This is sick, and also, not surprising. However, I did not expect this from a baptist, more from a catholic because catholics are extremely sexually repressed; more so than baptists. At least baptists priests get to marry. Either way...not surprising.

SilkyShrew wrote:

LeftofLarry wrote:

This is sick, and also, not surprising. However, I did not expect this from a baptist, more from a catholic because catholics are extremely sexually repressed; more so than baptists. At least baptists priests get to marry. Either way...not surprising.

Do you have any evidence that sexual repression has a corrolation between it and particular kinds of sexully maladaptive behaviors, especially sexual abuse cases? Although there, may be some mechanism that causes people with sexually maladaptive behaviors to find 'easier' ways to seek out victims, this means that the cause of the abuse and the social position of the person is caused by the person's sexual desires, not the person's social position being a cause of their actions.

Well..I think that in cases where there seems to be a trend, for example, sexual abuse in churches, and especially catholic churches, you have to look at the psychology of the religion.

So let me explain it this way, and this is my contention.

So you start with the question

Why is it that Catholic Priests molest boys?

If you look at the catholic religion, sex is considered a perverted act, unless you're married. But it is drilled in catholics that sex before marriage is a sin, you'll go to hell, etc..etc.. it considers sex as sin, this tends to repress your sexuality in a manner, I think, that can lead to potential sexually maladaptive behaviors later on in life.

Priests are not allowed to marry, and definitely are not allowed to have sex. So they have to repress a perfectly natural bodily function, more so than your average catholic, because lets face it, very few catholics practice celibacy until marriage.

So priests have to deal with this somehow, and repressed feelings usually manifest themselves abdnormally.

I'm not a psychologist, however, I would imagine that put in a situation where you are sexually repressed and have access to "victims" in this case young boys, it would facilitate the 'maladaptive behavior' associated with sexual repression. It's like placing a pyromaniacal arsonist in a butane manufacturing factory.

Now, the abuses may have stemmed from predetermined pedophiles or hebephiles, joining the clergy to be placed in a position of power to satisfy their sexual needs.

However, there seems to be a problem specifically with the catholic church. You do not seem to have this problem with other forms of religions that allow normal sexual contact and marriage as priests.

So you have to ask yourself, is it intrinsically possible that the catholic religion/ideology/sexual suppression is directly responsible for pedophilia in priests?

The core of catholicism lies also with the "virgin" mary. Just the idea that virginity is purity, exemplifies how the catholics look at sex. And catholics, more so than protestants worship the virgin mary. To be clean to be pure, you must remain virginal, that may have some implicit contradictions with human biology and natural responses to stimuli. Sexual drive is something that is innate in all living things....once it is psychologically repressed and alterred, normal behavior may also be altered.

Here is a supporting document:

http://www.ipce.info/ipceweb/Library/nelson.htm

JournaI of Sex Education & Therapy, Vol. 15, No.1, 1989, pp.3-12
American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors & Therapists

PS. I apologize for any grammatical or typos..I don't proofread my threads...mainly due to time constraints.

The pedophile, or sexual abuser of children, is usually envisioned as a dirty old man who lures an innocent young girl into a dark alley or the woods, where he rapes her. Men incarcerated for child sexual abuse tend to be the prisoners whom guards and other prisoners most despise, and are regarded with even more disgust and rage than are rapists of adult women. How accurate is the stereotype of pedophiles as "dirty old men"? At the outset, we should note that people who sexually approach children (primarily men) are usually either related to or acquaintances of the youngsters.

Those convicted of sexual offenses against minors tend to be older than other convicted sex offenders. Their average age at conviction is 35, and about a quarter are over age 45 (Arndt, 1991; Gebhard et. al., 1965). Past clinical and survey literature has described the pedophile as conservative, socially inadequate, psychosexually immature, and psychologically disturbed, but in their review of the literature, Paul Okami and Amy Goldberg (1992) found no evidence to support these assumptions. Even if we consider only convicted child sex offenders, clear-cut psychiatric disturbance is not generally apparent, although many child offenders tend toward shyness, loneliness, low self-esteem, isolation, and sensitivity to the evaluations of others (Okami & Goldberg, 1992). In general, the younger the victim is, the more likely it is that the sexual offender exhibits psychopathology (Kalichman, 1991). Similar to sexually coercive college men (see Chapter 19), convicted offenders of sexual crimes against children do not appear to lack appropriate social skills (Koralewski & Conger, 1992; Okami & Goldberg, 1992). Further, an anonymous survey of almost 200 college men indicated that about a fifth felt sexual attraction toward some small children, and 7 percent indicated some likelihood of having sex with a child if they would not be caught or punished (Briere & Runtz, 1989). Although attraction to children was associated with a number of negative attitudes toward women and with negative early sexual esperiences, men in Briere and Runtz's sample reporting attraction and fantasies about young children did not differ from other men in levels of sexual repression or impulse control.

There is some evidence that men who attempt to have sexual contact with children adjust their sexual behaviors to the age level of their partner or victim (Okami & Goldberg, 1992). That is, they will engage in the early stages of a normal courtship sequence, looking and touching, but they generally avoid more intimate forms of sexual contact. In only 4 percent of cases that Finkelhor (1979) studied did the prepubescent girls report that coitus had occurred between them and the offender. The contact was confined to exhibitionism in 20 percent of the episodes and to touching and fondling of the genitals in another 38 percent of child-adult sexual interactions.

A primary and relatively permanent sexual interest in children (true pedophilia) actually chracterizes only a quarter to a third of imprisoned child molesters. The rest of those convicted of the offense appear to have made advances to a child for situational reasons; that is, the contact occurred during periods of stress, frusteration, or lack of other sexual outlets or during an unusual opportunity (Arndt, 1991; Gebhard et al., 1965).

If a person develops a sexual interest in children how is this interest translated into behavior? From time to time, all of us experience arousal under inappropriate conditions or toward inappropriate people, and we choose not to act on our arousal. You may feel attracted to your best friend's partner, or you may get inexplicably "turned on" while sitting in class one day, but you inhibit your feelings to avoid hurting your friends or embarassing yourself. The sexual abuser, however, may be disinhibited as a result of various factors, a major one being alcohol.

Cognitive distortions or unusual thought processes are also thought to allow the offender to bypass his normal inhibitions. In a study of 101 child sex offenders undergoing treatment, the following cognitive distortions were the most frequently mentioned when the men were asked to report what they were thinking at the time of the offense (Neighdigh & Krop, 1992, p. 212):

"She enjoyed it."
"This won't hurt her or affect her in any way."
"This is not so bad, it's not really wrong."
"I was high on alcohol or drugs at the time."
"I wasn't thinking at all or I wouldn't have done it."
"No one will ever find out so I won't get caught."
"She is flirting and teasing me, she wants me to do it."

Sexual Interactions by Elizabeth Rice Allgeier and Albert Richard Allgeier; copyright 2000, Houghton Mifflin Company. Pp. 419-420