Dear all I am interested in hearing about cases of child abuse in Church of England schools, specifically those caused by the religious nature of the schools. An example is here: www.pippa-rowe.com If anyone knows of similar cases please let me know. Thanks. Leigh
Leigh, what is your motivation in seeking out this information? Many are motivated my morbid curiosity which would be totally inappropriate, others want the information because they have first hand experience and are therefore justified
Specifically caused by the religious nature of the schools? Are you seriously suggesting that a school being of a religious nature makes abuse more likely?
I would tentatively say yes, there could be connection between the religious nature of the school and the abuse. It it difficult to explain but it goes something like this... When children are brought up to believe in something that they can't see or detect in any way, something that on the face of it just doesn't exist, it requires them to distort their minds somewhat. There is probably a lot of unpleasant cognitive dissonance. I see it as a kind of child abuse. Let's face it, it must be quite confusing for children and is perhaps best kept out of their lives until they are old enough to asses the idea critically. Anyway, those victims of abuse have now grown up and are priests and religious head teachers today. I propose that these people don't understand what it is to have a normal childhood and they therefore don't understand what harms children. They are victims of childhood abuse and are therefore more likely than the average person to commit abuse themselves, or allow it to be committed by other people. I stress that this is just an idea of mine but there is no harm discussing it. In the case of the headteacher on pippa-rowe.com I think she just wanted to remove the father from the child's life because the father wasn't religious.
This is utterly false, and basically presupposes atheism without question or evidence... To a Christian or even a basic rational person it is far more natural that God exists than He doesn't; and atheism is the irrational and unprovable thesis...
Having worked in residential childcare for several years, I can say categorically that not all abusers were abused as children and not all abuse victims grow up to be perpetrators. To suggest that a religious environment fosters abuse is an absolute nonsense
I am deeply offended by the false equivalence drawn between raising our children to share our belief in God with child abuse. As @anglican74 so excellently pointed out, your claim is an unfounded and flawed exercise in confirmation bias because it presupposes, without any evidence or logical support, that God does not exist. And as @Aidan points out, your conclusions collapse under the weight of the historical, statistical and even anecdotal records. Your claims without merit except to insult everyone on this forum and every christian parent. You should be ashamed but clearly your temerity in posting the comments above on a forum like this show that shame, along with good sense, is clearly something you lack. I will pray for you. May God have mercy on you and show you the light before its too late.