Pedophilia
Legalizing the Unthinkable by Kelly Boggs,
Baptist Press
ALEXANDRIA, La. (BP)—”I’ve been doing. child abuse and sexual assault cases for
20 years and I’ve never seen anything like this.” Sgt. Dan Scott of the Santa
Monica sheriff’s Special Victims Bureau told the Los Angeles Times
recently.
What is it that has so shocked the veteran California police officer? It is the
behavior of a man by the name of Jack McClellan.
McClellan, according to the Times report, is a pedophile who is
forthright about his sexual attraction to little girls. He has appeared on news
programs and talk shows to discuss his proclivity. He even had a website (now
down) that listed the best places to watch little girls. “Being a pedophile — an
adult who is sexually interested in children — is not illegal,” the Times
report stated. “Acting onPedophilia
that interest by touching a child for the adult’s sexual gratification is
illegal.”
As far as authorities are concerned there is no evidence that McClellan has ever
acted upon his perverse
desire. The Times reported he “has no arrest or conviction record in the United
States” and is “not a registered sex offender.”
“On talk shows, McClellan appears unshaven and a bit dazed, but unapologetic
about his attraction to little girls,” the Times reported. McClellan
admits he might have sex with them if it were legal. People in the Santa Monica
area are rightly concerned about McClellan’s behavior. You should be, too.
And not just because he might one day act upon his twisted urge.
The thought of his molesting a little girl makes my stomach turn. As bad as that
would be, it is his openness about his ‘sexual orientation” that could have an
even more far-reaching and devastating affect.
Similar to the homosexual movement in the late 1960s, there is a new movement to
view pedophiles as misunderstood and unjustly persecuted. The term of “sexual
orientation” in relation to pedophilia is being used more and more — and not
just by whacked-out activists, but by so-called “respected” academicians and
physicians.
Consider the following:
The Journal of American Medical Association published a paper in 2002 by
Peter J. Fagan, Ph.D., et al.
titled “Pedophilia.” Consider the following quote from the article: “During
psychosexual development, no one decides whether to be attracted to women, men,
girls or boys. Rather, individuals discover the types of persons they are
sexually attracted to, i.e., their sexual orientation.”
In an article titled “Mental Health’s Cold Shoulder Treatment of Pedophilia”
that appeared in the periodical Behavioral Health Management, May-June,
2004, Douglas Edwards cites Fred Berlin of the Johns Hopkins Department of
Psychiatry: “Dr. Berlin discounts the common view that pedophilia is a conscious
choice. He regards pedophilia as a lifelong sexual orientation, just as hetero-
and homosexuality, and he says patients can be terrified by the discovery of
pedophilic cravings...” Richard Gardner, M.D., clinical professor of psychiatry
at Columbia University from 1963 until his death in 2003, argued that America’s
attitude toward child sexual encounters was out-of-step with the cultures of the
world. In his book True and False Accusations of Child Sex Abuse, Gardner
wrote:
“Older children may be helped to
appreciate that sexual encounters between an adult and a child
are not universally considered to be reprehensible acts. The child might be told
about other societies in which such behavior was and is considered normal In
such discussions the child has to be helped to appreciate that we have in our
society an exaggeratedly punitive and moralistic attitude about adult-child
sexual encounters.”
Gardner blamed the oppressive morality of the Bible for the American view of
pedophilia, and in the same book cited above he wrote, “It is of interest that
of all the ancient peoples it may very well be that the Jews were the only ones
who were punitive toward pedophiles.”
If you don’t think pedophilia might one day be embraced as a normal part of life
in America, you are naďve. You only have to examine how homosexuals have turned
society on its head regarding a behavior that was once viewed as immoral and
perverse The exact same arguments that homosexual activists have used to gain
sympathy and acceptance for their behavior are the same arguments that will be
used to justify pedophilia as natural, normal and healthy.
Two things stand in the way of pedophilia being accepted in American society.
One is that normal, decent people still view it as gross perversion — in the
same way homosexuality once was viewed. The other is that age of consent laws
make it illegal for an adult to take advantage of a child sexually. If and when
society accepts pedophilia as normal, the age of consent laws will quickly fall.
And it will only be a matter of time until our nation will follow suit.
Copyright 2007 Southern Baptist Convention, Baptist Press,
www.BPNews.net
Reprint from Baptist Bible Tribune, September 2007, Vol 58 NO 1
