Topic: Making Changes
I heard it said again today, as I often do by well-meaning people. Something about the clergy sexual abuse story having not even been broken when my book How Little We Knew was published in 1993.
Actually, the story was broken in 1986, when the first Catholic case was broadcast by Newsweek, along with the mention of various other cases that the author stated would lead us to believe that these were just the tip of the icebergs.
"The problem is that people just didn't hear the glass shattering," I replied. The story has broken again and again and again, though the masses didn't hear much glass until 2001. Every story should make us sit up and take notice, to see what we can learn. Because EVERY story has a lesson. Every story rings an alarm bell louder than the last.
Today the Austin Statesman helped to once again shatter the myths to a wider audience. This one about Southern Baptists. See http://www.statesman.com/search/content/news/stories/local/06/09/0609brown.html
Of course, it's not the first time that glass has been shattered. I first made a lot of noise back in 1993. As we continue to have the glass shattered over and over again, in every group, it's getting harder to ignore. Yet no easier to bring prosecution against autonomous congregations that are far different from the first Catholic case that broke in 1986.
Hats off to Christa Brown for picking up the torch and finding journalists more willing to listen than they were a few years ago. We'll see how many really have ears.
