From here:
A group of psychiatrists and other mental health professionals say it’s time to change the way society views individuals who have physical attractions to children.
The organization, which calls itself B4U-Act, is lobbying for changes to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, the guideline of standards on mental health that’s put together by the American Psychiatric Association.
The group says its mission is to help pedophiles before they create a crisis, and to do so by offering a less critical view of the disorder.
“Stigmatizing and stereotyping minor-attracted people inflames the fears of minor-attracted people, mental health professionals and the public, without contributing to an understanding of minor-attracted people or the issue of child sexual abuse,” reads the organization’s website.
B4U-Act said that 38 individuals attended a symposium in Baltimore last week, including researchers from Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University and the universities of Illinois and Louisville. According to the group, which said to not endorse every point of view expressed, the speakers in attendance concluded that “minor-attracted” individuals are largely misunderstood and should not be criminalized even as their actions should be discouraged.
Speakers also argued that people who are sexually attracted to children should have input into the decision about how pedophilia is defined in the DSM, which they said is supposed to be a guide to promote “mental health vs. social control.”
It was inevitable that once the normalising of homosexuality was a fait accompli, western culture would look for even less appetising sexual extremes upon which to confer its blessing. Sodomy, sadomasochism , polyamory and adult consensual incest are now also old hat – boring even – so we are strenuously searching for new taboos to sanitise.
Paedophilia is the obvious choice. Today’s secular society regards all inclinations as morally neutral, although acting on some of them might still result in an invitation to spend a part of one’s life locked up: consummating the urge to murder, for example. But there is almost nothing that one can copulate with, providing it is inanimate, insentient or has given consent, that will lead to societal censure, let alone prosecution.
It is understandable that psychologists, with their long and varied experience of telling people that what they are feeling is perfectly normal no matter what it is, are leading the charge to sanctify the inclination to have sex with children. Otherwise, one so inclined might feel stigmatised – and that, if nothing else, is on the psychologist’s list of unforgivable sins.
From a Christian perspective – and I don’t include mainline liberal denominations in that category – inclinations and actions are relatively straightforward:
An urge to have sexual intercourse with a person of the same sex or a child is an urge that exists as result of the Fall, a perversion of God’s gift of sexuality. Neither urge was created by God; rather, they are a corruption of something that he created, so they cannot be good – or even neutral. To experience such a aberrant inclination is one of the consequences of living in a fallen universe: it is, like many other urges, a temptation to sin; it has to be resisted.
If Christianity is true, no amount of psychological sophistry can change this.
As someone who has witnessed the damage inflicted upon sexually abused children, which often extends tragically into adulthood, any talk of ‘sanitizing’ this behavior is simply odious.
And, thank you for that final paragraph.
Christianity is based on love and forgiveness – but I HAVE to believe that even God himself will not forgive this denial of childrens’ innocence.
When adults give up the role of protecting the young from harm, they become lower than the beasts of the field.
Lord, have mercy.
Chris Baker – Durham UK