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Abuse of children and adolescents by Roman Catholic clergy is, sadly, turning out to be the religion story of the year. And in Boston, reports Scott M. Gibson, associate professor of preaching and ministry at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, some priests have stopped wearing their collars in public. "It's almost like wearing a turban," he says. " It's a symbol of suspicion."

Each day, newspapers are publishing dozens of articles reporting new accusations, dismissals, and other developments in the scandal. Los Angeles police are investigating between 6 and 12 priests accused of sexual abuse who were dismissed in late February and early March. New York's Cardinal Edward M. Egan is under fire after a report said he ignored abuse complaints while he was a bishop in Connecticut. More cases are underway in Florida, Maine, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and many other places around the country.

Some observers are saying the Roman Catholic Church in the U.S. has paid as much as $1 billion to sexual abuse victims in the last 18 years. Even where no new allegations are coming to light, clergy and laity alike are experiencing the pains of betrayal and inquisition.

But no diocese is more ensnared in the scandal than Boston's. The archdiocese may face $100 million in lawsuit settlements. The costliest so far is a $15 million to $30 million settlement with the victims of former priest John J. Geoghan, who is accused of molesting more than 130 people. The imbroglio continues: so far this year, at least 200 people have hired lawyers to file clergy sexual abuse claims.

Recent clergy abuse scandals in the U.S. aren't limited to Roman Catholics, nor even to Christian churches. Both Hare Krishnas and the Jehovah's Witnesses are also facing charges over the leaders' sexual abuse of minors.

Thankfully such abuse is less common in Protestant churches. A 1999 study on clergy misconduct by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, for example, found no instances of child sexual abuse in Protestant congregations, though its research sample only contained 76 ministers from 14 denominations.

"There are absolutely no Protestant equivalents," Anson Shupe, an Indiana University-Purdue University sociologist who researches clergy misconduct and new religious movements, told The Boston Globe. "If I could find some spectacular cases, that would help my career, but I can't. You don't have rapacious serial predators, and the Protestant establishment doesn't tolerate it the way the Catholic establishment has."

Still, scholars warn against believing that such abuse doesn't happen in Protestant churches. "I have read all the reported cases involving the sexual molestation of minors by clergy, and I can assure you that this is not a 'Catholic' problem," says Richard Hammar, editor of Church Law & Tax Report. "To the contrary, this problem affects all churches, and any attempt to identify it with one religious group will only serve to lessen the attention and vigilance it deserves by all congregations."

Indeed, both Canada and Australia are currently involved in major child sex abuse scandals that involve Anglican, not Roman Catholic, churches.

"Protestant churches are certainly not immune to cases like this but it is much rarer. That doesn't mean they are clean," says. Kenneth L. Swetland, academic dean and professor of ministry at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary near Boston. He laments that though Protestant clergy may not be directly involved in the current scandal, they are feeling the effects. "Public opinion for Christian clergy as a whole has dropped," Swetland told Christianity Today. "Clergy are not viewed with the respect of the bygone era largely because of sexual misconduct cases like this."

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March (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46