Do Religions Produce "More than Their Fair Share" of Child Abusers?

One Patheos’ writer’s logic is flawed. But church leaders should still be ashamed.

Terry Firma recently raised a provocative question through Hemant Mehta’s “Friendly Atheist” channel on Patheos.com: Do all religions—not just Catholicism—produce more than their fair share of child sex abusers?

He says yes. Unfortunately for him, it’s just not true. His methodology and logic are flawed. And the general evidence and expert opinions on the subject don’t at all suggest religiously affiliated adults are more likely to sexually abuse children than other adults.

But, unfortunately for religious leaders, especially Christian pastors and church leaders, his piece still implicitly raises a damning (and related) question: Why don’t we see fewer than our fair share of abuse cases?

We’ll explore the latter (and frankly, more important) question in a moment because, per Christ’s mandate to protect the most vulnerable in our midst (Matthew 18:6), we’re committed to eliminating child abuse.

But first, let’s consider Firma’s argument. Read more