The Wall of Denial

Ariel Monserat asked me a specific question in my blog regarding Libertarianism and the occult. This was regarding a case of extreme child abuse concerning members of Church of All Worlds. Since Ms. Monseratt asked this publicly I will answer it publicly. The question was;

<Secondly, did you report these events to the authorities? If so, surely there is a record of it so that we can investigate. If you didn’t report it, why not? >

Ms. Monserat, I can take this question one of two ways. I can either assume that you are deliberately protecting the abusers or that you are charmingly naive about child abuse. I am going to assume that you are charmingly naive. The answer to the question is yes, we did report it. Other people reported it as well. The case I am speaking of was a spectacular debacle that spanned three counties. It involved child welfare workers in two counties, and no less than four police departments. Now, if you want to find the records of this, I sincerely wish you luck. Since a minor was involved, the records are sealed. Were you able to get hold of the records you would either be the greatest witch since Sybil Leek or the greatest hacker since Bruno Tataglia. Either way my hat would go off to you. I admire competence in any field.

Being a nasty and suspicious old fart, my first instinct is to accuse you of trying to kill my credibility by asking for the impossible. However, I have been assured by people that I trust that you simply don’t know. I have trouble wrapping my brain around the idea of anybody being ignorant of this basic fact. However, not everybody has had as much experience as my wife and I in pulling kids out of bad situations. So I am going to make a leap of faith and explain the difficulty and challenges of reporting child abuse.

Remember the first axiom of reporting child abuse. This is the prime directive. The child comes first. Punishing the abuser comes second. It comes a far second. Social workers and clergy are required by federal regulations to report all instances of child abuse. Reporting child abuse and prosecuting the abusers are two different things. Most of the time it is enough simply to get the kid away from the abuser. My wife and I had a case about a decade ago where it was easier to get the kid out of the situation by not reporting the abuse. The child’s lawyer said that the judge might not believe the allegations (denial) and force her to live with her abuser. Rather than risk the child’s safety, we followed her lawyer’s advice and got her placed in a safe home. Judicial denial is a common occurrence. Back in 1992 I witnessed an 85 year old judge in Pennsylvania throw an incest case out of court because he refused to believe the crime was possible.

The good news is that things have improved since 1992. Thanks to the work done by RAINN, Darkness into Light, and my own darling wife, child abuse and molestation have come into public light. It is no longer a forbidden topic. It is openly discussed and there are even state-approved courses where you can learn how to spot it and what to do about it. The bad news is that we still face the wall of denial. Thousands of child rape cases from the Catholic Church seems to have taught you nothing, because you and your fellows at CAW are acting just like the Catholics. You blame me for outing the problem, because you don’t want to to face that the problem exists. You accuse me of libel without stopping to consider that I may be telling the truth. You demand that I tell you how to get legally sealed records; will you call me a liar because I cannot provide them? Why not ask me for the pretty moon while you are at it?

It seems to me that like the Catholic Church, you are too involved in preserving the illusion of your infallibility to look to the safety of your own children. You claim to be the new editor of Green Egg. May I suggest that you look at the last print issue of the old Green Egg? That was the one that was put out by the kids. Read the comments by the girls who were tired of being ogled by their parents’ adult friends. Perhaps the Catholics were simply as naive as you are. Personally I do not think we can afford that sort of naiveté anymore. Your Primate was too busy telling me what he stands for to seriously address the issue. It seems like CAW’s denial comes from above; just like the Catholic Church’s. As above so below? From where I stand you are no different from the Methodists or the Assembly of God.

And I am not giving out any details until I am face to face with a representative of CAW who agrees to go to the authorities with me.