Show of Hands

No, I think rape is a crime that shouldn't depend on the victim's age or other factors, we are equal before the law. You could argue the degree of cruelty and violence used makes a difference.

Yes. If you want life in prison for rape, I'm fine with it, but ANY rape. Also, I think aggravating factors rather comprise, as I said, cruelty, and duration, such as a raped and battered wife having lived through hell for YEARS.

This is a difficult question for me to answer.

Looking at our society, we do hold crimes against certain groups to be worse than others -- e.g., raping a 12-year-old vs. raping a 22-year-old -- and I can't see immediately that this is unreasonable.

What? This article was about 70 year old nun being gang raped. Did you read it?

Te crime is the same, but I think the result is worse, not simply sexual assault, but destroying something that has been an essential part of one's identity for so long.

I think that the inherent vulnerability and defenselessness of a victim should always be considered. This particular crime definitely involved more than sexual violation.

In a legal sense, the crime is no different.

Well, um, I hate to rate the severity of rapes, but in a moral and ethical sense I certainly believe the rape of a 70 year old religious celibate to be worse than the rape of a young person who applies little to no value to sexual joining.

For the record, catholic priests are no more likely to abuse kids than any other males in any other profession. Yours is a common misconception resulting from media distortion.
www.newsweek.com/priests-commit-no-more-abuse-other-males-70625

At the moment of rape, every victim is helpless. Every victim feels pain, humiliation, and fear. Quote: www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/williamsha139190.html

But the lack of action against them, and the fact that they are supposed to be able to teach people true morality, that's what pisses me off more than any other person.

I think rape should be a minimum life sentence punishment, but I do say that it takes a much more warped mind to rape an elderly nun than it does to rape your secretary

No priest will ever tell you they are speaking for God. I've only ever hear angry atheists and disenfranchised anti-religious Christians make such a claim.
Which are you?

In fact, if I google the phrase "catholic priests speak for God" the ONLY result is a single, paranoid Facebook post about some nonsense conspiracy regarding the Church.

Anyway, this topic has been discussed to death on this app. You really should look into it a little more and try to offset your obvious bias.

Yes, priests are given more, authority when interpreting the bible and they are considered more understanding of the mind of God. I don't bother interpreting the bible any more than I would interpret any other mythology book.

And I don't think or preach that anyone should follow my interpretation of any specific passage of anything, unless I can back up my claims with evidence in the real world, but that doesn't really apply here.

I do have a problem with churches, they are organizations that take away people's inquisitive minds. They teach you that doubt is bad, and that questioning unprovable claims is wrong.

Doubt is how we learn, doubt everything until it has been demonstrated to be true, and if someone posits an untestable, and unfalsifiable claim, your should reject it. But faith has somehow made it into our virtues, when it is a vice.

The crime is the same, but the lack of punishment and the fact that it's children being raped is.

So yes I have a problem with the idea of religion, those that perpetuate it, the institutions that dull the minds of our children, and the parents that force their child to attend these brainwashing sessions.

Yes, that is my unfiltered belief on the institution of religion. If you want to believe in a higher being, you search that being out for yourself, don't let someone tell you what it's like, or how it wants you to live your life.

I am aware that I sound like a hateful atheist, but I actually have good reasons to support my beliefs.

Any authority figure using that power to abuse kids is bad. The media paid special attention to the relatively few Catholic priests who were doing it, and so many people share your perception that it was a frequent event or that all priests do it.

So the result of a crime or the identity of its victim, in your view, has no bearing on its moral or ethical severity as long as the acts were identical?

That is not my belief about catholic priests, but it's that they claim to be the ultimate authority.

Oh, I didn't see the link.

As a catholic, I have never met a priest who claimed to be the absolute authority on anything.

I assume you assumed the article was about catholic priests?

You may want to ask a priest for their opinion about that. Only cynics would entertain that notion for more than a few seconds.

The most recent rapes involving religious officials I've heard of.

So priests don't tell the congregation what the ambiguous passages in the bible mean.

Claim to speak for the ultimate authority. Sorry.

1. It depends on the jurisdiction.

2. I don't intend to use "crime" in strictly a legal sense but also in an ethical sense.

www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/crime

I don't know of any priests who claim to speak for God, either.

That's what their entire job is, they interpret the bible, the bible is supposed to be the word of God, so priests are supposed to speak for God.

So you oppose the Florida law that places adults in prison for life for raping girls younger than 12?

No, it's horrible that all the others are committing that kind of atrocity against humanity, but when it's a religious leader, who is supposed to be speaking on behalf of an almighty God, it is even more horrible.

You may want to look into that a little more. There are priests in jail right now.

They give their opinions about what they mean, as many people do, which is very different than claiming to speak for God. Their education, training, and experience gives them particular insight- but again, that isn't claiming to speak for God.

The ones who committed their crimes years ago were overlooked because nobody understood what to do about that kind of disorder back then. Not just the church and priests, but every field and profession affected by that sort of disorder.

Of course they won't say they're speaking for God, but that's irrelevant, because they are looked up to as the people who can interpret the word of God.

Some of them were just forced to move parishes.

We all interpret the word of God. But there are people with better training and more experience understanding the bible, and we tend to give their opinions more respect and credence. Priests are among that group in the eyes of Catholics.

The crime is the same. The punishment is worse because teachers are held to higher standards.

Have you ever told someone what you think a particular verse means?
Then by your own standard, you were speaking for God.

It wasn't just priests. It's an issue that has been found to have been covered up in every field where adults had access to kids: teachers, child psychologists, judges, lawyers, rabbis, ministers, imams- they were all covered up during that time.

Anyway, I'm done. You clearly have issues with the Church and it isn't my job to set you straight. You may want to at least look into the sex abuse scandal, though, as it's obvious you've just eaten what the media cooked up.

The catholic church just bore the brunt of the media attention, and people like you directed all of your righteous indignation at the Church instead of stepping back and looking at the bigger picture.

No, I've read articles from former priests, journalists, and many other sources on the coverup in the Catholic Church, I haven't heard about the others, mostly because the others aren't as popular of a religion.