Back when I posted a link to the “Be Proud to Be Catholic” speech by Jewish businessman Sam Miller, I was impressed with the positive examples it cited of the good things the Catholic Church does every day. But I should have dug a little deeper and looked more closely at some of the other parts of the speech.
The rest of the speech, in which Mr. Miller relies heavily upon statistics found in an article from Sojourners magazine, cites an erroneous statistic of “10 percent of Protestant ministers have been found guilty of pedophilia.” This statistic was later corrected by Sojourners, but it had already been picked up by Miller and others.
The facts are clarified in an email I received from Rev. Rob Pollock of Vancouver, BC:
“The article you reference in your recent post “Jewish Advice…” contains false and defamatory information about Protestant ministers.
In the original speech Mr. Miller cites, and reads extensively from, a July/August 2002 Sojourners article by Rose Marie Berger in which she misinterprets statements from Penn. State Prof. Philip Jenkins regarding sexual abuse by Protestant ministers.
In the original article Berger writes ...
‘Philip Jenkins concludes in his book “Pedophiles and Priests” that while 1.7 percent of Catholic clergy have been found guilty of pedophilia (specifically of boys), 10 percent of Protestant ministers have been found guilty of pedophilia.’ (This quote is used in Miller’s speech)
To which Philip Jenkins responds (Sept/Oct 2002) ...
‘I regret to say that the statement is baloney. I never said it, and it’s not true!... Every time this ten percent statement appears attributed to me, I try to debunk it, but these things have a life of their own. I have no idea what the actual proportion of pedophile protestant clergy is, but I would be amazed if it was more than a fraction of one percent.’
Berger’s revised article and Jenkins’s letter can be found here ... Berger Article
Sojourners apologized to its readers for passing on erroneous information and revised the article, removing the incorrect and defamatory information. But not before Sam Miller got a hold of it!
Regrettably, a much condensed version of Miller’s speech, as referenced on your blog, has recently gone viral within the Catholic community by way of the internet and e-mail. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of blogs, forums, facebook pages, and news services that have posted this condensed version of Mr. Miller’s speech.
It truly saddens me that such ‘false witness’ can be so uncritically accepted and further disseminated by so many within the Catholic community. it seems that we still find it easier to believe the worst about our neighbour rather than dig a little deeper for the truth.
If there is any Catholic pride to be found in the belief that ‘Protestants are far worse than us’, it is ultimately a false pride. With respect to clergy sexual abuse, the harder work of repentance, reconciliation, and reform remains, for all of us.
Yours in Christ,
Rev. Rob Pollock
Vancouver, BC
CANADA”
You have to create a free account to read access the Sojourners article referenced above, but it’s worth doing to read the whole thing, along with the original author’s correction.
I do want to say that I don’t think many Catholics who appreciated the original speech were motivated to boost their self esteem with a “Protestants are far worse than us” mentality. They responded enthusiastically to the idea that pedophilia is not a “Catholic problem” but something more universal than that, and that press coverage of the Catholic abuse cases is motivated by prejudice against the Church.
I am sorry, though, for linking to an article containing an erroneous statistic that unfairly defamed Protestant ministers. I don’t believe Sam Miller intended to spread misinformation with his pro-Catholic speech, but I do want to set the record straight.
Mr. Miller’s speech, along with the incorrect 10% statistic, was largely spread through Catholic circles—on blogs, facebook, in homilies, and even in parish bulletins. Catholics loved it because it said something we had been starving to hear—that Catholics do good things and that the Church benefits society in many ways that are too often ignored and taken for granted.
We need to be sure, though, that in our earnest to promote the good things about Catholicism, we don’t trample the rights and reputations of our brothers and sisters in Christ. After all, isn’t that exactly the kind of unfair press and discrimination that so many Catholics are suffering from these days?
I am sorry for my part in passing on misinformation and I hope this clarification helps to make things right.
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All will agree that we cannot justify our mistakes on the claim that somebody else committed more mistakes. However the essence of Sam Miller’s speach was not the comparison, but a reiteration that mistakes are not confined to the catholic clergy. Let us appreciate Miller’s good intention
I too enthusiastically posted this letter by Mr . Miller when I first heard about it and have since gone back and revised my post. Thank you to Rev Pollock for charitably addressing this with us Catholic-blogger folks.
www.crossed-the-tiber.blogspot.com
Several Catholic friends had sent me links to this, but while I loved most of what was said—and agreed with it, of course—I found the statistic that 10% of Protestant ministers were guilty of pediphilia frankly hard to believe. (I probably would have believed a statistic that said that the same percentage of Protestant ministers as Catholic priests were guilty, but not suce a huge discrepancy as 1.7% vs. 10%!) I intended to go back and do some research on the issue so that, if the information were true, I could pass along the link to the people on my email list (which I really wanted to do because the speech said some really good things!), but I never got around to researching it.
My point in telling you this is not to brag that I “saw through the sham” (I withheld my name from this post so that I wouldn’t be tempted to a sin of pride), but to encourage Catholics (and all Christians, and all people of good will in general) to be really careful before passing along “information” that don’t ring of truth, especially when someone’s or some group’s reputation might be damaged by doing so. Internet-based “gossip” has the potential to be so much more devastating than old-fashioned gossip because, as noted above, it takes on a life of its own and can never be “undone” (as is true for old-fashioned gossip as well, but to a lesser degree). My own motto when deciding whether or not to pass something along because it might not be completely true is, “When in doubt, check it out.” AND, unless and until I can “check it out,” my motto is “When in doubt, chicken out!”
Just my two-cents’ worth.
I guess that we should feel sorry for the misinformation, but I think we should look at the percentages.I think that 1.7 % is something to feel sorry for, but what about 1% of Protestants. Let’s look at the percentages, in 1990 there were over 144000 Protestant Churches and 22000 Catholic Churches in the US. If every church had one clergy (Priest or Minister) which would around 1440 protestant ministers and about 370 Priest. So if we look at it this way would it not say Protestant Ministers were over 3 times more likely to guilty of pediphilia. So I think the percent is for the birds.
The again I think that if the numbers were right there should be about 1810 clergy looking for new jobs or at a new roommate.
I forgot I am Proud to be a Catholic!
I am Proud of our Pope, I am Proud of our Priest.
Thank you for clarifying. I, too, am proud to be Catholic! God bless. +
I for my part do not believe Protestants to be any worse than us we have problems they have them as well nobody likes their dirty laundry being hung out to dry before the general public but always remember do your home work dont take every thing for face value not every person who joins the Clergy is there because he was called by God if you have doubts pray for direction from God he will know exactly what to do there are plenty of Men and Woman who are protestants and members of the Clergy who serve God with their hearts and mind for those of you who are may God richly bless you all.
I’m often in a hurry and quickly peruse articles for the pertinent facts. I found it odd that your article to correct the earlier mistake regarding percentages, did not contain the corrected information. The only way to get the full correction was to go to another site, register and find the article, when all it would have taken was a few words>
the media are always looking to talk bad about people especially christains and i think it wrong for other people to judge other people it is not their job.i leave a message for the catholics hold strong to your faith and love GOD because not everybody thinks what the media is doing to you is right.And GOD BLESS YOU ALL!!
sam miller is wrong! he and everyone else who does not accept the death, burial, and RESSURECTION of Jesus as payment for thier sin is lost and bound for eternity seperated from God in a place called hell. READ YOUR BIBLE! start with ephesians ch.2 vs 8-9. its not about “religion” its about RELATIONSHIP
I agree there were mistakes thats why you need to do research but I think its time to put this to bed some years ago there was a guy who was promoting a thing called twice speak that God speaks not once but twice I haven’t hear any thing about it since thats why you cant take everything for gratin read your bible and compare that against what was said.
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