"Selective curiosity" regarding sexual abuse by clergy

This piece , "Our Selective Curiosity on Sex Scandals", appeared recently in the Denver Post:

Is the Baptist ministry prone to sexual abuse against minors? Just wondering.

After all, four young men have accused Baptist megachurch leader Bishop Eddie Long in suburban Atlanta of luring them into sex when they were teens, and it's hardly the first time a well-known Baptist preacher has been linked to such scandal. Yet the case has been framed in news accounts mostly as an example of possible hypocrisy: Prominent anti-gay pastor accused of having sex with male teens.

No one, meanwhile, is suggesting the Baptist ministry is a refuge for pedophiles, as is commonly said of the Catholic Church.

Is that because Baptist ministers are less likely than Catholic priests to have sex with minors? That may be the popular impression, but no one actually knows. Hard data on sexual abuse by ministers simply don't exist, any more than they do for scoutmasters, school teachers, guidance counselors, staff at juvenile detention facilities, and other professions dealing with youth.

"Sexual misconduct appears to be spread fairly evenly across the denominations, though I stress the word 'appears,' " maintains Philip Jenkins, Penn State professor of history and religious studies. "Astonishingly, Catholic priests are literally the only profession in the country for whom we have relatively good figures for the incdence of child abuse and molestation." . . .

. . .

It goes without saying that there have been far too many victims of sexual abuse by clergy, that some dioceses once handled predators in inexcusable fashion, and that the bishops responsible (mostly retired or deceased) were never held accountable.

But it is equally true that many people on both the political left and right, for very different reasons, have been perfectly willing to fuel the fiction that nothing has changed and that, moreover, the church was a uniquely culpable institution. And never mind if the evidence — or lack of it — tells a different story.

Read more: Our selective curiosity on sex scandals - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_16281737#ixzz12AdlJmbq