Everyday Ethics

     In an era when the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese has agreed to a settlement of $660 million dollars with the numerous victims of sexual abuse at the hands of their clergy members, it only seems fitting to discuss the relationship between religion, ethics, and behavior.  There is a simple yet significant point to be made related to this situation, one that I heard several months ago on the Adam Corolla show, and that I want to reiterate and discuss here. 

The case of the sexually exploitative clergy members is shocking, but also rather confusing.  These are men who allegedly believe that God can see everything that they think, say, and do, and that eternal damnation is the punishment for excessive sin without repentance.  How can you believe all of this, and then repeatedly molest dozens of young boys?  Even if you were to ask for forgiveness each and every time, wouldn’t God realize that you were not sincere when you continued to molest young boys despite your professed guilt and remorse? 

The point that Mr. Corolla made, that I cannot help but agree with, is that if you are guilty of such heinous acts, it seems probable that you do not truly believe that God can see you or will punish you.  If you did, it would make no sense to continue to act in such a way.  We do not jump off of tall buildings because we believe that the impact will injure and likely kill us.  Our consistent refusal to leap from exceedingly high places indicates that we really do believe in gravity and in our own fragile mortality. 

The actions of these clergy members, however, create a strong argument for the idea that they do not believe in the omniscience of God, nor in eternal damnation.  This, I believe, speaks to why religion has failed to produce a large number of truly ethical people.  It is not because religion does not promote strong ethics, but that people do not believe in what they claim to. 

We have entertained this idea before in discussions of motives and thoughts in relationship to actions, and hopefully there is some agreement that unethical thoughts, though not ideal, are preferable to unethical actions themselves.  It seems reasonable to state that one’s actions often indicate what one’s true beliefs are, as the case of the molesting clergymen shows.  In addition, if the perpetrators of these acts of abuse maintain their belief in an omniscient God and eternal damnation, they fall into the trap of being ethically inconsistent, as their actions are not in line with what they claim to believe.  This is an equally big problem, especially for individuals who are supposed to be guiding others toward a life of communion with a divine presence. 

In considering this issue, it is possible that these men are ethically confused due to either mental illness or a simple inability to control the carnal desire for sexual contact that all individuals possess.  If that is the case, and these individuals have been asked to uphold a vow, celibacy, that places undue mental hardship upon them, some degree of responsibility should be placed upon the Catholic Church itself for requiring this of its clergy members at all.  This does not necessarily make the Catholic Church responsible for these actions, but if there was knowledge that this requirement was creating mental instability and leading clergy members to become sexual deviants, some degree of culpability is certainly appropriate. 

One other piece of information leads me to believe that it is well known that celibacy breeds sexual deviance, namely the fact that many of these archdioceses that are now ending up in court carry multimillion dollar sexual abuse insurance policies.  Almost one-third of the LA settlement will be paid by such insurance, and its very existence suggests that someone knew this might be a problem and failed to act.  You wouldn’t carry auto insurance unless you thought you might get in an accident.  Action tends to indicate actual belief, regardless of what is being claimed, and I cannot help but find the purchase of sexual abuse insurance to be a fairly damning indictment of a supposedly divine institution.  If this is what true organized religion has to offer, thanks, but I think I’ll pass.  More importantly, although it is important to have the right kind of ethical beliefs, our actions often tell a more accurate story of what those beliefs really are, regardless of what we may claim. 

About the Author

Elijah Weber is a graduate student at Bowling Green State University. He holds a Master's degree in philosophy from Colorado State University, and Bachelor’s degrees in sociology and philosophy from Chapman Univerity. He currently lives in Bowling Green, Ohio with his wife Laura, his newborn son Brandon, and his feline life-partner Monte.