Post No. 1,142 - Reflections after watching the film "Spotlight"

I've been watching the powerful US film "Spotlight", released in 2015 CE (now on an online service), about a team of journalists [see Note 1] who exposed the widespread sexual abuse - including protection and facilitation of sexual abusers - in the neochristian catholic church in the Boston, USA area - which accelerated the investigations and battles over such abuses elsewhere (206 places where major abuse scandals have subsequently been made known are named at the end of the film). It's a powerful, well-made film - and, as always with such films, I have spent quite a bit of time researching the real life people, organisations and events - including the responses, such as the Royal  Commission in my nation, which released its final report last December, after five years of work.

Now, I have known people who were outstanding and true Christians - not the sort of people who allegedly caused Gandhi to say something along the lines of "I quite like your Christ, it's just that you Christians are so unlike your Christ".

On the other hand, I also know far too many neochristians - people like the small minded vicious transphobic and homophobic people who duped (or at least dominated) Australia's media [see Note 2] during our recent appalling Equal Marriage "postal survey", an event which (based on real life, lived experience, not complaints to media/officialdom - see Note 3) saw a resurgence in homophobic and transphobic abuse that exceeded the worst of when the utterly evil  John Howard (although the gun buyback and control laws by the government he led were good) banned Equal Marriage, and created a false impression that the ONLY religious freedom aspects were on the "no" side (I've written about that elsewhere - see here and here).

Also on this, the hypocrisy of what used to be termed "Sunday christians" led me to a decision, as a child, to leave that religion (which I've written about elsewhere - for instance, here).

So, quite apart from issues of child abuse, there were other aspects of neochristianity that I have long held concerns about - matters which I view as extremely grave, and valid cause for concern with regard to matters such as public funding of neochristian schools (on that, when, for instance, are the students there going to be taught that there are laws against homophobia and transphobia, and discrimination and violence against women?). I'd heard from people I knew who went to neochristian religious schools how vicious the teachers were - more so than the teachers in public schools, in an era that believe in corporal punishment. I'd come across that sort of arrogance and officiousness in a range of other situations, as well - in fact, that sort of lack of empathy and true compassion is why I have had concerns for quite some years about a few well-known neochristian figures - including one now being tried for alleged (which he strenuously denies, and is defending "vigorously") past sexual abuse (charges, incidentally, which surprised me: just because a person is a nasty or even evil person doesn't mean that they will automatically be a child abuser - evil comes in many forms, as can be seen by comparing the differences between, say, a mass murderer, a corrupt or power-hungry/unethical politician or official, someone who will do anything for money, and a child abuser).

However, one of the groups about which I had concerns regarding non-sexual abuse of people I know or have known was listed in the neochristian orders which had allegations of child abuse contained in the Wikipedia article on the Royal Commission, where it was one of the worst (the figures ranged from 0.3% of religious figures in the order to a staggering 40.4% ... ) - see also here. Other orders run hospitals, which increases concerns I already had (e.g., at least one such hospital - in my view - falsifies patients records by altering religious designations).

To top all that off, the catholic church has rejected key recommendations from the Royal Commission.

It should also be noted that the abuse occurred in other religions, and in non-religious institutions/organisations as well.

Going back to the issues raised by "Spotlight", this article is by a boy who experienced the non-sexual violence ("Many of the brothers were outright sadists") at religious institutions, but "I realise that I wasn't the sort of boy the paedophiles were ever likely to be interested in: I wasn't vulnerable enough. My mother asked too many questions".

Now, child abusers also targeted girls, and women also performed such abuse - I've been sexually assaulted/abused several times, including twice as a child, and most of those have been committed by women. However, there is one episode from my teenage years where I may have "got lucky".

At my high school, there were a couple of teachers who were interested in sailing - and my involvement with sailing was basically keeping me alive at that time, by helping me connect with the dynamic aspects of nature, and giving me something I both loved and was good at, that helped me cope with personal psychological issues that I was going through. I've probably written about this elsewhere as well, but have run out of "find that URL steam". In fact, I have often joked about how I did some horse trading with one of the teachers (I taught him how to rig a boat he had just bought, and in turn he got sailing in as a sport - but only during winter, because of the risk of stingers during summer).

The episode I'm thinking of is where the other teacher invited me to spend an entire day sailing his dinghy. From a sailing point of view, it was a good day - we explored some of the creeks that I didn't normally go into, and although there were just the two of us in a boat that is normally crewed by three, we had no problems (other than way too much sunburn - the slip, slop, slap campaign hadn't happened yet).

He invited me to go sailing with him after that, but ... I felt uncomfortable about it, and said no.

I've thought about that discomfort many times over the intervening decades, and have concluded that the whole situation (some of which I haven't written about) felt too much like "grooming": I am of the opinion that I made the best possible choice to decline any further invitations, and thank the Goddess for not feeling flattered and for having whatever it took to say no.

But I haven't talked about that -until now, when, after having watched "Spotlight" several times, I am prepared to admit that I quite possibly escaped another incident of child abuse, one that, had it occurred, would quite possibly have been far worse than what I did experience.



Notes

1. One of my teachers at high school - a lovely, gentle but grumpy old lady - suggested I think about a career in writing: after this film and "All the President's Men", and for a range of other reasons, I've often wondered whether I should have taken her advice ... and now, I'm going to try to learn shorthand - inspired by journalism, but it will help in my current day job also. 
2. I'm not wearing rose-coloured glasses about journalism: in the Spotlight film one of the characters comments about this work being what drew them to journalism, but not all work is like that - and that likely applies to every job, I consider. 
3. Too many of whom either are, or create the impression of being, homophobic.