It goes without saying that the primary victim of child or youth sexual abuse is the child or youth. But society is a victim as well. Trust is eroded. False accusations are given that much more credence. And children and youth as a whole are indirectly harmed when good people, particularly good men, are reluctant to work with the young in the midst of a deficit of trust and an abundance of false accusations.
With the current scandal in the Roman Catholic Church and, to a lesser extent, in the Southern Baptist Convention, there is already, at the very least, further erosion of trust. But I fear the societal harm will get much worse than that. I expect we are about to experience the devastating breakdown of trust and the epidemic of false accusations known as a moral panic.
Moral panics can do greater harm to a society than the sometimes real events that trigger them, although it is hard to imagine that in the current case. And what is often forgotten about moral panics is that they indeed can be triggered by real incidents. That most famous of moral panics, the Salem Witch Hunt, occurred in part because there may have indeed been witchcraft on a small scale going on around Salem. In that case, the subsequent moral panic was much worse, tearing society apart and destroying the lives of many.
Moral panics can do greater harm to a society than the sometimes real events that trigger them, although it is hard to imagine that in the current case. And what is often forgotten about moral panics is that they indeed can be triggered by real incidents. That most famous of moral panics, the Salem Witch Hunt, occurred in part because there may have indeed been witchcraft on a small scale going on around Salem. In that case, the subsequent moral panic was much worse, tearing society apart and destroying the lives of many.
Often in moral panics, false accusations are used as a weapon, as in the Salem Witch Hunt. Of course, one doesn’t get to the point of a moral panic for false accusations to abound and to succeed.
To get more specific and blunt about that, I do not believe the accusations against Cardinal Pell and think his conviction does not pass the smell test. It is telling that of the three trials against him, only one resulted in a conviction. I think his real crimes are opposing secularist culture and opposing corrupt LibChurchers in the Vatican. So very old and questionable accusations were used to stop him. Of course, I do not know and may be mistaken. But I sure do know what I suspect.
Sadly, Pell will not be the last to have his reputation destroyed and freedom stolen via questionable or false accusations. If we do indeed enter a moral panic, there will be many, and it will compound the harm already done by predators in sheep’s clothing.
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