{"id":105185,"date":"2013-05-16T10:18:45","date_gmt":"2013-05-16T14:18:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/?p=105185"},"modified":"2013-05-16T10:36:04","modified_gmt":"2013-05-16T14:36:04","slug":"paedophilia-and-the-left-redux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/05\/paedophilia-and-the-left-redux\/","title":{"rendered":"Paedophilia and the left redux"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Absent a priestly predator is paedophilia a religion news story?<\/p>\n

In comments posted in response to my 24 April 2013 story \u201cPaedophilia <\/a>and the Radical Left of \u201968\u201d, Ira Rifkin questioned <\/a>whether politics and paedophilia were properly within the ambit of GetReligion.<\/em> Was I pushing too hard? Confusing the moral and ethical issues in the story I cited in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung<\/em>\u00a0(FAZ) \u2014 protests over public honors to a prominent politician who 30 years ago as one of the stars of the radical left wrote of his sexual encounters with children, which he now claims are fiction \u2013with religion news?<\/p>\n

Whatever his crimes and immoralities, Cohn-Bendit\u2019s actions are in no way comparable to those of the Roman Catholic Church. The 60s are long over; history has moved on. The media\u2019s faults, blind spots and assorted deficiencies are not always at their root worthy of GR\u2019s attention. Agreed: ain\u2019t no ghost here worth the commentary.<\/p>\n

\u2026 The Cohn-Bendit story contains little if any grist for GR.\u00a0 As for Cohn-Bendit and the RC Church, it seems clear that the magnitude of the crimes Church leaders committed are far greater quantitatively, as well as qualitatively because of the Church\u2019s unique position as a global religious\/moral authority. Cohn-Bendit has far less reach. Whatever his personal responsibility, it cannot be compared to that of the Church. Bash the 60s if you like, even it\u2019s values. But molestation \u2013 real or imagined \u2013 was not one of its identifiable hallmarks.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Some took issue with Mr. Rifkin\u2019s comments, seeing religious ghosts in the story exhumed by GetReligion<\/em>. Others noted that Daniel Cohn-Bendit is a prominent <\/a>politician \u2013 \u2013 a public figure whose stock in trade has been lecturing Europe on how it should adopt his moral worldview on the environment, economics, immigration, foreign affairs, and social issues such as gay marriage. My observations focused on the different treatment accorded Mr. Cohn-Bendit and the Catholic Church by the media on the issue of paedophilia. I argued:<\/p>\n

The opprobrium held by right thinking people against paedophilia in Europe does not apply, however to\u00a0revolutionaries\u00a0and left wing politicians. A report in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung<\/em>\u00a0(FAZ) on the fracas over the award of a prize to Daniel Cohn-Bendit<\/a> suggests a double standard is being applied to paedophiles in Europe. Those who molest children out of lust are criminals and beyond the pale \u2014 those who molest children out of revolutionary fervor to bring down the capitalist regime really aren\u2019t so bad.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The paedophilia and the left story has now moved back into the public eye in Europe\u00a0 with articles in Stern<\/a>, Deutsche Wella<\/a>, Der Tagesspiegel<\/a><\/em> and other<\/a> news<\/a> outlets on protestations by Green Party leaders that their movement had not provided political respectability for pedophile activists.<\/p>\n

Der Spiegel<\/a> <\/em>reported:<\/p>\n

\u00a0He is a boy, roughly 10 years old, with a pretty face, full lips, a straight nose and shoulder-length hair. The wings of an angel protrude from his narrow back, and a penis is drawn with thin lines on the front of his body. The 1986 image was printed in the newsletter of the Green Party\u2019s national working group on \u201cGays, Pederasts and Transsexuals,\u201d abbreviated as \u201cBAG SchwuP.\u201d It wasn\u2019t just sent to a few scattered party members, but was addressed to Green Party members of the German parliament, as well as the party\u2019s headquarters in Bonn.<\/p>\n

Documents like this have become a problem for the Greens<\/span> today. Some 33 years after the party was founded, it is now being haunted by a chapter in its history that many would have preferred to forget. No political group in Germany promoted the interests of men with pedophile tendencies as staunchly as the environmental party. For a period of time in the mid-1980s, it practically served as the parliamentary arm of the pedophile movement. A look at its archives reveals numerous traces of the pedophiles\u2019 flirtation with the Green Party. They appear in motions, party resolutions, memos and even reports by the party treasurer. That is because at times the party not only supported its now forgotten fellow campaigners politically, but also more tangibly, in the form of financial support.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The protests over Cohn-Bendit have led to an internal party investigation. the Guardian<\/a><\/em> reported:<\/p>\n

Germany\u2019s Green party is to launch an investigation into its active promotion in the 80s of paedophile groups who lobbied for the legalisation of sex with children. The party\u2019s leadership has said it will commission an independent researcher to investigate \u201cfor how long and to what extent\u201d such groups had an influence. The party\u2019s chief whip, J\u00fcrgen Trittin, said the initiative aimed to take a close look at the \u201ctotally unacceptable demand\u201d in the 80s that sex with children should be made legal. He admitted that the party had made wrong decisions about paedophilia.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In an interview with Der Spiegel<\/em>, the Guardian<\/em> wrote\u00a0 Mr. Cohn-Bendit conceded his confessions were lies, prompted by a desire to shock.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a type of manifesto against the bourgeois society,\u201d he said. \u2026 He said he had written the descriptions of his time in the kindergarten in an attempt to \u201cappear to be more dangerous than I was\u201d, and admitted they had been \u201cirresponsible\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Germany\u2019s tabloids and conservative political parties are not likely to let this story die. But is Ira Rifkin correct in saying this is the a political story, not a religion story?<\/p>\n

Like Lord Copper, he is right up to a point. All social interaction, all life is based upon choices. Making a choice implies using moral judgment. It could be argued that the political pedophile scandal is a story about the moral failings of Daniel Cohn-Bendit and the Green party.<\/p>\n

Here I agree with Mr. Rifkin. This is a political story that has moral and ethical overtones. But what makes this a Get Religion<\/em> story is a comparison to the reporting by the Guardian, Der Spiegel<\/em> and other European newspapers on the Catholic clergy abuse scandal. The perspective these newspapers have brought to the Catholic scandal is that the institution is tarnished by the actions of pedophiles within the clergy ranks. The perspective in these articles is that the institution is to be applauded for examining its historical support for pedophiles within the party\u2019s ranks.<\/p>\n

What makes this a Get Religion<\/em> story is the context of the European press environment. I am not defending or excusing the Catholic Church. I am however pointing out inconsistencies and double standards in media coverage.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Absent a priestly predator is paedophilia a religion news story? In comments posted in response to my 24 April 2013 story \u201cPaedophilia and the Radical Left of \u201968\u201d, Ira Rifkin questioned whether politics and paedophilia were properly within the ambit of GetReligion. Was I pushing too hard? Confusing the moral and ethical issues in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":600,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,75,7,3,49,24],"tags":[584,1446,464,1596,1597,626,1447,585,1595],"class_list":["post-105185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholicism","category-ethics","category-journalism","category-politics","category-sex","category-world","tag-clergy-abuse-scandal","tag-daniel-cohn-bendit","tag-der-spiegel","tag-der-taggespiegel","tag-green-party","tag-guardian","tag-paedophilia","tag-pedophilia","tag-stern"],"yoast_head":"\nPaedophilia and the left redux<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Absent a priestly predator is paedophilia a religion news story? 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