\u201cof, relating to, or common to a system\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201csystemic\u201d in Frederick C. Mish, ed., Merriam-Webster\u2019s Collegiate Dictionary<\/em>, 11th ed. (Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, Inc., 2003).<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The discussion on the fundamentalist blogosphere lately has been very heated over stories of scandal and sexual abuse in or connected with ministries widely viewed as fundamentalist. (I phrase it that way because some may dispute the fundie credentials of some of these ministries.)<\/p>\n I really don\u2019t want to get into a \u201cfact-finding-fault-finding\u201d scream-a-thon here. But Bob Bixby<\/a> brings the word \u2018systemic\u2019 to the discussion and others have said similar things. By systemic<\/em>, Bob says he means<\/p>\n I think it is right to say that she was wrongly treated because of a systemic abuse of victims in fundamentalist circles. I insist on the word \u201csystemic\u201d because I do not think that IFB people consciously scheme about how to make people suffer.<\/p>\n \u2026<\/p>\n I do<\/em> agree that abuse is systemic<\/em> in the culture of IFB. It is systemic because of the general IFB understanding of church, discipline, sin, authority, and the Bible.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So\u2026 systemic<\/em>\u2026 \u201cof, relating to, or common to a system\u201d<\/p>\n (Now, before we go on, let\u2019s note that Bob is broadening the topic from sexual abuse to \u2018abuse of victims\u2019 and that this issue is \u2018systemic\u2019 because of the IFB \u201cunderstanding of church, discipline, sin, authority, and the Bible.\u201d Bob is painting with a very broad brush and using the current scandal to attack his favorite whipping boy, independent Baptist Fundamentalism.)<\/p>\n But is \u2018sexual abuse\u2019 and \u2018child abuse\u2019 systemic<\/em> to Christian fundamentalism?<\/p>\n A friend of mine sent me a few links tonight about another very very tragic and disgusting story about another independent Baptist and another scandal. I\u2019m not going to include any links, its just a completely disgusting story. In this case, it appears there is a serious sin issue, this time on the part of a pastor. That\u2019s all the details I\u2019ll give.<\/p>\n But the story gave me pause. Not another one! And then again, this question came to mind: is \u2018sexual abuse\u2019 and \u2018child abuse\u2019 systemic to Christian fundamentalism?<\/em><\/p>\n Because if it is, every right thinking fundamentalist needs to GET OUT, fast.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n How to test this out? I decided to do a few searches on Google. The first was for \u2018evangelical underage inappropriate\u2019<\/a>; \u2018fundamentalist underage inappropriate<\/a>\u2019; and \u2018school teacher underage inappropriate<\/a>\u2019.<\/p>\n The results:<\/p>\n Please note that the terms \u2018fundamentalist\u2019 and \u2018evangelical\u2019 are loosely used in the press, so for instance my search on \u2018fundamentalist \u2026\u2019 picked up hits on Mormon Fundamentalism right at the top of the page.<\/p>\n Also, while these search terms are perhaps a little generic, if you look at the searches, you will be able to see that they pick up stories and articles of the sort we are talking about. So I think the terms are \u2018good enough\u2019. I didn\u2019t want to get too specific for fear of picking up sites that are themselves inappropriate. It is possible <\/strong>that some of them are still included in the lists these searches give, so use with caution.<\/p>\n I certainly don\u2019t have time to sift through 2.5 million Google hits, but I did look at one article that led me to another. The first article is entitled Sexual abuse within fundamentalist and other evangelical churches<\/a>. The site is sort of religious<\/a>, but not Christian. It starts off citing the Catholic scandals that came to light since 2000, mostly in North America and Europe. They make this significant statement in the second paragraph:<\/p>\n Sexual abuse is found throughout society. Approximately 1% of girls are so abused by their fathers before puberty, and about 1% by their step-fathers. Abuse of boys is at a lower level. There is really no reliable data which demonstrates whether religion plays a role in this phenomenon. We have never located any trustworthy evidence that sexual abuse of pre-pubertal children is higher or lower in fundamentalist\/other evangelical churchees (sic) when compared to the Roman Catholic Church, other faith groups, or in society as a whole.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n They go on to cite someone\u2019s report of a Focus on the Family program and note that the vast majority of sexual scandal in evangelical churches involves inappropriate relationships of staff with adult parishioners.<\/p>\n Now\u2026 a caveat: I am not sure how reliable the statements on this site are. They are reasonably stated, but I have no way of verifying them.<\/p>\n This site also links to several lists of cases in various denominations that appear on another cite. Here are the lists:<\/p>\n I think all the cases cited here are accurate, but I haven\u2019t attempted to go through all the stories and read up on the supporting documents. I have no idea if these lists are exhaustive or if they are limited by only a certain time period.<\/p>\n I cite them to note that the \u2018religious\u2019 site linking to them under the heading \u2018Sexual abuse within fundamentalist and other evangelical churches\u2019 is pointing to precious few, if any, actual fundamentalist churches. Go ahead and sift through the list (if you can stomach it). I think you will see that my observation is correct.<\/p>\n I think that we can say that child sexual abuse is not systemic<\/em> to fundamentalism or evangelicalism or even to Catholicism.<\/p>\n Please note especially the number of hits I got with my searches, comparing evangelicals, fundamentalists, and school teachers. We could say, simply based on the number of hits, that such behaviour is much more systemic of the educational system, could we not?<\/p>\n But really, I don\u2019t even want to say something like that. I will say that child sexual abuse seems to be systemic<\/em> to the human condition. I don\u2019t know if it is more prevalent in Europe and North America than elsewhere, who can tell? I suspect that it is on the rise because of the widespread over-sexed culture we live in. Men (and women) are immersed in sexuality, have established deep habit patterns in their souls and are twisted and perverted in their thinking.<\/p>\n It is no surprise that such sins show up at church.<\/p>\n And we make no excuses for covering such sins, or allowing perpetrators to \u2018get away with it\u2019. As pastors, we must be vigilant in so many ways: vigilant over ourselves, vigilant over our church leaders, over all volunteers, over every program of the church involving children.<\/p>\n But can we make a plea to drop the \u2018systemic\u2019 claptrap? It is completely unhelpful to the problem in general and does nothing<\/em> to provide aid for any current specific case. It is just a cheap shot at fundamentalism by several who are exploiting a tragedy currently in the news for the purpose of furthering their own animus towards fundamentalism.<\/p>\n\n
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\n<\/strong><\/li>\nWhat is the point of all this?<\/h4>\n
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