Fairness for Churches
  by Dr. David Eller

In the face of a bill in the Colorado State Senate to temporarily set aside the statute of limitations on child molestation in cases of abuse by priests, the state's Church leadership has protested energetically that such an action holds the religion to higher standards than public institutions like public schools. (If only the Church invested as much energy in seeking out and punishing the abusive priests.) Of course, I always thought that religious groups did hold to a higher standard-their allegedly religious one-but apparently not. Archbishop Chaput, who was quick to condemn liberal politicians in the last election, called legislative effort unfair, unequal, prejudicial, and anti-Catholic.

Let's take the last claim first. If the bill is aimed solely at the Catholic Church, he is right. Not only because one institution should not be singled out for scrutiny, but because Catholicism is hardly the only culprit in the gang of religious abusers. Anyone who reads "Freethought Today," the monthly newsletter of the Freedom from Religion Foundation, knows that that Protestant and indeed non-Christian religious figures are just as likely to commit abuses and crimes. Sadly, many of these crimes are sexual and are directed at children, but by no means are these crimes the only kinds. Preachers, church employees, and youth leaders commit murder, theft, fraud, embezzlement and every offense of which humans are capable. The Catholic Church, which is the largest and highest-profile religious institution in the country, receives more than its share of attention, but all churches are prone to the same failures. We should scrutinize and punish all faith-based organizations equally and not give any a free pass just because they are faith-based.

Chaput's other charges are more fascinating. He seems to think that churches get a raw deal in this country. I am all for fairness; it is one of the cardinal principles of our society. So, in the interests of fairness, I propose the following specific conditions for fair and equal treatment of religious and public institutions/schools:

1. faith-based institutions must report all crimes and not hide behind "confidentiality of confession,"
2. faith-based institutions must not discriminate in their hiring (only hiring "their own kind"),
3. faith-based institutions must open their finances for accounting oversight,
4. faith-based institutions must comply with the same standards of credentialing for their teachers and counselors,
5. faith-based institutions must test their students with the same devices required of public schools, such as the CSAP,
6. faith-based institutions must teach evolution along with creationism and "let the students decide,"
7. faith-based institutions must submit to the same zoning laws and not request special "religious land use" exemptions, and,
8. faith-based institutions must pay taxes.

Until the day comes when religious institutions meet these common, equal and non-prejudicial terms, they should quite honestly stay quiet about the "unfair burden" they bear. Religious institutions are the most protected and shielded sector of our society. They give less and get away with more than we would ever allow in the public sphere. Not only are they held to a lower standard in every conceivable way, but there is no evidence that they meet their own purported standard of "moral" conduct. If they did, the proposed legislation would never have come up in the first place.

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