By Ed Brayton
Dispatches from the Culture Wars [United States]
June 29, 2007
http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2007/06/catholic_league_and_pedophile.php
Oh boy, the Catholic League is on the warpath again. Their target this time: Robin Williams, who apparently told jokes about Catholic priests and pedophilia on the Tonight Show recently.
- Kiera McCaffrey, director of communications with the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, says Williams would never bring up the fact that most priests involved in sex scandals were homosexuals.
"You don't hear anything about that," she states. "You don't hear comments about homosexuals from these comedians [because homosexuals are] pretty much a protected class ...." And that, she says, poses a problem. "They say, 'it's off-limits to mock gays, [but] it's perfectly okay to go after priests.' Now, what about gay priests? That's a tricky situation. You know the answer — let's just label them all pedophiles."
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| Ed Brayton is a freelance writer and businessman. He is the co-founder of Michigan Citizens for Science and The Panda's Thumb and has written for such publications as The Bard, Skeptic and Reports of the National Center for Science Education. (static) |
Wow, where do you even begin? First of all, pedophilia is not typically associated with either homosexuality or heterosexuality; most pedophiles will happily go back and forth from boys to girls as long as they are pre-pubescent. That is the nature of pedophilia, a unique form of sexual dysfunction that is independent of sexual orientation. Take a look at this paper by Mark Pietrzyk. He cites research by numerous psychiatrists and psychologists who have worked with pedophiles their entire careers. He writes:
- According to Groth, child molesters can be divided into two types: "fixated" and "regressed." The fixated offender is attracted primarily to children and has little or no interest in adult relationships; such a person is known in clinical terms as a "pedophile." The regressed offender is interested in and capable of adult sexual relationships; however, this person may on occasion regress to sexual encounters with children, often as a result of difficulties and frustration in his adult relationships.15
Groth writes that the fixated offender, or pedophile, tends to select boys more often than girls, but for reasons having nothing to do with homosexuality:
In general, fixated child molesters are drawn to children sexually in that they identify with the child and appear in some ways to want to remain children themselves. It is for this reason that the trend for fixated offenders is to target boys as victims. . . . They see the boy as a projected representation of themselves. They feel themselves to be more child than adult - more boys than men - and therefore find themselves more comfortable (especially sexually) in the company of children. . . .16
Groth stresses that "these same individuals are uninterested in adult homosexual relationships. In fact, they frequently express a strong sexual aversion to adult males, reporting that what they find attractive about the immature boy are his feminine features and the absence of secondary sexual characteristics such as body hair and muscles."17 The second type of offender, the regressed offender, is predominantly heterosexual. However, he may temporarily turn to boys or girls as a result of complications in his adult relations.18 Although regressed offenders are more likely to choose girls than boys as victims, writes Groth, what attracts the regressed male offender to boys are the feminine characteristics of pre? pubescents. Groth found no cases of boy molestation in which the offender had an adult homosexual orientation.
And where does the Catholic League aim their outrage? Not at the criminals in their church but at a comedian for making fun of the Church. Get your moral priorities straight and then maybe you'll be taken seriously.
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