. Committee Against Torture criticised the handling of abusive priests saying: [7]
- "Clergy [...] were transferred to other dioceses and institutions where they remained in contact with minors and others who are vulnerable"
Many other national and regional organisations have come to similar findings. The Vatican has rejected much of the criticism saying it does not directly control abusive priests, and that they are under the direction of local bishops. The largest abuse survivor network in the US, SNAP, dismissed the claimed powerlessness of the Vatican saying: [8]
- "It's terrible to do nothing about a child safety crisis. It's worse to pretend to be powerless about a child safety crisis, especially when such a claim directly contradicts clear evidence to the contrary."
Religious psychological abuse
Several critics of religious upbringing of children have compared the practice to child abuse. Perhaps the most widely reported argument was made by Richard Dawkins:
- "What a child should never be taught is that you are a Catholic or Muslim child, therefore that is what you believe. That's child abuse. [...] There is a value in teaching children about religion. You cannot really appreciate a lot of literature without knowing about religion. But we must not indoctrinate our children [9]"
The reason is that the belief that many loved ones or the believer them-self is going to hell. Since hell is imaginary, this is an unnecessary anxiety to place on people.
- "That believing (as a child) that Hell is real and that your non-Christian friends and family members will one day burn in it forever may be worse for you, psychologically, than any physical abuse you might suffer. [10]"
Apologists have criticised this view saying it is an infringement on religious freedom and totalitarian. [11] Other apologists claim that children are free to reject religion as they grow older. However, the close association of personal belief and parental belief, manifested as religious belief largely being determined by locality, shows that people usually maintain the religion they were taught as a child. They are not free to re-write the past and de-indoctrinate themselves.
Exorcisms and rituals
TODO [12]
Physical abuse
Corporal punishment
- Main Article: Corporal punishment
Evangelical leaders have frequently called for corporal punishment, chastisement or spanking of children. This ideas of sometimes been incorporated into the fundamentalist home schooling movement. It is largely based on the idea that humans are sinful and this sin demands punishment. [13] This has lead to the deaths of children, however cases such as these are dismissed as a symptom of unstable parents. [14]
Proponents sometimes cite biblical sources to support their view:
"The rod and reproof give wisdom"
"Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him"
Medical neglect
- Main Article: Religiously motivated medical neglect
- "'Church' to offer 'miracle cure' despite FDA warnings against drinking bleach" [15]
Circumcision/genital mutilation
Circumcision in males is widely practiced in Judaism, Islam and some Christian denominations. Female genital mutilation (FGM) is practiced by several ethnic groups and some (falsely) believe it is a religious (particularly Islamic) requirement. [16] These practices are often conducted on infants or young children without consent. FGM is not mentioned in the Bible or Qur'an. Several Islamic Hadiths "recommend attenuating the practice for the woman's sake, praise it as noble but not commanded, or advise that female converts refrain from mutilation because even if pleasing to the husband it is painful to the wife." [17] FGM causes serious harm and is banned in most countries in which it is practiced. In December 2012, UN General Assembly voted unanimously for all countries to take all necessary steps to end FGM.
Scientology
The church of Scientology has been accused of using child labour and psychological abuse of children, particular of the offspring of Sea Org members. [18]
Legislation that protects abusive parents
A US woman Kin Park Thaing faced charges of child abuse after severely beating her son. In 2016, she used Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act as her defence.
- "I was worried for my son’s salvation with God after he dies [...] I decided to punish my son to prevent him from hurting my daughter and to help him learn how to behave as God would want him to.[19]"
References
- ↑ Janet Heimlich, Breaking Their Will
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 A Report on the Crisis in the Catholic Church in the United States (John Jay Report), 2004
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ Pope Francis: 'About 2%' of Catholic clergy paedophiles, BBC, 13 July 2014
- ↑ [2]
- ↑ [3]
- ↑ Committee against Torture, Concluding observations on the initial report of the Holy See, May 2014
- ↑ [4]
- ↑ Famed Atheist Richard Dawkins: Forcing Religion on Kids Is ‘Child Abuse’, The Blaze, Apr. 23, 2013
- ↑ Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2006
- ↑ David Klinghoffer, Scary Thought: What if Folks in the New Atheist Crowd Held Political Office?, March 6, 2014
- ↑ Pope Francis and the psychology of exorcism and possession, The Guardian, 9 July 2014
- ↑ Christopher G. Ellison and Darren E. Sherkat, Conservative Protestantism and Support for Corporal Punishment, American Sociological Review, Vol. 58, No. 1 (Feb., 1993), pp. 131-144
- ↑ Erik Eckholm, Preaching Virtue of Spanking, Even as Deaths Fuel Debate, NY Times, November 6, 2011
- ↑ [5]
- ↑ unicef, Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: A statistical overview and exploration of the dynamics of change, July 2013
- ↑ Gerry Mackie, Ending Footbinding and Infibulation: A Convention Account, American Sociological Review, Vol. 61, No. 6 (Dec., 1996), pp. 999-1017]
- ↑ [6]
- ↑ [7]
See also
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