I can hate them for you. I'm a heathen. It's what we do. See the tag.

---

Well, somewhere in the Bible (dunno if it's Old or New Testament) there's something about how if you have lustfull thougths in your heart for someone you're not married to, you've still committed adultry.

That was Jesus' Sermon on the Mount (New Testament).

The interpretation I've always heard of that particular sermon is that he was actually skewering the attitudes of the Pharisees, who were obeying the letter of the law but not the spirit of the law.

Meaning, in the "adultery" example, the Pharisees were all prideful that they could point to the "thou shall not commit adultery" commandment, and say "Oh, no -- *I* have never had carnal knowledge of another man's wife!" Meaning, literally, didn't have PIV sex. It's like people who have oral sex/anal sex/"everything but" who proudly proclaim their virginity just because they haven't had PIV intercourse.

And Jesus' point was basically, "Okay, Pharisee dorks, do you even *understand* what big fat hypocrites you're being?"

It really *wasn't* meant to be an injunction on our very thoughts. At least, like I said, that's the interpretation I've always heard.

---

I can hate them for you. I'm a heathen. It's what we do.

Yeah. We also make sure all those nice seats in Hell don't go to waste....

---

Posting from Ground Zero of the Abusive Priest scandal, what I seem to recall from the coverage (which I stopped reading, long ago, and which, in fact, tied into my whole new head-in-the-sand approach to the news) was that many of the abusers weren't considered pedophiles, but rather, they are ephebophiles.

Pedophiles target the pre-pubescent, and sexual orientation (in the sense of attraction to members of either the same or opposite sex) has nothing to do with pedophilia--the abuse of young children.

Ephebophiles target sexually mature minors. Both acts are criminal. Most people recognize them as immoral, but pedophilia (I hate using that term, because love has nothing to do with it--pederasty is also correct, yes?) is a specific pathology, and is different from ephebophilia (I don't even think it's a diagnostic term). From what I recall, studies of the victims, found that the majority of victims were sexually mature male minors. I think it was more than 3/4s, but I can't stand googling this shit, enough to confirm that assertion.

One article:

[link]

Still, I think targeting priest-wannabes by (straight/gay) orientation is a mistake. If a celibate is going to actually stay celibate, it doesn't matter what floats his boat. Besides, every group of people (religious, otherwise-cultural) has sex offenders. There are all sorts of "reasons" behind this disgusting mess. One of them, is that the abusers were sent on to new parishes time and again--in other words, part of the reason it is all such a big scandal is because the hierarchy was so scandalizing the laity, that they swept the problem under the rug, rather than dealing harshly with the offenders, and rather than reporting the offenders to the police.

There have been studies done on not only the abusers, but on the psychological maturity of seminary students, as relates to sexuality. The studies have found noticeable immaturity given the age of the subjects. There's no one thing going on, here. To target priest who may have a same sex orientation seems to me to be an overly simplified approach to a multi-layered problem.

Now I have to go throw up in my mouth, a little. Here's a link to some studies done by the U.S. Catholic Bishops and John Jay. I can't read them to either confirm or disprove what I've said above, because of that appointment I have to throw up.

[link]

---

I'm sorry to hear about your mom's priest friend, JZ -- he sounds like the sort who could (and no doubt did) do a lot of good against the forces of lame-ass crap. In other words, exactly the sort that gets ground down to a nub by forces of etc.

---

I think the people in my office are getting me sick. Apparently I look like death warmed over. I cannot get sick. They want me to take Airborne. It scares me.

Happy birthday Em!

---

Or, "Only gay priests are molesting children."

This is what I meant. That'll teach me not to read my posts before hitting the button when prickly.

Pederastarites (I'm too lazy to find the real word) molest children. Gay priests are either celibate or are having adult consensual sex.

I'm not Catholic and don't know if I agree with the whole Chastity clause but that's the rule when you join.

---

Can people say why julianna feels like Opus in a helmet or is it secret?

juliana got overwhelmed by the love and support that this community has shown her, especially now, when she's going through one of the worst and scariest times in her life, and so she wanted to publicly thank everyone. The people here just generally rock.

Timelies. brenda and Nilly (among others) are very wise people.

---

To me, the real scandal of the pedophile priest scandal was the reaction of the hierarchy whenever parishioners complained. No investigation, no action against the priest. Just move him to a new parish. Where he's free to continue his activities against a whole new set of victims. Among people who've been told by the hierarchy to trust his every word.

Because any group as large as the priesthood is going to have some bad apples. Not saying that's a good thing, just the law of averages. And as Brenda pointed out, Catholicism is set up so that the -- um, sexually unconventional, by which I mean anyone whose desires are other than what the Church has declared to be acceptable -- are going to be encouraged to see the priesthood as a way out.

---

In better news, Happy Birthday, Emeline!

---