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In Reply to: Re: Mantra :-) posted by James on December 12, 2007 at 17:43:29:
The intergenerational transmission of sexual abuse is a well-known, much studied and extensively described in the literature on child maltreatment. It's not a theory. It's an observation. Theories are attempt to explain the observations of intergenerational sexual abuse.
TFI no longer preaches and practices a theology of pedophilia. People in the churches such as the Roman Catholic and Jehovah Witnesses have NEVER preached or practiced a theology of pedophilia, yet there is something in the culture of families that form these churches that supports the covert sexual abuse of their children from generation to generation. There's also something in the policies of these churches that supports the widespread covert sexual abuse of children. Remember, neither Roman Catholics or JWs have ever had a policy that promoted pedophilia, yet both groups have a serious problem--one that has cost the RC Church in the US close to a billion dollars.
Are you familiar with the concept of risk factors? Insurance companies use them to determine how much insurance coverage to provide and charge. Age, for example, is a risk factor for illness and death. Try to get insurance after you turn 40 and see how the cost jumps and amount of coverage decreases! Insurance companies have risk analysis down to a fine science based in statistical probability analysis.
People familiar with child maltreatment have identified risk factors for predicting its occurrence in populations of people. Here's a well-known scenario that illustrates three statistically powerful predictors of intergenerational sexual abuse: 1) Mom was sexually molested as a child. 2) She has never addressed that fact through trauma counseling. She's decided it's best to forgive and forget. 3) She is now single and living with a man who is not the biological father of her child.
There is a much higher probability this mother's child will experience molestation than if the child were born to a mother who had no history of molestation and whose biological father is still on the scene. One important way women with a history of childhood molestation and abuse can lower the likelihood that their own children will be abused is to become educated about their vulnerability. Just saying, "I'll never let it happen to my child" is not enough, particularly if the mother who experienced molestation as a child has decided to ignore the imprinting this has had on her adult behavior, perceptions, insight, and judgment.
There are theories that explain this observation, but I won't bore you with explanations. I'm just stating statistical facts. Risk factors for children growing up in TFI are much higher than those for my own grandchildren, who are being raised by both biological parents, neither of whom experienced molestation in childhood. I should add that my grandchildren also are not growing up in an environment where pedophilia was officially sanctioned at one point in its history and continues, to this day, to protect pedophiles from prosecution--much the same way the RC Church protected its pedophilic priests.
Do you understand the point I'm making now? If you want to pretend your family members are at no greater risk of abuse than my grandchildren, go right on floating down that river in Egypt--it won't change the probabilities that 5, 10, or 15 years from now, your little sister will tell you something you don't want to hear. But who knows? Maybe your sisters will beat the odds (which are stacked really high against them) because you're special and the law of probabilities doesn't apply to your family. People beat the odds every day. I'm just thankful my own grandchildren haven't been handed that particular stacked deck in the deal of life.
