Apr 10
15
Considering homosexuality, celibacy and child sexual assault
The volume of the controversy over child sexual abuse by Catholic priests went up a notch with comments by a Catholic Cardinal blaming child sexual abuse on homosexuality rather than celibacy. He certainly upset the sensibilities of the world’s homosexual activists – not that it’s terribly hard to do that!
The pro-homosexual paper, The Vancouver Province, titled an April 14th article, “Vatican’s homosexual smokescreen stokes fire.”
Interestingly, the article begins: “The child-sex-abuse scandal scorching the Catholic Church worsened Tuesday with lawmakers, doctors and gay activists slamming an attempt by the Vatican to shift the blame for the pedophilia to homosexual priests.”
But despite having mentioned opposition to the Cardinal’s comments by lawmakers, doctors and homosexual activists, the article only cites two politicians (one a leader in the communist party) and two homosexual activists. Oops! I guess they couldn’t find a factual and science-based comment they liked from a doctor after all! Don’t you hate it when that happens?
Moving on…
Anyone claiming that there is any biological link (genetic or otherwise) between homosexuality or celibacy and child sexual abuse is a fool. I didn’t see the Cardinal’s original words, but I doubt that is what he was saying. The kind of rhetoric in the angry responses, though, suggests that people think he was suggesting a biological link, at least in terms of homosexuality and child sexual abuse.
The issue has to do with human nature and behaviour, not genetics. And human nature exposes stupidity on both sides of this current controversy.
Firstly, we know that homosexuals are far more likely to commit sexual assault on a minor than heterosexuals are. Homosexuals make up about two percent of the population, but they are responsible for anywhere from 20 to 33 percent of reported cases of child sexual assault (which is to say that 20 to 33 percent of cases of child sexual assault are same-sex in nature). Because heterosexuals still make up around 98 percent of the population, they are still guilty of most cases of child sexual assault but, proportionately, homosexuals are far more likely to commit child sexual assault than heterosexuals are.
In everyday vernacular, that evidence indicates a “link.” That might not be scientifically precise language, but most of the back-and-forth commentary taking place is not being found in scientific journals.
So, what about celibacy and child sexual assault? The Cardinal apparently said there’s no link between celibacy and child sexual assault. Depending on what is meant by “link,” that statement may also be a lot of nonsense.
The Bible talks about God giving some people a gift of celibacy. But almost everybody who does not have that gift, has a strong sex drive, especially men. I’m not Catholic. I am told that ideally or theoretically a person should not pursue the priesthood if they are not convinced that they have the gift of celibacy. In the history of the Catholic Church, a very large number of people have become priests despite not having the gift of celibacy. This is probably not surprising for a number of reasons, not least being that celibacy is a very limited gift. The Bible is clear repeatedly that a healthy sex drive and marriage are the normative reality and expectations for people.
A Catholic priest who does not have the gift of celibacy is going to become extremely sexually frustrated. It would be perfectly natural for such a person to seek out release for his sex drive. Furthermore, power corrupts. And there’s a logic in pursuing people who might be more susceptible to intimidation and influence.
During times when the church loses its dynamic vitality and becomes more preoccupied with formalism and dead ritualism, one can expect members, including leaders, to surrender more easily to temptations and sin. A genuine spiritual vitality, given by God, can give people, including non-celibate priests, the grace they need to resist temptation, but without genuine spiritual vitality, there will also be a breakdown in morality. That’s the history of the world and the history of the church.
In everyday vernacular, this can be called a “link” between celibacy and child sexual assault.
The Bible does not play the game of hagiography (glossing over people’s lives). And I don’t have patience for fairytales either. Presbyterians haven’t been perfect. When their errors need to be identified, they should be. Catholics should also avoid being defensive about celibacy. Certainly I believe that requiring priests to be celibate is wrong and Biblically indefensible, so people can dismiss my observations as being predictable. The fact is, however, that nowhere does God promise to grant special strength to people to overcome their sexual urges just because they became a priest and went through whatever training and rites were necessary to do so. If a priest does not have the gift of celibacy, then based on the simple facts of human nature that are common to all people, he can be expected to be sexually frustrated for the rest of his days, with a disproportionate risk of engaging in illicit sexual relations of one sort or another, including child sexual assault. That’s a statement of honest reality, not a statement of prejudice.
I have been reading some original writings from the times of the Protestant Reformation. One of the moral offences that the Protestant Reformers repeatedly objected to was the number of priests who, while not taking a wife in marriage, were openly involved with prostitutes. That kind of moral blindness and hypocrisy is stunning and would be roundly condemned by most of my Catholic friends today. But the point is that the sexual struggle in the Catholic priesthood is not a new thing, so it’s less than honest to say that there’s no link between celibacy and sexual promiscuity, including pedophilia. It’s human nature, and anyone who claims the power to be able to rise above human nature does not deserve to be treated as credible. If the Catholic Church can’t find a sure-fire way to limit the priesthood only to those with the spiritual gift of celibacy, maybe they need to rethink the whole issue – even if they can point to the fact that there are even greater problems with sexual assault elsewhere such as in government schools.
So, yes, there’s a grossly disproportionate rate of same-sex child sexual assault versus heterosexual pedophilia. And yes, a person forced into celibacy without being gifted accordingly can be expected to look for illicit outlets for his sex drive. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the real world, not the world you wish you had found.
Only God in Christ as He has revealed Himself in the Bible is able to make sense of this world for us and provide redemption so that His people can live redemptive lives in this fallen world. God doesn’t immediately take us out of this world. He gives us His plan and power to live rightly in the world. This includes the administration of justice on behalf of the oppressed, which includes the victims of sexual assault. It should also include preventative measures to try to reduce the risk of such offences in the future.