What I read
The article "National Redress Scheme: Australia sex abuse compensation scheme begins" (2018) says that the government of Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has decided to implement the recommendation of a royal commission investigation of sexual abuse of children by people in religious, teaching, charity and sports organizations. In addition to making a public apology to the 60,000 estimated victims of abuse by people who should have been caring for them, a National Redress Scheme has been established with funds from the religious, sport, charity and other groups who allowed abusers to assault children over decades. This scheme will make financial payments to help victims of the crimes committed against them by trusted people in society.
___________________________________
My response
There were so many things in my mind in response to this article what I wasn't sure where to start, and I don't want to write too much. I've just written my question first, and that helped to focus my thinking a bit.
First, since religious people such as priests, nuns, bishops, monks are among the worst abusers of children, along with teachers, that made me think how wrong people can be about giving respect. When I was a child growing up, it was automatic to respect teachers, priests, nuns and other religious people, but the evidence is very clear: these people are often monsters. We were told to be suspicious of strangers, but they are not the people who commit this crimes against children. Worse, the respected institutions usually knew about the vile crimes that their members were committing, but instead of stopping them, they only worried about protecting their image of respectability. That is, the senior church and religious leaders, and others where abuse was occurring, cared more about their undeserved image than about protecting children from sex abuse by the perverts hiding in their socially admired institutions.
It has been a long time since I believed the stories about gods, devils, eternal life, angels and so on, but it is only more recently that I've realised how evil many religious organizations often are. But when I think about it more, it isn't really that surprising. Religious organizations love power, property and prestige as much as the worst dictators, as we see in their massive cathedrals, rich art collections, valuable real estate and large bank accounts. In fact, the history of religions, with their holy wars, their blasphemy laws that kill and torture people who have new ideas, their suppression of science and critical thinking, show that they never did deserve much respect from rational, moral people. Now we know that they are heavens for child sex abusers as well.
On the happier side, it is good that people can now speak the truth about the crimes committed against them decades ago when it was socially, and even legally, difficult to speak such ugly truths about institutions that had made themselves false idols of social respect. Now the disgraced are trying to save themselves from much deserved social contempt. I often disagree with things the Australian government does, but they were right to order a strong, independent investigation into organizations and people who have traditionally used their position in society to commit some of the worst of crimes.
Hopefully other changes in the law and public attitudes will make it harder for perverts to abuse children in religious situations, in schools, in sports and charity organizations, and in other social situations.
It has been a long time since I believed the stories about gods, devils, eternal life, angels and so on, but it is only more recently that I've realised how evil many religious organizations often are. But when I think about it more, it isn't really that surprising. Religious organizations love power, property and prestige as much as the worst dictators, as we see in their massive cathedrals, rich art collections, valuable real estate and large bank accounts. In fact, the history of religions, with their holy wars, their blasphemy laws that kill and torture people who have new ideas, their suppression of science and critical thinking, show that they never did deserve much respect from rational, moral people. Now we know that they are heavens for child sex abusers as well.
On the happier side, it is good that people can now speak the truth about the crimes committed against them decades ago when it was socially, and even legally, difficult to speak such ugly truths about institutions that had made themselves false idols of social respect. Now the disgraced are trying to save themselves from much deserved social contempt. I often disagree with things the Australian government does, but they were right to order a strong, independent investigation into organizations and people who have traditionally used their position in society to commit some of the worst of crimes.
Hopefully other changes in the law and public attitudes will make it harder for perverts to abuse children in religious situations, in schools, in sports and charity organizations, and in other social situations.
___________________________________
My question
Should anyone be respected and trusted merely because of their position in a social institution?
___________________________________
Reference
- National Redress Scheme: Australia sex abuse compensation scheme begins. (2018, July 1). Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-44672442
I don't think people should be trusted just because they are in special position in the society.
ReplyDeleteAny human can do good or bad regardless of social status. However, we cannot deny that those titles are what make other people have higher expectation toward these title holders and think that they should be good.
This post reminds me of news about Thai monk who seduce women to have sex with him in believing that this intercourse would make her more charming. To me this is a disgusting deception.
I like Iew's point that people in some positions do have higher expectations on their behaviour. I think this also means that the media must be free to openly discuss the behaviour of such people, and if they are making statements about how others should behave, as politicians, priests, monks and teachers are in the habit of doing, then their own private life should be open to public examination to see whether they themselves do what they tell others to do. My suspicion is that in many cases, they do not do what say other people should do, and the media should be investigating and reporting this to society. For example, if a teacher tells students that using drugs is bad, but is himself regularly drunk on alcohol, that seems like something his students should know and discuss, and their parents. If the school tries to keep it secret by preventing exposure on public media, then the school officials seem to me to be making a mistake and practising double standards.
DeleteThe religion itself is not bad but it is human who did. I still respect the doctrines, but not their people. I agree that they cared too much about the images without realizing what right or wrong is. Not only sexual crimes were committed in those industries, but also other types of crimes too, fraud, embezzlement, etc. Some of those organizations was managed like a business. I hope that there would still be some organization really did everything for better society.
ReplyDelete