Truth and reconciliation needed

[Joanne98]

In Benton, Arkansas, the former music minister of First Baptist Church is up for parole less than two years into a ten-year term on sexual indecency charges.

In 2009, former Southern Baptist minister David Pierce received a 10-year plea-bargained sentence “after he admitted to abusing 11 boys for his own sexual gratification.” Pierce was originally charged with more than 50 counts of sexual indecency with children, but his conviction was based on four counts that were within the limitations period for prosecution.

Now, with Pierce up for parole, “members of the church say they still can’t talk about what happened for decades behind closed doors.”

But if the church members “still can’t talk about what happened,” can you imagine how difficult it is for those whom Pierce sexually abused? For those boys, the betrayal of what Pierce did was not some mere abstraction. They absorbed the reality of it within their very bodies. A link between faith and abuse was embedded into their brains.

And how many of those boys were there? We still don’t know, do we? Is anyone even trying to find out?

Maybe part of the reason the church members “still can’t talk about what happened” rests in the fact that it “happened for decades.”

http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2011/01/truth-and-reconciliation-needed.html

[meegbear]

1. When I was growing up, if there was a problem, I was told to goto a teacher, policeman or priest ...

these are the people who can trust. A man of God abusing children is no man of God. Or a man.

[MineralMan]

2. Those are still pretty good choices.

In every profession, there are those who abuse their trust. It's up to the adults to find them out and make sure they don't have those positions. Children still need trusted people they can go to, and those three are still among the best, almost always.

[meegbear]

3. True indeed ...

it's a shame when they abuse that trust.

[MineralMan]

4. It's a shame when anyone abuses a trust.

Even parents do it sometimes, and in horrible ways. There is no class of people among which some do not abuse the trust others have in them. It is a mistake to call out entire groups for the actions of a few within that group. It's a logical error, besides.