Religion
In reply to the discussion: Richard Dawkins under fire for ‘mild pedophilia’ remarks [View all]Silent3
(15,909 posts)...or at least what would be called "molestation" these days happened to me. I'm not excusing it, but I sure as hell wouldn't have wanted to see the older relative involved put through what they'd get put through today, especially considering that at the time (I was about 10) I took the experience as no more than a little game that satisfied some of my own curiosity about the opposite sex.
There seems to be a fear that any and all types of sexual conduct with a child are so hideously, heinously horrible that it somehow becomes "excusing it" if you dare even consider that there a different levels and extremes of it, if you dare suggest that the response should vary for the severity of the offense over a range somewhat broader than the time period the perpetrator is boiled alive before being torn apart by wolves.
I'm sure some people reading this post will even interpret what I said about "no more than a little game" as itself a sign of "damage", being so absolutely certain of the inherent grievous harm of what happened to me that my saying it was "no more than a little game" can only be denial, a clear sign that I must have been terribly damaged, and subsequently "repressed" the "horror" of what happened to me.
It's that kind of thinking that leads to incidents like the McMartin preschool fiasco.