Church scandals come cloaked in many colors

[Rich Hunt]

Religious scandals caused by human foibles - the kind seen recently in the Greek Orthodox and Catholic churches - are never excusable. They're reprehensible and do huge damage. But to people who understand the fault lines in human nature, they should not be especially surprising, no matter how regrettable they are. As others have noted, dressing up in religious garments doesn't make one a saint.

But in some ways the scandals of criminality - whether theft, sexual abuse or something else - may be less damaging to the good name of religion than the scandals of fanaticism, of belief run amok. Zealotry has killed far more people than thieving clerics ever thought about murdering to protect themselves from the embarrassment of discovery.

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