The morning news

I was clutching my coffee mug this morning, listening to NPR, when I heard a report on a couple of Baptist ministers that have gotten themselves in trouble for doing naughty things with little girls. At this point the sexual misconduct of the clergy is sort of a yawn. The biggest recent splash was everyones favorite born-again homo, Ted Haggard.

It has got me thinking though. Mostly about how things are perceived in this country. Prior to the new scandals about protestant ministers getting up to hijinx with members of their congregations, I can't help but feel that the country had come to consider this type of behavior as the sole province of Catholics! I actually, during the height of the shitstorm that surrounded the Boston diocese, had friends inform me that this type of thing would never happen in other sects because the pastors were answerable directly to their congregations and not to some centralized bureaucracy. In vain did I try and tell them stories that I had heard from friends in my youth about what the local pastor was doing with the boy scout troop.

I have to admit to a certain amount of smug self satisfaction. As a former Catholic, I am not very sympathetic to the mother church, but I have noticed here in Boston a very strong anti-catholic sentiment, and I hear some pretty strange ideas about what it is that Catholics actually believe, and how they practice their faith. Admittedly, a lot of Catholics give people some pretty strange ideas themselves. I guess what I am pointing out is that it is simply by virtue of the otherness of Catholics that leave them open to suspicion. Somehow, like Jews and Islam, you really can't trust those people.

Well, now everyone gets to join in the fun. Choose your perversion. You can be a televangelist, who has a thing for call boys and meth, or a small town pastor, who likes 8 year old girls and you too can wind up in the news. Frankly, I find this new story about these dirty old men in the south as news worthy as "The Hag" and his misbehavior. However since these guys had not had the forethought to bilk a larger audience out of millions of dollars for their ministry, all the while getting their butts plugged by muscle boys, I am not sure how much attention this is going to get. Besides it was just a bunch of little girls! What's to get excited about?