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Greek officials, Church, condemn ex-bishop’s remarks on rape
September 2, 2022
Chrysostomos, Metropolitan Bishop of Dodoni ordains a priest at Athens Cathedral, Greece, on Monday, Oct. 14, 2019. Chrysostomos' statement in a TV interview Friday, Sept, 2, 2022 that a woman is not raped without her consent and that there can be no conception from rape, have been widely condemned by politicians and by the Greek Orthodox Church itself. (Xristos Bonis/Eurokinissi via AP, File)
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek politicians and the country’s powerful Orthodox Church joined in condemning a retired bishop who claimed Friday that women aren’t raped “without wanting it.”
In an interview with private Skai TV, Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Dodoni supported the Church’s official position against abortion, but added that there should be no abortion even in the case of rape.
He then proceeded to question the notion of rape itself, saying: “A woman does not sit and get raped without wanting it.” He added that there can be no conception as a result of rape.
It almost sounds like someone justifying his actions! "No conception as a result of rape", seems to be his way of saying that God would never allow a pregnancy to happen because of rape. Consequently, in order to protect that misconception of God, he blames the woman for the rape.
Chrysostomos called abortion a “crime.”
Politicians of all stripes condemned his remarks on rape.
“The Metropolitan of Dodoni’s statement about rape is inconceivable and is to be condemned,” Education and Religious Affairs Minister Niki Kerameus tweeted. “It brutally insults society and does not agree with the position of the Church, which supports women victims of abuse and rape.”
“We support victims of rape unconditionally,” added government spokesman Yannis Oikonomou.
The Church of Greece’s ruling body, the Holy Synod, also condemned Chrysostomos’ remarks as “unacceptable for an Orthodox cleric and offensive for human beings and especially for women and victims of rape.”
“The treatment of women, without exception, as equal to men and their protection from any abuse are the Church of Greece’s official position,” a Holy Synod statement said.
Chrysostomos, 83, retired from active duty in 2011, and his title is honorific. While an active bishop he was known for his strong views. He once told a fellow bishop disagreeing with him during a Holy Synod meeting to “Go play with your dolls.”
Wow! I don't dare explore the possibilities of that statement!
Ex-Christian Fellowship Center members call for clergy to be
mandated child sexual abuse reporters in Potsdam protest
BY LUCY GRINDON
Sep 08, 2022 —
This Sunday, an advocacy group called CFC Too held a silent demonstration in front of the Christian Fellowship Center (CFC) in downtown Potsdam in support of the Child Abuse Reporting Expansion (or CARE) Act. The proposed state law that would make clergy members mandatory child sexual abuse reporters in New York.
CFC Too co-founder Abbi Nye (second from left), Michelle Wilbur (center), Emma Massa (far right)
and two other demonstrators stand outside the Potsdam Christian Fellowship Center on Sunday
September 4, 2022, holding signs in support of the proposed Child Abuse Reporting Expansion Act.
(Photo: Lucy Grindon)
CFC Too — the name is a nod to the #MeToo movement — was founded this summer. The group has eight members, all of whom used to worship at CFCs. (The church has five locations in the North Country, and hundreds of members.) They allege a pattern of physical and sexual abuse within the CFC community, and they say church leaders have not been doing enough to stop it.
Abbi Nye co-founded the group. On Sunday morning, she stood in the rain outside the church alongside 12 other demonstrators.
"We've got umbrellas and our signs that say make clergy mandated reporters, and report child sexual abuse," Nye said.
Nye grew up in CFC. She said the CARE Act would make a big difference in the lives of kids at the church.
"Right now, none of the pastors at CFC are required to report child sexual abuse," Nye said. "We have multiple instances over many decades of instances where they did not report child sexual abuse."
A recent criminal charge has ignited controversy both within and outside of the CFC community. In May, a CFC member named Sean Ferguson was charged with child sexual abuse. The felony complaint against him by the New York State Police says that Ferguson molested his two young daughters seven years ago.
Ferguson's sister said in a Tweet that CFC leaders knew about that alleged abuse five years ago and did not report it to the authorities.
In a meeting with CFC members earlier this year, head CFC pastor Rick Sinclair acknowledged that he had been counseling Ferguson, and that he had "placed [Ferguson] under discipline” in 2017. NCPR heard a recording of the meeting.
Sinclair declined to be interviewed by NCPR, but he said in an email, “The particular details of my pastoral ministry and meetings with individuals are private."
Some cars honked their horns as they drove past the demonstration, while worship continued inside.
Former CFC member Michelle Wilbur held a sign that read "Report Child Sexual Abuse."
Wilbur says her children were molested years ago, while she was a CFC member, and that the church knew about it.
"They knew and never did anything about it. It was always 'Be redemptive, redemptive, redemptive.' They never tried to protect myself. They never tried to protect my children. So it's sad. It's really done a lot, a lot of damage," Wilbur said.
Wilbur left CFC seven years ago, and reported the abuse of her children to law enforcement herself. A recent article from Religion News Service noted that the case was never prosecuted because of an unrelated problem at the St. Lawrence County district attorney’s office.
Now, with the accusations against Sean Ferguson having been made public, Wilbur said she feels like "people are finally listening."
More than half of U.S. states require clergy to report child sexual abuse. New York is not one of them. That's largely because of lobbying from the Catholic church, which maintains that confession is sacred, and that priests should not be required to betray parishioners' confidence.
Last month, Sinclair's son-in-law Ben Hull wrote a letter to the editor that was published in North Country Now. Hull is a CFC deacon. He's also running as a Republican to represent Madrid in the St. Lawrence County Legislature. In his letter to the editor, he said clergy members should not be mandatory child sex abuse reporters.
"If a child suspects that her cleric will turn around and call the State Police, she will likely be unwilling to speak a word of her abuse to her spiritual advisor," Hull wrote.
But victim advocates have long argued that requiring all responsible adults to report abuse prevents crimes and can save lives.
Former CFC member Emma Massa was among the demonstrators on Sunday. Massa used to counsel kids at the Jefferson Country Children's Home, and she says that reporting abuse can lead to positive change.
"I've worked with foster kids who were terribly abused. I've seen so much harm that adults can do but I've also seen the good that comes out of people reporting what happened," Massa said. "And I've seen kids who came from a really bad background flourish and get into an environment where they excel in school and they finally feel safe. And Church should be one of the places where you feel safe."
Massa attended CFC regularly when she was a student at SUNY Potsdam. Now, she's a medical student at the University of Vermont. She says she felt she needed to come and support CFC Too this weekend because of her own personal experience.
"I experienced a sexual assault in April of 2021 and I thought that the church would at least listen to me," Massa said.
Massa said she was raped by another person who attended the Potsdam CFC. She said she told her youth pastor what happened. The next week, she said, the pastor told her that the church did not approve of her decision to go to law enforcement.
"Everybody was upset at me at CFC for getting the police involved. They said they weren't going to give statements if the police asked, and that they were going to keep matters within the church," Massa said.
A CFC pastor declined to comment when asked about this episode.
Nye said keeping things within the church is just not right when it comes to sex abuse.
"I grew up in this community. It's a homeschool community where pastors are some of the only authorities that interact with children on a regular basis. We have families where we don't often see doctors. Our teachers are our parents. So if you look at it that way, the pastor is one of the only authority figures who could possibly notice abuse and report it," Nye said.
The CARE Act is currently under deliberation in the New York State Senate's rules committee. If it becomes law, clergy will be legally required to report child sexual abuse to government authorities.
Former mayor, Mormon bishop accused of sex abuse of children
By BRADY McCOMBS
September 8, 2022
The Salt Lake Temple stands at Temple Square in Salt Lake City on Oct. 5, 2019. Merrill Nelson, a Utah lawmaker and prominent attorney for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints advised a church bishop not to report a confession of child sex abuse to authorities, a decision that allowed the abuse to continue for years, according to records filed in a 2021 lawsuit by three of Paul Adams’ children. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A former Utah city mayor and bishop with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been arrested on accusations he sexually abused at least three children decades ago.
Carl Matthew Johnson, 77, was arrested Wednesday and booked into the Davis County jail in northern Utah on suspicion of seven counts of sex abuse of a child, according to a probable cause statement.
Investigators say Johnson acknowledged abusing three victims in 1985, 1993 and 1996 and estimated there was a total of six victims as young as 2-years-old, according to the document. He told investigators he had struggled “controlling his sexual urges” most of his life.
Some of the alleged abuse occurred in the same years as he was mayor of West Bountiful, a city just outside of Salt Lake City that he led from 1990-1997.
The investigation is still ongoing, but so far Johnson is only booked on charges stemming from three victims. Johnson had not yet been charged as of Thursday afternoon and it was unknown if he had an attorney.
Johnson was in a “position of trust” over each victim, but investigators don’t explain what that was in the probable cause document. Stephanie Dinsmore, spokesperson for Davis County Sheriff’s Office, also declined to explain.
The victims told investigators they were told not to tell anyone, and Johnson used his position to suppress disclosures, according to the probable cause statement.
Dinsmore initially declined Thursday to provide information about when Johnson was a bishop over a congregation of the faith known widely as the Mormon church, saying in a text that the agency would not be commenting on Johnson’s “affiliation” with the faith.
She later disclosed that he was a bishop from 1974-1979. Bishops are lay clergy who oversee local congregations for a few years at a time in a rotating role reserved only for men in the faith known widely as the Mormon church.
Sam Penrod, spokesman for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said in a statement the allegations are “serious and deeply troubling” and reiterated the church stance that the faith doesn’t tolerant any kind of abuse.
“Those who engage in abusive behavior are rightfully subject to prosecution by legal authorities and also face loss of church membership,” Penrod said.
The faith has come under scrutiny following an Associated Press investigation that found flaws in how it handles reporting of sex abuse allegations made to bishops. The church has defended the system and alleged AP has mischaracterized its reporting system.
The AP reported Thursday that a Utah lawmaker was the person who advised a church bishop in Arizona not to report a confession of child sex abuse to authorities, a decision that allowed the abuse to continue for years, according to records filed in a lawsuit.
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