Bill Maher on The Business of the Catholic Church

[T]he Catholic Church has had to pay the largest fine ever for diddling kids, $660 million. [...] Cardinal Mahoney announced that to help pay for the deal, the church would sell a building it owns on Wilshire and about 50 other properties they weren't using, which reminded me, oh yeah, the Catholic Church owns more property out here than Bob Hope did -- and why? Oh, yeah, because it's a business -- and not just a business, really, the greatest business in the world, in that, like all religions, it's selling an invisible product. It doesn't really get easier than that, unless you count Edgar Bergen, a ventriloquist on the RADIO.

Bill Maher, Huffington Post, July 16, 2007

Religion beat became a test of faith

"WHEN Times editors assigned me to the religion beat, I believed God had answered my prayers.
As a serious Christian, I had cringed at some of the coverage in the mainstream media. Faith frequently was treated like a circus, even a freak show.
I wanted to report objectively and respectfully about how belief shapes people's lives. Along the way, I believed, my own faith would grow deeper and sturdier.
But during the eight years I covered religion, something very different happened."

William Lobdell, LA Times, July 21, 2007

A quite interesting article on how a reporter on religion lost his faith.

Prejudice alive and well in America

"By a wide margin, respondents believe Americans think Muslims are the most likely to engage in terrorism (83 percent). Moreover, 42 percent believe Americans would be most concerned about their child dating a Muslim; followed by an atheist (17 percent), and a Mormon (14 percent). In addition:
* 37 percent believe Americans think Catholics are most likely to be involved in sexual abuse-far more than any other religious group.

[...]

62 percent said they believe Americans oppose same-sex marriages. Yet 58 percent would elect a gay person for president-about the same as for an Arab-American (57 percent), and more than for a person over age 70 (51 percent), or for an atheist (51 percent)."

Frost Illustrated, 1. August 2007

260 reports of abuse yearly in Protestant churches

"The three companies that insure the majority of Protestant churches in America say they typically receive upward of 260 reports each year of young people under 18 being sexually abused by clergy, church staff, volunteers or congregation members.

[...]

Religious groups and victims' supporters have been interested in the figure ever since the Roman Catholic sex abuse crisis hit five years ago. The church has revealed that there have been 13,000 credible accusations against Catholic clerics since 1950 -- 228 a year.

Protestant numbers have been harder to come by because the denominations are less centralized than the Catholic church."

Chicago Sun Times, June 15, 2007

[Psychology] Appaling acts in God's name

"The [Catholic] priest who hears confessions encounters a wide range of sexual practices, ranging from adultery to homosexuality, and masturbation to zoophilia. Do we really understand and appreciate the force of this knowledge on a priest whose sexual experience is limited? Isn't this something like the experiment in which people are instructed not to think about a white elephant, and who then find themselves unable to avoid thinking of that elephant? "

Nielsen, M. E. (2003). Appalling acts in god's name. Society, 40(3), 16-19.

[Vatican, paedophiles] An Open Letter to Amnesty International from Trevor Blake

"This letter demonstrates that Vatican City, by way of the Roman Catholic Church, has systematically sheltered child abusers for decades."

It's from 2005, and not exactly news, but well worth reading!