A bunch of Crock....

[jmjtina]

Lord have mercy.

[Norseman82]

[quote name='son_of_angels' date='Nov 22 2005, 11:00 AM']Perhaps its just me, but the scripture which tells us not to take each other in front of the law courts is being irreverently cast aside in these days.  The Church has a court, a hierarchy, and a means of punishment which is far more powerful and binding than anything the State could cook up.  If a bishop chooses to have someone arrested, so be it, but it should not be for us to scandalize our church by seeking a false comfort from secular authorities.
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The problem with that is that these violations are also violations of civil law, and that much of the bad press the Church has gotten was due not to the actual molestations, but rather the "transfer and cover-up" actions in some jurisdictions.

The scripture I am thinking of is 1 Timothy 5:19-20 : "Pay no attention to an accusation against a presbyter unless it is supported by two or three witnesses. The ones who do commit sin, however, are to be publicly reprimanded, so that the rest may fear to offend."

Common sense in the first century AD.....still common sense today.

[megrc]

I really hope this turns out to be some kind of missunderstanding. This is too horible a thing to think about.

[photosynthesis]

[quote name='megrc' date='Nov 22 2005, 12:45 PM']This is too horible a thing to think about.
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Some people don't have a choice.

[tojo]

I wasn't Catholic during the bad days of the public outcry against the sex abuse scandal. This is all new for me to experience as a Catholic.....

[MC Just]

[quote name='Nathan' date='Nov 21 2005, 06:33 PM']They probably got the strap by a mean nun in elementary school or something, back when everybody got the strap.
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everyone should still be getting the strap.lol with all the heterodoxy running around now a days.

[photosynthesis]

[quote name='MC Just' date='Nov 22 2005, 04:13 PM']everyone should still be getting the strap.lol with all the heterodoxy running around now a days.
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yeah, because that's really going to draw people home to the Church

[NewReformation]

[quote name='son_of_angels' date='Nov 22 2005, 11:00 AM']Perhaps its just me, but the scripture which tells us not to take each other in front of the law courts is being irreverently cast aside in these days.  The Church has a court, a hierarchy, and a means of punishment which is far more powerful and binding than anything the State could cook up.  If a bishop chooses to have someone arrested, so be it, but it should not be for us to scandalize our church by seeking a false comfort from secular authorities.
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You raise a good point, and I'm all for churches sussing out the problems between believers. However, the reason the authorities are involved now is because 30 years ago the Catholic Church didn't do their job.

And for the record, I don't care if the church is Catholic or Protestant. If there's a minister in that church molesting children, put that man in prison and do whatever it takes to help the victims. It's happened many times in both Prot and Cath churches, and many times the response of both has been to cover it up. I can point to quite a few Prot churches just as easily as I can Cath that have allowed predators in their pulpits, and I've been known to raise holy heck about these things, so don't think I'm ripping on Catholics here. I'm for letting all those molestors rot.

[tojo]

In the Pentecostal denomination I use to belong to, sexual misconduct was, I think, the one sin a minister could be repentant of, and still never be restored to a ministerial position, ever.