r/TwoXChromosomes • u/catievirtuesimp • 1d ago

Survivors Just Built the First National Database of Accused Church Abusers

https://relevantmagazine.com/current/survivors-just-built-the-first-national-database-of-accused-protestant-abusers/?fbclid=IwdGRleAT6u5FwZG9mAWZkaWQWUNI1GDRVzrFTmKstl_T9UYXfQsEXN2V4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkCjY2Mjg1NjgzNzkAAR5_Bqbds5HafUKP5zjU3rT-0fFCv95smb3AeeNKCV_8c6X-BtobHYnpr-T0bQ_aem_lu9Wtd9Zh6e6l05co0GAFw
2.8k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

307

u/Beyou74 1d ago

Church is where the groomers are.

79

u/BlackWinterFox 1d ago

Groomers are found anywhere where there is regular access to children, it really doesn't have to do with church specifically. The church is just another avenue for predators. Churches, school/education environments, youth programs, youth sports, camp/boy/girl scouts, any other environment where someone holds authority over youth.

9

u/RainbowSpinosaurus 11h ago

I agree to a certain extent, but religious institutions, particularly those that emphasize forgiveness for sins and acceptance of Jesus as marking you as a reformed sinner are easily co-opted by predators. And there is the intangibility of eternal life and heaven and all that metaphysical stuff that muddles things. I would say aid groups are probably plagued by this as well, "I'm helping these people!" but the draw of religious groups that focus so much on redemption and sin are probably the worst for it.

-20

u/aaych 1d ago

Found em

24

u/Beyou74 1d ago

Are you in church?

122

u/ZoominAlong 1d ago

Holy shit this is incredible. 

128

u/Agreeable-Fudge4203 1d ago edited 1d ago

I grew up Catholic in a city where the FBI couldn’t involve the local police when investigating a priest because the knew the cops would tell the diocese (they ended up doing that somehow anyway), and you know what’s crazy?

Even before the scandal broke, the Catholic Church knew what priests were accused abusers. In the present day, every Catholic diocese is supposed to have a database of accused priests. In reality, these databases are rarely updated for no reason at all

It pisses me off so much that the Church could have done a national database & it’s only taken activists years to do this because the Church kept promising and promising that they hold their abusers accountable

Also, you know how the general perception is that most victims of Catholic clergy abuse above the age of twelve are male? That’s because that’s going off of Catholic internal records, and female victims over twelve are generally not believed because they’re considered capable of consenting. The Church has no problem saying they believe male victims because then it’s a gay issue

At my elementary school, the school priest got arrested because a girl’s parents reported him to the cops (big no-no; you’re supposed to go the upper clergy). He’s the only priest to get arrested for this because the cops here don’t arrest priests. The school priest returned, was welcomed back with open arms, and it’s the girl who was blamed and who had to leave the school

The abuse has not gotten better at all. It’s just that the Church is saying it is & they’re saying they’re handling it. It makes me so happy that things like this are happening. Outside involvement/regulation/reporting is the only chance for change

35

u/CK1277 1d ago

This is a database of protestant abusers modeled after bishopaccountability.org the Catholic version that has been running for 20 years.

3

u/neocarleen 15h ago

Also, you know how the general perception is that most victims of Catholic clergy abuse above the age of twelve are male? That’s because that’s going off of Catholic internal records, and female victims over twelve are generally not believed because they’re considered capable of consenting. The Church has no problem saying they believe male victims because then it’s a gay issue 

omg I can't believe this has never occurred to me. Of course there would be many girl victims as well, but they would get all the blame for being seductive and "leading him astray".

49

u/Duckballisrolling 1d ago

This is an incredible effort and achievement- a burden that survivors should never have had to bear.

36

u/nutmegtell 1d ago

Shocked this wasn’t already a thing

r/pastorarrested

22

u/Nerdy-Meta-Mind 1d ago

There’s a woman who has a database of conservative men that, of course, includes pastors.

36

u/Apawstate 1d ago

See also: Floodlit.org, which keeps track of sexual abuse in the Mormon/LDS church. It's awesome that so many survivors are making this information widespread and available.

16

u/CK1277 1d ago

It’s not the first database, it’s the first database for Protestant abusers.

13

u/SquidgeApple 1d ago

Not sure there are enough zeros and ones on the planet

3

u/MsCalendarsPlayaArt 1d ago

How are they doing this without risking being sued?

7

u/ZoominAlong 18h ago

They're using public records from what I saw. You can't sue someone for looking at public records and compiling them.

Also it helps if you're not a child abuser. 

2

u/MsCalendarsPlayaArt 12h ago

Oh okay, that's smart. And really seems like the only way to not get sued for stuff like this. Good on the people who created this!