Theos-Talk Archives (August 1997 Message tl00296)

kymsmith@micron.net wrote:
> >Bart, I agree with you that perhaps today CWL would not act on
> >his drives.  In a sense he was the victim of the times he lived
> >in, when there was no recognition of these issues.
> 
> I am perplexed why some think CWL wouldn't have acted on his "drives" if he
> had  lived 50 to 100 years later.  Pedophilia tends to disregard societal
> norms and society's "recognition of these issues."  Sexual crimes are alive
> and well.  The only thing I can think that would have possibly stopped CWL
> is that victims are more vocal today, law enforcement is more aware, and,
> consequently, CWL may have ended up chowing down on bread and water.
> 
> Could be I'm missing something - but, again, I fail to see why CWL wouldn't
> behave today as he did then - even if one receives psychiatric care,
> pedophilia remains a powerful and devastating disease.

	First of all, one thing that kind of got lost in the quotes is that I
made this statement conditional on whether or not Leadbeater was truly
guilty.

	Second of all, I am one of those strange people who believe that human
beings have the capability of NOT acting on their desires. Just because
someone may be a pedophile does not mean that they will molest children;
merely that they have a desire to do so. Actions based on desire are
based on a number of factors: Self control, morality of the action,
social acceptability of the action, legality of the action, and the
possibility of keeping the action private. I believe that, in terms of
what we now know to be child molestation, those factors, except for the
matter of self-control, were different for a man in the early 20th
century than they are today. I was hoping that, even if he were guilty
then, even if he was a pedophile, Leadbeater would have a better
understanding of the harm that sex can do to children, or at least a
greater fear of the consequences such actions would bring, to keep his
desires under control. 

	Bart Lidofsky