Which church for your children?

I just viewed, finally, Deliver Us from Evil, Amy Berg's sober, sobering account of the uncovering of widespread sexual abuse of children throughout the Catholic Church in California, particularly focusing on one now ex-priest, Oliver O'Grady, whose deeds were continually and consistently covered up by the Catholic hierarchy (most notably Roger Mahoney, now the Archbishop of Los Angeles).

This is not merely a "Catholic problem," although it does seem to be particularly endemic to the priesthood. That said, all other faiths have produced figures showing they have sex abuse problems in their leadership, as well. Jay Nelson, a former Catholic priest himself, has done yeoman's work in documenting the breadth and depth of this horrific scandal. As he reports at his website, various news sources report the following prevalence (mostly from anonymous self-reporting surveys):

• Four in 10 US Catholic nuns report having experienced sexual abuse, (a rate equivalent to that reported by American women in general), a study by Catholic researchers supported by major religious orders, has found. The study found that sisters have known sexual abuse less in childhood, dispelling what the authors call an "anti-Catholic" canard that girls fled to convents to escape sexual advances. During religious life, close to 30% of the nation's 85,000 nuns experienced "sexual trauma," ranging from rape to exploitation to harassment. A total of 40% reported a least one experience of that kind. NCR, 1/15/99 See The Nuns' Stories for details.
• The Wisconsin Psychological Association's survey found offenders distributed among the following professions: Psychiatrists 34%, Psychologists 19%, Social Workers 13%, Clergy 11%, Physicians 6%, Marriage Counselors 4%, and Others 14%.
• The Center for Domestic Violence found that 12.6% of clergy said they had sex with church members. 47% of clergy women were harassed by clergy colleagues.
• The Presbyterian Church stated that 10-23% of clergy have "inappropriate sexual behavior or contact" with clergy and employees.
• The United Methodist research (1990) showed 38.6% of Ministers had sexual contact with church members and that 77% of church workers experienced some type of sexual harassment.
• The United Church of Christ found that 48% of the women in the work place have been sexually harassed by male clergy.
• The Southern Baptists claim 14.1% of their clergy have sexually abused members.

Author Jay Nelson wrote Sons of Perdition to document the long history of sex abuse in the Church. At his website, Nelson shares a few telling figures (originally published in the Hartford Courant, and taken from the official preliminary report from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' National Review Board for the Protection of Children and Young People:

US clerics (priests, deacons, bishops, etc.) accused of abuse from 1950-2002: 4,392.
About 4% of the 109,694 serving during those 52 years.

Individuals making accusations: 10,667.

Victims' ages: 5.8% under 7; 16% ages 8-10; 50.9% ages 11-14; 27.3% ages 15-17.

Victims' gender: 81% male, 19% female

Duration of abuse: Among victims, 38.4% said all incidents occurred within one year; 21.8% said one to two years; 28%, two to four years; 11.8% longer.

Victims per priest: 55.7% with one alleged victim; 26.9% with two or three; 13.9% with four to nine; 3.5% with 10 or more (these 149 priests caused 27% of allegations).

Abuse locations: 40.9% at priest's residence; 16.3% in church; 42.8% elsewhere.

Known cost to dioceses and religious orders: $572,507,094 (does not include the $85 million Boston settlement and other expenses after research was concluded). (Hartford Courant, 2/27/04)

It should be noted that Mahoney is a major advocate of open borders immigration, which no doubt would bring many prime Latino and Latina children into the waiting arms of the Golden State's priesthood. But that couldn't possibly be the motivation, could it? Well?