The Church, Vs the Government Schools.. And the Double Standard

Fran at Eternity Road makes an interesting point:

Let us have a look at an AP story from yesterday, Lawmakers Crack Down on Abusive Teachers.  As always, I encourage you to read the whole article for yourself and draw your own conclusions, but it’s fun to select a few passages and add a bit of selective emphasis (AND SNARKY COMMENTARY):

Heeding a steady drumbeat of sexual misconduct cases involving teachers, at least 15 states are now considering stronger oversight and tougher punishment for educators who take advantage of their students. (IF ONLY TEACHERS WERE ALLOWED TO MARRY, THEY WOULDN’T SCREW THE STUDENTS!)

[T]here also is a persistent problem with sexual misconduct in U.S. schools. When abuse happens, administrators too often fail to let others know about it, and too many legal loopholes let offenders stay in the classroom. (CARDINALS COVERED UP!  THE CHURCH ALLOWED ACCUSED PRIESTS A LEGAL PROCESS!)

A nationwide Associated Press investigation published in October found 2,570 educators whose teaching credentials were revoked, denied, surrendered or sanctioned from 2001 through 2005 following allegations of sexual misconduct. Experts who track sexual abuse say those cases are representative of a much deeper problem because of underreporting. (THE CHURCH DIDN’T REPORT EVERY CASE TO LAW ENFORCEMENT!)

As Fran suggests,

Let’s be clear–sexual abuse by priests was and is completely wrong, and cover-ups and transfers by Church leaders to hide the problem was wrong.  However, everything that the Church was accused of seems to also be the pattern when it comes to teacher sex abuse.

His point of course is clear; there’s a double standard between what the Church gets nailed with, and what government schools get nailed with, given similar misdeeds.

And, why?

Well, the Church, you see, is labeled against the common good, and the Government schools ARE the common good. Or, so they’d like us to think, at least.  Why would they want that?

There are many reasons, this is a complex issue.  However, I have come to believe that at the core of it all is Marx’ labeling of religion as the opiate of the masses.  The desperate cry of the Socialist, trying to gain followers by arguing they should turn their backs on their current Religion, and exchange it for the one the socialist preaches, is at the core of all this.  So it is that our mainstream media can never be seen as projecting the government school system as an evil, particularly when compared to religious institutions.

There is a cultural aspect of this as well, which should not be ignored.  Whatever else may be said about them, religions have a tendency to reinforce cultural values.  The socialist, however, desires to reshape existing cultures into the one that he or she envisions.  The only way, therefore, to reshape the culture is to remove the foundation.  Whatever else might be said about it, religion is certainly a piece of the cultural foundation.

Sometime ago I read a quote from an educator who later went on to political life, whose name I can’t recall at the moment.  If any of you can remember the quote I would appreciate passing it along in the comments.  But paraphrasing, he said the intent of education was to get students to come out different than their parents.  While there may be positive aspects involved with this, I have come to regard this as particularly ominous, given that at least part of the task the quote assigns educators, is to alter the culture, by teaching the students values which heir parents do not share.  You can certainly understand, therefore, why so many consider Catholic and other religious-based schools to run afoul of their vision of what Education is for; As I’ve said these tend to teach the cultural values which have been handed down generation by generation. Certainly an opposition to the quote I mentioned.
And so it is that our supposedly mainstream media, which in fact, amounts to naught but a mouthpiece for leftism, instead of reporting such abuses as Fran describes, runs for cover when sexual abuse occurs in government schools …(except, of course, in those instances where the sexual abuser is a rather nice looking blonde)… and yet goes into wall to wall mode when The Church is involved.

There are those in the press who will suggest, of course, that the priesthood is held to a higher standard because of its religious affiliation.  Yet, on what basis do they make that judgment? We are told that Catholics have an innate bias, which compels them to defend the priesthood.  When such matters arise, and therefore Catholics are not objective in the matter.  Yet, are not educators in the government school systems equally biased in the opposite direction?  Seems to me, that works both ways.  Of course, they don’t see it so. They have a goal in mind.

I should think the most conflicted person on the planet is a devout Catholic parishioner, employed by the government school system.