Because religion is different from the other aspects of religious people's lives.
Sure, but which of those differences warrant a different approach on this issue?
I mean, most of your concerns would apply to other mandatory reporters, too.
No guarantees, of course. But if someone truly believes that their minister has a connection to God(a moral authority) that other people don't have, it's quite possible that admonitions and advice from that minister will be heard differently than if it comes from anybody else.
Only admonitions in the confessional, though.
In most churches, one would assume that any parishoner could have inferred from Sunday sermons/homilies that sexually assaulting children is strongly condemned by that church's teachings and probably by the minister personally as well.
When we're talking about the confessions that mandatory reporting would cover, we're talking about either:
- confessions from the victims, or
- predators who realize that what they're doing goes against their understanding of God's will (otherwise, why confess it as a sin?) but do it anyway.
It's like you're assuming that these predators will recognize authority from their priest, but only in the confessional and not the rest of the time.
Perhaps you don't understand that. It doesn't make sense to anybody who is irreligious, I suppose, unless they have a solid foundation of religiosity.
Tom
I don't understand your position, but I don't think being religious would help me in that regard.
I certainly don't understand why you assume that people who believe that unforgiven mortal sin would condemn them to Hell wouldn't confess if they knew they'd be reported, since this implies that they consider Hell preferable to prison.
