A Skeleton Comes Out Of The Closet

Below is a post on Skin Cell Forum made simultaneously here. I was responding to a post quite horrified about terrible abuse of human rights in another culture.

Sometimes it seems that double standards abound. It is easy to think we are the enlightened ones. The truth is, we have a natural tendency to notice the behaviors of cultures or faiths or ideologies which differ from ours and to ignore the horrors right under our noses within our own society.

We should be cleaning our own houses with the same thoroughness that we are prepared to employ on "those others." I am sensitive to the plight of children and of women, and am acutely conscious of having contributed to the problem by my previous inactions. Much of what I do today addresses issues that most others give no thought to at all.

I have spoken frequently here about our broken medical institutions, the pharmaceutical and chemical industries and the criminal (international) government cooperation with these conspiracies, both tacit and active. That is most appropriate for me to do here. This is a health oriented forum.

The rest is perhaps best dealt with on my website in spite of the fact that few people have found it. That is partly my fault. I don't seek dabblers and lurkers.

An isolated example. In recent years we have all seen the damage to the Catholic Church because of the exposure of priestly misbehavior with children, which was repeatedly swept under the rug until it could no longer be contained.

My father was a Presbyterian Minister. Many years ago I wrote a book which dealt with a multitude of crimes that were dealt with by the Presbyterian Church hierarchy in exactly the same way that the Catholics did, by transferring him to new congregations in new churches, with fresh opportunities to prey upon innocents. Law enforcement too had other priorities, perhaps in part because of the influence of the church.

When I originally wrote the book, a number of the people involved were still alive. If any still are, they are probably drooling in their gruel in some rest home. But I did not write it originally for the purpose of publication. It was simply a cathartic effort with which I could exorcise some of my demons.

But I did show it to an agent who had previously provided me with several ghostwriting clients. Without my authorization, he showed it to a publisher who expressed interest. I burned the manuscript on the barbecue.

I had pretty well forgotten about it for over twenty years. Then wave after wave of Catholic scandals kept coming along, and my perspective became, why should they be the only ones on the carpet for what I KNEW was a problem in the Presbyterian church, and which I learned secondhand was also occurring in other churches as well.

About eight years ago I discussed the book with a local Presbyterian Minister. Although it no longer existed, it had taken me about a year to write while I was working on several other projects. To rewrite it would take three or four months.

The Minister was a very skillful fellow. He talked of possible "ramifications" and "cans of worms" and letting "sleeping dogs lie." And of course he made no threats. He only said very vaguely that there were legal considerations that could pose some problems. And of course, since I was agnostic and not even a practicing Presbyterian, what did all this ancient history even matter to me anyway?

That fellow did some very effective sweeping that day, but the dirt still creeps up through the carpet. I am ashamed of him and of the Presbyterian Church and you can quote me. They hypocritically left a lot of victims twisting in the wind.

If you were victimized by a preacher of any denomination, including imam, rabbi, guru, auditor or psychiatrist, who used the position of great power and trust to prey upon you, you need not carry that burden alone.