This is disgusting:
One detail that jumps out at me is that the monks at Wat Dhammaram did not consider the fondling a preteen girl as breaking the vow of celibacy, and therefore Camnong Boa-Ubol, the monk accused of sexual assault, was not faced with immediate expulsion from the Sangha. Unfortunately, it is true. The Vinaya code details exactly what counts as intercourse and the touching and kissing the breasts of a 12 year old girl does not count (although it is still considered a serious breach of the monastic code).
This is why religious authorities, in this case other monks at the temples, need to come to secular authorities like the police when an allegation of sexual molestation occurs. The Vinaya code did not classify breaches in sexual ethics by the age of the victims since concepts like "pedophilia" and "age-of-consent" didn't exist in India or anywhere else 2,500 years ago.
Monks taking advantage of their positions to sexually abuse the laity are not unheard of in Theravada Buddhism. I have read accounts in Thailand and Cambodia where the authorities discovered sexual abuse or misconduct perpetrated by the monks, and in every case I have come across, the monk is defrocked that day and arrested if a crime is thought to have occurred.
But as the article notes, in America there are no boards controlled by the government to enforce the Vinaya code, and it appears that the temples are left to their own prerogative to investigate, and if a crime is discovered, punish the monks. However, I am not surprised that monks sometime, or even often, fail to take action against one of their own. The same thing happens with other trans-national religious organizations, like the Catholic Church, or government organizations, like many police departments that dismiss allegations against police officers for abuse, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. When a group of people have nearly sole authority to oversee themselves, abuse often becomes the norm.
The Theravada Sanghas should take notice what happened to the Catholic Church. It has lost a severe amount of credibility with American Catholics and the American population as a whole for ignoring and covering up instances of sexual abuse, to the point where litigation and less financial support by the laity has put financial strain on many of the parishes affected by the misconduct.
Really, it is just the best idea for any religious group to call the police when evidence of sexual assault arises.
The meeting took place at Wat Dhammaram, a cavernous Theravada Buddhist temple on the southwest edge of Chicago. A tearful 12-year-old told three monks how another monk had turned off the lights during a tutoring session, lifted her shirt and kissed and fondled her breasts while pressing against her, according to a lawsuit.
Shortly after that meeting, one of the monks sent a letter to the girl's family, saying the temple's monastic community had resolved the matter, the lawsuit says.
The "wrong doer had accepted what he had done," wrote P. Boonshoo Sriburin, and within days would "leave the temple permanently" by flying back to Thailand.I recommend reading the whole article, as it talks about how the monks responsible for the sexual assaults are able to avoid capture and sentencing, as well as the lack of accountability coming from the Sangha officials in both America and the country of the temple's origin.
One detail that jumps out at me is that the monks at Wat Dhammaram did not consider the fondling a preteen girl as breaking the vow of celibacy, and therefore Camnong Boa-Ubol, the monk accused of sexual assault, was not faced with immediate expulsion from the Sangha. Unfortunately, it is true. The Vinaya code details exactly what counts as intercourse and the touching and kissing the breasts of a 12 year old girl does not count (although it is still considered a serious breach of the monastic code).
This is why religious authorities, in this case other monks at the temples, need to come to secular authorities like the police when an allegation of sexual molestation occurs. The Vinaya code did not classify breaches in sexual ethics by the age of the victims since concepts like "pedophilia" and "age-of-consent" didn't exist in India or anywhere else 2,500 years ago.
Monks taking advantage of their positions to sexually abuse the laity are not unheard of in Theravada Buddhism. I have read accounts in Thailand and Cambodia where the authorities discovered sexual abuse or misconduct perpetrated by the monks, and in every case I have come across, the monk is defrocked that day and arrested if a crime is thought to have occurred.
But as the article notes, in America there are no boards controlled by the government to enforce the Vinaya code, and it appears that the temples are left to their own prerogative to investigate, and if a crime is discovered, punish the monks. However, I am not surprised that monks sometime, or even often, fail to take action against one of their own. The same thing happens with other trans-national religious organizations, like the Catholic Church, or government organizations, like many police departments that dismiss allegations against police officers for abuse, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. When a group of people have nearly sole authority to oversee themselves, abuse often becomes the norm.
The Theravada Sanghas should take notice what happened to the Catholic Church. It has lost a severe amount of credibility with American Catholics and the American population as a whole for ignoring and covering up instances of sexual abuse, to the point where litigation and less financial support by the laity has put financial strain on many of the parishes affected by the misconduct.
Really, it is just the best idea for any religious group to call the police when evidence of sexual assault arises.
No comments:
Post a Comment