Sunday school teacher indicted for rape and murder
Original story here.
Cue the outraged atheists…. now! This is one of those tricky issues that we really need to watch. Rapists and murderers have a funny habit of commiting crimes whether we like it or not. So, did religion play a role here, or is it a coincidence? First, let’s all agree that if we make a huge deal about her connection to religion, we’ll just get more “well, HITLER was an atheist, so there!” responses. That may be false, but we need to criticize the right thing. You can’t run around screaming “religion is evil in all ways”, because someone’s just going to find one way that it’s not and call that a complete argument.
No, the real problem here is the trust that people put in church-appointed authority figures. What kind of background check did we do on this woman? What kind of trust did the parents put in her just because she was a Sunday school teacher? I would be willing to bet that most parents spend ten times the energy picking out a babysitter they trust than they do thinking about who takes their kids for a few hours a week. You can’t tell your kids to trust someone you don’t know anything about and expect them to be different than the rest of the people out there (who they probably don’t trust at all). I’ve never seen any statistics that show that religious people are any less likely to commit a crime. The only difference is that they have someone waiting at the church to listen to it, forgive them, and go on with their lives.
![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
In this particular tragic case we have the case of a disturbed individual who did something horrible. If an architect kills his family do people ask “I wonder if him being an architect had something to with it?” So I think the fact that this person was religious simply means she is a byproduct of this society where most people grow up in a religious environment. What she did is something wrong with her psychology.
So I think it’s not helpful to say see look what religion does. Personally, I don’t really know if religion is bad or good if you can even simplify the situation that much. Most religious people I know seem like generally happy individuals and content believing in what they believe in. But I think it’s obvious that the ideas behind religion are stupid and don’t make sense. So even if religion isn’t responsible for people committing murder we should still point out this silliness since religion doesn’t deserve the free pass of being exempt from critisism anymore than alchemy or wichcraft etc etc.
In general, I agree with that. I know a lot of well-adjusted religious people. While I may think they are wrong in a lot of their beliefs, I don’t feel like they’re in danger of becoming murderers. My point isn’t quite the same as the architect though. If an architect wanted to babysit your children for 2 hours every Sunday, most parents would need to know the person a little better. They would be cautious of a new face in their children’s lives and instinctively want to protect them. Religion gets all kinds of free passes, and this one seems just as bad as any other. Implicit trust is very dangerous.
It’s like all the stories about priests molesting children. Had any other person approached these kids in that way, I’m sure they would have reacted completely differently. But a priest is such a “sacred” role that they were told to trust him for no other reason than his authority in the church. 20 years later, they realize that he’s just a man like anybody else, and stop hiding the crime for him.
Assuming someone is moral and ethical just because they have a religious affiliation is asking for trouble. Most people would assume that a professional like a physician, nurse, or engineer is also likely to be trustworthy and this is not the case also. No one should get an automatic pass because what their occupation or training is. Everyone needs to earn trust. I disagree, I think if you had a doctor, nurse, or other professional most people would assume they were OK because of their professional background, which is as wrong as assuming someone who is a sunday school teacher or priest is automatically trustworthy for taking care of their children. People send their kids to school or daycare and rarely do extensive reviews.
As far as the priesthood goes — I don’t know why so many priests (that we know of so far) abused children — is it a certain personality that migrates to the priesthood or does the ridiculous restriction of celibacy make these guys turn to children to fulfill their sexual desires? I actually don’t know. Sexuality is simply an expression of our humanity and the fact that the church has stuck its grubbly little hands into this human matter is yet another area where they don’t belong. How can a priest be a counselor to a married couple if he’s hot married himself at at least allowed to have a relationship with a woman.
sarki dinle…
turk sanat muzigi dinle…
kredi…
krediler, faizsiz kredi, kredi hesaplama…
Lida…
lida zayıflama, lida zayıflama hapı…
Fx15…
Fx15, Fx15 hapı…
xtragel…
xtragel…
Altın Çilek…
altın çilek hapı, altın çilek…
Free Glucose Monitor…
[...]through the Diabetic Connect program[...]…
DIGITURK…
Digitürk,digiturk, Dijitürk…
eBook Club…
[...]a club for ebook enthusiasts to discuss[...]…
Face Wrinkles…
[...]smoothed out with hydroxatone’s patented formula[...]…
casinomaxi…
casinomaxi,casinomaxi…
satilik konut…
konut arama…
Tire ratings guide…
[...]we like to honor other sites on the web, even if they aren’t related to us, by linking to them. Below are some sites worth checking out[...]…
Free Glucose Meter…
[...]delivered to your door free of charge[...]…
Trackback…
[...]below you’ll find the link to some sites that we think you should visit[...]…
Cheap Thailand Flights…
[...]while the sites we link to below are completely unrelated to ours, we think they are worth a read, so have a look[...]…
Blog Tools…
[...]to get an idea of different types of plugins that site owners use in sites[...]…
Travel Offers…
[...]number of sites which are detailed under, by our mindset are surely well worth viewing[...]…
Online Kasper Suits Petite…
[...]listed here are several web page links to online websites which I connect to since we believe they are well worth visiting[...]…
el kremi…
krem, el kremi…
The best website…
[...]here are some links to sites that we link to because we think they are worth visiting[...]…
The cool site…
[...]below you’ll find the link to some sites that we think you should visit[...]…
Get it…
[...]Cool info[...]…
Catch it…
[...]Cool website[...]…
Biber hapı…
Biber hapı, biber kapsülü…
Get it…
[...]Cool info[...]…
motivation to study…
[...]below you’ll find the link to some sites that we think you should visit[...]…
Top Sites…
[...]here are some links to sites that we link to because we think they are worth visiting[...]…
Cheap Kasper Suits…
[...]the following are a handful of web links to places which we link to seeing as we believe they are worthwhile browsing[...]…
Distance between…
cities in USA…
Taylor Lautner Workout…
Also you might wanna’ check out this blog I found here……
Colon Cleanse Review Site…
[...]while the sites we link to below are completely unrelated to ours, we think they are worth a read, so have a look[...]…
Cheapest Kasper Suits…
[...]here are a few url links to websites online which we link to seeing as we feel they are worthy of visiting[...]…
ICICI Money to India…
[...]here are some links to web-sites we connect to because we think they are truly worth visiting[...]…
Online Kasper Suits Petite…
[...]following are some web links to websites online which we link to because we think they will be truly worth checking out[...]…
Trackback…
[...]here are some links to some sites that we think you should visit[...]…
OpenOffice Download…
[...]these are some url links to web pages that we link to seeing as we feel they’re really worth visiting[...]…
OpenOffice Download…
[...]what follows are a few references to sites which we link to as we feel these are definitely worth visiting[...]…
iPad eBooks…
[...]iPad eBooks allow you to use your iPad as many use the Kindle[...]…
Glucose Monitors…
[...]blood glucose levels are key to keeping a healthy body[...]…
Official Colon Cleanse…
[...]here are some links to sites that we link to because we think they are worth visiting[...]…
Lavern Barrera…
[...]and have record of new information if possible ways. So this making as concluding if you have child then should have spying software to get installed for sake of monitoring[...]…
Acne Scar Removal…
[...]is made possible through dark under eye’s formula[...]…
Fashion Style Blog…
[...]while the sites we link to below are completely unrelated to ours, we think they are worth a read, so have a look[...]…
Online Kasper Suits Petite…
[...]listed below are some listings to internet pages which we connect to for the fact we feel they really are worthy of browsing[...]…
OpenOffice Download…
[...]the following are some url links to webpages which I connect to because we think there’re worth checking out[...]…
Travel Deals…
[...]These following web sites are actually numerous sites that intrigued our own management, so please see them[...]…
Elaine Mcdonald…
[...]Then it will require the various little equipments and then street craps that may play in informal settings [...]…