9. Do you buy redemption as a key component of goodness? Are there some men who are beyond redemption? Do you believe in the death penalty as a result? Would you hire a convicted murderer? Is there any part of prison that is rehabilitative, or is the point to punish bad guys?
Why: There is a tension between the belief that goodness is innate and the belief that goodness is something that is learned by making mistakes and seeing a deeper truth as a result. If you believe that goodness is in part a process of trial and error, the question becomes how bad the error can be before you are ruled out.
My Take: I was at a moving Catholic Mass in which the priest spoke directly to the issue of including homosexuals in the church (for which he was taking big time heat). “Jesus loves us JUST THE WAY WE ARE,” he said, meaning not only homosexuals but also every other human being on the planet. While not a Jesus freak myself (I am more of a Great Pumpkin kind of guy), I am a firm believer that all human beings are capable of redemption. I sat with convicted murders in Sing Sing and cried with them as they told me their stories. The question of being a good man excludes no one, in my view. And it is about redemption of one form or another.
—Photo Corey Leopold/Flickr
Next: Racism
[ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 ]
About Tom Matlack
Vocalyze
11. How important an issue is the rape and sexual abuse of adult men by women?
I know I’m a bit late but I just wanted to express how disappointed I am in how you tried to redirect that question into the usual “women have it worse” terriority that rape conversations are led to. Presuming that this question is verbatem of what was asked why even bother bringing up male against female rape when its not even in the original quesiton. You sound like you are more worried about making sure everyone knows women have it worse than making sure rape victims are taken seriously regardless of the characteristics of the victim or rapist.
So….six months later it turns out that just isn’t true. The fricking insane turns up in black and white as data on the gold standard report for sexual violence (the NISVS). The first time anyone bothers to ask, the answer turns out to be yes women rape men a hell of a lot. A HELL of a lot.
Even I was surprised it was so often.
Tom, how does this effect how you think about this stuff? Me, I have two statistics degrees and I love that stuff. I believe statistics and I can see a good one from a bad one. But I think for most people if the stat is so far outside their comfort zone it is like a magic trick at best, or just dismissed as a lie at worst.
I hope in ten years or so when they do another national sexual violence survey of this size and quality, they will delve into woman on man rape more and find out more about it, but this really is a genuinely good survey both in size and methodology.