More on pro-pedophile USCCB advisor August 19, 2011
Posted by Tantumblogo in Basics, Dallas Diocese, disaster, episcopate, foolishness, General Catholic, horror, sadness, scandals, sickness, Society.trackback
I’ve blogged twice this week about the hideous pedophile “normalization” and de-criminalization conference being held this week in Baltimore. One of the lead organizers of this conference is Dr. Fred Berlin. I was reading some more about this disturbed individual, a true disciple of the very sick and twisted Alfred Kinsey (the man who paid men to sexually molest their children for “science”), and the more I read, the more incredulous I become:
Berlin has similarly compared society’s reaction to pedophilia to that of homosexuality prior to the landmark 2003 Lawrence v. Texas decision that decriminalized sodomy.
B4U-ACT’s own website puts Berlin’s views front and center. “Just as has been the case historically with homosexuality,” he writes, “society is currently addressing the matter of pedophilia with a balance that is far more heavily weighted on the side of criminal justice solutions than on the side of mental health solutions.” [as I said, the pro-pedophile folks plan on following the same path with pedophilia they followed with homosexuality – first, remove it from consideration as a disorder, then remove ostracism, then tolerance, and finally, acceptance and normalization]
Berlin’s opposition to, and even noncompliance with, Maryland’s sex offender notification law drew scrutiny from former Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran in the early 1990s.
In 1990 The Baltimore Sun reported that Berlin refused to report pedophiles under his care who were actively molesting children……..
……
Reisman remains unconvinced. “His [Berlin’s] empathy was with the pedophile and the pederast, not with the child victim,” she told TheDC. “He refused to report the criminal to law enforcement because he said they were in treatment.
“Taxpayers pay for treatment and they are molesting kids. They go out to Berlin, and he gets paid by us [the taxpayers] for therapy.
Now, Berlin has apparently tried to distance himself from this conference, saying he is not in favor of de-criminalization, but favors an approach of both “criminal justice interventions and public health initiatives.” Then why has he opposed sex offender notification laws, why has he not revealed that he is “treating” individuals actively ruining children’s lives (through molestation) to law enforcement, and why is he serving as the keynote speaker at this conference. His words ring hollow. I invite my readers to go to the B4U-ACT website, if you can take it, to determine for yourself the path this group is advocating. It is nothing less than a planned program to de-criminalize child sex abuse and treat pedophilia as just one of a range of normal sexual tendencies. This is what occurs in a society when it is absolutely decoupled from truth.
As far as the Church in concerned, I’m surprised there has been no statement from the USCCB or various dioceses formally repudiating their relationship with Berlin. In fact, given the terrible counsel provided by this man, I’m surprised there aren’t several public repudiations of him by Church officials. It is a mystery to me why there are numerous interviews and credible references on the USCCB website citing this man, still present days after this news broke. Legally, this would appear to be inadvisable, as lawyers pursuing abuse claims could make a connection between this “pedophile normalization” conference, Dr. Berlin, and the USCCB/various bishoprics. But, perhaps such a press release will soon be forthcoming.
One final note, if you read Berlin’s statements, you will find a curiously strong empathy for the pedophile, and what seems to me to be a strange detachment from the plight of the abused child. Sex abuse is the worst form of abuse, his views regarding it are completely alien, I would think, to the vast majority of rational adults.
The question remains why his counsel was so influential for so long in the Church.
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i’ve looked through b4u-act’s website, and i think you’re distorting things. “pro-pedophile”? please. it sounds like empathetic people trying to help others with terrible sexual dysfunctions get the help they need. this is not nambla. this group is focused on helping these people BEFORE they become child molesters.
do you think jesus would call for the bloody deaths for all pedophiles, or would he show empathy and love for even the most vile among us?
I saw much, too much empathy for the perpetrators, and very little for victims. I know a woman who is all messed up because she was abused as a little girl. She’ll likely never be quite right. The problem with pedophile treatment is that it rarely works. The few times when it does work, it is often the shame the perpetrator feels that drives them to remorse and conversion. Taking that shame away through “normalization” could well be counterproductive.
Based on the wonderfully compassionate “treatment” of Dr. Fred Berlin, dozens, possibly hundreds, of abusing priests were kept in circulation, who went on to abuse thousands more victims. The human cost due to that policy is incalculable, the cost to the Church in monetary terms is in the tens of billions of dollars, and the Church’s reputation has taken an enormous hit, damage that will take decades to repair. Numerous souls may have been lost due their loss of Faith in the Church due to this scandal, another incalculable human toll.
The program I see is not one of compassion, it is one of moral relativism (or moral collapse) and enabling. No thanks. I think the present laws are generally adequate.
Your shroud waving at the end is silly. No one has called for a bloody death, just a rejection of trying to normalize abject perversion and a recognition that the needs of society demand that criminal justice be the means of first resort to deal with pedophiles who act on their inclinations. We’ve seen where the normalization path leads vis a vis homosexuality, and I think many rightly fear this latest project will try to drive to the same conclusion. Jesus would tell the pedophiles to stop sinning, and when they did not, He would have finally rebuked them. The practical problem is, and has been, the inefficacy of treatment of pedophiles and their terrible recidivism rate. The greater problem is the moral relativism that leads well meaning but terribly mistaken individuals to advocate immoral courses of action, actions which have a demonstrated track record of leaving terrible misery in their wake.
What you advocate is false compassion that leaves people mired in grave sin, sin that horribly damages other people. I’m sorry, I think pedophilia is akin to murder, because it murders a child’s innocence and corrupts their soul. Molesting a child, or possessing child porn, should be some of those areas where society says “This is so harmful, if you do this, you will spend most of your remaining life in prison.” It is simply too damaging, too perverse, too evil for any moral society to tolerate.
Treatment alone, then, is only acceptable for those who have not acted on their perversion, and it must be treated as a serious psychological problem, one that must be dealt with to a point of rejecting said behavior/inclinations, not tolerance or rationalization of them. This organization and conference seems primarily focused on the latter through de-stygmafication and societal acceptance. I cannot support that. I must, in fact, utterly oppose such efforts.
“Jesus would tell the pedophiles to stop sinning, and when they did not, He would have finally rebuked them. ” good point, i shouldn’t have worded it that way; i saw a similar blog that was suggesting such brutality; my apologies again.
but i still disagree with what you think of as “false compassion”. i’ve read more today about this meeting and b4u act. while too much compassion can lead down a slippery slope of moral relativism, not enough can lead to unneeded suffering. however, i think these folks are trying to make the situation better. if treatment of any sort turns out to not work, well then at least someone tried to alleviate our child sexual abuse problem from its source. there are plenty of groups out there that try to justify sex with children, but b4u act is not one of them. i’d rather have a pedophile in therapy where he can be confronted with his sickness as opposed to not.
“It is simply too damaging, too perverse, too evil for any moral society to tolerate.” i agree completely. but if therapists and psychologists can convince even one pedophile how awful it truly is, well that’s a start. the conference itself was about de-stygmafication of the clinical community and the APA, not getting the public to accept molestation as socially acceptable. i dunno, maybe i read it wrong.
on a final note, because of all this blogosphere chatter about their conference, b4u-act posted a statement:
http://b4uact.org/statement2011symp.htm
thanks for the detailed response,
Eli
[…] normalization’ effort conference held last week. I reported on this conference several times last week. A couple of commenters here, and more on other sites, appeared to feel that the B4U-ACT […]