Moral Dilemmas

Well, I didn't mean to leave that lovely prom picture post up there for so long, but my life seems to be getting in the way of blogging. And there's not even anything interesting to report on.

That Canadian Boy I Married and I had a discussion last night about religion. We go weeks and weeks without having conversations of any substance and then all of a sudden, we spend an intense hour debating something big. Are we weird or is this how other people do it, too?

The topic arose after we discussed the Obama race speech from Tuesday, but it quickly turned to church and what should or would drive a person away from a parish/church. We specifically discussed the pedophile issues that have been dogging the Catholic church over the last few years.

If a parishioner knows that a priest is molesting a child in the parish, but doesn't leave the parish or mention the abuse to anyone in the church, is that condoning the abuse? What is enough to drive a person to leave their church? What line do you draw and say "Over that, I will not go?"

I understand the involvement people have with their church. My family was very active in our church when I was a child. A lot of our social life revolved around church activities and many of my friends were from church.

But when does ones social life have to be set aside for the greater good? Is it really that difficult to disassociate yourself from your church/parish? I can't help but think that plenty of people had to have known that priests were abusing boys in the church. Some of the boys had to have said something to their parents or teachers about it - they can't all have kept quiet. What would drive a parent to ignore information like that from their child? And what would keep a family in a parish, knowing the abuse was going on?

It's difficult for me, now, to see how a person can turn a blind eye to such things, just because they're reluctant to give up their church. I am not religious now and I don't have that type of community, but I have other communities I belong to and I'm pretty secure in saying that if I knew that was going on, I would do something, say something and remove myself from that group of people.

I grew up next door to a woman who abused her children. She was a raging alcoholic and would scream at them, throw things at them, beat them and occasionally kick one of them out of the house and make them sleep under the pine tree in the front yard. Every single time it happened, my parents would call the police about it. Nothing ever happened. The kids were never taken away, she was never arrested, nothing. It was very discouraging, but my parents kept calling because it was the right thing to do. Even though she started haranguing us, screaming out the windows about us and threatening my sister and I if we set foot in her yard, my parents continued to report her, in the hopes that eventually, something would be done. It wasn't an easy way to live for a couple of years, but it was the right thing to do.

It saddens me that too often, people take the easy way out. That people would rather shut their eyes to these atrocities than disturb their little social and/or spiritual community by speaking out. When something is so patently wrong, the right thing, the Christian thing to do, is to say something, do something, help that child, stand up and say "Enough!" I don't know how you can, in all good conscience, sleep at night, knowing that your silence helps perpetuate these things.

Just one more thing that baffles me.