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These files are maintained strictly for historical reference, research, and recordkeeping purposes, and the content has not been altered or updated since archiving. Content on this site may not meet current digital accessibility standards. If you require an alternative, accessible format of any information found on this site, please contact Bruce Jones, bjones@ucsd.edu to request an accommodation.
On 20 May 2011 05:32, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net> wrote: > A supplementary to what I said ... the real societal question is why did > all this sexual exploitation stuff start coming out in the 70s and 80s? > After generations of abuse, suddenly Ireland is full of horror stories about > what the priests and nuns do with the children in their care? And ironcially > one could answer : "Woodstock"! That is, the social movements of the 1960s > did not create conditions for sexual abuse (that belongs to the mediaeval > structures of the Church), but they created the conditions for people who > were absued to come out in public and denounce their tormentors. > > Andy > > Andy Blunden wrote: > >> Yes, this was an astounding claim. The Church has studied all the sexual >> abuse of children over the decades and decided that the cause was not >> celebacy, or homosexuality but Woodstock (all their words). They claim that >> the Church was simply a part of a social problem which affected the larger >> social body, viz,. the 1960s Free Love movement. This is how the report has >> been reported here in Australia. >> >> I don't accept this at all. It is crazy. Abuse of small children by adult >> priests is nothing to do with free love, or love of any kind. Also nothing >> to do with celebacy or homosexuality. I believe it is an issue to which >> Activity Theory gives us an effective lens though because it was not only >> the Catholic Church and its celebate priests who are implicated, but all >> hierarchical organisations, especially those built around a doctrine and/or >> demanding tight loyalty. It affects the even IMF actually. Where you have a >> situation where one person has absolute power over another (a relation which >> can be estabished by doctrine, but to an extent also by economic relations) >> then this kind of sexual subordination and exploitation occurs. It occurs in >> families, too. The question is the quality of the person to person relations >> on which a large social formation is based. >> >> Andy >> >> > > __________________________________________ > _____ > xmca mailing list > xmca@weber.ucsd.edu > http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca > > This mail was received via Mail-SeCure System. > > How ironic. The Bishops' report manages to deflect criticism of the > consequences of authoritarian relations between ecclesiastical officials and > their clientele by reassertion of absolutist doctrinaire criticisms of the > sexual practices of the public at large. A similar, and perhaps less > well-publicized phenomenon can be found within the Orthodox Jewish > community. > By the way, several observations of the report suggest that the sexual transgressions of the clergy resemble more the abuse characteristic of prison sub-cultures than they do of those of gays and pedophiles. There too, sexual abuse has more to do about the exercise of unrestrained authority than about strictly sexual mores. -- Victor Friedlander __________________________________________ _____ xmca mailing list xmca@weber.ucsd.edu http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca