Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: gogogodzilla; juliej
His belief that there are more pedophile rabbis than Catholic priests is the warped offspring of a diseased mind.

Knock it off with the "diseased mind" thing please. Personal attacks are not welcome on FR. Thanks.

You seem to be on the defensive with me because you have made so many outrageous and unsubstantiated claims elsewhere that several people are eating your lunch on this thread. In this case, you are responding to things I haven't said. If you want to continue this discussion, please read my posts more carefully. Of course there aren't "more pedophile rabbis than Catholic priests." I never said that. Wouldn't try to defend it. Its an idiotic suggestion, and it is an indication that we have an honest misunderstanding here, you are creating a straw man argument, you are more ignorant than I supposed on this subject, or you are just not very good at math.

I am Christian, so I will be charitable. There are 70,000,000 Catholics in the United States. There are 5,000,000 Jews, at least 1/3 of whom are secular, i.e. ethnically Jewish, but not practicing the religion. I have no idea how many rabbis there are in the US, but the number is obviously a lot lower than the 45,000 Catholic priests. Here are the numbers that I do have: 55 American priests have been exposed for any instance of sexual impropriety. Most of the 55 have been circumstances of ongoing consensual relationships between gay teenagers and priests. Still illegal, but not pedophilia in the classic sense. Four have been cases of actual child molestation. I'm sure you feel comfortable with the stereotypes, but they are incorrect. The percentage of the male population in general who are pedophiles is somewhere between 3% and 9%. Your original point, which I was responding to (and which Julie agreed with), was that celibacy is unnatural and causes men to act like animals. In the case of Catholic priests, the exact opposite is demonstrably true. The men who become priest (like the men who become rabbis) have a special relationship with God, a vocation. Now, in any population, you are going to have some outliers, but the fact is that Catholic priests are quite obviously far less likely to be pedophiles that males in general, celibacy and all. They also typically take a vow of poverty, and are far less likely to mug someone, and a vow of obedience, and are far less likely to be iconoclasts. This is what it means to them to live their entire lives for God and their congregation. You both seem to be having a problem with this concept. You can either look at the numbers and accept it, or find your own numbers on some anti-Catholic website to dispute them. I don't do your work for you.

Again, I have many, many Jewish people in my life who I love and respect. I admire their own dedication to God, their family, and their community. This is not about me disrespecting Jews or their faith. This is about setting the record straight. I find it ironic that I point out the obvious: that Jewish rabbis are just as likely as Catholic priests to be pedophiles (that's what I said, go back and read post #1 professors), and both of you take it as some sort of an attack on Judiasm. You are extrapolating here the same way you extrapolate with Catholicism. A few outliers represent the entire population. It's foolish. I don't visit antisemetic websites (unless you count news sources like alJazeera and the New York Times), but a Google search of legitimate news stories of pedophile rabbis will quickly tell you that they have their fair share. Any case of a pedophilia is a lifelong tragedy, but attacking and entire religion based on a few dozen delinquents is willfully prejudiced and caustic.

79 posted on 05/17/2011 11:22:39 AM PDT by presidio9 ("Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask rather what you can do for your country." -Cicero)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 78 | View Replies ]


To: presidio9
Hmm. Funny that one of your early posts on this thread then states:

Catholic priests have little to do with small children today. I suspect that rabbis also have little to do with children, and they have less than their share of pedophiles, but they are still higher than Catholic priests. There are just far, far fewer rabbis, so you don't hear about it as much, but they definitely exist. Google "pedophile rabbi," like you just made me do and see what I mean.

Stating that rabbis have a higher percentage chance for pedophilia than priests.

80 posted on 05/17/2011 2:35:08 PM PDT by gogogodzilla (Live free or die!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 79 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson