If you read French, this is a MUST read

Autrement que victimes : Dieu, enfer et résistance chez les victimes d'abus sexuels (Not just victims: God, anger and resistance in the voices of sexual abuse victims)

Authors: Jean-Guy Nadeau ;  Carole Golding ;  Claude Rochon
Publisher: Novalis
Date: 2013
http://www.novalis.ca/Product.aspx?ids=7532038

The publisher's blurb in French. I have done a broad translation of the French (I hope the authors aren't too upset by my paraphrasing at points but I think that I have retained the essence of the blurb.)


Fruit d'un travail de plusieurs années, cet ouvrage offre aux différents intervenants psychosociaux des informations qui leur permettront de mieux travailler avec les croyances religieuses de leurs patients et de les intégrer dans leur thérapie.  Si des victimes trouvent dans la foi ou dans la religion un soutien pour survivre à l'abus, d'autres assimilent ce drame à un abandon ou à l'opprobre de Dieu ; elles se sentent alors davantage coupables, ressentent un sentiment d'exclusion, bref tardent à sortir de leur traumatisme. Enfin, les enfants éduqués chrétiennement vivent très tôt, et avec peu de ressources, l'expérience douloureuse des questions radicales sur les relations entre Dieu, la souffrance et le mal. De nombreux témoignages viennent illustrer ces positions et enrichir la réflexion par des cas concrets.

The fruit of many years of labour, this book offers much information for psychosocial counsellors that will allow them to work more effectively with the religious beliefs of their patients and to integrate these beliefs into their clients’ therapy. Some victims find in their faith or their religion a support that helps them to survive the abuse. Other victims describe their response to this abuse as abandonment by God or as contempt for God; they then feel more guilty, and also feel excluded from the belief system. In short, they take a long time to resolve the issues raised by their traumatic experience. Lastly, with few resources, children who are educated (raised) as Christians live from a very early age with the painful experience of facing radical questions on the relationship between God, suffering and evil. The book contains many firsthand examples that illustrate these issues and the discussion is enriched with these concrete cases.

I have only started to read the book and after reading different chapters and sections, I already feel that it is definitely a wonderful addition to the literature on the impact of the Christian belief system on victims of child sexual abuse within that system. This is not just because they have a lengthy discussion of my Psalm and Eulogy (pp. 104-118) - guess I am a the*logian, whether I like it or not. It is well balanced between those who, like me, felt abandoned and angry at the failure of the belief system to address our needs and those who have found support in the system.

The authors should be looking for a publisher for an English translation so that it can reach a wider audience.

I will comment further after I have finished the entire book. (After all, French isn't my first language and it takes more time to integrate what I am reading!)

Honest: Catholics are Christians

My rant for the day!

I am just marking papers and, even after all the lecturing and discussion in class, my students will still come up with a sentence like the following: "They also looked at mostly Christian or Catholic  families and did not go near other religions." (For that one, I even looked at the source material just to make sure)


I could have accepted Protestant or Catholic - don't need to get into the touchy subject of all those other Christians - well maybe Anglicans/Episcopalians aren't touchy - I'm not sure that they know they exist.

I swear that we need a mandatory history of Christianity course. Students may not know anything about other religions, but they certainly don't know anything about Christianity either - except maybe their own peculiar brand (but that's another post). It is not as if my Catholic students are exempt from understanding their own religion either.

Honestly, I do my best in my medieval and reformation classes, but it's just not enough.

Well it's about time - but it's too little, too late

So Roger Mahony and Thomas J. Curry have apologized.

Here is part of Curry's statement (echoing Mahony's of the previous day)

"I wish to acknowledge and apologise for those instances when I made decisions regarding the treatment and disposition of clergy accused of sexual abuse that in retrospect appear inadequate or mistaken," Curry said in a statement obtained by the Ventura County Star.

After decades of refusing requests for files, denials that anything untoward really happened - no cover-up, of course, this is what the victims get.

Oh well, better than nothing I suppose!

And then again, I could go back and watch Deliver Us From Evil one more time. Maybe nothing would have been better.

Thank God and Greyhound, he's gone!

However, don't start singing the Hallelujah chorus just yet. This does not mean that things will change. Any priest who has risen through the ranks is tainted by the "scandal" - if only by sins of omission, if not by sins of commission and by the conspiracy of silence.

I never fully explained the theological problem of "doubt" when I wrote my previous blog on the film, Doubt. Doubt in the authority and teachings of the Mother Church and the Papacy is a sin tantamount to heresy in a nun. One does not question. This is the double meaning of doubt in the film.

I have no love for the man but sitting in my chiropractor's office and hearing the news of his resignation, my first utterance was that he was "heartsick".  My blog, Just what is the colour of the sky in their world, part 4, was probably on my mind when I said this. This is a man that has never had "doubt" as far as I can tell. He is a "true believer". At the same time, I cannot help but wonder whether or not it has finally become too much. As long as there were the odd priests here and there who abused children, it would not necessarily bring the true believer's faith into question. But it has been relentless. It hasn't let up since it began in the 80s - thirty years of relentless disclosures. Furthermore, it is worldwide. Therefore, it was not indigenous to the "degenerate world of North America".

I speculated earlier that the move of Charles Scicluna out of the Vatican was more than it appeared to be. The resignation of Benedict XVI/Ratzinger makes me wonder even further.

I cannot wish him well in his retirement. He has presided over the Inquisition and has hurt many, many good men and women of the church during his years of power. His refusal to deal seriously with the sexually abusing priest is the worst of it. If there is a "God", I can only hope that "he" will make sure that the years of decline will be fraught with questioning. May he actually suffer from "doubt" and begin to understand the full extent of the damage that he has inflicted (with the help of others, of course) on the faithful.

I don't hold out much hope.

And maybe he is showing signs of early Alzheimer's - if so, couldn't happen to a worthier recipient!

So Charles Scicluna is now the Bishop of Malta

It is almost 1:30 in the am and I had one of those "wide awake-up" after about 2.5 hours sleep - thought it was morning. However, the brain is only partially awake & I decided to start going through my "google alerts" (I am way behind in my reading), and ran across this one.

http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2012-11-19/news/full-interview-bishop-elect-speaks-on-sexual-abuse-by-priests-402915330/

I wonder if he really believes what he says - Bishop of Malta does sound like being put out to pasture.

Have nothing brilliant to say except that I did make a few comments in "Fear and Denial at the Crossroads" about his article on the history of the Catholic Church and its pronouncements since the earliest days on the issue.

Fanfest August 2012: Thanks to the DiveMistress for the picture

And a good time was had by all!

For horror fans: The DiveMistress can be found at http://www.zombots.net/

I Knew It

Just wasn't as willing to commit to my gut instinct 3 and a half years ago as I am today.

Here is the Richard Dawkins' post:
http://richarddawkins.net/foundation_articles/2012/12/22/physical-versus-mental-child-abuse#.UOAsYW_AeJo. I did post a version of this blog as a comment on the Dawkins' blog.

Here is my post from May 20th, 2009:
http://whatsanatheisttodo.blogspot.ca/search?q=dawkins

This is an update on the comments that I made then. I had/have no problem with "religion is child abuse" but took exception to his dismissal of the impact of sexual abuse on the child. Here are some further thoughts:


It is true that the mild form of sexual abuse that Dawkins describes is probably less damaging than believing, truly believing in hell. However, he had the advantage of being able to talk with his fellow classmates about it - solidarity is a great healer/dismisser. However, has he ever considered what might have happened had he reported this man to the superiors at the school? (Just asking)

I remember how we used to all talk about staying away from "legs" Hooper, the physics teacher & the French teacher in high school. These incidents are not the stuff of long term psychological destruction (unless one got caught in the web). I just still have this sneaking suspicion that it had more of an impact on his psyche than Dawkins is willing to admit - he does remember it and the feelings that the incident engendered - they apparently have not disappeared. I am pleased to hear him say finally that this too was part of his life-experience. I always use that "hermeneutics of suspicion" approach when people are as angry as he is about religion - that anger does not come from a vacuum or other people's experiences - the personal is still political. It is what we do with that anger that will change the world over the long run.

However, this doesn't give Dawkins the right to dismiss the destructive power of the kind of sexual abuse many of us endured within the Christian system. It feels like I have spent a lifetime talking and writing about the damaging doctrines of Christianity - the subtle and not-so-subtle ones. My contention is that the doctrines make it even more difficult to cope with any kind sexual abuse. A number of commentators on this blog have pointed this out.

The combination (Christian teachings and sexual abuse) is lethal for many, and a lifetime psychological drain for most of us. And I agree with Dawkins that we would be better off without these horrible religious systems.

This is the last paragraph from my 1993 dissertation. Twenty years later (I finished it in August 1992 - defended in '93) and nothing much has changed - I could update the footnotes and the examples in the dissertation but why bother? I am still addressing the same issues but there are new players on the block and the arguments for "Christian virtues" are more nuanced than they were. Oh well, so goes academia!

"Theologians have failed to address child development issues and have underestimated the impact of Christian stories on the developing minds of children. These stories, even when stripped of their most virulent content, are still stories of violence. The stories of Ishmael's banishment, Cain and Abel, Abraham's intention to sacrifice Isaac, David and Goliath, Herod's murder of the infants, John the Baptist's death, the stoning of Stephen, the death of Ananias and Sapphira, the blinding of Paul are all violent stories at the behest of a greater good. Nowhere is that made clearer than in the passion narrative of Christianity. From the agony in Gethsemane to the betrayal by Peter, from the scourging of Jesus to the final crucifixion, the resurrection story of Jesus, the central glorifying image of Christianity, is imbued through and through with violence. These stories and many others are burned into the minds of Christian children forever. Supposedly, they are the stories about a loving god and how he cares for his children. What they are, in reality, are stories about a god who does not accept disobedience, requires that his children suffer, and punishes them when they fail. Furthermore, he is not above sacrificing one of them when he thinks it is necessary, whether it is his own son or an eleven-year-old girl. These are not abstract issues like questions of intentionality over which many a theologian has written many a page, but concrete issues concerning the lessons Christians are teaching their children about how life is to be lived. I was once asked, after delivering a paper at the American Academy of Religion on this topic, whether there would be anything left of Christianity if the 'virtues' I was discussing were dropped from the Christian theological agenda. My flippant response was, "Let's drop them and find out". My more serious response was that forty years from now we would have a group of people calling themselves Christians, but whose Christianity would bear little resemblance to what exists in the present. After finishing the research for this thesis and writing the dissertation, I now end with a more dire prediction. If Christianity does not reinvent itself, does not renounce the rationale for the necessity of the crucifixion, it will not only help to maintain child sexual assault as a continuing social problem, but it will also be a major factor in its continuing recreation, and the cycle of abuse will not end."


Thanks to Marie Celeste Hale for posting the following: http://mirandaceleste.net/2012/12/30/child-abuse-and-catholic-indoctrination-on-being-kindling-wood-for-hell/

it is a another black day

Just one more horrible, horrible story. I grieve for all those families. The most terrifying thing that I can think of - to lose a child is bad enough - to lose a child this way is always irreconciliable.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/12/14/connecticut-school-shooting.html?cmp=rss

No wonder people want to believe in demons, possession, and the world of Supernatural.

The ecumenical religion of patriarchy (atheists included!)

An eye-opening read for everyone

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2012/12/11/the-ecumenical-religion-of-patriarchy/

Have fun

This article is for crocodile hunters

Barbara Hughes, "Where was God?" Sewanee Theological Review 48:1(2004), 87-108.


This is quite a good article if you want to understand the theological journey of one victim and the structure of her healing within the Christian system. I think that it will be an eye-opener to many people and it is a truly necessary addition to these two volumes on children and Christianity.


The dilemmas that I noted in my article, "Birth of an Anthropologian" are easily identifiable in my own reading of this article. It strongly points out how all of our experiences and ways of learning to survive are so diverse. I had once more my own dilemma in how to construct a blog on this article. I chose not to make a critical analysis of the article for a number of reasons.

However, just about everything that I argued in my dissertation is evident in this article, and I have major issues with most of the theological constructions that are evident in the construction of Ms. Hughes spiritual journey. Her journey was not my journey, nor is it the journey of many, many survivors. She is well aware of this and tries to allow for that fact at the end of the article.

In the end, we can only understand that, in order to survive, one believes what one has to and one finds the community.

NOTE:
This may be hard to find. I couldn't find it on any of the university's databases and had to order it. It was a special two part series in the journal called Children and the Kingdom (Vol 1: Theological Reflections on Childhood and Vol. 2: Education and Formation). Two volumes for $14 USD - well worth the price. While I may have issues with the theology at times, these volumes are a fascinating look at children in Christianity. It also contains some beautiful art work (in colour) by children. It is published by the School of Theology at the The University of the South Sewanee, Tennessee. Anglican/Episcopalian in affiliation.

A Day of Mourning

Church of England Rejects Women Bishops In Vote

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/20/church-of-england-rejects-women-bishops_n_2167039.html?utm_hp_ref=religion

Lost the 2/3 majority by 4 votes - power to the people, I guess - it was the laity who brought about the rejection, not the hierarchy, not the bishops and the clergy

Doesn't affect me personally, but is still such a loss to the church.