Regarding the recent Tribune editorial, “Ending clergy exemption for reporting child abuse seemed like done deal, Editorial Board writes, until it wasn’t.”
Unconscionable. That’s the first word that comes to mind when I read that Utah Senate President Stuart Adams single-handedly stopped not one, not two, but four bills that would end the clergy exemption from reporting child abuse from even receiving a committee hearing.
In his words, he’s talked to “many religious organizations” that don’t feel that reporting child abuse or protecting children are a part of their religious mission.
Apparently, he didn’t feel it necessary to talk to child abuse survivors or survivor-oriented organizations. If he had, he’d understand that — in all forms of child abuse — the child is, more often than not, neglected and forgotten, their voice silenced and their soul murdered not only by their perpetrator(s), but by the people and systems that protect them.
At its core, abuse of all kinds is an egregious abuse of power. It is beyond heinous and deserving of the most severe scorn and punishment imaginable. This legislative session, we have heard our legislators rally behind cries of protecting children when passing abortion bills, school vouchers and restrictions on gender-affirming care. How sad it is, then, that Adams willfully chose to protect the most powerful and turn a deaf ear to our most vulnerable.
I must ask: What is the point of your position, Sen. Adams, if you cannot be counted on to protect children?
What is the point of religion, if its adherents cannot be counted on to protect children — or even try to protect them? Is your position about serving the public good, or is it about power — abuse of power?
Drew Walker, Salt Lake City