Wall of Shame

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Religion


These robes are getting a reputation
as the 'uniform' of a pedophile.

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! Note !
More religions or their representatives may be added,
if I ever take time from other projects to update this page.

Sections below:
PERPETRATORS LIST       INCIDENT REPORTS

Introduction :

This page gives a list of 'objects' deserving of scorn and derision --- and, in many cases, deserving of criminal prosecution. The 'objects' here are religions or their representatives, including their leaders.

The 'objects' of shame are listed on this page in alphabetical order --- by the person's last name --- or the religion's name.

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A reason for this page is to draw attention to egregious offenses created by 'followers' of various religions --- typically cases that one reads about in newpapers or magazines. The 'offenses' are collected here for a 'consolidated overview'.

Hopefully, drawing attention to certain individuals may make it less likely that they will be able to continue to be a societal problem. And drawing attention may point out needs for better ways to head off problems of certain types, perpetrated by religion-affiliated individuals.

And, hopefully, drawing attention to certain religious institutions (including sects and theocracies) may make it more likely that those institutions will find ways --- someday --- to mend their offensive (and often horrific) ways.

Drawing attention to horrible acts may point out needs for better ways (say, motivating factors) to head off problems of certain types, occuring 'from' those institutions.

Religions (and theocracies) - examples

Catholicism:
All right, which Pope is going to step up and finally do something to make a real dent in the number of pedophiles in the priesthood? You've had about 19 centuries --- and more than 265 Popes. It's about time you finally quit fostering the practice --- by simply moving them around from diocese to diocese.

Islam:
Which Muslim country is going to be the first to treat their women right? They should have the opportunity to get an education and the right to vote.

And which Muslim country is going to be the first to allow multiple religions to live side by side, with equal rights, such as voting rights?

Iran (a theocracy):
And when are Iran leaders (like Ahmadinejad) going to quit calling their government a democracy? You can't have a democracy when you don't have freedom of religion --- AND when you don't include freedom from religion ('non-attenders') as an individual option.

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    Wikipedia points out:
    "No consensus exists on how to define democracy, but

    • legal equality
    • political freedom
    • rule of law

    have been identified as important characteristics. These principles are reflected in all eligible citizens being equal before the law and having equal access to legislative processes."

    Although the word 'religion' does not appear in this discussion of democracy, it is difficult to see how "religious freedom" can be left out, since any religion will evolve as people arrive at different interpretations --- and splinter groups develop.

    Some people (such as many astronomers and nuclear physicists and microbiologists exposed daily to amazing natural phenomena never conceived of in ancient religious texts) have experiences that naturally lead to an evolution toward a naturalistic belief, such as a one-universe belief, rather than a one-god belief --- where 'god' is open to about 7 billion different interpretations (one for every person on the planet).

    Thus different sects and religions will need to be tolerated, or else constant tensions (and violence) will be a result. Example: the various Muslim sects in Middle East countries

    (Unfortunately, in 2017, it looks like constant tensions and violence will be the norm into the distant future.)

History of Religious Violence

It has to be a point of continual amazement to most rational thinkers who observe that religion is continually held up as a solution to the various kinds of violence in the world (including drive-by shootings and school shootings in urban America).

Hundreds of years of history suggest that there is no relief coming from the religious quarter. In fact, more bloodshed can be expected.

The history of Europe is filled with many examples of religious violence that rival the Nazi Holocaust, circa 1939 to 1945.

Some examples:

  • the Spanish Inquisition circa 1478 to 1834

  • the near-extinction of Huguenots (French Protestants) by French Catholics, circa the 1500's and 1600's

  • the Counter-Reformation which was a violent response to German Protestants such as Martin Luther by the Catholic Church, circa 1545 to 1648

  • the English_Civil_Wars which raged in England around the time of Isaac Newton, circa 1642 to 1651
    (the adversaries were largely determined by religious affiliation --- Protestants, such as Puritans, versus the Church of England)

These European examples of man's extreme inhumanity to man (rationalized by various religions) prompted Voltaire to write the book Candide.

History seems to teach us that even if a single religion were to gain domain over the entire Earth, it would not last long as a single religion. Various egos would soon create splinter groups and we would be 'back to square one'.

Organization of this page

This page is divided into two main sections: 'PERPETRATORS LISTS' and 'INCIDENT REPORTS'.

Cases of 'offenses' associated with a particular individual ( priest, bishop, father, pastor, minister, Imam, or whatever ) will be recorded, in the 'PERPETRATORS LIST' below, by individual's name --- in order by last name.

When 'offenses' (or bad outcomes) are noted in a general form (such as actions or statistics related to an entire religion or sect), they may be reported in the 'INCIDENT REPORTS' section below --- under a suitable name --- with names presented in alphabetical order.

Of course, this page cannot possibly keep up with the various perpetrators and incidents (past, present, and future) that occur, so this page may present some 'keyword-WEB-SEARCH' links to facilitate the discovery of further examples.

How to navigate this page

You can use an option like 'Find in This Page ...' of your web browser to search for key words, such as 'catholic' or 'islam' or 'pedophile' or 'women' or 'rights' or 'freedom'.

Or you can simply scroll down this page to find 'instances' of interest.

Geoghan, John (Catholic priest, Boston)

John J. Geoghan (1935 - 2003) was an American Roman Catholic priest who sexually abused children while he was assigned to parishes in the Boston Archdiocese of Massachusetts.

He was reassigned several times to parish posts involving children, including after attempted treatment for pedophilia.

The investigation and prosecution of Geoghan was one of numerous cases of priests accused of sexual abuse in a scandal that rocked the Boston archdiocese in the 1990s and 2000s.

It led to the resignation of Boston's archbishop, Cardinal Bernard Francis Law, on December 13, 2002, as he was accused of protecting dozens of priests by reassignment, thus allowing abuse of additional parish children to take place.

Geoghan was finally convicted of sexual abuse, laicized, and sentenced in 2002 to nine to ten years in Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center, a maximum-security prison.

Less than a year later, he was murdered there by Joseph Druce, an inmate serving a life sentence.

    Druce explained why he strangled Geoghan. Among other things, Druce said Geoghan arrogantly brushed off criticism that he had "destroyed all kinds of lives". When Druce told Geoghan that in molesting 150 to 200 children, he had "destroyed all kinds of lives", Geoghan responded, "I'm worth 300 of them." Also, when Druce told Geoghan: "You're bankrupting the archdiocese. You're costing them $10 million", Geoghan replied, "I'm worth $20 million." Druce said he had overheard Geoghan talking on the phone to his sister, as well as engaged in conversations with other prisoners, about plans to move to South America once he was released so he could work with children again. Druce said he heard Geoghan discussing with other prisoners how to molest young boys. Druce said, "That just ... freaked me out." "I was just, like, 'That's it, that's it, I've got to stop this,' " Mr. Druce said.

The Boston Globe's coverage of Geoghan's abuse opened the door for public knowledge of the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic archdiocese of Boston and sexual abuse by priests in the USA in general.

For further info:

Law, Bernard Francis (Catholic cardinal, Boston)

Bernard Francis Law, Cardinal and Archbishop of Boston, Massachusetts, United States, resigned after Church documents were revealed which suggested he had covered up sexual abuse committed by priests in his archdiocese.

On 13 December 2002, Pope John Paul II accepted Law's resignation as Archbishop and reassigned him to an administrative position in the Roman Curia, naming him archpriest of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, and he later presided at one of the Pope's funeral masses.

Law's successor in Boston, Archbishop (later Cardinal) Seán P. O'Malley, found it necessary to sell substantial real estate properties and close a number of churches in order to pay the $120 million in claims against the archdiocese.

For further info:

Patino-Arango, Juan Carlos (Catholic seminarian, Texas)

Juan Carlos Patino-Arango was a Roman Catholic seminarian who was accused of child molestation and indecency.

While studying in a Roman Catholic seminary (in Texas), he allegedly molested four boys, who filed suit against him, the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, Archbishop Joseph Fiorenza, and Pope Benedict XVI.

The suit charged that the church conspired to cover up the crime.

A settlement was reached in the Houston church sex abuse case. In May 2005 in Texas, Patino-Arango was indicted on a felony criminal charge of indecency with a child.

For further info:

Symons, Joseph Keith (Catholic bishop, Florida)

Joseph Keith Symons was one of two bishops of Palm Beach, Florida, who resigned, circa 1998, due to child abuse allegations.

For further info:

More 'individuals' may be added. (There were hundreds of cases in the United States of Catholic priests involved in child abuse, in the past couple of generations.)

Searches like the following can reveal many more 'individuals' to add to the list above.

Of course web-searches on keywords such as 'islam beheading' would turn up many religion-related 'offenses' --- but either names would be lacking or the names would be rather meaningless to most Westerners --- especially if they are just aliases.

So instances of beheadings are more likely to be reported in the 'INCIDENT REPORTS' section below.

Catholic sex abuse cases (world-wide)

Wikipedia has a list of Catholic Church sex abuse cases by country.

Wikipedia has a list of Catholic Popes --- more than 265.

It's absolutely shameful that these 'men of the cloth' --- the 'top' men of the cloth --- continued (apparently in cahoots with the cardinals) to allow the incidents of pedophilia to continue essentially unabated --- for century upon century.

It looks like the pedophelia will continue for many more years --- maybe a slight slowdown in the U.S.

For further info:

ISIL beheadings and other violent acts (Islamic State)

Wikipedia has a list of many ISIL beheading incidents (2014-2016).

Also, Wikipedia has a list of many ISIL terrorist incidents (2013-2017 and counting)

Also, Wikipedia has a list of many Islamist terrorist attacks (1970s to 2017 and counting)

'Dense lists' of Islamic Terror Attacks are at 'theReligionOfPeace.com' web site -- by year:

As long as weapons keep flowing into the Middle East (and elsewhere), the killings will never stop, but keep accelerating.

It would eventually stop when someone air-lifts Mickey Mouse toys (and the like) into the Middle East, instead of more weapons.

The world needs time-limited, bio-degradable weapons --- weapons that self-destruct within a few months after they are made.

For further info:

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'Honor' attacks

There are too many cases of Islamic families doing violence to women in their family --- so called honor killings --- if the woman does not feel that she wants to follow the strict religious laws imposed on Islamic women.

There needs to be some freedom in this world. If the woman is not physically hurting you, you should not be physically hurting the woman.

The Golden Rule should be fundamental to every 'civilized' religion.

More 'incident reports' may be added to this page, someday. In the meantime ...

Searches like the following can reveal many more candidates for 'incident reports' (and 'perpetrators') to add to this page.

More Web Searches to Try :

Some links to GOOGLE searches that can provide 'new' instances --- and more information on 'known-to-you' instances --- of shameful activities by religions and their representatives :

  • catholic priest lawsuit (over 1 million hits, 2012 Mar)
    (Add keywords to zero in on particulars --- for example, add 'pedophile'.)

  • islam women rights (over 70 million hits, 2012 Mar)
    (Add keywords to zero in on particulars --- for example, add 'violence'.)

  • iran democracy religion (over 119 million hits, 2012 Mar)
    (Add keywords to zero in on particulars --- for example, add 'freedom'.)

Bottom of this
Wall of Shame - Religion page.

To return to a previously visited web page location, click on the Back button of your web browser, a sufficient number of times. OR, use the History-list option of your web browser.
OR ...

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Page was first posted 2012 Mar 31.

Page was changed 2017 Jun 19. (Drastically reorganized and many links were added.)

Page was changed 2018 Oct 18. (Added css and javascript to try to handle text-size for smartphones, esp. in portrait orientation.)