Is omission deception?

[Greenbeard]

As I researched a case of deception in Christian organizations, I became aware of yet another distinction between two parts of my world, the secular scientific world and the religious world.

Stem cell research is all the rage these days. Because of the importance to medicine and a potential pathway to cures for many ailments, lots of scientists are rushing to publish the latest and greatest results. It also means that prestige and money play a much larger role in this arena than say, the evolution of frog behavior. In other words, you can become rich and famous if you make the right discovery. Now look up ‘Hwang Woo-Suk.’ His original two papers in Science made headlines in both scientific and general newspapers all around the world. Unfortunately for him, his is a world of skeptics. Because even (or especially) the best and brightest are scrutinized and challenged, other scientists soon noticed anomalies and duplications of data and photos. As it turns out, he had succumbed to the temptations of fortune and glory, and falsified results. In the science world, that is a cardinal sin, or whatever. Heinous. Woo-Suk: you can run but you can’t hide! What happened next is that the very journal which had published his papers immediately published detailed retractions; it hit both the scientific and general news even bigger than it had before, filling blogs, journal headlines, popular press like Scientific American and research societies, the New York Times… He lost his job, was convicted of embezzling the research grants, prohibited from further work in the field, etc.; in other words, a complete and frank admission that science is a human enterprise with all of the profits and pitfalls that implies. He did wrong, was found out by his own kind, and the results were broadcast worldwide, he and his work became the focus of discussions, policy rewrites, review of the whole peer-review process. It shook things up, shall we say, in an effort to avoid future repetitions. Let’s contrast this with exposure of transgressions in the religious world.

Last fall (’07) Papa Pilgrim came to justice. ‘And who is Papa Pilgrim?’* you might ask. But why would you ask? This is news, and it involves Christians – don’t Christians stay on top of anything that is pertinent? Shouldn’t it be a headline on every rag and blog? But now I remember that when I brought up the case of the Nigerian Baptists torturing and murdering their own kids, two of the responses that I got from this board were outright disbelief or at least doubt that it had occurred at all (finally – some incredulity!). Nobody here even knew about it. ‘Why would this be?’ I wondered. So when I found yet another reference to Papa Pilgrim on another board it did two things: got me riled up again and made me start looking through the Christian news networks, blogs, etc.

Now, I am generally pretty good at searching the web, what with Google, grokker, and all the rest. I can usually find something pertinent within a few minutes, and better yet, lists of references to other sites & publications. How hard could it be? Woo-Suk could hardly be avoided once he was exposed. But here was a case of rape, incest, a nation wide man-hunt, in a poor religious family fully exploited by religious and right-wing landowners-rights groups as proof of government persecution and hegemony run rampant – it had to be everywhere, right? Wrong. It can be found only in the secular press (which is obviously biased…) and secular aid organizations. I searched for a couple of hours through everything the net had to give as far as Christian Networks, Christian news agencies, Christian or religious news blogs, reports. What did I find?

Well, what would it say if I found a complete absence of any mention of the whole affair? Where is the frankness and honesty of admitting faults and doing something about it? I found nothing. No mention. Anywhere. Is omission deception? Why would the Christian press be the only ones not to care about these kids? I found plenty of mention in secular and government anti-abuse organizations, general news, CNN, etc. I searched dozens of religious sites, both the easy way with searches and the hard way with indirect referencing and browsing – anything I could think of. Nothing. So I thought of the Nigerian tragedy. Guess what. Same nothing. On a whim, I searched for ‘Lewinsky’ and www.family.org (Focus on the Family - honest folks, right?) immediately gave me five results for the readers’ vicarious titillation, recounting ebullient Bill and Ms. Lewinsky’s escapades. How old is this case? Who cares about it? But two recent cases involving the Christian religion and abuse of kids are nowhere to be found. Poor kids - it must be hard to solicit prayers when nobody knows your plight. But then, who wouldn’t rather enjoy hating the Clintons instead of trying to figure out how to avoid future abuses of both kids and the Bible? But it gets worse.

What would it say if there was not just omission but an active hiding of the information? Because Google actually did give me some results. On just a few sites, some Christian and some land-use rights sites (and why are they in cahoots?), it looked like there might be info from before the scandal, back when the Hales were everybody’s darlin’s in a Quixotic struggle against the world. But the pages are all gone! In some cases Google had cached the info and you could still get it that way, but even more important than the page was the fact that somebody had removed it! Now the Google link just returns 404 – page not found, or some variation. Now it is not simply a matter of embarrassed omission, but active removal of information. It’s not simply that the Christian web has overlooked these tragedies, but they are actively keeping them from their readers. Now it’s my turn to express disbelief! I can’t believe it! If I was a subscriber I would demand my money back! More or less, that is what I have done.

Inexcusable is the nicest word I can think of for this situation. Not only does the religious sphere not have the built-in self examination and ruthless elimination of tripe found in science, but it appears to completely avoid any acknowledgement that these situations even arise.

Now, what I would like is for you folks to dissect my thought pattern and point out real difficulties. I don’t mind being wrong, but I don’t like it to persist, so if I am wrong would you please enlighten me? That way I can change my mind and get on with it. What I don’t want is another call to “observe Stalin, ‘cause he’s a really bad guy!” At issue is the difference between a culture which relishes in self examination, the exposure of faults and the ability to take the next step toward something better; and a culture which cannot or will not see its own missteps. In each case, an individual violated the rules egregiously. In one case there was immediate, overwhelming disapproval and public rebuke. In the other there was either silence or removal of previous references. Which is more honest? Aren’t honesty and moral rectitude supposed to be the purview of religion? Yeah, Papa Pilgrim came to justice, but it was not his own kind who questioned him (it was the big, persecuting government), and then gave him a public excoriation for his transgressions. No, they just don’t mention it. Maybe it won’t come out. Dang that secular press!

I’d give some references, but see for yourself! Simply Google papa pilgrim, Robert Hale, papa pilgrim aid, etc. Go to your frequently used Christian sites, see what’s to be found. I will gladly read whatever some Christian organization has to say about either Nigeria or Papa Pilgrim. Or Hwang, for that matter.

Matt

*If you haven’t read anything yet, start with the Anchorage Daily News: Here http://dwb.adn.com/news/alaska/pilgrims ... 2588c.html and here, http://dwb.adn.com/news/alaska/pilgrims ... 4670c.html . For the court record, he said his occupation was “father.”



OK, just a few:
http://www.christianheadlines.com/
http://www.onenewsnow.com
http://www.christiannewswire.com
http://www.ccnews.org
http://www.christianpost.com
http://www.breakingchristiannews.com
http://www.family.org/

[McCulloch]

On a much more local scale, my in-law's Presbyterian minister makes mention of every possible archaeological discovery that might be used to prop up the Biblical account of ancient middle eastern history. He never raises to the congregation the various controversies and outright forgeries in this field. If one of his examples is shown to be a forgery, he simply does not mention that one again. Over the years, this has given his flock the impression that there is a vast amount of evidence backing up the Biblical history when, in fact, there is not.

Someone should be auditing these guys for completeness and intellectual honesty.

[OpenedUp]

I read an interesting article that said that omission was just another form of lying because it has the intent to deceive.

I agree. Omission is definantly a tool of deception.

[Negachrist]

Yes, yes it is.

Especially if it's deliberate, then it's not just deception, it's corruption.

[naaraxi]

Yes .
And cutting the church out wouldn't help .
Hard Christians would begin corrupting others , and form a new one .
Makes sense though , for men to do anything [including lie , steal etc.] to get/keep themselves on top .