stripping the gurus - Brahma Kumaris Info

SODOMY AND GOMORRAH 267
some barely past puberty, in order to sexually abuse them
and satisfy himself (Berry and Renner, 2004).
Or, closer to home, as a Cajun Catholic woman alleged of her
experiences at the hands of her own parish priest:
I was told [by Father John] that I had been chosen by God to
help him with his studies of sex because he was responsible
for helping adults and he didn’t know anything about it (in
Berry, 1992).
[Tim] said nothing when Father Jay took him into the bathroom
at his parents’ house and asked him to perform oral
sex....
Father Jay told the boy: “This is between you and me.
This is something special. God would approve.” And Tim believed
him (Bruni and Burkett, 2002).
Comparable “chosen by God” lines have, of course, been used
by many a guru-figure on his (or her) own bewildered disciples, to
get them to put out. As has, perhaps, the trusted, “unimpeachable
character” of other “men of God”:
[Father Bruce] Ritter was ... America’s answer to Mother
Teresa....
When Father Bruce turned his attention to one of [his
helpers at the misled Covenant House mission for street kids
—the “McDonald’s of child care”], they often described feeling
a kind of “glow” or “warm light.” In many ways, their religious
devotion was not only to God but to Father Bruce—a
cult of personality around the man whose mission they carried
out (Sennott, 1992).
“America’s answer to Mother Teresa” was later accused of
“sexually abusing or sexually approaching” more than a dozen of
the boys in his care—a charge he denies.
Other respected Catholic holy men, however, have been able to
counter less of their own alleged indiscretions:
The priest engaged in anal intercourse, oral sex, group sex
with two boys at a time, plied them with pot, had a dog lick
their genitals (Berry, 1992).
Elsewhere, too: