Aurora as seen from space. NASA
“All conflict can be traced back to someone’s feelings getting hurt, don’t you think?” ― Big Little Lies
I swear that someone is out to make my Monday even more jarring. I had another coffee and put this up for your reading “pleasure.” Thankfully, Todd is going to follow up with a more thoughtful post.
I heard about the following on the local news and didn’t believe it. So, I looked it up. The Tennesse Star reported: Old Dominion Professor Battling to ‘Destigmatize’ Pedophilia
A transgender assistant professor of sociology and criminology at Old Dominion University (ODU) has been making the media rounds advocating in support of pedophilia, or what he calls “minor attraction,” according to a report from earlier this week.
In an interview with Protasia, a group that advocates for legalizing child sex dolls and argues that pedophilia should be a sexuality on the LGBT spectrum, Walker said that the term “pedophile” should be replaced with “minor attracted person” (MAP) because “… I think it’s important to use terminology for groups that members of that group want others to use for them,” and that “MAP advocacy groups like B4U-Act have advocated for use of the term, and they’ve advocated for it primarily because it’s less stigmatizing than other terms like pedophile.”
The report notes that B4U-Act was founded by convicted serial rapist Michael Melsheimer “for the explicit purposes of normalizing pedophilia and distracting from prevention efforts.”
Here is a link to the Protestia website and here is a clip
One caveat:
I believe that our society should do everything in its power to help pedophiles control their destructive urges. However, as a society, we must be aware that many pedophiles suffer from their compulsions for their entire lives. I hope more research will turn up ways to better help these individuals not act on their urges. But, I don’t buy this group even though I have read their website. Time will tell if they do more good than harm. I am pessimistic.
Childlike sex dolls??? If anyone told me I would be writing about this stuff when I started blogging, I wouldn’t have believed them.
1
I would have believed them, Dee. How many other sins, both sexual and non sexual have we now in our advanced wisdom defined away?
It used to be a sin (not to mention illegal) to just walk up to someone like an attendant on an airliner, and attack. But today it is merely “anger management issues.”
We used to say it was a sin (and again likely illegal) for either gender to reveal their private wares in public. Now if anyone so much as rolls their eyes when they see it the eye roller is guilty of being a judgmental prude.
I expect any day now Josh Duggar will claim is actions are just “getting past fundamentalism.”
In the joint they’re called “short-eyes”, and they don’t fare well.
*** ‘Walker said that the term “pedophile” should be replaced with “minor attracted person” (MAP) because “… …….and they’ve advocated for it primarily because it’s less stigmatizing than other terms like pedophile.” ‘***
Would it be stigmatizing to speak the blatant truth and call them “wanton criminals who repeatedly commit abusive, illegal sexual acts on innocent children”???
Stigmatizing, my foot!
It’s obvious that their own personal, illicit gratification is far more important than the welfare and safety of innocent children.
*drily* You mean like LGBTQIA people living normal lives, instead of smashed into closets of various sizes? Evangelicalism still sees LGBTQIA people as the worst sinners ever. Speaking only for myself (asexual), I’m tired of it. Really, really tired.
Oh, and for the record, children legally can’t consent to sexual activity of any kind, so I just want to smack these Minor Attracted Pedophiles until their brains rattle for trying to get around this very simple thing with “dolls.” However, physical assault is a tort and a crime, so I’ll do what I’ve done in the past and figuratively tuck my hands behind my back.
“If anyone told me I would be writing about this stuff when I started blogging, I wouldn’t have believed them.”
If anyone had told me as a child I would live long enough to see the degradation of America on every front … from church house to white house … calling what is wrong right … perversion glorified … I would have said “No way!” But, here we are, living life upside down.
Just hours ago I finished preparing our lesson for tomorrows bible study on Philippians 3.It describes the subject of this post to a T.
Philippians 3. 18-19.
“For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame.”
Attraction to minors by an adult is a power play.
Moreover, it is projection. Adult sexual desires projected onto a child.
Children want and need attention and care, NOT sex. Not in their wildest imagination.
“Attraction” means lust, by the way.
Power play is bullying. Bullies’ violation of a child, or a bully imagining violating a child.
Adults: pick on or go after someone your own size.
Exactly.
“For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world.” (1 John 2:16) … “This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” (Galatians 5:16)
I wonder what laws against sex with children or child pornography the “Protestia” organization believes are “broader than necessary,” “unconstitutional,” or “not evidence-based.”
The only thing that comes to mind is the situation of minors’ distributing naked pictures of themselves or their body parts, which is outside the concept of most jurisdictions’ child pornography statutes.
This is far from the first outspoken advocate of trying to make pedos “Acceptable”.. In the late 1970’s a form organization was formed called “North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) that “advocated to abolish age-of-consent laws criminalizing adult sexual involvement with minors..”
It’s beyond disturbing to think this guy actually believes what he says. Children cannot consent to what these people want. Children need to be protected from the desires of sick adults.
–The report notes that B4U-Act was founded by convicted serial rapist Michael Melsheimer for the explicit purposes of “normalizing pedophilia and distracting from prevention efforts.”–
The primary reason evangelicals pick on LGBT (and the rest of the alphabet) is because evangelicals are all too familiar with the rest of the sins in the same lists in the Bible as homosexuality is listed in. They need to have some sin to focus on that doesn’t strike too close to home for them and so they choose that one.
If they focused instead on, oh say, the greed in their own hearts rather than the sins of the world (which Romans 2 tells them not be judgemental of) there wouldn’t be so many who hate Christians.
If only the world had more opportunity to be offended by the Gospel because they found something about IT offensive rather than being constantly offended by the awful behavior of so many Christians.
I agree with your point, but would suggest three categories: crimes, sins, and violations of church rules.
Sexual assault against children fits into all three.
Rapists need to be prosecuted.
Crimes are fairly well defined. Sins and violations of church rules are more subjective and local, often enforced through mistreatment close to home.
Thank you for remembering for me, Jeffrey J Chalmers. 🙂 I knew I’d read about MAP online in the last few years, but I couldn’t quite remember….it wasn’t until I read the acronym NAMBLA that I knew Dee’s OP wasn’t the first time I’d read about someone attempting to normalize MAP.
People have always excused their own actions. In the examples you mention, though, the public is outraged, and people get prosecuted.
None of these things has become widely acceptable. More widespread, maybe… but I am not sure that we can trace lawlessness to a loss of faith. Josh Duggar’s faithful upbringing emboldened and shielded him, in my humble opinion. Public revulsion inspired the Duggars to cry persecution.
Fortunately, most flashers and mid-flight assailants don’t paint themselves as misunderstood Christians who did their duty.
researcher,
Not just someone, a whole organization!! It is an interesting (disgusting?) read about this org…
I was a graduate student at Cornell U in mid 80’s, and NAMLBA was discussed. Given it had chapters in NYC and SF, and not surprising I heard about it at Cornell….
researcher,
There was also PIE, the Paedophile Information Exchange in the UK 1974-84, which openly campaigned for ‘paedophile rights’ & the abolition of the age of consent.
This push to redefine paedophilia away from a deviancy rears its head every few decades. How can it be other than a deviant behaviour if the only way to fulfil it is with a non-consenting minor, even if you have groomed them to think they consent?
I looked at that Parousia website & also want to know which laws they see as too broad, & whether they really stand behind their claim that they want to protect children from child abuse. Hmmmmm. Something smells fishy.
Interesting that I very surely did not drag the LBGTQ+ into the conversation.
Which tells me more about those that assumed I did than I told you about me. Curious, don’t ya think?
My point still stands: much of what society has always seen as sinful, or perverse, or just unacceptable behavior is now acceptable. No, not just acceptable but more “you have to accept this behavior or YOU are sinful.” “You have to celebrate it with me or you are a bigot.”
And if anyone says something is “sin” it seems no matter what it is, the person who engages in the behavior that is labelled sinful becomes the victim.
Muslin: you do understand many Christians, Jews, Muslims, and various other religions do still define the actions taken, if taken, by the LBGTTQ+ crowd as sin. I also understand that many Christians, Jews, and various other religions (don’t believe Muslims accept it at all) have accepted it as “not sin.” Those that see it as sin would not really care if you are “sick of it.” Which means you probably would not be comfortable in their group. Those that see it as “not sin” would not care if their words hurt the feelings of those who see it as sin. So those that see it as sin might not make good members of ELCA, EPCUSA, etc. Might get their feelings hurt there.
So when it gets down to nuts and bolts, the only issue is does God say any activity is sin. I can tell you for sure He labels gluttony a sin, and I struggle with that for sure, especially when it comes to purple hulls and fried okra. Ok, pecan pie is practically an idol for me, and I have to fight it tooth and nail.
I can excuse it away, I can rightfully charge my southern heritage, I can declare it not sin. But God says gluttony is sin. Period. No excuses. So I have to hit my knees once again and admit I am a sinner in need of salvation. No excuses, either.
And we will continue to have things like NAMBLA and the concept of MAPS, violence in the streets, con men behind the pulpit, the abuses Dee fights, the murderous rhetoric from our politicians, and the whole litany of ills until we are willing as a people to sit down, open the Bible, and let GOD define right and wrong. And then repent of the wrong, turn away from it, and let our Lord cleanse our souls.
Now, just to be absolutely clear: I do not see any group as needing this while another does not. I agree with the Bible that we are all sinners.
Even if some are sick of hearing that.
“You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, the scorn and derision of those around us. You have made us a byword among the nations; the peoples shake their heads at us.” (Psalm 44:13-14)
And became the subject of a South Park episode.
And in the Eighties I heard of a similar organization called “The Rene Guyon Society”. Never found out much about it beyond the name and some hearsay that they had some sort of philosophical foundation of “Christianity Is The Disease. We are The Cure”. Other than that, no information.
Unfortunately the chapter break between Romans 1 & 2 completely separates the Decline Narrative buildup (including the oft-quoted verse) from the punch line. With the chapter break instead of a continuous narrative, you think of them as separate and unrelated.
My guess is that God would spy a moral difference between eating pie and sexual assault committed against children.
I believe you are sincerely worried about moral decline, and you probably do consider yourself a glutton—just as bad as another sinner who does X or Y. But how does that help you grow in faith and live your life? I was certainly raised to detest my sinful ways, and myself. Then one day a dear friend said to me, “God loves you. God cries with you in your pain.” These words changed my life, gradually turning me away from self-condemnation and toward loving my neighbor as myself.
linda,
maybe the best way to look at this kind of ‘modern’ social issue comes to us anciently in advice from the Book of Isaiah, Chapter 58?
turning away from ‘the pointing of the finger’
realizing that, in addressing ‘those other sinners’ our pridefulness may cause us ‘to speak that which profiteth not.”
Life is hard on people. For some, relying on the use of ‘comfort food’ might lead to other problems. Fat-shaming may be one way a person can be ‘helped’, but I doubt it greatly. If the Book of Isaiah and the Holy Gospels of Our Lord have any impact on Christian people, maybe it should be to emphasize that instead of ‘shaming’ others, we should find ways to help them bear their burdens.
We cannot forget that life is hard on folks and that they suffer and try to ‘self-medicate’ in ways sometimes destructive to themselves. The point is we need to see past the ‘symptoms’ and the ‘presenting behaviors’ and instead understand that there may be suffering we cannot directly see; so in that case, fat-shaming may be simply a useless, mean-spirited way ‘to speak that which profiteth not.”
Get to know a person. In time, the ‘burden’ will reveal itself more fully, as ‘food’ is often for so many Americans, a ‘comfort’ against those painful burdens which are too heavy to bear alone. Think about it.
The MAP terminology is necessary to distinguish between people who feel attracted to children but never act on it, and those who molest children. I’m no expert on this but I have read that the vast majority of MAPs never act out their desires.
Once the word “pedophile” is dropped in a conversation, reason goes out the window. The same dynamic is at work in the church’s approach to homosexuality. SSA (same sex attraction) is used instead of “gay” because many people assume that all SSA people indulge their attractions, and some say that SSA people aren’t Christian or saved.
To me “Minor Attracted Person” has a different set of problems, and that is the failure to distinguish between a four year old and a seventeen year old.
At age 23 I helped in a youth group at a church. It didn’t take too long before I learned that single young men should never be youth pastors. I didn’t do anything wrong but the pressure from one in particular was intense. It was a Fundamentalist church and I didn’t know how to address the problem without either making myself out to be a creep or the girl out to be a slut, neither of which was fair. I found the first excuse I could to leave the role.
If someone has a sexual attraction to children they should not be working in the nursery or teaching Sunday School. If someone molests children, they should probably not ever be in the church building when children are present. There is a difference and I think that’s what the MAP terminology seeks to address.
R2,
I have been writing this blog for 12 years. Prior to that I was involved in a situation with a molester who sexually abused @20+ boys. That professor in this story was fired and for good reason. 95% of offending pedophiles are never caught. There are organization which seek to normalize relations between men/boys. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Man/Boy_Love_Association
Most pedophiles offend over 100 times before being caught. I have written about this ad nauseam and have given links to stats. I’m sure there are some who struggle to stay within the law but in my experience, those are far and few between. For many, it is just a step away from offending.
Did you read the article and look at the links? Do you think there should be sex dolls available for men that look like children? As for offending, remember that child pornography is rampant . What do you think a 3 year old child being raped and calling for his mommy and all of this on video? Child pornography is an offense.
I take a hard line on this subject .Childrens lives are being ruined. As for the 17 year old youth group student, why don’t you read Jules Woodson’s story and see how it affected her life when she was molested by a 22 year old youth pastor?
http://thewartburgwatch.com/2018/01/05/i-thought-he-was-taking-me-for-ice-cream-one-womans-metoo-story-of-molestation-by-her-former-youth-pastor-andy-savage/
Thankfully, Old Dominion thought as I did did as well and booted that ill-informed professor.
The Apostle Paul had a thorn in his side that he dealt with throughout his life. He learned to deal with it. A non offending pedophile should live his(her) life without being involved with children. It will be very difficult. But he/she should be more concerned with the welfare of children than his own “feelings.”
The child sex doll issue has occurred to me as well. I wonder if there is some feasible way to research whether the use of such dolls would be more likely to encourage the rape of actual children, or reduce the pressures leading to that.
To build on Dee’s comments, I had a pedophile in my extended family. Being a former police officer, and generally very attentive to my surroundings, I would love to be able to tell you I had some inkling. I did not.
Indeed, that person was one of my favorite family members — funny, erudite, personable.
That individual was exposed when he crossed state lines to meet up with what he thought was an underaged girl, and eventually served jail time.
While in prison, I had set up a Google alert with his name. About two years later, a posting showed up on a bulletin board in India, inviting other pedophiles to group activity in the basement of his former apartment building. The post had been made much before his arrest.
I also learned that his marriage was not what it had seemed, and his wife very much mistreated.
The couple in question is now divorced, after the wife — we’ll call her Diane — filed for an emergency divorce. The pedophile now lives with his parents in Texas—who, BTW, are devout Christians. (That is not a knock—just an observation).
So, the moral of the story is pedophiles can and do exist even in seemingly happy, well-adjusted relationships. And anyone who says, “Well, it can’t happen here,” doesn’t realize that it can and does happen here. And there. And everywhere.
As in my case, it can be right under your nose. Thus, my advice is to never let your guard down. Be on the lookout. Watch for signs of boundary violations. Encourage your children to talk to you if they feel unsafe. Take action, even if the issue seems innocuous. And believe a child if s/he complains of abuse—the vast majority of complaints are truthful. Recognize too that children sometimes don’t know how to describe what has happened to them.
PS To the shock and horror of his wife, me, and everyone else, the offended did have dolls and other child-oriented sex toys in their apartment. Even worse, they were not really hidden, but no one knew. That is just the sort of thing that never crosses people’s minds.
That situation also underscores the fact that the trauma of abuse extends far beyond just the immediate victims. His wife was absolutely devastated, as were many of us. Such evil is just wrenching, especially when you realize that everything you thought you knew about someone was a lie.
Eric Bonetti,
Oh, Eric, that is just devastating. Thank you for telling us your experience.
That.
Not if you’re into Sin-Levelling.
Isn’t that what Romans 2 does to the (spectacular) decline narrative of Romans 1?
Gets the audience whipped up with a decline narrative that SHOULD end in finger-pointing at the Goyim, and then flips it 180 like a Shymalan Ending?
Don’t see how you could research something like that (unless you’re Dr Mengele) once you factor in a “Control Group”.
Hidden in plain sight.
So “queerer than what we CAN imagine” that they weren’t noticed for what they were.
In Furry Fandom, there are similar Urban Legends regarding life-size “plushies” (stuffed animals) with “Strategically Placed Holes”, and during my time in Bronydom talk and pics of some really bizarre man-sized “custom inflatables” coming out of China.
Successful serial offenders (of any type) are Masters of Camouflage; we only hear about the dumb ones who slipped up enough to get caught.
THAT is what the Rabbi from Tarsus was talking about when he penneed “For Satan himself can transform himself to appear as an Angel of Light.” The ability for successful psychopaths/sociopaths to camouflage what they really are.
“Dave’s Lemonade” is a true crime channel on YouTube. He often does analyses of the predators caught in NBC Dateline’s To Catch a Predator. One of the oldest, most “experienced”, and most blatant self-justifying was this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE7zc25uNtc
(The first 15 1/2 minutes are the online chat log; skip to 15:46 for the actual TCAP confrontation footage analysis.) DL’s followup indicates he may have been part of a ring and that he suicided in jail awaiting trial.